www.broadcastnow.co.uk
1 August 2014
NEWS & ANALYSIS
INTERVIEW
BEHIND THE SCENES
Page 5
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Revealed: Channel 4’s Clerkenwell Films’ chief vision for features exec on life after Misfits
Evermoor: Lime’s Disney drama
C5 to free production arm Broadcast offers ratings to pitch projects to rivals via new app BY PETER WHITE
BY ALEX FARBER
Channel 5 is planning to turn its in-house production division into an independent unit capable of pitching its brand of tabloid telly to rival broadcasters. The move has been identified as a key part of the producer’s next stage of growth, following its launch two and a half years ago. 5Production has had a stellar year, producing hits for its parent channel including Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole, which has consolidated to average 2.5 million (10%) for its first six episodes. Other major shows include CCTV series Caught On Camera and the …& Proud franchise. C5 is now working towards spinning off the division into a standalone company that it would continue to own, but which could pitch and produce for other broadcasters both in the UK and internationally. It is understood that this process will be pursued once the Viacom acquisition has been completed. 5Production is overseen by Channel 5 chief operating officer Paul Dunthorne and run by head of production Stephanie Wrate, who previously produced series including BBC1’s Absolutely Fabulous and worked for Disney. She told Broadcast that producing series for broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4 is part of the unit’s “long-term ambition” to become a self-sufficient production business. 5Production was launched under previous director of programmes Jeff Ford and has so far produced
Broadcast has launched a tablet app, available exclusively to subscribers, that will feature extended overnight ratings data each morning. The app is available across iOS, Android and Kindle tablets, and offers subscribers access to audience size and share figures relating to 12 key channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, E4, Dave, Sky 1 and Sky Living. For each channel, the app will detail the previous evening’s three most-watched prime-time shows. The ratings, based on Barb data supplied by Attentional, will be available from around 10am each morning. Along with the ratings data, the app features all the latest news, ratings analysis, opinion and features from broadcastnow.co.uk. It is free to existing Broadcast subscribers, who log in using the same passwords as their broadcastnow. co.uk account. ➤ To download the app, visit iTunes, Google Play, Kindle Store or broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcastapp
Benefits Britain: smash hit for C5 with consolidated audience of 2.5 million
5Production has had a stellar year, with hits including Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole 60 hours, including Jedward’s Weird Wild World, Tesco Mum Of The Year and Wonga-backed Go Hard Or Go Home, as well as Marco Pierre White’s Kitchen Wars, its most popular show internationally. It will continue to produce longrunning access docs for C5 and is developing Dole Town, a spin-off of Benefits Britain, which itself was spun out of On Benefits & Proud.
Dole Town will focus on a specific town rather than take Benefits Britain’s country-wide approach. 5Production has also made more traditional documentaries such as The McCanns And The Conman and The Limbless Mountaineer. Wrate is keen to produce more high-end docs and to work with individual film-makers on new projects. 5Production is also moving into formats and drama-documentaries, and is close to announcing a major new project. Its push into other genres is being led by in-house development duo Beren Money, who previously worked at Endemol and Tiger Aspect, and former Nine Lives and ITN exec David Arrowsmith.
Editor’s Choice
Broadcast, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ or email chris.curtis@broadcastnow.co.uk
Online this week www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Chris Curtis, Editor
Top News
Production competition hots up C5 has entered the fray, but its shows will need broader appeal
W
hile the BBC has been plotting a radical rethink of its in-house production arm, and ITV has pinned much of its turnaround strategy on efforts to supercharge ITV Studios, a smaller rival has been making great strides. Based out in the Isle of Dogs (its staff are not impressed by the lunchtime panini options), 5Production has flown under the radar so far.
‘Blue-collar television is a tricky balancing act for an aggressively middle-class industry’ It made a low-key start in 2012 with Marco Pierre White’s Kitchen Wars, which underperformed on Channel 5 despite going on to sell well abroad. But a new raft of shows, perfectly in tune with the broadcaster’s sensibilities, should be making the industry take notice. At the forefront of these is Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole (pictured), which has delivered a consolidated average of 2.5 million (10% share) across its six parts and has already been recommissioned for an extended 12-episode run. Those figures (if maybe not the show itself ) are enough to prompt envious glances from execs at BBC2 and Channel 4. The caveat about the show itself is interesting. Blue-collar TV is a tricky balancing act for an aggressively middleclass industry, and C5’s brand of tabloid telly does set it apart from many rivals. 2 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
è Sky head of factual Celia Taylor (pictured) has had her role expanded to include responsibility for entertainment commissioning at the broadcaster.
è Ofcom has found Top Gear in breach All this prompted me to watch an episode of Benefits Britain and to find a relatively traditional ob doc that is all about access and casting. It’s not the most sophisticated programme-making, and the voiceover veers towards the judgemental – “the only hard graft this couple does is working the system” – but there are moments of insight. For example, episode six showed the kind of derelict houses that can be bought in Liverpool for less than the cost of a packet of cigarettes, as well as a revealing scene between a contributor and her daughter. The latter had just landed a job selling mobiles that paid £40 a day plus commission. She told the camera she’d never been more proud, before her mum told her she was making a bad financial decision and was foolish to take the job. Her daughter slumped. I’m not suggesting Benefits Britain is a shoo-in for a Grierson, but there might be more to the series than people realise. The big question is whether another broadcaster would buy it? Part of 5Production’s success is that it so clearly understands C5’s tone. Ben Frow’s influence is easy to spot, not least in the titles – look no further than Never Teach Your Wife To Drive!, commissioned in April. Other broadcasters will have different priorities, and very different sensibilities. BBC Productions and 5Production couldn’t be much further apart, but the challenge in their next incarnations will be surprisingly similar. Can they adapt to a far broader customer base? If they can, the competition in the production sector will get even more intense.
of its regulations for using a “racial term” in its Burma special episode.
è BSkyB has completed a deal to create Sky Europe, bringing together Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland in a multibillionpound deal.
Ratings Top Five 1 Raw TV’s social rig experiment The Secret Life Of Students signed off on Thursday with a series average of 648,000 viewers. 2 Channel 5 and BBC3 performed solidly on Monday, with C5 doc Blinging Up Baby (below) getting 1.2m and BBC3’s Tulisa: The Price Of Fame nabbing 615,000. 3 Archie Productions’ one-off doc Red Arrows: Inside The Bubble transported 2.4m for BBC2 on Sunday. 4 BBC1’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony on Wednesday peaked with more than 9m viewers. 5 Middlechild’s The Dog Rescuers entertained 1.1m for Channel 5 on Tuesday.
