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April 29, 2020
TV advertising: industry bosses discuss the market’s future
Mediatel’s Steven Scaffardi speaks with key figures from the broadcast media world to discuss how they have dealt with the coronavirus crisis – and what comes next for commercial TV Steven Scaffardi (Chair): Good afternoon and welcome everybody to this special virtual roundtable debate for the Future of TV Advertising UK […]
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April 28, 2020
CNN on coronavirus, how TV has responded, and the advertising implications
Question: What has impressed you the most with how TV has reacted to the coronavirus crisis? Rob: International news organisations have an important role to report on developments and share information that can help stop the spread of Covid-19 – this applies to our TV output of course, but also across […]
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April 28, 2020
ViacomCBS on coronavirus, how TV has responded, and the advertising implications
Question: What has impressed you the most with how TV has reacted to the coronavirus crisis? Christian: I continue to be impressed with how quickly and creatively productions have been adapted to meet the demands of the current crisis. We are seeing more news programmes and entertainment specials that are being […]
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April 28, 2020
Practical fixes to help TV advertising become more agile
At Adalyser we recently undertook an in-depth analysis of viewing behaviour during the Covid-19 lockdown. It may come as no surprise that TV audiences have surged (see infographic below). This seemed like an opportunity – hard to reach, desirable TV audiences were suddenly sitting in front of TV screens during […]
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April 28, 2020
Sky Media on coronavirus, how TV has responded, and the advertising implications
Question: What has impressed you the most with how TV has reacted to the coronavirus crisis? Sarah: Firstly, it’s good to see that TV remains the go-to source for trusted information; in unprecedented times, TV is providing the amplification of guidance and news the nation is after and needs. From a […]
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April 28, 2020
Why now is a good moment for brands to advertise on TV
Television audiences have gone through the roof because of the coronavirus lockdown, but will advertisers use the spike in engagement to drive brand-building campaigns, given the economic uncertainty? That is the billion dollar question, and according to Mike Shaw, Director of Advertising Sales at Roku, the answer should be ‘yes’. […]
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April 28, 2020
What leading UK broadcasters have done to mitigate the Covid-19 crisis
The Covid-19 related lockdown caused an unprecedented shock to the advertising market in the UK (as elsewhere) and senior television executives spoke last week about what they have been doing to mitigate the crisis. There are some green shoots of recovery – and even some positives to find in the […]
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April 27, 2020
TV is getting creative to keep shows on the air under lockdown
The studio of The One Show isn’t a big space – just two green sofas against a window in the BBC’s Broadcasting House. In front of a ring of cameras, wires and equipment, the presenters used to sit on one sofa and guests on the other, shoulder-to-shoulder for the duration of the […]
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April 27, 2020
TV’s conundrum
So here we are, more than a month into lockdown and with no clear exit strategy, and media owners are wondering what on earth it all means for their businesses and the advertising clients that feed them. Now, in a world already characterised by two horribly over-used words – uncertainty […]
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April 27, 2020
Streaming piracy up by over 50 per cent during lockdown
New figures show the amount of UK viewers watching content illegally has risen by over half during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. According to MUSO, which monitors piracy trends, in the last week of March, there was a 57 per cent increase in visits to film piracy sites compared to the […]
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April 26, 2020
Will AVOD outlast coronavirus?
If you were to cast your mind back 12 or so months, you would recall multiple news stories and think-pieces that were touting ad-supported video-on-demand – AVOD – as the way forward for the industry. The interest in AVOD platforms increased to a fever pitch throughout 2019 following Viacom’s pickup of […]
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April 25, 2020
SVOD: how much is too much?
