In The Frame - April '23

Streaming/Online/Tech

Netflix is closing its DVD-by-mail offering after 25 years of business and more than five billion discs shipped. Meanwhile, the company has partnered with fashion brand Lacoste to release a collection celebrating shows including Stranger Things, Bridgerton and Sex Education.

Netflix’s aim to stop password sharing has reportedly cost it one million subscribers in Spain in the first quarter of the year.

Viewers of FA Cup football and rugby's Six Nations Championship have helped ITVX reach one billion streams since the service launched on 8 December 2022.

This month’s NAB show in Las Vegas was the 100th edition of the annual event. NAB announced a preliminary registered attendance of 65,013 for the show. Last year’s corresponding figure was 52,468, while the pre-pandemic event of 2019 had a registered attendance of 91,460.

WSC Sports, a specialist in AI-powered sports video content, is partnering with new German streaming brand Dyn Media to deliver content for its OTT streaming platform. WSC Sports’ technology will automatically create and distribute real-time video content and highlights directly to the new OTT platform and its associated social media channels.

BBC News

A report from the Public Accounts Committee says the BBC is bullish about moving to a fully digital future but currently lacks a plan for delivering its services in that future. Dame Meg Hillier MP, the committee’s chair, said: “The BBC is being held back in a yesteryear of TV and radio by uncertainty over funding and regulation, and by the DCMS department’s constant delays and down-scaling of national fast broadband rollout plans. The BBC fulfils an essential public service function – it must have the planning, resources and wider infrastructure support to do so.”

Richard Sharp is to remain as BBC chairman until the end of June while the process to appoint his successor is undertaken. He resigned after breaching rules on public appointments.

And finally…

• The BBC, ITV Studios and the BAFTA-award-winning TripleC Disabled Artists Networking Community (DANC) have launched a series of production training videos created by deaf, disabled, autistic and neurodivergent talent.
• The government has rejected a call in the Scottish Affairs Committee’s report, Public Broadcasting in Scotland, to examine how more people in Scotland can watch major sporting events free of charge.
• Nielsen has accreditation for TV ratings again, following “issues including pandemic-related undercounting of viewers”.
• Ofcom has published the latest figures on Britain’s most and least complained-about telecoms and pay-TV providers. The data covers the period between October and December 2022.
• The second round of The Walt Disney Company’s 7,000 planned layoffs has begun. Members of the company’s entertainment division have been laid off, while 20th Digital Studio, which produced web content and was a subsidiary of 20th Century Studios, has been dissolved.
• An augmented reality (AR) experience will enable viewers following the coronation to interact with the Crown jewels that will be used to crown King Charles III on 6 May. The immersive experience is available via the Sky News App and website on smartphones.