Talking TV podcast è Visit broadcastnow.co.uk or iTunes to download Talking TV, which this week focuses on the BBC’s proposal to scrap its quota system – and goes behind the digital rig of C4’s The Secret Life Of Students.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk
News & Analysis
ITVS grows overseas business There is a lot more competition in the market at almost every level
BY matthew Campelli
ITV Studios generated almost half its revenue overseas in the first six months of 2014 as its international operations grew significantly. The production arm’s revenue increased by 2% year-on-year to £402m, and chief executive Adam Crozier revealed that £136m was generated from international productions, a rise of 9%. In addition, ITV Studios Global Entertainment accounted for £60m. Crozier used the interim results to reinforce ITV’s strategy of “rebalancing the business” away from advertising, with an ongoing focus on international productions. He said ITV’s larger presence in the US, especially in the nonscripted sector, had resulted in a “tenfold” increase in shows broadcast in America since 2010. ITV, which claims its £212m acquisition of US producer Leftfield Entertainment made it the largest non-scripted indie in the US, is now turning its attention to scripted. Crozier said ITV Studios would be developing “between six and 10” scripted series each year for
Adam Crozier, ITV
Pawn Stars US: ITV has taken a stake in the show’s producer, Leftfield
the international market, and that the production house was “on track to do that next year”. ITV’s international content business was highlighted as one of three key areas for growth in its evolved strategic plan. The others are maximising audience revenue from free-to-air and on-demand viewing, and building a global pay and distribution business.
ITVS’s growth in the US has not been without issues. It and other production companies have been accused by the Writers Guild of America of not providing benefits like healthcare and paid leave to non-scripted writers and producers. ITV was invited to a City of New York hearing called The Real Reality of Reality Television last month to address the accusations, but failed to attend.
Crozier said he was “aware” of the issue, and ITV was in “conversations with various parties”, adding that “common sense no doubt will prevail”. The chief executive added that future producer acquisitions were still on the cards if the indie in question meets the right criteria. Referring to Sky’s acquisition of Benefits Street indie Love Productions, Crozier said there was “a lot more competition in the market at almost every level”. He added: “I think we embarked on this strategy quite a bit earlier than anyone else and therefore one or two of our early acquisitions were at reasonably cheap prices. Some of the multiples being paid are now a little bit greater. Certainly with Sky and Love, we looked at that early on and passed at a later stage.”
Objective to remake King of The Nerds for Sky 1 BY Peter White
Sky 1 is to remake US entertainment format King Of The Nerds after striking a deal with Ben Silverman’s Electus and Objective Productions. The pay-TV broadcaster has ordered an 8 x 60-minute version of the show, which is produced in the US by 5X5 for cable network TBS. Objective will make the UK version of the show, which will air later this year. King Of The Nerds, which will be presented by former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, will test 11 contestants’ intellect, ingenuity, skills and pop-culture knowledge. The male and female ‘nerds’ live together in a house called Nerdvana and compete first as teams www.broadcastnow.co.uk
King Of The Nerds: Sky 1 is to remake the US cable show for the UK
and then as individuals, with one being eliminated each week. The show is one of Sky 1 director Adam MacDonald’s biggest entertainment commissions since his appointment last year. It was ordered by MacDonald and enter-
tainment commissioner Barbara Lee, and is exec produced by Objective’s Adam Adler and Shannon Delwiche. The series producer is Ross Curran and it is directed by Ashley Meneely.
“These intelligent men and women will push their brain power to the limit, but in the end there can only be one winner,” said Lee. The deal is the first major format sale for Electus in the UK. The company, which was set up by Silverman and is run by former Shine exec Chris Grant, has been targeting the UK for the past couple of years. Eli Shibley, senior vice-president of international media and formats, and Electus International president John Pollak have made a number of trips to the UK, both to sell formats and to pick up the rights to British projects. Electus International will distribute the UK version of King Of The Nerds and will continue to sell the format globally. 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 3
News & Analysis In Brief Marstons opens up to C5 Channel 5 is brewing up a doc series with Shine TV after securing access to Marston’s Brewery. The broadcaster has commissioned 3 x 60-minute series One Ale Of A Job, which will head behind the scenes at one of Britain’s oldest breweries. The series was ordered by Greg Barnett, commissioning editor, entertainment, daytime and soaps, and exec produced by Shine TV’s Lorna-Dawn Creanor. It is set to air in September.
60s doc lines up The Who Con Air and The Expendables 2 director Simon West is working with rock band The Who (above) to develop a TV series about London’s music scene in the 1960s. West is currently working on a script dubbed Mods And Rockers (w/t) with The Who band members. He has conceived it as an 8 x 60-minute “international” series.
Dapper dates for ITV2 Internet star Dapper Laughs is to front an ITV2 comedy/reality format from the creators of Celebrity Juice. Dapper Laughs On The Pull is due to launch as a 6 x 30-minute series in late September. In the show, Laughs, who has around 1 million Facebook and Vine fans and 300,000 Twitter followers, will dispense dating advice to members of the public. The show has been conceived by Celebrity Juice creators Jolene Ellis, Chris Graves and Dan Baldwin.
North One wins NFL gig All3Media-owned indie North One Television has picked up the contract to produce Channel 4’s NFL coverage. The one-year deal includes production of C4’s live coverage of the three soldout games at Wembley, plus the Super Bowl. North One will also produce the coverage of C4’s Sunday night games and a weekly highlights show.
For the latest breaking news www.broadcastnow.co.uk 4 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
TMM heads to Australia for Blumenthal ob doc BY Alexandra Chapman
Heston Blumenthal’s long-term producer has won an Australian commission featuring the chef for his emerging indie. The 4 x 60-minute Inside Heston’s World (w/t) is an ob doc following Blumenthal as he relocates his three Michelin-starred restaurant, The Fat Duck, to Melbourne for a six-month trial. It is being made by Jay Taylor’s Thoroughly Modern Media (TMM), which launched in 2013, for an Australian broadcaster he was not able to name. The series will air in the autumn and Taylor hopes to sell it to a UK broadcaster for TX next year. Taylor said: “No Michelinstarred restaurant has ever done anything like this – it’s so ludicrously ambitious. Heston is going to rebuild everything in a completely different environment in Melbourne, and then move back to Bray after six months to build a totally new Fat Duck.” He added that the chef risks losing his Michelin stars if the project fails. “We don’t have to work on jeopardy, it’s all there for us.”
Heston’s Great British Food: Taylor has previously worked on the C4 series
Producer/director Taylor has previously worked with Blumenthal on Channel 4 projects Heston’s Feasts (Optomen), plus Heston’s Fantastical Food and Heston’s Great British Food (both Betty and Snail Porridge), as well as the Baftanominated In Search Of Perfection Christmas Special, which was made in-house for BBC2. Taylor said TMM will focus on factual and features, and is in development with C4 for a series called Heston’s Great British Space Dinner.
It will follow the chef ’s attempts to improve food in space and is being lined up to air at the end of 2015 to coincide with British astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to space. Peake’s input will play a part in the menu’s development and Blumenthal will train as an astronaut as part of the production process. The show was inspired by online films that TMM produced to support a UK Space Agency food competition. “Our online work was a great bedrock for the TV series to build on,” Taylor said.
