Netflix

The future of online viewing measurement

After years of refusal by the global streaming companies to share their viewing data, new light will soon be shed on the performance of Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ – and PSB streaming services such as All 4 and BBC iPlayer – by the industry ratings body Barb.

From the late summer, Barb expects to publish regular viewing figures for SVoD services on the same basis as those for broadcast television. This will allow meaningful comparisons to be made for the first time.

Hidden Figures: Understanding TV Audiences in the On-Demand Age

Lucy Bristowe, Sky Media’s Director of Insight and Research, Wayne Garvie, President, International Production, Sony Pictures Television, Sarah Rose, Chief Operating and Commercial Officer, ViacomCBS, UK, and Justin Sampson, CEO, BARB, discuss why the TV sector needs to measure on-demand audiences and how BARB is rising to the challenge with its reporting of audiences for these services. Plus, some previously unreported figures on series four of The Crown are revealed by BARB.

Cast announced for Steven Moffat’s new drama Inside Man

David Tennant, Dolly Wells, Lydia West and Stanley Tucci (credit: BBC)

David Tennant (Des), Dolly Wells (Dracula), and Lydia West (It’s A Sin) will all star in the four-part series, alongside leading man Stanley Tucci (Spotlight) in the titular role.

Directed by Paul McGuigan (Sherlock), the gripping miniseries will follow the unexpectedly interconnected lives of a prisoner on death row in the States, a Vicar in a quiet English town and a maths teacher trapped in a cellar.

Tim Burton to direct Addams Family series for Netflix

(credit: Netflix)

The live-action series will chart Wednesday’s time at the eccentric Nevermore Academy as she comes of age.

Alongside dealing with all the small horrors of adolescence, Wednesday begins to master her burgeoning psychic powers. As a series of supernatural mysteries threaten the local town, Wednesday must put on her sleuthing hat to solve them, including one which also embroiled her parents 25 years ago.

The series will be written by the screenwriting duo Al Gough and Miles Millar (Into the Badlands).