Call it a tale of two industries. For the vast global television sector, this is the best of times and the worst of times. This is a golden age of television.
Cinema-quality programmes such as Game of Thrones draw massive audiences. Events such as the 2018 FIFA World Cup, broadcast in real time to a global viewership of 1.1 billion, prove the medium’s unique power to bring together truly massive live audiences.
Is it just me, or does this account of the relentless march of Sky feel less like a window into the “future of entertainment” and more the TV equivalent of ancient history?
There are glorious deeds and all-conquering heroes. Step forward Jeremy Darroch, and the man who appointed him CEO of Sky, James Murdoch. Not forgetting the tragic fate of doomed and misguided rivals: hold your heads in shame, Setanta and a host of others.
It seems only a few short years ago that the BBC and ITV were thought of as the titans of British media. But all of us in the UK’s traditional media solar system are getting smaller and smaller in the Apple, Amazon and Netflix universe.” Thus said Lord Hall, Director-General of the BBC, in March, as he unveiled the corporation’s plans for its new financial year.
“We need to find new ways to adapt to the changing needs of our audiences, and we need to be able to do it in real time to keep pace with our global competitors,” he continued.
Kicking off in February, the deal has landed the public broadcaster an array of shows, including an exclusive premiere of the fourth season of the award-winning sci-fi cartoon Rick and Morty on Channel 4.
The premiere will mark the show’s first ever broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK.
“Rick and Morty is one of the most anarchic, ingenious and original shows around and the breakthrough animated hit of recent years,” commented Ian Katz, Channel 4 Director of Programmes.
The old saying “Think global, act local” is the new mantra for the Netflix-led, global tech platforms as they push for ever greater numbers of subscribers. In recent months, Netflix, Apple and Amazon have all started to open offices, staffed largely by locally grown TV commissioners, in the UK and other non-US markets. Simultaneously, the tech platforms are ramping up local marketing efforts.
Amazon has also jumped into local sports markets, purchasing major live sports rights for the UK, including a Premier League football package and US Open tennis rights.
A report by Ofcom released this week found that the number of households with a subscription to a streaming platform in the first three months of this year (15.4m), exceeded pay-TV homes by around 300,000.
In 2017, more than half (55%) of adults reported that they watched content on-demand.
"The UK is sleepwalking towards a serious, long term weakening of its TV production industry," said Hall, in front of a DCMS committee in Westminster on Tuesday November 7th .
Hall proposed the idea of a new, paid-for on-demand service featuring BBC programming, following the closure of the BBC Store after only 18 months.
The appetite for video on demand (VOD) and other third-party platforms is growing in the UK and abroad, in what is a rapidly changing TV market.
In addition to an updated set-top box, Virgin is launching an on-demand viewing app, a kids app, a TellyTablet and a film rental platform.
The new 4k-ready V6 box is half the size of the former TiVo box, and is packed with new features. It allows viewers to record six programmes at once, while viewing a seventh.
Subscribers will also be able to access Netflix and YouTube through the new boxes.
The new set-top box is fully compatible with old TiVo boxes, so customers can upgrade to the new system while keeping their saved recordings and settings intact.
Is Netflix set on “world domination”? That was one of the themes in this intriguing encounter between the company’s Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos, and Francine Stock, presenter of Radio 4’s The Film Programme. Since a huge expansion across the globe in January, only China, North Korea, Crimea and Syria remain outside the streaming service’s worldwide reach.
Comedian Hugh Dennis aired the thoughts of many trying to navigate the new television landscape when he introduced this session. In a video diary shown to conference delegates, he was seen stuck inside a room for a month. His task was to watch all the content available to modern audiences.
“Watching telly used to be so easy,” he complained. “Four channels, maybe five – everyone watched the same thing in the same place at the same time, unless your family was at the cutting edge of technology and had a VCR.”