Red Bull pilots gaming series for linear launch BY peter white
Red Bull will launch its linear TV channel in the UK next autumn, and the first details of its programming line-up are starting to emerge. The energy drinks firm is piloting a computer game series from Pulse Films and has hired Dynamo: Magician Impossible series producer Steve Kidgell as part of its commissioning team. Players is a weekly entertainment show fronted by former Hollyoaks stars Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries, who operate YouTube channel We Got Game. The pair previously hosted T4’s Red Bull Rivals. The half-hour show, produced by the Pineapple Dance Studios
Red Bull Rivals: duo’s previous show
indie, is described as “Top Gear for gamers”. The show features Littler and Jeffries discussing computer games with a studio audience. It will also feature a mini-panel show, as well as a segment in which a celebrity guest plays an
old-school 16-bit game, aiming to beat others on a leader board. It will be filmed at Red Bull Media House’s London office and the pilot was shot in June. Red Bull is also in talks with other indies and is understood to be developing a magic format as well as other entertainment series. The company has hired Kidgell as senior development producer to work in its commissioning team overseeing these projects alongside James Milnes, who previously produced Red Bull Soapbox Race for UKTV’s Dave. One indie source said the forthcoming channel is paying “terrestrial” prices for formats and factual entertainment projects. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
News & Analysis
C4’s Wilson overhauls features Indies pick up a slew of commissions as the broadcaster reveals fresh direction for genre BY MATTHEW CAMPELLI
North One, Blink Films and Red House are among the indies to have won business as Channel 4 head of features Gill Wilson overhauls her slate. Wilson has commissioned a batch of content to TX over the coming months and into 2015 that is designed to evolve the genre, with an emphasis on joy, character comedy and peer-to-peer formats. The features boss has greenlit 52 titles since she joined the broadcaster in 2012, with a “big volume” of new titles due in 2015. Wilson told Broadcast the genre was in a period of creative risk that will update the slate she inherited, which was “a bit worn around the edges”. North One’s Damned Designs falls into the “character comedy” bracket. It features eccentric individuals who have fallen foul of planning laws after building shark tanks and ‘Hobbit houses’ at their homes. The series follows them during the final stages of their appeal process before the bulldozers are sent in. Wilson added that part of C4’s strategy was to give traditional subjects a more authentic treatment. She said the change in tone was shaped by the viewer not wanting to “feel the heavy hand of the producer”, and that “peer-to-peer” interaction was increasingly important, pointing to George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and The Supervet. “We’re no longer saying ‘you must do it this way’, we’re saying ‘this is how it’s done’,” said Wilson. She offered the example of Blink Films’ new series The Shut-Ins, a fixed-rig “features/documentary hybrid” about obesity. It is a “refined” and “peer-to-peer” take on an issue explored by Remarkable TV’s Supersize Vs Superskinny and Secret Eaters, both of which have been axed. Another example of peer-topeer programming is Red House’s Sarah Beeny’s Clicks And Mortar, a six-part series in which home owners attempt to sell their houses without the aid of estate agents. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
This Old Thing: RDF’s vintage clothes show has the ‘joy, craft and treatment of contributors’ Wilson is hunting
I would say to the indie sector: ‘Let your imagination run riot.’ Gill Wilson, C4
Former Spun Gold exec Wilson stressed that C4 still has slots open in the schedule for new commissions. She highlighted the “joy, craft and treatment of contributors” found in RDF Television West’s This Old Thing: The Vintage Clothes Show as the tone she is looking for. In terms of demographic, 16-34 is C4’s features sweet spot and Wilson stressed that ideas need to be pacy. Wilson (pictured) will be part of a panel at this year’s Edinburgh Television Festival on the ‘Future Of Features’, a genre she argued is in an “extremely healthy place”.
“Our numbers year-on-year are up at 8pm by 15% for individuals, 17% for ABC1s and 9% for 16-34 year-olds,” said Wilson. “I’m sure it [the panel] will have a ‘features has had its day’ sort of thrust, but our current slate and the health of features across all channels suggests people are never going to be fed up with having contemporary life reflected back at them.” Wilson also heads C4’s daytime operations, a part of the schedule that has suffered due to the BBC focusing its investment on BBC1. According to Wilson, C4 is at a “crossroads” in daytime, and “very much open for business” and new ideas. Although she is keen to liaise with existing daytime suppliers, she urged indies that “don’t necessarily have the daytime track record” to get in touch with new concepts. “I would say to the indie sector: ‘Let your imagination run riot.’” Wilson added. ➤ More C4 features commissions will be revealed on 1 August on broadcastnow.co.uk
C4 FEATURES NEXT GEN Damned Designs
Length 4 x 60 minutes (summer 2015) Commissioning editor Nick Hornby Exec producer John Quinn Production company North One TV
Sarah Beeny’s Clicks And Mortar (w/t) Length 6 x 30 minutes (autumn 2014) Commissioning editor Lizi Wootton Exec producers John Silver; Lionel Mill Production company Red House
The Shut-Ins
Length 6 x 60 minutes (early 2015) Commissioning editor Alex Menzies Exec producer Dan Chambers Production company Blink Films
1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 5
News & Analysis
Sky VR firm eyes scripted TV In VR you can look anywhere, so directors must guide the audience
BY Alex Farber
Scripted shows and wildlife programming could benefit from immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences, according to Jaunt, the US company in which Sky has invested more than £400,000. The Silicon Valley-based business has developed technology that enables it to simultaneously record 3D stereoscopic video and audio in all directions before delivering the footage via specially designed VR headsets. Users are able to immerse themselves in the world that has been filmed, looking around in any direction through head-tracking technology. Jaunt chief executive Jens Christensen said he considers VR to be a “new medium” rather than an evolution of 3D. “Once you experience omnidirectional video and audio, you feel as if you have been transported into a different world,” he added. While interest in VR has been driven by the gaming industry, Jaunt has focused on cinematic VR. Earlier this week, the firm secured a
Jens Christensen, Jaunt
Jaunt: technology could be used for scripted and nature programming
second round of funding from Sky to the tune of £236,000. The pay-TV broadcaster invested an initial £200,000 in the company in December. Jaunt has focused its initial trials on sporting events and music concerts, but is expanding its horizons following the appointment of Sky director of entertainment Stuart Murphy to its board of directors. The business is now eyeing comedy and fantasy programming, and considering the chal-
lenges and opportunities that these genres would involve. “On TV, directors decide what the audience looks at. In VR, you can look anywhere, so directors must guide the audience using light or audio cues,” he said. “It opens up many new creative pos sibilities. For example, you could have a couple of storylines going at the same time depending on which direction you are looking.” He added that nature programming is also well-suited to VR, with
shows having much greater impact because of its ability to transport viewers into scenes. Christensen said he was open to ideas from producers. “We are very excited about working with the creative community,” he said. “As headsets become more prevalent, there will be a tremendous need for new and more interesting types of content.” Jaunt’s content is delivered into headsets via a dedicated app, with users able to live-stream or download content. The first live launches are expected within 12 months. According to Christensen, VR has gathered pace following improvements in technology and the falling cost of the headsets, driven by deals including the £1.2bn acquisition of manufacturer Oculus Rift by Facebook earlier this year.
