Xander Ross’ Post

Necessary article by Derek Drennan in Broadcast (MBI) today.

David Smith, director of Screen Scotland, said: “When trying to avoid privatisation, Channel 4 argued that it had to ‘get out of the M25’. With that battle won, the channel has changed its tune, now saying that it must commission and make 65% of its programmes in London, 91% in England. If C4 pivots back towards London-to-London commissioning, thousands of freelancer jobs across the UK will be lost.” Gerwyn Evans, deputy director at Creative Wales said: “These Ofcom proposals around quotas for Channel 4 filming in London and England go against much of what we are working to achieve and seem to be a huge backward step that would only serve to refocus a significant part of the UK’s TV production back to London and the South East of England.” The Ofcom consultation, which ended last week, quoted Channel 4 as saying that “despite growth in recent years, the UK production sector continues to be significantly smaller outside London. That means there are fewer production companies, often smaller in scale, and therefore with less capacity to develop creative ideas and produce them, in comparison with London”.  https://lnkd.in/eA29P6Xr

As Netflix releases more information on how they are expanding their advertising capabilities and how it will collaborate with data it’s well worth looking at the local market context. https://lnkd.in/gaABP8nD For the market context please read this brilliant piece from Broadcast (MBI) relying on data and insight from Barb Audiences. Barb only exists due to a willingness from UK TV companies and their advertiser and agency partners via the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) to collaborate. It’s great that Netflix and Disney Advertising have joined. There are still gaps such as linking TV audiences and exposure to action or sales attribution. I am confident this can be solved with the right technology and partnerships in the future. #datacollaboration #datacleanrooms

This just in: The Distributor Index has launched! Transform the way you work today with the newest platform development. bit.ly/3T2zs2L Read more about our newest development and our upcoming panel event with Bossanova, ITV Studios, Orange Smarty Limited and Newen Connect over on Broadcast (MBI). #broadcast #distributor #distributorindex

An interesting and timely article in BROADCAST about some of the most controversial factual TV fakery scandals that have impacted nearly every public service broadcaster in the UK. It is easy to look back and point the finger of blame at rogue producers but broadcasters shared responsibility, and many paid the price of regulatory or legal sanctions, and all suffered significant reputational damage. The cases had a lasting impact leading to the introduction of the concept of "viewer trust"- that both broadcasters and producers have a responsibility to maintain the trust placed in them by their audience. The principle is set out in the Ofcom Programme Code which states that: "Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience."  The important threshold is that audiences must not be "materially' misled. For those who want to better understand where the line is drawn Channel 4's Viewer Trust guidelines are still one of the best around to guide you- see link below https://lnkd.in/gxMfmjn9 https://lnkd.in/gFyRXf43

The Conservatives core ethos is that every enterprise in the land should be a profit-making business. Both the BBC and NHS are the antithesis of that. Surely every discussion about the future of The Beeb should begin with this? #ProtectTheBBC

Broadcast (MBI) and Broadcast International 2.0 head to Cannes next week for the 40th #Mipcom. In a neat, round number kind of way, submissions to our international Hot Picks hit 150, up over a fifth (23%) from last year's round. The biggest growth has come in international scripted submissions, helping the overall genre to overhaul factual - 45% of total submissions compared to 40% in factual. The trends are clear: - distributors look to safe bets to attract cautious buyers - audience-friendly genres abound (crime/thrillers) - Known IP and iconic characters are back - battle of the British detectives - international series spy the gap which may be left by US content shortfall Check it out and don't forget to pick up our special Hot Picks supplement at #Mipcom venues

While part of the TV industry gathers together to improve working class access to television, Ofcom slams the door shut on something that could've directly improved it. I've lived through the era when Ofcom decided to allow most broadcasters to abandon their commitment to children's television production, a decision that wrecked the genre and has now enabled YouTube to dominate the space. Their complete lack of ability to foresee this was baffling when everyone in the genre saw it coming and told them so. Yet again, this is a sign that Ofcom does not understand television's role, the importance of diversity initatives, nor the vital need for better national and regional investment. It is a staggering example of an organisation that does not consider the implications of its actions, the importance of its decisions, and the fundamental part it plays in ensuring that competition is not the only driver to production. For television to survive, it needs to be produced everywhere and represent everyone. Thankfully, we have people in the highest positions at Ch4 who understand that, so I believe the right decisions will be made. However, it's a bad day for our industry when the organisation that should be empowering change decides to tell the country that it has no intention of implementing it.

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