In The Frame - March ’18

Tom Pammenter Published: 31.03.2018 Industry news

The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4’s biggest hit in decades which attracted the largest audience of 16-34-year-olds of any UK TV show last year, is now one of the most valuable entertainment sponsorships in the country having sealed a deal worth about £5 million with Amazon, the tech company's biggest UK TV deal to date. Amazon will become a headline sponsor and promote its Echo speakers and Alexa virtual assistant.

Truth Initiative, a US non-profit public health organisation that's “dedicated to making tobacco use a thing of the past”, have conducted a study into Netflix’s original programming and criticised the streaming service for the amount of smoking scenes it features. Stranger Things had the most “smoking incidents” (182). Netflix is to spend more than $8 billion on content in 2018 and will have in approximately 700 original shows on the service worldwide this year.

Hot on the heels of our recent series looking at broadcast industry mergers and acquisitions, streaming technology firm NeuLion, Inc is to be bought by Endeavor in a $250 million cash deal. The two companies have worked together before, having streamed the fight between boxer Floyd Mayweather and UFC champion Conor McGregor last year.

NeuLion enables digital video management, distribution and monetisation for content owners including the NFL, NBA, UFC, EFL and Sky Sports, while Endeavor specialises in talent representation and management, brand marketing, sponsorship and licensing; media sales and distribution; event operation and management; and sports training and league development.

BBC News

The BBC has published its Annual Plan, in which the corporation sets out its priorities for the year ahead, and sounds worried:

The BBC risks being overtaken by competitors. 82% of children go to YouTube for on-demand content, half to Netflix and only 29% use BBC iPlayer. Children aged 5-15 now spend more time each week online (15 hrs 18 mins) than they do watching TV (14 hrs). 43% of 12-15s now use their mobile phone to watch TV. At the same time, the market has become much more competitive. 16-24s spend more time with Netflix than all of BBC TV (including iPlayer). The global media market is increasingly dominated by a small number of US-based media giants with extraordinary creative and financial firepower.

Earlier this month, director-general Tony Hall spoke to BBC staff in London of the “breathtaking, seismic change” Britain faces from tech companies dominating global media.

And finally…

This weekend’s fight between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker will be, according to Sky Sports, the world’s first pay-per-view event to be broadcast in Ultra High Definition (UHD). The first boxing bill to be shown in UHD in the UK took place on April 2017 when BT Sport covered Terry Flanagan against Petr Petrov. IP bodies, meanwhile, have warned of the risks of streaming the bout illegally.
Glasgow is bidding to become ‘s new home, with the support of Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, and challenging Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff and Manchester.
2018’s NAB show takes place in Las Vegas next month and will be attended by more than 100,000 people from 160 countries. We’ll keep you updated with the biggest stories and trends to emerge.
Meanwhile, this month’s BVE show highlighted the benefits of cloud-based services and workflows, of which ITV is an early adopter.
ITV has unveiled an extensive exterior set for Coronation Street as part of a major revamp of Victoria Street, the street to the south of Coronation Street. It will be shown for the first time on Friday 20 April.
Gender diversity advocate group Rise has launched a mentoring scheme to support women working in operations, engineering, sales, marketing and business roles in the broadcast industry.