In The Frame - January '18

Tom Pammenter Published: 31.01.2018 Industry news

Apple has bought the rights for a TV project by the Oscar-winning writer and director of La La Land, increasing its a power in the entertainment industry. Details of the series’ plot are being kept secret, but Damien Chazelle will write and direct every episode, and serve as executive producer.

Netflix ended 2017 with more than 117 million subscribers and streaming revenues of more than $11 billion. More than eight million new customers joined in a robust fourth quarter of the year, the highest three-month total in the company’s history.

France-based tech innovator B<>com is one of the companies creating a partnership of European tech firms to work together to compete globally in the emerging world of augmented reality, which has been identified as a major growth area this year.

Sky, meanwhile, has announced that its VR Studio has selected Jaunt’s XR Platform to deliver virtual reality content to consumers via the Sky VR app.

BBC News

Today presenter John Humphrys is one of several highly paid male presenters to agree to take a reduced salary as the BBC pursues gender equality. Jeremy Vine, Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell and Nick Robinson will also take wage cuts. The corporation’s gender pay gap led to the BBC’s China editor, Carrie Gracie, resigning in protest but Humphrys said: “I think it will blow over. These things always do.”

Box-sets contributed to a successful Christmas week for the BBC iPlayer. Viewers spent more time and streamed more programmes on the service than in any previous week, with Peaky Blinders a particular hit. The fourth series of the Birmingham-set show was also BBC Two’s biggest drama series of 2017.

Radio 1 is to bring back comedy after more than a decade with a series of podcasts which will also be available to download via the Radio 1 website and BBC iPlayer Radio app.

One of the most-watched televised broadcasts of the year will take place in PyeongChang, South Korea, next month as the Winter Olympics takes place. The BBC will be showing the action on the BBC Sport website and app, with more available via the iPlayer. The full schedule is here. TV coverage starts with Clare Balding’s Road To The Winter Games (working title) on BBC Two on 8 February, followed by coverage of the opening ceremony on BBC One on 9 February.

And finally…

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ruled against 21st Century Fox’s bid to take control of the 61% of Sky it does not already own, saying it was not in the public interest due to concerns about media plurality. However, the deal is not completely dead: the CMA has launched a three-week consultation examining three options relating to Sky News that could allow the deal to go through.
The Royal Television Society launches its TV careers next month fair for the fourth successive year. Sponsored by Edinburgh International Television Festival, the National Film and Television School and Sky One, the fair will offer “all the latest tips, tricks and practical advice to help you land that all important first job in TV”.
Staying with industry education, Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios is to host a two-year media course for 16-19-year-olds. The Media Production Diploma will cover numerous creative production skills.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport believes publishing the views of different economic sectors on the impact of Brexit is in the public interest. The Exiting the EU committee highlighted “profound uncertainty” about EU “country of origin” rules which allow TV companies to broadcast from the UK across the continent, with 2,200 Europe-wide channels licensed by Ofcom.
Sky has announced a six-month profit rise and a Helen Mirren series, the four-part Catherine The Great, which will be Sky’s third co-production with HBO as part of its £195m partnership deal which also includes forthcoming dramas Chernobyl and Gangs Of London (working title).