Channel 4

That was one of the main conclusions from an RTS early evening event, Is targeted advertising the future of TV?

A capacity crowd heard how the arrival of streaming services headed by Netflix and Amazon Prime plus the challenge from Facebook and Google are changing the dynamics of TV advertising. 

Catch-up TV and the traditional broadcasters' own on-demand offerings are also driving change.  

All this is posing problems for audience measurement, the bedrock of TV advertising for more than half a century.

The ten-part series, which stars Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) and Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), is the story of life in the dystopian Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the USA.

The special programme, to be broadcast on Monday 29^th May, has been announced as part of Sky’s coverage of the upcoming General Election, and will feature the first leader interviews of the campaign in front of a live audience.  

In the 90-minute programme, Islam will begin with an audience Q&A before Paxman steps in to interview the respective party leader, before the process is repeated with the other party leader. .

The Channel 4 Continuity Creative Managers have partnered with mental health charity Mind to raise awareness for mental health issues in a week-long campaign.

Fry, President of mental health charity Mind, will be joined alongside Mind ambassador Ruby Wax and mental health campaigner Alastair Campbell, as well as celebrity supporters Dame Kelly Holmes, TV presenter Matt Johnson, Years and Years singer Olly Alexander and former football manager Alan Pardew.

The series is created and written by Beau Willimon (House of Cards) who will also serve as executive producer alongside Jordan Tappis.

The First will explore the challenges of taking the first steps toward interplanetary colonisation. Willimon said: “It’s a story about the human spirit and about our indomitable need to reach for unknown horizons. How ordinary, imperfect people band together and overcome a myriad of obstacles to grasp the extraordinary.”

That’s why Costa Rica, with its life expectancy of 79.1 years and commitment to renewable energy, topped the 2016 list of the world’s happiest countries, having already won in 2009 and 2012.

Armed with some survival training, the clothes they stand in, filming equipment, medical supplies, some basic tools and fishing equipment and enough water for 24 hours, the islanders will be forced to fend for themselves in the outdoors as they face dehydration, hunger and severe weather conditions during storm season.

The six-part series will have a new twist as two groups from different generations will be dropped on a pair of neighbouring islands without the knowledge of the other.

Tuesday: The Son

AMC UK available on BT TV channel 332, 9pm

The Son is a new ten-part family drama based on Philip Meyers' Western novel, spanning over 150 years and multiple generations of a Texas family.

Locked Up - Channel 4

Walter Presents is also bringing back successful Spanish prison drama Locked Up.

The first series proved popular last year, with Walter Iuzzolino of Walter Presents telling the RTS that the day after the show launched online, “something like 11 000 people had already burned through the entire [series]”

The show, he said, “is “really different. It’s really Hispanic. It’s very technicolour. It’s fun. It’s very sweaty. It is Spanish exuberance!”

Set in a parallel present, the show blurs the lines between human and machine, and focuses on the social impact of the creation of robot servants called Synths.

Filming begins in Autumn 2017 for the eight-part series, which is again being written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley (Humans S1, Spooks: The Greater Good) and sees the return of key cast members.

Series two aired in 2016 to critical acclaim, with the first episode becoming Channel 4’s highest rating returning drama launch since Homeland S2 in 2012.