Who benefits from TV’s glut of poverty programmes? Is it the TV companies or the films’ protagonists? And what of the charities that are frequently involved in the making of this television sub-genre, which has been dubbed “poverty porn”?
These were some of the questions discussed at a conference held at the end of November and organised by the RTS, BBC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
The new Creative Skillset Series Producer Programme is open for applications, offering the opportunity to make the leap from Producer to Series Producer.
Backed by the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, this year-long scheme will find the next generation of SPs to help the industry advance and grow.
This was one of the key findings of new research undertaken by the BBC looking at a style of television often described as “poverty porn” by TV reviewers.
The study was unveiled at a conference in Manchester, Who Benefits? TV and Poverty.
The event was backed by the RTS, the BBC, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Click here to watch the full video of the event.
Following her stint as a feisty X Factor judge, Spice Girl Mel B is to present the UK version of Lip Sync Battle.
The show, which sees two celebrities go head-to-head to impress an audience with their miming skills, has already proved a success in the US.
Hosted by rapper LL Cool J and model Chrissy Teigen, the series is an expanded version of a segment on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
The digital revolution will be televised,” argued Viacom chief Philippe Dauman in an upbeat address to the RTS Convention. Twelve months after the US media giant bought Channel 5 for £450m, Dauman offered a positive “end-of-term report on our first year as a British public service broadcaster”.
“Today, I am pleased to reaffirm our commitment to upholding the rights and responsibilities that entails. We pledged that we would increase investment and original creative content – we have, and will continue to do so.”
Thanks to the invaluable support of our Patrons, the RTS can continue to expand its diverse programme and remain the leading forum for industry debate.
As HRH The Prince of Wales has said: “The Royal Television Society has only been able to flourish and to grow with Patron support."
Patrons play much more than an important financial role within the Society.
Philippe Dauman, Chief Executive of Viacom, the media empire created by nonagenarian Sumner Redstone, has been called many things in his long Viacom career.
One is "dauphin", marking both his succession potential and the fact that he is French-born. Although he has lived almost all of his life in the US, Dauman is a fluent French speaker.
He is "an iron fist in a velvet glove" according to Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP. The New York Times summed him up as "The man who would be Redstone".
Ben Frow is not as other directors of programmes. They tend to be sober, jargon-ridden and cautious – at least when speaking to me. They talk of "passion" but rarely show it: steady as the ratings sink or, occasionally, rise. Frow is funny, camp and outspoken, easily bruised and easily enthused.
He was obviously not what Richard Desmond, the Daily Express publisher and, for four years, owner of Channel 5, was expecting either, when he summoned him for a job interview in 2012.