CBeebies launches app to help kids learn to read BY Alexandra Chapman
CBeebies is preparing to launch a Storytime app that is designed to improve the reading ability of young children. The app, which is available on both the iOS and Android platforms, uses a pop-up book-style format and features stories from several CBeebies brands, including Old Jack’s Boat, Grandpa In My Pocket, Octonauts and Charlie And Lola. There is scope for more stories to be added to the app in the future. Children can choose from two reading options – Read To Me, which spells out the words displayed on the screen for less advanced readers, and Read By Myself. 6 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Storytime: the app features stories from several CBeebies brands
Touch, swipe and play features are embedded in each storybook, along with a series of recap questions at the end of each chapter, designed to develop children’s comprehension skills.
Storytime also features a Grown-ups section, which provides practical information and advice on how parents can help their children improve their reading ability. The app is due to
launch later this month and follows on from the gamingthemed CBeebies Playtime app, which was launched 12 months ago and has generated more than 3 million downloads. BBC Children’s head of product Patrick Healy said: “We’ve taken our audience’s feedback, wants and needs on board to create an engaging reading experience. It brings storytelling into the digital era in a safe and trusted environment for our youngest audience members.” CBeebies controller Kay Benbow added: “Adults can feel safe in the knowledge that their child is using an app that is free to download, free from any advertisements or in-app purchases and features a parental lock.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk
News & Analysis
London Live proposals under major scrutiny BY Peter White
The bidders who lost out to London Live for the capital’s local TV licence are expected to object to Ofcom after the broadcaster asked for permission to cut its hours of local content. Last week, London Live requested that it be allowed to reduce its amount of primetime local content by two thirds, from three hours a day to one. Companies that failed to win the licence, which include Luke Johnson-backed London 8, Richard Horwood’s LondonTV, Made in London and YourTV London, are now weighing up whether to complain to Ofcom. They could consider a legal review if they are unhappy with the regulator’s response. Interested parties have until 26 August to respond to Ofcom about the London Evening Standardbacked firm’s plans. The regulator will then decide to accept or reject the proposals, or work towards a compromise. One local TV source said that if the changes proposed by London Live are accepted, “it could start to look a lot like Horwood’s bid”.
Drag Queens Of London: London Live wants to reduce local content
LondonTV, the group owned by local newspaper groups Archant and Tindle and overseen by former Trinity Mirror executive Horwood, proposed seven hours of primetime local programming a week, with a total of 38 local hours. Ofcom’s Broadcast Licensing Committee said at the time of the award (29 January 2013) that LondonTV’s “lower output of locally-targeted programming… would result in a less locally distinctive service when compared
with [London Live] and London 8, and would therefore be less likely to meet the needs of the local area”. One of the failed bidders told Broadcast that a lack of local advertising in London makes it more difficult to run than other services around the country, where channels can attract new, smaller advertisers. “We always said London was a poisoned chalice; it’s much more difficult to make local TV work in the capital than a decent-sized city outside of London,” said the source.
C4 hires De Burgh in commissioning team reshuffle Channel 4 has rejigged its commissioning team, moving Tom Beck from entertainment to factual entertainment to cover Tina Flintoff ’s maternity leave. The switch has created a vacancy within entertainment commissioning, and the broadcaster has hired Hungry Bear’s Ed de Burgh to fill it. De Burgh, who has credits on Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Pointless and The Million Pound Drop, will report to C4 head of entertainment Justin Gorman. Gorman said: “Ed has worked on a plethora of our shows and understands Channel 4 entertainment inside out.” Beck will now report to head of factual entertainment Liam Humphreys, with whom he worked on celebrity winter sports show The Jump. “Liam’s team have had a fantastic few months, so when he asked me to join them I jumped at the chance. I can’t wait to add my voice to an already brilliant department,” said Beck. His credits at C4 entertainment include Alan Carr: Chatty Man, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and upcoming real-time voting show The Singer Takes It All.
Brooker and Jones target US with House of Tomorrow BY Matthew Campelli
Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones will attempt to make inroads into the US scripted market via their new indie House of Tomorrow. Former Zeppotron managing director Jones and long-term collaborator Brooker set up the drama, comedy and feature films production company earlier this week under the Endemol umbrella. She told Broadcast that the aspiration was to “get an American series away”, which was behind the pair’s thinking when they broke away from Zeppotron in November 2012. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Black Mirror has a cult US following. Several studios and networks are interested in it Annabel Jones
Black Mirror: anthology structure
The managing director argued that the creation of House of Tomorrow represented a “cleaner proposition” for the US market
as “Charlie and I can go out to America and pitch purely scripted”. The continued success of Black Mirror, conceived by creative director Brooker, is at the forefront of House of Tomorrow’s thinking. Jones said discussions were already taking place about potentially adapting the format of
the dark Channel 4 series for the American market. “Black Mirror has achieved a cult following in America,” said Jones. “Several film studios and networks are really interested in it, but are probably quite scared of the anthology structure, with no continuity of character or storyline.” The former Endemol head of business development also revealed that the indie had been working on a series “with the Black Mirror sensibility” for the US market over the past few months, which it is going to pitch shortly. Jones said the pair were keen to pursue opportunities with Endemol Studios in the US. 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 7
Commissioning News
BBC1 takes a punt on Coral doc The Bookies will look at the realities of life on the betting floor and why we’re betting more
BY Andreas Wiseman
Boundless has secured access to high-street bookmaker Coral for a three-part documentary series for BBC1. The Apprentice producer is currently filming 3 x 60-minute series The Bookies, which will explore life on the betting shop floor and lift the lid on Coral’s behind-thescenes players, including those responsible for setting the odds. The series will meet both some of the bookmaker’s biggest spenders and its low-stake punters, and explore Britain’s betting habits around national events, including major football matches and TV series such as Strictly Come Dancing. The Bookies will also examine the ways in which the industry is responding to the issue of gambling addiction and public opposition to new shops. The series was ordered by BBC head of documentaries Emma Willis. “Betting shops are a key part of the high street and an unwavering part of modern British life,” she said.
Twofour provokes debate with doc series for Sky 1 Sky 1 is to follow inner-city school debating teams for an eight-part documentary series from Educating Yorkshire producer Twofour. The pay-TV broadcaster has ordered The Kings & Queens Of Speech (working title) as part of its drive to shake up its 8pm weekday slot. The series aims to help pupils from schools across the country transform their lives through a debating competition. Each school will hold a series of internal debates before the winning teams progress to a national contest. The Kings & Queens Of Speech is due to air in 2015. It was commissioned by entertainment commissioner Chris Brogden and Sky 1 director Adam MacDonald. Twofour 8 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Emma Willis, BBC
Coral: Boundless has secured access to the bookmaker for a BBC1 doc
“The Bookies will take a compelling look at how the industry works, the everyday realities of life on the betting floor, and why we’re betting more as a nation.” Boundless managing director and the show’s executive producer
Patrick Holland added: “Betting is something that millions of British people take part in, yet we know very little about the world and how it operates. The series will engage with the excitement, characters and issues from this major industry.”
director of programmes Dan Adamson is the exec producer and Sam Grace is the series producer.
tors Peter Holmes and Ruth Phillips will executive produce with Andrew Westwell, while Karen Murdoch will series produce.