Subscription VOD is no longer a two-horse race and is increasingly becoming a battleground for eyeballs. Oscar nominated films, prize winning TV series, the finest acting talent migrating from the big to the small screen have all helped propel SVOD into millions of UK living rooms. Netflix and Amazon Prime […]
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April 24, 2020
Stay-at-home viewers ‘watching extra 170 hours of streaming services a week’
Figures from USwitch suggest UK viewers are watching an extra 170 hours of streaming content a week than before lockdown. Almost half (47 per cent) said they were watching a higher proportion of streamed TV and films, with most people watching double the amount they usually do. The figures are […]
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April 24, 2020
SMPTE enhances online support for industry professionals
SMPTE (the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) has announced a range of new measures that will provide additional remote support for its members while they continue to work from home during the various regional lockdowns in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The professional development and technical support being […]
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April 24, 2020
55% of VFX industry say they could work remotely for a year
A survey of vfx workers and vfx houses by technical support outfit Escape Technology, shows that 55% of respondents say they could now sustain remote working forced by the COVID-19 crisis for eight months to a year. The survey found that social distancing has rapidly sped up the growth of remote […]
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April 23, 2020
ITV commissions VE Day Captain Tom doc from North One
ITV has ordered a doc about new national treasure Captain Tom Moore’s war experiences to be shown on VE Day. North One will make the show about the former British Army Officer who raised more than £28million for the NHS by walking 100 lengths of his garden with his frame. […]
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April 23, 2020
At This Time Of National Crisis, Public Service Television Has Never Been More Important
Bringing the country together has always been part of the responsibility of the BBC, director general Tony Hall writes. In among all the tragedies of recent weeks, so many stories of kindness, resilience and hope have emerged. The millions of people volunteering to look out for their neighbours and help […]
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April 23, 2020
For 5G to thrive, networks need to get in synch
The ultimate performance of 5G depends on many technical and regulatory factors, including sufficient spectrum, the presence of affordable equipment and access to sufficient cell sites. One factor that doesn’t get the amount of attention it deserves, however, is the technical approach to how networks coexist so they can operate […]
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April 22, 2020
Delivering One World: Together At Home to a global audience
Global audiences came together last weekend in a show of unity and resilience in support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and frontline workers. One World: Together at Home, organised by Global Citizen and curated by Lady Gaga, included a line-up of international stars, celebrities and icons who recorded performances and […]
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April 22, 2020
Can Netflix sustain record subscriber numbers post-coronavirus?
As Netflix announced a record 16 million new subscribers in Q1 of 2020, questions are now being asked if the streaming service can sustain such big numbers post Covid-19. Netflix added 2.3 million new subscribers in the US and Canada to hit 70 million; and another 6.9 million across Europe, […]
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April 22, 2020
ITV launches ITV Hub Shout Outs following viewing surge
ITV Commercial has unveiled a new ad proposition, ITV Hub Shout Outs, to enable advertisers to “inform and support the public” during the COVID-19 pandemic outside of linear TV campaigns. Shout Outs will offer advertisers an alternative to full-length commercials on the broadcaster’s on-demand streaming service, ITV Hub, instead delivering […]
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April 21, 2020
Can commercial TV broadcasters ride the wave of the perfect storm?
As we kick off The Future of TV Advertising UK, Steven Scaffardi explains how the two week digital experience will address the key questions facing the commercial TV industry during the time of COVID-19 At the end of Wolfgang Petersen’s biographical disaster drama, The Perfect Storm, George Clooney stares out at the 100-foot […]
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April 21, 2020
BBC iPlayer enjoys most popular two days ever
The BBC said that its iPlayer service enjoyed a record day last month as it unveiled a raft of new releases. It said that on Monday March 23rd, the day of Boris Johnson’s lockdown broadcast, drove 20.4 million requests to stream programmes on the service, the first time over 20m […]
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April 21, 2020
ITN furloughs staff, CEO takes pay cut
ITN is furloughing some members of staff, while the company’s CEO and chief financial and operations officer have both taken 20 per cent pay cuts. A spokeswoman for the broadcaster told TVBEurope the furloughed staff equates to around 3 per cent of the company. “Our newsrooms continue to be really busy, with […]
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April 20, 2020
Alarm bells ring for freelancers after last-minute update
HMRC fund will not support anyone on fixed-term contracts ended before their ‘natural conclusion’ A last-minute update to HMRC guidance could be the final nail in the coffin for thousands of freelancers desperate for financial support as the government’s support scheme opens today. Late on Friday afternoon, and following weeks […]
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April 20, 2020
Streaming vs. Coronavirus: Industry Update During the Pandemic
The Global pandemic of 2020 caused by the outburst of COVID-19 coronavirus has affected the lives of millions of people and their businesses. Most industries have experienced a significant impact due to quarantines initiated in countries all across the World. International travel, restaurant business, apparel, automotive, luxury products all have […]
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April 18, 2020
server-side ad insertion
With the shift to non-linear content viewing, traditional TV networks and new-age content owners are both exploring OTT video streaming.
