In The Frame July '20

Streaming/Online/Tech

Arqiva is reported to be reducing its workforce by up to a third as part of restructure in light of the sales of the telecoms arm of the business and to adapt to the changing market as broadcast turns increasingly to streaming.

Despite the rise of streaming, linear television remains the dominant form of TV viewing across the US, UK and other major economies, even though viewership is falling, according to Omdia’s Cross-Platform Television Viewing Time Report – 2020. Linear TV's share of viewing slipped from 67% in the US in 2018 to 63% in 2019. Similar trends occurred in most of the other countries tracked by the report: Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the UK.

Film, distribution and production company Network Distributing has launched a streaming service, networkonair, in the UK and Ireland, offering archive TV which broadcast in the Midlands and northern England between 1956 and 1968.

Another niche streaming service, Crunchyroll, which specialises in anime, now has three million paid subscribers globally and more than 70 million registered users.

Netflix has invested in Broke And Bones, the new production company created by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones. Described as a “first-of-its-kind deal” for Netflix in the UK, the streaming company could ultimately take full control of Broke And Bones for about $100 million.

BBC News

BBC Studios’ joint venture with ITV, BritBox, is to launch in a further 25 countries. Initially launched in the US and Canada in 2017, where it now has one million subscribers, before expanding to the UK last November, the service will extend across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. While BritBox has not announced exactly which countries it will be entering, it had previously stated that the service would launch in Australia later in 2020.

A new Ofcom survey has found that UK adults are most likely to value Netflix and BBC services, although there is a clear generational difference among the group, as younger adults are more likely to select Netflix, and older ones the BBC.

The BBC's global reach, meanwhile, has increased by 11% year on year in 2020 to 468.2 million people per week, a record.

A further 70 jobs from the BBC’s news division. Radio 4 and political programming, such as The Andrew Neil Show, are expected to be particularly badly hit.

And finally...

• The government has announced a £500 million scheme to kickstart film and television production struggling to secure insurance for Covid-related costs. Guidance and criteria for applicants has been published by Arts Council England, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.
• ITV has announced a Diversity Acceleration Plan to accelerate change in diversity and inclusion “by creating more opportunities for those from Black, Asian, minority ethnic and other underrepresented groups”.
• Sky’s parent Comcast says the broadcaster retained almost all its customers through the coronavirus pandemic but suffered a 15% loss as a result of a drop in advertising and postponed or cancelled sports events.
• Sky Arts is to become a free-to-air channel from September.
• Sky and Sony Pictures Television have agreed a new long-term partnership across the UK and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.
• Avid has released a series of updates to its Media Composer 2020 video editing software.
• The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is launching a part-time post-production supervision course, in partnership with WarnerMedia/HBO Access and Netflix. Comprising five modules and delivered mainly through a weekly Zoom webinar, five face-to-face sessions at the NFTS teaching space in London will also be held.
• The Conote Pocketbook, a new app to enable the digital management of editorial notes and contributor consent during production and post-production, has been launched.
• The 2021 edition of CES, the annual tech show held normally held in Las Vegas, will be a digital-only event.

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