Netflix

Young adult TV goes mainstream

Sex Education (Credit: Netflix)

On the day before Netflix released the first series of Sex Education, Jamie Campbell, creative director of the producer, Eleven Film, recommen­ded the series to his friend’s 18-year-old daughter. As a high-school drama about the sexual misadventures of teenagers, Campbell assumed Sex Education would resonate with her. She agreed to call the next day to share her thoughts, but when she did, she said she hadn’t watched it.

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.