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April 17, 2020
How do broadcasters engage with viewers at a time of national importance?
Last year, at NAB Show, I wrote in the IABM Members journal about getting “up close and personal” – meeting old colleagues, getting quality face time with new prospective partners, signing up new customers – and how the broadcast world is moving towards interactivity.However, in just a matter of weeks, […]
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April 17, 2020
Low latency makes ‘reporting from home’ a reality during pandemic
Broadcasters and their mobile teams are used to facing all sorts of challenges when reporting live from the field, linked to the remotest of locations, natural disasters or simply the presence of crowds putting pressure on local cellular networks. But the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may go down in history […]
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April 16, 2020
Going beyond 5G
TVBEurope meets InterDigital Europe VP Alan Carlton on the road to 6G InterDigital started work on 5G as long ago as 2010 – well before anyone within the broadcast industry was even thinking about use cases. In 2020, the company will once again be well ahead of the curve, demonstrating […]
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April 16, 2020
New study finds three-quarters of world’s UHD services are predominantly linear
A new UHD Service Tracker from the Ultra HD Forum has found three-quarters of UHD services available globally are predominantly linear. The new Tracker looks at 150 commercial consumer-facing Ultra HD television services worldwide, collating information from three billion subscriptions worldwide. It says 300 million of these have access to UHD. […]
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April 16, 2020
TV industry feeling ‘devastating impact’ as advertisers slash budgets
The coronavirus has felt a “devastating impact” on the TV broadcasting industry with companies less willing to spend, claims a new report. Almost every company in the world has had to take steps in order to limit the impact of the coronavirus on their business, leading to most tightening their […]
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April 16, 2020
Netflix and chills – the state of streaming amid pandemic
On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic. At the time of writing, 125 countries and territories had been affected by the flu-like illness, leading many countries’ governments to announce drastic social distancing and self-isolation measures to slow down the spread of the […]
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April 16, 2020
A sea-change for the broadcast world
The arrival of 5G marks a sea-change for the broadcast world, especially for companies like NEP that serve the live and remote production industries. “It’s already here, and NEP is already using it,” says Donald Begg, director of technology, Major Events, NEP UK. “5G offers the ability to have download […]
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April 16, 2020
What impact will coronavirus have on the media tech industry?
