Morning,

Well, what a difference a month makes.  Last month’s
Showreel was sent out as we were being battered by blizzards, snow and
rain.  Spring appears to have finally arrived and with it, so does the
latest edition of Showreel.  As always we welcome any feedback and if you
want to know more contact any of the team and of course you can follow on twitter
@harrykrane

Content:

For the first time ever on UK
TV, TV cameras will show proceedings in a UK criminal court.  Murder Trial will
certainly provide much comment about Channel 4.  Whether you agree or not with the principle of
this happening, it is thought provoking stuff from Channel 4, one of the
station’s public service remits.

Some really exiting commissioning coming out of Sky Atlantic. Fans of the Swedish / Danish
thriller, The Bridge should enjoy  The Panthers and The Tunnel.

Technology:

Have twitter users solved the Broadchurch murder? Twitter engagement (click
back to the 15^th) with the show peaked during this week’s penultimate episode.  More evidence of
‘watercooler’ TV being discussed online as it happens.  (For my money it was DC Miller’s son,
covered up by the dad)

Broadcaster’s fight back in the battle for online video.  Accenture latest video consumer survey
is an interesting read

Other interesting stuff

Apparently the 30” second spot on TV is dead.  We
are all now living a ‘tapas existence’ according to ‘Hello Boys’ creative
Trevor Beattie.  Not sure @harrykrane agrees.  

Over 4 hours of TV viewed per day, with an additional 52,000 years of TV saved on people’s PVR’s at home, who says there is nothing to watch on TV.  More proof that we are in a golden age of TV
programming and that looking back and thinking TV was better is not necessarily
the case.

First the Paralympics, now the Grand National really does produce the numbers for Channel 4 with just under 9m viewers.  The channel’s growing sporting credentials bodes well as rumours grow
that it will be Channel 4 sales who will look after trading the new BT sport
channel.   

Back down Devon way, should Broadchurch’s detectives be investigating ITV’s disappearing sponsor ?

Cinema

Oblivion tops the box office for last weekend with a disappointing £5m at the box office while Scary Movie 5 has a scary start with the lowest opening of the franchise.  .

Iron Man beaten by the Iron Lady

Disney announce we will have a new Star Wars every summer from 2015. 

Mark

To support the Premier League matches BT have been acquiring sporting content on an on-going basis including the rights to matches from Serie A in Italy, Ligue1 in France and Brasileirao in Brazil.  In addition to this they also secured live rights for Major League Soccer games in the US.  They recently announced they have also signed a four year deal with the Women’s Tennis Association.  BT also signed a £152m deal to show Premiership Rugby for 4 years from 2013.  It is apparent that BT plan to challenge BSkyB’s dominance of the UK pay-tv sport market as they posted very competitive bids for more of the rights packages at the earlier stages of the bidding process.

As BT’s CEO Ian Livingston, says: “BT is already investing £2.5bn in fibre broadband. Securing Premier League rights fits naturally with this, as consumers increasingly want to buy their broadband and entertainment services from a single provider.”  BT believes they can succeed where both Setanta and ESPN have failed maybe due to the fact they are a bigger business with an existing, wide consumer base.  Through which BT will hope to sell other goods and services, namely internet access, phone calls, mobile services and TV packages.  BTs bid to become a major player in this marketplace will put pressure on BSkyB as sport content drives a significant amount of their subscription base. 

Even Rupert Murdoch famously once described sport as the ‘battering ram’ for BSkyB’s pay-tv operations and the threat is that BT will use their new TV service to convert BSkyB customers.  However viewing on BSkyB probably will not be hugely affected as Setanta and ESPN did not make
a big impact on viewing figures and BSkyB still has Super Sunday which is a big ratings driver.  Sky Super Sunday matches achieve approximately 1,810,000 individuals and ESPN Premier League matches
reach approximately 415,000 individuals.  BT are in talks with BSkyB to share the key matches which would recoup some of the rights outlay but this option would remove their ability to use the
games as an exclusive draw to BT.  These initial contracts could be a tester to see the popularity and demand for the sport content which BT may build on in the future by securing more matches. 

