In The Frame April ’14

This month, In The Frame… largely follows developments in the story of traditional producers of television content coming under increasing pressure as streaming services and the biggest technology giants step up their efforts for supremacy, as we’ve been reporting in recent months.

Netflix appears to be a very strong position having recently reported record profits, an imminent increase in its monthly charge and a deal with TiVo, the maker of set-top boxes in the US.

The battle for audiences is among the largest tech companies is really hotting up, given the recent news that Yahoo is commissioning two original TV-length comedy series that will be shown exclusively on its websites and mobile apps, as reported here by the New York Times, and Microsoft, too, is following a similar path, as Bloomberg.com reports: “Microsoft’s new Xbox television studio plans to roll out globally starting in June.”

Previously unheard-of producers and distributors of YouTube content are also making an impact: Maker Studios, which was recently bought by Disney for $500 million (in a deal that could see that figure rise to $950 million), describes itself as “the No.1 producer and distributor of online video to millennials” and attracts 5.5 billion monthly views and 340 million subscribers.

As for the more familiar names, The Guardian reports that Apple is working on a new set-top box, besides its existing Apple TV, and Google is apparently secretly working on a new Android-based TV platform. They believe this move will turn the television in to “an entertainment interface, not a computing platform”.

UK News

Not to be outdone by its American counterparts, Sky is reportedly developing a set-top box which will allow subscribers to record programmes in the cloud, enabling them to be accessed from any device. The Sunday Telegraph, which broke the story, says that ‘Project Ethan’ is understood to include plans for television recorded using the Sky+ service to be stored in a central data centre rather than on set-top box hard disks.

Meanwhile, London-based SecondSync is one of two companies who have been bought by Twitter, as it looks to strengthen its association with real-time TV viewing, as reported by The Guardian. The other company is Paris-based Mesagraph. Both firms, which provide analytics to broadcasters and advertisers about how people engage with television, will work out of Twitter’s London office.

Have you read our blog post about the Digital Production Partnership’s mission to standardise television’s technical delivery requirements? Well, the DPP has now unveiled its new Technical and Metadata Standards for file-based programme delivery in the UK, A Producer’s Guide to File Delivery. One broadcast company, Deluxe Media Europe, has invested £100,000 in compliance kit to meet the DPP’s October deadline, as reported here by broadcastnow.co.uk, as a result of this initiative.

The editorial director of new station London Live,Stefano Hatfield, has left the channel, less than a month after it hit the “for yet another launch elsewhere,” he tweeted.

And finally…

• Red Bee joined in the festivities, as BBC2 celebrates its 50^th birthday, by throwing a party and creating a series of featuring ‘2s’ from past idents
• St George’s Day saw a film co-production treaty between the UK and China signed by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and Vice Minister Tong Gang of the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT)
• New plans for the redevelopment of BBC Television Centre in West London include a Soho House-backed roof-top pool and terrace
• Industry leaders from businesses including ITV, Channel 4, Twitter and YouTube are to outline their digital strategies at Broadcast’s Media Summit