At the top of the food chain in the media and entertainment ecosystem are the broadcasters and streaming companies. These relatively few companies are not supported in their creative endeavours by three or four big generalist IT companies, they are supported, by and large, by thousands of smaller companies. SMEs, […]
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April 16, 2020
Eastern European OTT revenues to triple in five years
Eastern European OTT revenues are expected to reach $3.58 billion in 2025, almost triple the $1.41 billion recorded in 2019, according to Digital TV Research. The study of 22 Eastern European countries found that Russia will account for 40 per cent of the region’s OTT revenues by 2025, with Poland generating […]
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April 16, 2020
Netflix “currently worth more than Disney”
Netflix is expected to gain up to 8.45 million new subscribers in Q1 2020 Netflix is currently worth more than Disney after the streaming company’s shares hit an all-time high on Wednesday. Netflix stock closed up 3.2 per cent to $426.75 per share, giving the company a current market capitalisation of […]
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April 15, 2020
Samsung achieves record 5G speeds across multiple devices
Samsung has achieved what it says is the fastest 5G speed in a lab demonstration that combined 800MHz of mmWave spectrum with MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) technology. It used two test mobile devices, to achieve approximately 4.3Gbps speeds on each, reaching an industry peak speed of 8.5Gbps across both devices. […]
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April 15, 2020
British public no longer give a fig about on-air swearing, Ofcom says
Complaints about cursing halve in five years, with viewers more concerned about racism and sexism Swearing on air is no longer offensive to the British public, the television and radio regulator has concluded, after finding that complaints regarding on-air cursing have halved in five years. Ofcom research found widespread agreement […]
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April 15, 2020
Content aggregator Alchimie launches OTT sports channel
Europe-based digital content aggregator and distributor Alchimie has announced the launch of a new sport-focused over-the-top channel, Unbeaten. With a focus on sports-related news and entertainment programming, Unbeaten will feature a range of original shows on football, basketball and MMA among other sports, as well as archive content. It debuts […]
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April 15, 2020
The impact of coronavirus on daytime television
Knowing the media landscape is more important now than ever before, and that is why 4media Group is hosting our live Q&As every Friday with leading journalists, producers and broadcasters. This week we spoke with David Blackmore, a leading daytime TV producer. David has worked on leading daytime TV shows, […]
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April 15, 2020
How metadata will drive content discovery for the BBC online
The BBC’s online portfolio has been built up over more than 20 years into a rich and varied collection of websites and services – but with all this content, it’s sometimes difficult trying to find some of it, let alone manage it all. As a result we have lots of […]
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April 14, 2020
How do you solve a problem like the BBC?
British broadcaster the BBC has historically had its ups and downs, but it’s hard to remember a time when it has been at battle with the government to quite the extent it is today. Even if the government does, as now ex-culture secretary Nicky Morgan said, want to have some […]
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April 14, 2020
UK remained “most prominent TV channel supplier” in 2019
The UK remained the most prominent TV channel supplier in 2019 (home to 1,026 TV channels), despite migrations of international TV channels over Brexit, the European Audiovisual Observatory has found. The Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic were the main destination territories for the broadcasting licence relocation, according to the […]
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April 14, 2020
Over 100 MPs and peers in call to back creative industries in lockdown
More than 130 MPs and peers including Michael Grade, Joan Bakewell, Floella Benjamin and David Puttnam have backed a call for a specific package of support for the UK’s creative industries. They have signed a letter to the government warning that support announced as part of the coronavirus crisis has so far […]
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April 14, 2020
ITV Hub viewing up 82 per cent YoY
ITV Hub viewing has increased by 82 per cent year on year, according to the broadcaster. The VoD platform’s performance results for the first three months of 2020 show a 40 per cent rise in monthly reach, alongside 80 per cent growth for the ad-free service ITV Hub plus. ITV Hub […]
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April 14, 2020
Disney Plus predicted to hit 220+ million subscribers by 2024
This prediction, if it comes true, would be almost four times Disney’s own subscriber target A leading US analyst has predicted Disney Plus could hit almost four times the company’s own target for subscribers by 2024. Analyst Michael Morris from Guggenheim Securities is predicting the new streaming service will reach […]
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April 14, 2020
Ofcom to investigate 5G conspiracy comments as telco abuse continues
Telecoms infrastructure and staff are becoming the victims of the 5G conspiracy theories as Ofcom launches a full investigation into the short-sighted comments of TV Presenter Eamonn Holmes. A swarm of celebrities have been fanning the flames of controversy by effectively endorsing conspiracy theories linking the coronavirus outbreak to the deployment of […]
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April 14, 2020
YouTube sees news content viewership increase by 75%
With the world battling the coronavirus pandemic, YouTube has revealed that viewership of news content on the site has skyrocketed by 75% in recent weeks. Speaking to Bloomberg Television, the Google-owned video site’s chief product officer Neal Mohan said that viewers are “trying to consume as much information around this […]
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April 12, 2020
Calls for children’s TV to turn on the subtitles in a bid to raise literacy levels among youngsters missing school due to coronavirus quarantine
Broadcasters of children’s television are being urged to turn on the subtitles in a bid to raise literacy levels among the young, who are currently stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Presenter Stephen Fry joined author Cressida Cowell, businesswoman Martha Lane Fox and former children’s television presenter Floella Benjamin as signatories […]
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April 11, 2020
BBC launches new film to demonstrate its role as a public service broadcaster in a time of national crisis
At a time when the UK is facing an unprecedented crisis, the role of the BBC as a public service broadcaster which helps keep the country informed, educated and entertained, has never been more important. The film from BBC Creative, which is launched today, demonstrates that even though we are […]
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April 10, 2020
Gee whizz: can 5G unlock VR’s true potential?