Zeppotron hits the bullseye with Comic Relief series Charity event Comic Relief is to include pro-celebrity darts next year after the BBC ordered a series from Zeppotron. The broadcaster is to strip Let’s Play Darts For Comic Relief across a week on BBC2 in early 2015. The event will be hosted by Gabby Logan (pictured) and will involve comedians and celebrities competing against professional darts players in a knock-out tournament. The show was ordered by BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw and commissioning editor Pinki Chambers. Zeppotron joint managing direc-
Raise the Roof to delve into celebs’ holiday memories Glasgow-based indie Raise the Roof is to delve into celebrities’ childhood holiday memories for a BBC1 daytime series. Holiday Of My Lifetime will be hosted by Len Goodman, who will meet celebrities including Eamonn Holmes, Matt Allwright, Esther Rantzen and Ainsley Harriot as they recall holidays spent in locations from Cornwall to Scotland. The 15 x 45-minute series, due to air later this year, was commissioned by BBC daytime controller Damian Kavanagh and BBC daytime commissioning editor Jo Street. Andrew Jackson will executive produce for Raise the Roof, while Curtis Leighton-Jones and Julie Grant will series produce.
The series is the latest in a growing trend for access docs and follows The Garden Productions’ green light last week for series on high-street bank NatWest (BBC2) and airline Virgin Atlantic (ITV). The Coral Group, which operates around 1,800 betting offices in the UK and employs close to 20,000 staff, merged with Coral Eurobet in 2005 in a deal reportedly worth £2bn. The bookmaker was founded in 1926 by Joe Coral.
For details of all commissions, see
http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk
Gordon Ramsay’s daughter to front CBBC cookery show Gordon Ramsay’s daughter is to front a CBBC cookery series produced by the celebrity chef ’s indie One Potato Two Potato. The currently untitled series will be hosted by 12-year-old Tilly
(above) and will feature appearances from her 13-year-old brother Jack and his twin sister Holly. The show was ordered by CBBC controller Cheryl Taylor and will be shot in the US. It is expected to air in 2015/2016. Optomen International will sell the show internationally. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
TIC
£5
0
RESTORATION & ARCHIVE FORUM
KE
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+V RICE AT
2 September 2014, BFI South Bank, London
This one-day event focuses on the latest technological innovations, industry trends and developments in restoration and archive within the film and television sector.
Programme This event is a unique opportunity to gain insight into archiving and restoring content in the UK from industry leaders. The aim of the event is to educate and develop the skillset within this particular area of the industry, which is often under-served. Tickets are priced competitively to allow the event to be accessible to a broad range of industry professionals.
10.00 – 10.15 KEYNOTE OPENING
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
12.30 – 13.30 BREAK FOR LUNCH
10.15 – 11.15 MAINTAINING ARCHIVES IN THE CONNECTED WORLD A panel discussion that looks at the most effective maintenance of the modern broadcast archive in an increasingly transmedia and multiplatform ecology. ■ What are the latest advances in automating the transfer, digitisation, logging and retrieval of assets? ■ How can we preserve and protect data-based assets?
11.30 -12.30 RESTORING CLASSIC BROADCAST ASSETS A high-profile case study that probes the challenges and demands of aspects of broadcast restoration. ■ What are the specific challenges in restoring old broadcast shows? ■ Where is the demand for remastered content coming from, how will it change through time as new formats and platforms are embraced by the consumer, and what is the best balance — in terms of quality and cost — between manual and automatic toolsets?
13.30 – 14.30 BUILDING THE ARCHIVE KEVIN SHAW Lead Technologist BBC Studios and Post Production
A high-profile case study which focuses on a media archive project concentrating specifically on the challenges inherent in the monetisation of digital assets.
EMMA RILEY Head of Business Development Dock 10
■ What are the potential pitfalls of digitising and establishing an archive?
MARTIN ROGERS Archive & Restoration Specialist Prime Focus UK
14.50 –15.50 FUTURE CHALLENGES IN FILM RESTORATION
SIMON MARBROOK Head of Restoration Premier PAUL COLLARD VP Film & Digital Services Deluxe
■ What are the challenges in preparing for the current plethora of platforms for access and those in the future?
This session will investigate the boom in the area of film archive that has taken place in recent years and look at the prestige many countries feel in having their treasured celluloid assets preserved for future generations. ■ What is considered an acceptable resolution, bit depth and frame rate for futureproofing? ■ What are the best media management and storage solutions for effective restoration workflows? Does film still have a role to play?
15.50 – 16.00 CLOSING REMARKS
TO BOOK YOUR PLACE hannah.grix@mb-insight.com | 0203 033 2889 | www.broadcastnow.co.uk/restorationandarchive For sponsorship enquiries please contact: patricia.arescy@broadcastnow.co.uk, 020 3033 4287 | scott.benfold@screendaily.com, 020 3638 5050
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20/06/2014 16:30
International News
Fox snares Tyrant for the UK BY PETER WHITE
Fox has acquired the UK rights to edgy geopolitical drama Tyrant, from the creative team behind Homeland. The pay-TV broadcaster has acquired the 10 x 60-minute drama from 20th Century Fox Television Distribution following its launch in the US on cable network FX. The series is the latest project from Gideon Raff, who created Israeli drama Hatufim (Prisoners Of War ), which was remade in the US as Homeland. Tyrant will also be exec produced by Homeland showrunner Howard Gordon. It stars British actor Adam Rayner (Hawthorne) as the youngest son of the controversial dictator of a war-torn country, who visits his homeland 20 years after a self-imposed exile. Upon his return to the fictional Middle Eastern country of Baladi, he must confront his father and brother, while dealing with both the political issues of the regime and personal problems.
Tyrant: Homeland creator Gideon Raff (left) is behind the geopolitical drama, which launches in the UK in September
History is happening right now, and we wanted to dramatise the situations
Gordon, who also exec produced 24: Live Another Day, told Broadcast earlier this year that the project was inspired by current affairs. “Three-quarters of the ink in The New York Times is about Syria and Egypt. It’s where history is happening right now, and we wanted to dramatise the situations and conundrums.” The drama, which was produced by Fox 21 and FX Productions, will launch in the UK in September.
