In The Frame – January ’17

Film and TV streaming and downloads have overtaken sales of Blu-ray discs and DVDs for the first time, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association’s latest annual figures. The success of the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple’s iTunes, Sky’s store and Now TV pushed up total digital video revenue in the UK during 2016 by almost 23 per cent to £1.3 billion. Since launching in 2012, Netflix has rapidly grown to 6 million UK subscribers, while Amazon Video is estimated to have attracted 2.3 million regular users since it was established two years later.

With China’s virtual reality (VR) industry expected to expand more than four-fold this year, as more major players enter the industry and new content drives growth, Sky, Ericsson and Technicolor are among a group of 28 companies that have united to form the Virtual Reality Industry Forum (VRIF) to promote universal industry standards for VR. The forum’s purpose will be “to further the widespread availability of high-quality audiovisual VR experiences, for the benefit of consumers”.

Apple, meanwhile, has joined the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, becoming a founding member alongside Amazon, Google/DeepMind, IBM and Microsoft, and Facebook, which is striving to make video a central part of its content mix, has adjusted its algorithm to prioritise longer clips in the news feed. “One of the signals we look at is ‘per cent completion’ – the percentage of each video you watch – to help us understand which videos you enjoyed,” said product manager Abhishek Bapna and research scientist Seyoung Park.

BBC News

Sir David Clementi, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and a former chairman of Prudential, is to become the BBC’s first chairman of the corporation’s new unitary board when the BBC Trust, the current governing body, is abolished in April. But not everyone’s happy with the appointment. Tom Watson, the shadow culture secretary, said:

“In appointing David Clementi to the chairmanship of the BBC the Prime Minister has handed one of the most powerful jobs in broadcasting to the person who created the role. Mr Clementi has literally written his own job description. The fact that the man who was asked to devise a new management structure for the BBC is regarded as the best candidate to run it shows a depressing lack of imagination from a government which has an appalling record when it comes to diversity in public life.” Confusingly, Mr Clementi “didn’t apply for the job” but “was asked to put his name forward”.

Meanwhile, the BBC has retained the rights to the next Rugby League World Cup ahead of this year’s tournament.

Sky News

Sky is to offer a full TV service without a dish for the first time. Broadband-delivered TV will be introduced in 2018 in an attempt to stymie the flow of customers who defect to rivals such as BT.

Customers can currently use the Now TV broadband service to watch a limited range of Sky channels without a dish, but the new offering will allow access to potentially all of its 270 channels, in what chief executive Jeremy Darroch described as “a big moment for the business”. Darroch cited the “highly promotional” and competitive UK market for the increase in the number of customers who’ve left Sky, which will also launch a loyalty programme.

As Sky released its results for the six months to the end of December 2016, Ampere Analysis found that “a focus on content and a growing acceptance of customer transition to over-the-top (OTT) delivery were at the fore”.

Meanwhile, Sky and Discovery are arguing over the price the latter pays the former to carry its channels. There’s been talk of “Discovery demands” and Sky not backing down “in the face of the threat made by Discovery”. Discovery says Sky is refusing to pay a “fair price” to air its channels and is using its “dominant market position” to pay it less than it received a decade ago. If no deal is reached, Discovery’s channels will be removed from the platform from tomorrow (February 1).

And finally…

• Channel 4 will examine ‘Fake News’ in a week-long season of programming this February.
• Streaming platform Roku is to make coverage of the forthcoming American football Super Bowl available free of charge in the United States. Fans in the UK can watch it on the BBC.
• BT Sport will embed a Dolby Atmos audio feed in its live Ultra HD football coverage for the first time tonight when it covers Liverpool versus Chelsea in the Premier League.
• Louis Theroux will deliver a keynote address at BVE, which begins at the end of next month, it has been announced. The documentary maker will take part in a session titled ‘An audience with Louis Theroux’ on Thursday 2 March at 11.20am.
• Twitter has agreed its first European live streaming deal, partnering with Sky Sports News to provide coverage of football’s transfer deadline day.

From the latest news to the latest positions – click here to see Frame 25’s most recent additions to its list of available TV jobs