BT will be launching at least one dedicated sports channel to showcase the matches.  Details are TBC but this should be launching in August.  The games will be fronted by ex-BBC presenter Jake Humphrey and broadcast from the Olympic Park and the BT Tower.  Claire Balding
will also present and co-produce a weekly flagship show featuring interviews and discussion with a focus on women’s sport.  We will see BT Sport on BT-branded YouView boxes and BT Vision which in 2012 had 0.8m subscriber households (BSkyB 10.3m).  BskyB report that 4,670,000 homes have Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 1,870,000 homes have ESPN.  BT has said they plan to negotiate for their new channel/s to be available on as many different platforms as possible.  With BT’s dominance in the telecoms/internet provider industry we can expect to see them making their content available via computer, tablet and mobile too.

The big question is who will sell the BT offering.  ITV have passed on this leaving C4, Five and BSkyB in the field.  BSkyB with their existing knowledge and experience of monetising the complex sport programming marketplace would be the natural fit but only if internal political issues could be resolved.  BT’s sales policy will be determined by who is awarded the contract.  If it goes to
BSkyB we do not expect there will be any big changes in the sport costs and at this stage there is little point speculating how C4 or Five would monetize the offering but we would still expect a minimal price change.  It remains to be seen if BSkyB would roll the BT channel into their existing portfolio of sports channels or sell it individually but it will be hotly demanded in the betting marketplace.  Another issue will be the Pub environment where BT might plan to market this directly to venues without BSkyB. 

Mark Watson the chief executive from BT Vision “Our programme of sports broadcast rights acquisition is intended to drive revenue and deliver profits for the UK business, and sport is a great way to do this. Sport really matters to people. It arouses passion in a way that other
content can’t. It has a real impact on decision-making, because it creates an appointment to view.”  BT new channel might be seen as a must have for sports fans which leaves the future of ESPNs
main channel in doubt.  ESPNs Premier League content drives the majority of their subscription base so BT’s first port of call will be converting these customers to their channel.  This could just be the start of BTs foray into the sport marketplace.  With their size and dominance they could step up to be a real contender to BSkyB when the next bidding cycle comes round and by that point they will have the experience within the marketplace to do so.  With the rumours that ESPN are to leave the UK market then the football space for next season will remain a two horse race however if other multinational corporations such as Apple, Microsoft or Google enter the bidding for the next round of rights then things could get really interesting in a couple of years time.

Afternoon,

Welcome to December’s edition of Showreel to warm your cockles on a cold winter’s evening.

As always we would love to hear from you with any feedback so do drop us a line and, if you are so inclined, you can also follow on twitter (@harrykrane)   

Enjoy.

Programming:

ITV1 is to undergo its biggest on screen brand overhaul in 11 years in a move to position the broadcaster ‘at the heart of popular culture’.  A new logo was unveiled, modern and fresh.  Looks good, check it out.

The Word, Brookside, The Big Breakfast, Brass Eye, TFI Friday or Gyspy Weddings? Channel 4 celebrated its 30^th birthday in November.  Which was your favourite?

Technology:

In a month of anniversaries, it’s been 10 years since the launch of Sky+, a good time therefore to ‘pause for thought’ and take a look at some of the numbers behind the little black
box.  Interesting reading here suggests that, when it comes to fast forwarding, it is true that ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you will’.

60% of twitter users do so while watching TV and 40% of twitter traffic during peak time is TV related.  TV and twitter’s strong relationship.

What have Mobot, pleb, gif and second screening have on common? They have all been selected by Oxford Dictionaries as words of the year.  Sounds like an omnishambles to me.

Other interesting stuff:

Want to buy something you see on the TV there and then?  Why not raise your hand to the TV, flick the item from the big screen to your smartphone and click to buy.  More science fact than fiction.

Video on demand, catch up TV, dual screening are important trends on the future of TV viewing but live TV is remarkably dominant. Here are some facts, not metrics.

How long does the average Briton spend watching TV in their lifetime? A clue, it’s measured in years.

Welcome to November’s edition of Showreel in which you will find some of the more interesting stories buzzing around the wold of programme content.

As always we would love to hear from you with any feedback so do drop us a line and, if you are so inclined, you can also follow on twitter (@harrykrane)   

Enjoy.

