Documenting the planet with the BBC, differentiating Discovery from Netflix and the other streamers – and taking Amazon on at its own retail game – were the three big themes expounded by Discovery’s President and CEO, David Zaslav.
In her first major speech since being appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP called on broadcasters to “be as fleet-footed and as adaptable to change as their international competitors” such as Apple and Netflix.
She warned: “Those who do not pool their resources and talent will find it difficult to succeed in this new age.”
Are we at peak unscripted content? Session chair Tim Davie noted that – while there was no short-age of good news for the genre (18 of the 20 top-performing original programmes on broadcast TV in the US that summer had been formatted entertainment) – there were worrying signs for the genre. The UK was still producing hit formats, but margins were declining and it was no longer the fastest growing market for original formats.
In her third and final appearance at an RTS Cambridge Convention, the outgoing CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, gave a candid insight into what she described as the regulator’s tense relationship with the BBC, and reflected on why the TV industry had failed to improve its record on diversity.
Video-sharing platform TikTok was the word on everyone’s lips leaving the second session, “Exploring Gen Z”. Many had not heard of the Chinese-owned social media sensation, but were keen to find out more in order to reach the elusive next generation of viewers. Many market researchers describe Generation Z as those born after 1997.
Defined by session chair Rob Chapman as the generation “for whom 9/11 wasn’t a coming of age event”, Gen Z were instead shaped by the recession of the last decade.
Shifting viewing habits, developments in technology and the rapidly evolving competitive landscape are having a fundamental impact on our industry,” argued RTS Convention Chair Carolyn McCall as she opened Cambridge 2019.
But amid the change and uncertainty, which included Britain’s future relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, McCall maintained that television had a bright future.
It’s September. That means back to school. And not just for the kids.
With Edinburgh hangovers barely forgotten, and TV execs and politicians still reeling from Dorothy Byrne’s outlandishly honest MacTaggart Lecture, conference season gets into full swing.
Not in Bournemouth but in Cambridge, courtesy of ITV, for the RTS biennial convention. There’s no prorogation for us.
I Hate Suzie follows Suzie Pickles (Piper), a celebrity whose career is put in jeopardy when she becomes the victim of a hacking scandal that causes a compromising photo of herself to be leaked.
The eight-part series follows Suzie’s excruciating journey to hold her life together alongside her best friend and manager Naomi (Farzad), as she struggles to keep her career afloat and her marriage to her husband, Cob (Ings), begins to hang by a thread.