The deal was struck between Fox International Channels UK head of programming and scheduling Toby Etheridge, Fox International Channels senior vicepresident of global acquisitions Jason Simms, and 20th Century Fox Television Distribution senior vice-president Steve Cornish. Etheridge described the show as “topical and relevant”. “At its heart, it is a family drama. Tyrant is fascinating and wellmade, and everything you would
Howard Gordon, Tyrant exec producer
Cake buys back Spanish indie’s majority stake
Walking Dead to return to C5 after fans’ lobbying
Amazon pilots adaptation of Philip K Dick sci-fi novel
C4 grabs second run of Fargo after FX renewal
Kids’ TV producer Cake Entertainment has bought back the majority stake in its business that had been owned by Spanish indie Zinkia. Cake bosses Ed Galton and Tom van Waveren have acquired Zinkia’s 51% holding after the Madridbased company went into administration earlier this year. Zinkia, which produces animated series Pocoyo (pictured), folded after failing to renegotiate a €2.5m (£1.9m) loan. The Cake deal was funded by private capital and means that all legal and commercial ties between the two companies will end. Cake produces and distributes a range of children’s shows such as Trunk Train and Angelo Rules.
Channel 5 is to resurrect zombie drama The Walking Dead following lobbying by fans. The broadcaster aired the first three series of the Andrew Lincoln-fronted show, but had no plans to buy the fourth series until email requests from fans changed its mind. Series four has already aired in the UK on pay-channel Fox, where its finale delivered its highest-ever overnight ratings of 617,000 (2.6%) in April. C5 acquisitions and channel manager Marie-Claire Dunlop struck the deal with Entertainment One’s Janice Strangward. AMC and Fox International Channels have ordered a fifth series, which is due to air in the US in the autumn.
Amazon is piloting an adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novel The Man In The High Castle from Greenbirdbacked UK indie Big Light Productions. The sci-fi story, which was published in 1962, charts the alternate history of what would have happened had Nazi Germany and Japan been victorious in World War II. Big Light Productions, which was set up by The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz earlier this year, will produce the show in association with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free. The pilot will be written by Spotnitz and directed by Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip’s David Semel. The deal is the latest agreement between a UK indie and the VoD service, and follows its decision to greenlight a US version of Mad Dogs from Left Bank Pictures.
Channel 4 has acquired the second series of Fargo after it was renewed by US cable network FX. C4 will air the 10 x 60-minute series towards the end of 2015 after the debut 10 x 60-minute run drew an average consolidated audience of 1.9 million (7.3%) from May. Creator Noah Hawley said series two will be set in 1979 and will not feature Martin Freeman’s character Lester Nygaard (pictured). Instead, it will focus on new characters in the town of Sioux Falls, including a young Lou Solverson, who was a retired police officer running a diner in the first series. Fargo is produced by MGM Television and FX Productions for FX, while MGM holds the international distribution rights.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk
expect from the makers of Homeland and 24, and the broadcaster that brought us Fargo, Louie and American Horror Story. It is an engrossing political series,” he said.
1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 11
Multiplatform News
BBC backs learning initiative Moocs are an exciting area and I’m looking forward to exploring what role we might play
BY Alex Farber
Former BBC multiplatform boss Simon Nelson has secured the support of the corporation for his online social learning initiative, FutureLearn. The agreement, which ties into the BBC’s World War I season, will involve the broadcaster raiding its archive to supply historical material that can be used as part of four massive open online courses (Moocs). The free courses, which start in October and are accessed via the FutureLearn website, are being overseen by the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow, as well as the Open University. They cover aviation, heroism, Paris 1919 and trauma. The courses will combine academic material from the universities with video, audio recordings and images from the BBC. The latter’s archive includes interviews with English aviation pioneer Sir Thomas Sopwith and World War I soldier and cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather. Experts from the universities will comb the archive for an array
Sinead Rocks, BBC
FutureLearn: the BBC will provide material from its archive for the courses
of content they can use to bring each topic to life. As part of the deal, the BBC will also create four iWonder guides – online information hubs fronted by Dan Snow, Sian Williams, David Shukman and Johnson Beharry VC – which will introduce audiences to each topic. Nelson, who joined FutureLearn in 2013 after leaving the BBC in 2010, said it was the first deal he had secured with a broadcaster.
“We want to be a one-stop shop that can help put universities together with leading broadcasters and institutions,” he said. “Academics are brilliant at teaching, but we are trying to help them develop storytelling skills that stretch beyond the lecture room to the web and make best use of this new interactive medium.” He added that the BBC Learning pilot would help the corporation explore the ways in which it
can unlock the educational value of its output. BBC Learning acting controller Sinead Rocks said: “The BBC is committed to education and looking at how we can exploit technology to best serve audiences. Moocs are an interesting and exciting area, and I’m looking forward to exploring what role we might play.” Nelson added that while the BBC’s involvement is not-forprofit, there is potential for other broadcasters or indies to tap into commercial opportunities, via DVDs or video-on-demand stores. FutureLearn employs 45 staff and is based in the British Library. It is wholly owned by the Open University and nearly 40 universities are developing courses for the platform.
Spirit Media signs up Zoe Ball for YouTube channel It’s a dynamic and immediate way to communicate with your audience
BY Lauren Cole
Spirit Digital Media has launched a YouTube channel fronted by TV and radio presenter Zoe Ball. Lifestyle channel Zoe Ball: Off Air will soft-launch with cookery series Fakeaways, which will run for eight weeks. Each Friday, Ball will post a video with Gingerman restaurateur Ben McKellar in which the pair create a quick, easy-to-prepare meal, as an alternative to ordering a takeaway. Cocktail and BBQ recipes will feature, along with alternatives to takeaway dishes such as curry and fish and chips. Following the channel’s initial launch, Spirit plans to ramp up the volume of content featured to 12 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Zoe Ball, TV and radio presenter
Ball: to front YouTube channel
three updates a week and expand into music and showbiz. A partnership has been struck with London venue The Hospital Club for a regular music strand. As
well as hosting live performances and interviews with Ball, the venue will bring in artists and help to attract sponsors. Ball said she was impressed by the groundwork Spirit had done on the launch of Fresh One Productions’ Food Tube channel. “It’s a dynamic and immediate way to communicate with your audience and the perfect forum to make content about the things I love,” she said.
Ball added that young internet stars such as Zoella, Pixiwoo and Fleur De Force had also been an inspiration. The launch forms part of Spirit’s plans to develop a “boutique multichannel network” of talentled YouTube channels. Last month, Spirit launched Lion Whisperer TV, a YouTube channel fronted by wildlife expert Kevin Richardson. It features footage shot on GoPro cameras attached to the backs of lions in the wild and has attracted almost 7,000 subscribers, with the most popular video generating almost 150,000 views. Further channels with reality TV star Michelle Heaton and Britain’s Got Talent dog Pudsey are also planned. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
NOMINATIONS CLOSE 12 AUGUST 2014 Help Broadcast TECH find the UK’s most talented under 30s working with technology. We’re looking for nominations for the brightest stars, with a proven track record of ambition and success. The winners will be invited to a prize-giving ceremony on 6 November and celebrated in the 7 November issue of Broadcast TECH. If your peers, staff or freelancers have been producing outstanding work over the past 12 months, now is your chance to show your appreciation.
