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

Recommendations

Info

A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION The most significant channel grouping outside the public service broadcasters’ portfolios is that operated by Sky. Its channels accounted for 8.2% of all viewing in 2014, with 0.7% of that to its news channel, the only one in its portfolio offered on Freeview. 255 Sky has built its business principally on the acquisition of sports rights, as well as by offering movies and entertainment programming. But it has steadily invested more in content of a more public service character. One particularly notable feature is the Sky Arts channel, which has been operating since 2007 and provides programming not dissimilar to BBC Four’s output. 256 Sky has also developed Sky Atlantic as the home of high quality US drama, following deals with HBO and Showtime. Sky is now investing more in its own drama, commissioning major series such as Fortitude and The Tunnel. It is forging partnerships with the likes of HBO and Showtime 257 to create ambitious drama series, a move that has been seen as a reaction to the potential threat posed by Netflix and Amazon. 258 This push into drama is part of a muchheralded drive to spend £600 million a year on “home-grown British programming” 259 , a target Sky said it met in 2014 260 . There is some confusion as to how exactly Sky has reached this figure. Relatively little of the money would seem to be accounted for by drama. Enders Analysis has estimated that the total production value, including funds from co-producers, of first-run Sky scripted entertainment series (drama and comedy) was £70 million in 2015, up from £40 million two years earlier. 261 Sky’s chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, has said that a “reasonably small” amount of the £600 million is spent on news and a “pretty small” amount on sports programming (the £600 million does not include sports rights acquisitions). 262 Otherwise there is little detail available on how this eyecatching figure breaks down nor is it clear how it squares with Ofcom’s suggestion that the entire ‘non-PSB’ sector accounted for just £350 million of non-sport spending in 2013. 263 ITV has estimated that £80 million of this was accounted for by the PSB portfolio channels, so the amount spent by the multichannel operators would in fact have been just £270 million. 264 Sky is not the only multichannel operator, of course, and there are other sources of original UK programmes or public servicelike content. Another significant channel business is UKTV, which is 50%-owned by BBC Worldwide and was originally set up to exploit the BBC’s archive. It now commissions its own programmes for channels such as Dave and Really, although its output is largely entertainment-based. Another notable channel group, Discovery, features science, history and wildlife programmes. Satellite and cable viewers (and to a lesser extent, Freeview households) can watch a huge variety of news channels, from Al Jazeera to CCTV, as well as foreign-language channels and children’s services such as the Nickelodeon and Disney channels. 255 Ofcom, The Communications Market Report 2015, 2015, p. 202. 256 The channel emerged from a previous service, Artsworld. Until last year, there were two Sky Arts channels. It now has an on-demand service, with some content exclusively available on demand. 257 The traditional terrestrial broadcasters used to be the home of top US shows but have increasingly been priced out of the market. 258 See Enders Analysis, Sky’s originals: seeking iconic differentiation, 2016. 259 See Sky Annual Report 2014, p. 14. 260 Tara Conlan, ‘Sky vows to ramp up spending on original British content’, the Guardian, February 4, 2015. 261 Enders, Sky’s originals. 262 Conlan, ’Sky vows to ramp up spending on original British content.’ 263 Ofcom, PSB in the Internet Age, p. 8. 264 See ITV’s submission to the inquiry, and its presentation to the Westminster Media Forum in June 2015. 92
CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD SUBSCRIBE NO, THANKS The UK’s ‘non-PSB’ channels spent only £350m in 2013 on first-run UK-originated programming excluding sport, just 15% of the total investment across the board in all non-sport genres. Source: Ofcom As we noted in Chapter 3, the subscription video-on-demand services Netflix and Amazon have made a huge impact in a short space of time, and now have serious ambitions in drama production. For now, the content offering is dominated by movies, comedy and US drama. But they are developing UK projects: Netflix is making The Crown, a drama series about the royal family, along with the third series of Black Mirror, which was poached from Channel 4. Amazon stepped in to fund the BBC One drama Ripper Street, while it is soon to launch the motoring show The Grand Tour with Top Gear’s former presenters. These are bold moves, and we can expect plenty more programmes from on-demand platforms that compete directly with the output of the traditional British broadcasters. We welcome the fact that Sky and other commercial operators are producing some content that is of a public service character. Sky News provides a highly respected service that acts as a worthy rival to the BBC news channel. The output of Sky Arts is particularly admired. Discovery’s programming often reflects some of the principles of PST that we outlined earlier. The sort of drama that Sky, Netflix and Amazon are now putting out may be indistinguishable from the output of the UK’s public service broadcasters. As well as appreciating its quality, we can applaud the contribution such investment makes to the creative economy, while remembering that its scale is still relatively small. 265 As Ofcom has observed: “Although the multichannel sector’s investment in a number of high-end drama series has attracted attention, the volume of hours produced remains limited compared to that from the PSBs.” 266 265 As the performers’ union Equity told us: “The recent increase in content production by commercial broadcasters and other service providers such as Netflix is very welcome and has led to the creation of a large number of good quality jobs for performers and many other creative workers.” However, it also noted that “the reality is that PSBs continue to be the source of the vast majority of investments in drama production in the UK”. Equity, submission to the Inquiry. 266 Ofcom, PSB in the Internet Age, p. 8. 93
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 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Why television matters Television i
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
1982 1990s 2012 The BBC-ITV duopoly
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Time for action Today’s policymak
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Basic principles At the core of pre
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
The multichannel revolution Perhaps
Page 41 and 42: 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: New sources of public service conte
Page 103 and 104: Television and diversity We have ea
Page 107 and 108: THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE TELEVISED If t
Page 115 and 116: Nations and Regions Public service
Page 129 and 130: Content diversity One of the key wa
Page 135 and 136: Sports content now accounts for som
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Talent development and training In
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Conclusion Television is changing.
Page 155 and 156:
Recommendations General The UK’s
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Appointing the BBC board Sir David
Page 163 and 164:
APPLICATION OF THE NOLAN PRINCIPLES
Page 165 and 166:
BAFTA members’ survey delivered i
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Public service broadcasting, public
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Inquiry events Do we still need pub
Page 179 and 180:
Acknowledgements Inquiry Report Con
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?