Programming:

Channel 4’s success in broadcasting the London Paralympics this year has whetted their appetite and as such the channel is preparing a bid to show the 2016 Rio Paralympics.  The BBC are also
rumoured to be looking at bidding however for my money I hope C4 are rewarded for their bold decision to show it from London and retain the rights.

While still pulling in impressive numbers, Simon Cowell and ITV will be a little concerned that the X Factor is not quite producing to the degree it was last year.  Having said that it will still be the biggest thing on the menu come the feast on Christmas TV in December.

Fox is set to remake Gavin and Stacey for the US market.  While a huge hit here in the UK, judging by the attempts of Fawlty Towers, The Inbetweeners and Red Dwarf to cross the Pond, I suspect it
may have disaster written all over it. 

On the topic of U.S. remakes, CBS has greenlit a version of BBC’s cakeathon The Great British Bake Off, which was a huge hit for the BBC, pulling in a peak audience of 7.2m for the final.  Perhaps
they could decide the election on cooking ability.

Technology:

If you are a Sky+ customer Tuesday was a truly momentous day as the BBC iPlayer became available on your main TV.  Alongside catch-up TV from ITV, Channel 5 and Sky, and with 4OD being
added in January, there really is more TV on there than you can shake a stick at.

Voice controlled TV’s are so last year, we will soon be changing the channels simply by staring at the screen.  How lazy can we get?

Women watch more TV than men, fact.  However connected games consoles such as Xbox and the PS3 are changing that – gender equality is almost upon us.  

The UK finally completed its TV digital switchover journey as the analogue signal was turned off a week ago in the last remaining area, Northern Ireland.  Digital has improved our experience of TV dramatically allowing better quality, greater interactivity as well as allowing us never having to miss our favourite show and with Sky’s plans for household targeting on TV, digital switchover will present many new exciting ad opportunities.

Other interesting stuff:

Our friends over at Thinkbox hosted ‘Getting Closer To Content’ last month where they shared with us the latest examples of brands going beyond the 30” spot through the use of branded content, competitions, on-demand TV and product placement in an attempt to  associate closer with programmes.  Some great examples on there from brands such as Xbox and Paddypower .

Looking a little further forward, what will the world of TV and video advertising look like in 2020?  On average we already watch 4 hours of TV per day, can we really watch more TV?  Our  view would certainly not disagree with Mr Morgan.

Welcome to October’s edition of Showreel.  This month the focus is on the changing nature of how we are all consuming TV content and the implications this changing behaviour will have.

As always you can follow on twitter (@harrykrane) to keep up with all of the latest news.   

Enjoy.

Programming:

Interesting example of a TV channel’s use of social media from the states as Fox, for the first time, has premiered Raising Hope on twitter 2 weeks before its TV premiere. A good example of utilising the power of social media to create buzz before the main launch

High on its success of the Paralympics (C4 viewing was up 21%) the channel announces its plan to produce real quality drama in the mould of Top Boy and This Is England.  On the back of a difficult year for the channel (Paralympics excepted) it will be good to see the channel produce more quality content

C4 have been pushing the boundaries this week with their Drugs Live Show and while it didn’t perform from a viewing perspective it certainly got the twittersphere hot under the collar.  Rumours of this being followed up by the channel commissioning Dealer or No Dealer with Noel Edmonds and Come Down With Me are unconfirmed

Technology:

An interesting piece from Google worth a read is their view on multi screening.  Looking at consumer media behaviour across the course of a day it found that 90% of our media interactions in any given day are screen based

OK Commuter. BBC announced the launch of their download service for iPad and iPhone users, allowing people to watch BBC content without the need for a 3G or Wi-Fi signal.  Gamechanger number 1

Following on the theme on what you want, when you want Sky have announced a shake-up of their Anytime+ (their on demand platform on TV’s) with Sky subscribers now able to get ITVplayer and Demand 5 on their TV’s with BBC’s iPlayer and 4OD coming very soon.  Gamechanger number 2

Other interesting stuff:

TV is dead.  The facts

Measuring TV alongside online video viewing continues to be a topic open for debate however a recent study from Videology suggests that a second screen campaign could add 3% to 5% of incremental cover on heavy weight TV campaigns

Phillip Schofield pays £2m for a kitchen

Best