2014 categories ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
VFX ENGINEER RUNNER SOUND - POST EDITOR CAMERA OPERATOR/GRIP SOUND - PRODUCTION COLOURIST PRODUCER WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY LIGHTING TECHNICIAN
ENTRY DEADLINE 12 AUGUST 2014 Email Jane.Maguire@mb-insight.com now to request your entry form Nominees must be under 30 on 6 November 2014
AWARDS NIGHT, 6 NOVEMBER 2014, LONDON AS PART OF THE BROADCAST PRODUCTION & POST FORUM Highlights of the 2013 Young Talent Awards can be found at http://bit.ly/BTYTA
Technology & Facilities Creative review
The Speakmans
Siblings
Royal Marines Commando School
Post Core Post Client ITV Studios Brief Provide picture and audio post for the 20-part daytime series about celebrity behavioural therapists Nik and Eva Speakman, who try to help ordinary people overcome extraordinary problems. How it was done Rushes were delivered to Core, ingested into Unity and uploaded to ForScene for logging and sync pulling prior to edit. Using a full tapeless workflow, rushes were ingested and edited at full resolution from a mixture of formats, including Sony XDCam, Canon C300 and GoPro, which Core said made for a more efficient final post. Digital Rebellion’s cloud workflow platform Kollaborate was used for edit review and approval. Matt Brown was senior online editor and the dub was split between Tony Greenswood and Emily Nutall. Watch it Weekdays, 2pm, ITV
Post Splice Client Bwark Brief Complete picture post-production for the six-part comedy about the misadventures of a slovenly brother and sister, filmed entirely with handheld cameras. How it was done The unforgiving nature of the footage meant the FX needed to be of a high standard. Online editor and colourist Adam Dolniak tackled the FX work, which ranged from compositing plates from different takes to adding extra fish to a fish tank. Dolniak’s approach was to use optical stabilisation to remove the camera movement, complete the required FX work, then reintroduce the handheld movement. Some set extension was also required, along with the painting out of boom mics, wire removal, disguising brands and painting in extra window lights on external night-time establishing shots. Watch it Thursdays, 10.30pm, BBC3
Post Evolutions Client Twofour Brief Provide location and audio and picture postproduction services for the eight-part ob doc that uses fixed-rig cameras and embedded directors. How it was done Evolutions’ ingest system Luther was used on location to capture four streams with 32 channels of audio. Additionally, several hundred cards of varying formats were backed up and ingested throughout the recording period. Colourist Tim O’Brien graded the series in Baselight. The main challenge was taking footage from multiple cameras and giving it a seamless feel while avoiding an overly military look. To make it as accessible as possible, a warm look was created for the contributor interviews. O’Brien used vignettes and multiple layers in Baselight to make the barracks look as bright and cheerful as possible. Watch it Mondays, 9pm, C4
You can view clips at broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/creative-review To include your work email george.bevir@broadcastnow.co.uk
RTS Young Technologist Award goes to BT engineer BT software engineer Bobby Moss has won the annual RTS Young Technologist Award. Moss (pictured) is currently working on a project to support the diagnostic work of BT TV engineers. Chair of the RTS Young Technologist Award jury Terry Marsh said: “The jury felt Bobby stood out as an impressive ideas person who quickly implemented innovative ways to support the business.” The award is given in honour of engineer AM Beresford-Cooke.
Read and Smith exit Wimbledon in buyout row Wimbledon Studios managing director Piers Read and financial 14 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
controller David Smith have quit the south London facility following a row with parent firm Panther Securities. In November last year, Wimbledon announced it was looking for investors to back a management buyout of the facility after Panther said the level of investment required was outside its remit. Read said Panther, which has a 25% stake in the company and owns the freehold of the fouracre site, had resisted his £10m offer for the freehold after he had negotiated with potential investors to fund £6m worth of refurbishment and upgrade works.
LipSync to help fund and post two BBC dramas LipSync Post will provide picture
and audio post-production services and equity investment for Red Planet Pictures’ BBC dramas The Ark and The Passing Bells. Both projects will require picture and sound post, GFX and “significant” visual effects work. Red Planet Pictures head of business and production Alex Jones said: “We chose to partner with LipSync on these two productions because of their proven expertise in [VFX and postproduction], as well as their financial investment, which has helped us achieve our ambitious vision.”
BBC S&PP to work on Elstree-based Tumble BBC Studios and Post Production (BBC S&PP) will provide studio and post-production services from Elstree Studios and BBC Elstree for BBC1’s new primetime Saturday night gymnastics show Tumble. The gymnastic routines will take place in Elstree Studios’
15,200 sq ft George Lucas Stage, while 10 Avid Symphony stations at BBC Elstree will be used to edit the fast-turnaround show (above).
NMR to upgrade Guardian digital infrastructure Systems integrator and reseller NMR has won a six-figure contract to upgrade the digital video infrastructure at Guardian News & Media. Under the deal, current video-editing and content-creation technology will be replaced with a broadcast-capable set-up based around Cantemo’s Portal Enterprise digital asset management system, www.broadcastnow.co.uk
For the latest technology and facilities news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils
Sumners shuts MediaCityUK base and calls in liquidators BY George Bevir
Sumners has shut its Salford facility and called in a firm of liquidators. Staff were given their final notice on Thursday (31 July), having been warned earlier this month that the business was in trouble. Company founder Andy Sumner said the decision to close the post firm followed a “significant change of policy” by its funders and a “southward drift of postproduction work”. The MediaCityUK facility had already ceased the post-production of two CBBC series, including World’s End, which has been transferred to MediaCityUK post facility Timeline North. CBBC is believed to be looking for another home for The Dumping Ground. Sumner said: “We are working hard to resolve the situation, and are currently in discussions with business advisers, valuers and individuals who are considering buying the complete facility.” The company employed around 10 full-time staff and Sumner told
using Vidispine media asset management backbone APIs. It will also include Adobe Creative Cloud with Premiere Pro editing, ToolsOnAir’s ingest system, a Quantum StorNext SAN and an Object Matrix Matrix Store nearline archive.
Dumping Ground: CBBC believed to be looking for another home for show
Broadcast they had been paid to the end of the month. Broadcast understands that some freelancers are awaiting payment running to tens of thousands of pounds. Sumner added: “We are working hard to make sure everybody is paid what they are owed, it will just take time to sort out.” It is not the first time the company has run into financial difficulties. At the end of 2012,
Sumners (Andrew Sumner and Associates Ltd) made a round of redundancies and relocated from its central Manchester facility to smaller premises at MediaCityUK. At the time, it entered into a voluntary arrangement to repay creditors. According to insolvency practitioner Beverley Budsworth, initial claims in 2012 were just under £1m, while claims to date currently stand at £337,000.
IABM appoints director for Asia Pacific region
Grass Valley as channel management director.
