Timing is all - as anyone who's crashed the junction of a live TV programme is painfully aware - and the timing of the annual Keynote Lecture for the RTS North East & the Border Centre fell neatly just after the Cambridge Convention.

Guest Speaker Alex Connock (formerly Ten Alps, now PRETEND TV) brought the latest stats and strategies to Newcastle's Live Theatre, together with his own insights.

There were positive headlines:

• TV viewing is in rude health - despite past predictions of its demise, viewing is up, helped by event TV, increased parallel interaction and aggressive marketing across all forms of media.
• The UK media industry is a powerful force in world production - the number one exporter of formats, producing 40% of the global market.  Reasons?  Format rights for independents are important, plus the UK heritage of creativity being both an art and science.

The challenge is how to be part of this, in the brave new world where infrastructure support (agencies; regional TV non-news commissioning) is falling away.

An inspirational list provided a reminder of the strength of programme-making in the North of England: a wealth of TV classics from Brideshead Revisited and Coronation Street to Wire in the Blood and The Great North Run demonstrates there need be no stereotyped assumptions about where quality programmes can be made.

Great stories and irresistible formats remain the vital elements, but securing funding is the challenge.  Venture capitalists are unadventurous at venturing too often from the M25.  A £1bn investment in Salford's MediaCity is not the same as funding for programming across the North.  Ultimately programme-makers must travel to woo the commissioners and VCs.

The main tips - excellently illustrated by clips - included taking into account the multiple use of media: the pattern of viewing our big TV screen whilst interacting on our personal small screen is huge and growing.  Young people cram 9.5 hours of media activity into 6 hours, and this habit is expanding through the generations.  Your proposals therefore need associated apps and social media strategies.

But the top line was that content proposals need to be exportable, scaleable and future-proof.  Then find your funder!

By Olwyn Hocking 

 

Alex's lecture was filmed W to view edited highlights, click the image above.