A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

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More than half of adults using the internet say they use it to watch TV or videos 42 Source: Ofcom
CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD On another, such linear viewing still accounted for 85% of long-form audiovisual viewing in 2014. 88 But even using the latter methodology, on-demand viewing (which includes catch-up services but not timeshifted viewing) is growing rapidly – from 2% in 2010 to 6% in 2014 – with internetconnected ‘smart’ TV sets and tablets driving growth. 89 Similarly, even where the precise figures differ, the trend nevertheless remains the same: while Deloitte’s Media Consumer states that live TV viewing declined from 225 minutes a day in 2010 to 193 minutes in 2014, Thinkbox – using the same BARB source data – shows a slower decline, from 242 minutes to 221 minutes. 90 The key point is that both show that audiences are turning away not from television per se but from linear viewing and towards multi-platform consumption. This is a widespread trend. Some 57% of adults surveyed in the second half of 2014 said they had accessed at least one ondemand service in the past 12 months, up from 27% in the first half of 2010. 91 The most popular service was the BBC iPlayer, used by 31% of people in 2014. 92 BBC figures show that requests for television programmes through the iPlayer have quadrupled from 722 million in 2009 to 2.87 billion in 2015. 93 Alongside the catch-up services are the ‘overthe-top’ subscription services. Dominating this new space are the two US companies Netflix and Amazon, which now have significant ambitions in content production as well as distribution. The rapid success that Netflix in particular has enjoyed since it launched in the UK in 2012 is remarkable. It had 5.2 million subscribers – some 22% of households – by the end of 2015, up from 2.8 million a year earlier. 94 Amazon Prime Instant Video (rebranded from Lovefilm) had 1.2 million, with Sky’s Now TV signing up 523,000 – more than double what it had a year before. 95 But it is not just Netflix and Amazon driving the growth in on-demand viewing. Audiovisual material is now available from myriad sources. Vloggers like PewDiePie with 43 million subscribers and Zoella with more than 10 million subscribers in the UK alone are evidence of the huge appetite for content produced a very long way from the studios of the public service television broadcasters. Newspaper websites are now able to produce video, and cultural institutions can also use the internet to film plays, events or exhibitions. Universities and other institutes of learning make lectures and seminars available online. New entrants in news provision are making a mark – the Vice website targeting a youth demographic, for example, has a digital audience of more than 5 million in the UK. 96 These efforts may not always look like high-quality broadcasting output (though that would be hard to argue in the case of Vice), but they are competing for the time and attention of TV viewers and, according to short-form video specialists Maker Studios, are drastically expanding the very concept of ‘content’ such that “consumption can now range from a 6-second Vine to a 10-season Netflix binge marathon.” 97 88 Ibid., p.18. 89 Ibid. 90 Deloitte, Media Consumer 2015: The Signal and the Noise, 2015, p. 4; Thinkbox, A Year in TV, Annual Review 2015, p. 8. 91 Ofcom, CMR 2015, p. 52. 92 Ibid., p. 53. 93 BBC, BBC iPlayer Monthly Performance Pack, January 2016, figures extrapolated from slide 4. 94 Ampere Analysis, Netflix – the UK and beyond, April 2016. 95 Ofcom, CMR 2015, p. 54. 96 Ofcom, CMR 2015, p. 373. 97 Maker Studios, The Shift Report: The Short-Form Revolution, 2015. 43
Page 1 and 2: A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVIS
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword by David Puttnam
Page 5 and 6: To instruct democracy, if possible
Page 7 and 8: Welcome Television is leading a cha
Page 9 and 10: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 11 and 12: PSB channels 71.9% All other channe
Page 15 and 16: Why television matters Television i
Page 19 and 20: 1982 1990s 2012 The BBC-ITV duopoly
Page 23 and 24: Time for action Today’s policymak
Page 29 and 30: Basic principles At the core of pre
Page 39 and 40: The multichannel revolution Perhaps
Page 41: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 51 and 52: The BBC For most people, the BBC is
Page 67 and 68: Channel 4 If the BBC is the most im
Page 71 and 72: Only 8% of Channel 4’s total spen
Page 79 and 80: ITV and Channel 5 The focus of atte
Page 85 and 86: The changing face of ITV 1993-2002
Page 91 and 92: New sources of public service conte
Page 93 and 94:
CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
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Television and diversity We have ea
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THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE TELEVISED If t
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Nations and Regions Public service
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Content diversity One of the key wa
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Sports content now accounts for som
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Talent development and training In
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Conclusion Television is changing.
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Recommendations General The UK’s
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Appointing the BBC board Sir David
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APPLICATION OF THE NOLAN PRINCIPLES
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BAFTA members’ survey delivered i
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Public service broadcasting, public
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Inquiry events Do we still need pub
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Acknowledgements Inquiry Report Con
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A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

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