For a technology that promises to revolutionize business and communications, 5G is pretty prosaic. Despite the snappy name, the fifth generation of cellular phone technology is really a landgrab for an untapped region of the electromagnetic spectrum. So, no bells or whistles – unless they’re being downloaded at high speed. […]
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April 9, 2020
Co-op pulls TV ad and donates £2.5m airtime to food charity
The Co-op has announced this morning, that it has pulled its planned Easter television advertising campaign, instead donating the airtime to a food charity, FareShare. The £2.5m campaign was originally planned to promote its chocolate eggs, but in the wake of the Coronavirus, the retailer has turned over the time […]
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April 9, 2020
Ofcom study finds BBC most trusted source of news on Coronavirus
Almost half of UK online adults came across false or misleading information about coronavirus (Covid-19) in the last week, Ofcom has found. Ofcom is conducting weekly research to help understand how people are receiving and acting on information during the current pandemic. Our first results from week one of the ‘lockdown’ show […]
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April 9, 2020
Channel 4 to cut content budget by £150m
Channel 4 has outlined its plans to deal with the economic impact of the Coronavirus on its business that include reducing the content budget by £150m, furloughing 10% of staff and board member pay cuts. Channel 4 is dependent on advertising and predicts that the TV ad market is set […]
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April 9, 2020
Sofa distancing: How coronavirus has transformed British TV
From a non-toxic Question Time to the broadcasting hub that is Steph McGovern’s living room, the current moment is influencing everything on the airwaves – perhaps for good Coronavirus is changing television. How lucky Susanna Reid is to be able to use social distancing as reason to sit further away […]
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April 9, 2020
HDR: Go with the flow
It is just under a year since the first series commissioned to go though an HDR workflow in the UK, The Innocents, first aired on Netflix. Since then an impressive amount of expertise in the format has been banked across the industry, with estimates that around 100 projects have passed […]
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April 9, 2020
98% of limited companies say treatment is unfair
According to a survey by film and TV workers union Bectu, only 2% of individuals who operate as limited companies believe they are being treated fairly by the government. The survey, completed by nearly 1000 people who run their own limited companies in film and TV, found that 67% think […]
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April 9, 2020
Premier League: covid-19 Induced Acceleration to a Private Equity backed OTT Future
The writing’s been on the wall for the sports industry for a long time, but the global shutdown of pretty much all live sport will accelerate the changes that have swept through all other media sectors. Until now, the sector’s held up incredibly well. Live sports punctured the roll out […]
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April 9, 2020
Changing consumption patterns during COVID19 studied by McKinsey and Co
McKinsey and Company has been tracking consumer sentiment around the world since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, exploring the economic effects of the virus, as well as consumption patterns and media consumption. As you would expect, the research has found that consumers in most countries are delaying purchases, except for basics, […]