The IABM (International Asso ciation of Broadcasting Manu facturers) has appointed Peter Bruce to the position of director
Object Matrix combines MatrixStore with Flashnet
DTG announces winners of TV Innovation Awards The Digital TV Group has selected four winners of its annual DTG Television Innovation Awards, which it hosted in partnership with UK Trade and Investment. Chirp, CrowdEmotion, StreamHub and Grabyo fought off competition from four other companies during a Dragon’s Den-style contest to win a space on the DTG’s IBC exhibition stand. DTG chief executive Richard Lindsay-Davies said: “The quality and diversity of this year’s entries shows us how much television technology innovation is coming out of, or scaling up, in the UK.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk
for the Asia Pacific region. Bruce, who is based in Singapore, has been tasked with elevating the IABM’s profile in APAC, including Australia and New Zealand, with the aim of increasing membership and lending local support to existing members in the region. Bruce has worked in the region for 19 years, most recently for
Nearline storage firm Object Matrix has combined its Matrix Store with SGL’s Flashnet storage management system. The integration uses the Flashnet APIs to provide a system that auto matically moves content from MatrixStore nearline storage to any LTO or ODA library supported by SGL Flashnet. “This deeper integration was scheduled into our roadmap but brought forward at the request of our client base. Our customers want the choice of deep archive vendor and platform-based on the workflow in hand,” said Object Matrix cofounder Nick Pearce.
Sony adds to camcorder range with PXW-X70 Sony has unveiled the PXW-X70 as the manufacturer continues to expand its range of XAVCcapable camcorders. The latest addition to the manufacturer’s range of XDCam devices shoots 422, 10-bit images at up to 50Mbps. It will replace Sony’s HXR NX70 and PMW-100 cameras, which will be discontinued from September. Sony Professional strategic marketing manager Bill Drummond said the “small, light and fully featured” camera (below) would be suited to ENG applications or for use as a B or C camera. It will be available at the end of September/early October for approximately £2,000. Drummond said: “The data rate hits the broadcast space, but the price point also makes it applicable to corporate work. We are looking at renewing our camcorder line-up to use the latest XAVC codec, and we also want to rationalise and simplify the range. Customers have so many different requirements that vary from user to user, but we want an easy to articulate line-up for more traditional, ENG run-andgun users, and for our more cinematic range of cameras.” The ability to transfer files to an FTP server and stream images to video platform Ustream will be available via a free software upgrade during the first half of next year. At the same time, a paid-for software upgrade will enable the camera to capture 4K images. Drummond said the price for the 4K upgrade had not been disclosed, but it is expected to be in the region of £300-600.
1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 15
Comment
When you’re working with a brand as big as Disney, you need to share – and not feel embarrassed about sharing Rebecca Hodgson, Behind the Scenes, page 20
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Sky Europe in the spotlight BSkyB deal may not be a bargain, but is of value, says Kate Bulkley
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ummer is traditionally a great time to shop for bargains. The ‘Sale’ signs are too tempting to ignore and you hope that the item you’ve had your eye on is included in the marked-down section. BSkyB has dipped into its purse recently and picked up a bunch of items, but whether or not they are bargains remains to be seen. It is splashing out $9bn (£7.4bn) to buy 57% of Sky Deutschland and all of Sky Italia, which will in turn generate a cool $7.2bn (£4.3bn) for 20th Century Fox. So is the BSkyB deal just a chess piece in the greater Murdoch-Fox empire-building game? Well, Fox will retain a significant stake in the new Sky Europe, and the fact is BSkyB has been ogling control of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia for the past decade. Creating the largest pay-TV operator in Europe is also BSkyB boss Jeremy Darroch’s big strategic play at a moment when the company is looking somewhat provincial, given the multi-territory reach that is the sine qua non of Discovery Communications and Liberty Global, not to mention Netflix and Amazon. A former finance director, Darroch also likes the deal’s rationale, with cost savings from operating with 20 million subscribers across five countries (UK, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Austria). For example, buying set-top boxes and routers. He forecasts the new Sky Europe will save £200m annually within two years of the deal closing. That timeframe, and the fact that BSkyB will take on a lot more debt to do the deal, has spooked the market, sending BSkyB’s shares down nearly 5% on the day of the deal. BSkyB’s interest payments could triple to £400m per year, says Berenberg Bank, and new equity issuance will dilute earnings per share.
Also, Sky Italia is seen as the weak sister, given it has lost 200,000 subs in the past three years. That said, debt is cheap right now and from an integration perspective, the hurdles look manageable: both the German and the Italian companies already use Sky branding and their chief executives were both senior execs at BSkyB before taking on their current roles. The product roadmap that BSkyB has rolled out – like broadband bundling and OTT service Now TV – can be replicated more efficiently under the Sky Europe umbrella. Given slowing TV take-up numbers in the UK, where pay-TV penetration is at 50%-plus, Sky Europe offers room to grow – pay-TV penetration in Italy and Germany is around 30%. It looks like Murdoch & Co have – once again – elegantly moved chips around the TV board to promote a variety of interests both at Fox and BSkyB. The deal makes BSkyB a powerful pan-European player and it still has funds to diversify in other areas, like buying its first indie, Love Productions, or its second Silicon Valley investment, in groundbreaking virtual reality software company Jaunt. Sky clearly has aspirations to be a major content creator and programming innovator as well as a distributor of channels and communications products, and Sky Europe gives the whole shebang a bigger arena to grow. Sky Europe may not be of the bargain basement variety, but it does make a lot of strategic and financial sense for both BSkyB and 21st Century Fox. ➤ Kate Bulkley is a print and TV journalist and awards secretary of the Broadcasting Press Guild. Follow her on Twitter @katecomments
‘Sky Europe does make a lot of strategic and financial sense’
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ITV has been too slow in Ofcom must be brave and tapping the men’s market revoke London Live licence Broadcaster should have been boosting male Local station is not living up to its promise of offer before football loss, says Stephen Arnell community-led content, says Jonathan Kaye
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ITV football: loss is a ratings and ad revenue blow for the broadcaster
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TV appears to have been caught on the back foot in its loss of more than 100 hours of football. It’s very late in the day to address (at least publicly) this issue, which has been looming for months. For a traditionally heavily femaleskewing channel, the strong male profile of football gave ITV an extremely valuable bargaining chip with advertisers that will prove incredibly tough to replicate. There was a distinct whiff of panic from the ITV Producers’ Forum, with the expressed desire for ‘three or four brands’ to duplicate the audience profile, volume and ratings of football coverage. You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of homegrown, male-skewing non-sport hits on UK TV screens. And Top Gear and The Gadget Show are respectively 37 and 10 years old. Imitation shows as such as Fifth Gear (Channel 5 and then Discovery) and Gadget Geeks (Sky 1) have performed adequately, but they confirm the struggle ITV will face in developing strong maleskewing brands in a relatively short space of time. ITV is paying the price for the historic neglect of ITV4, which should have been developing malefocused formats over the years. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
‘You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of home-grown, male-skewing hits’ There are alternatives – why not simply buy other sports to replace football? The probable lower audiences can partially be compensated for by increased volume – for example, ITV/ITV4 shared coverage of the Tour de France, which can fill large chunks of the daytime schedule. Exclusive premieres of male-skewing action movies, mirroring the old days of having the Bond films, could help. There could also be something in post-Netflix showings of upcoming Marvel series such as Daredevil or Agent Carter. There is another, riskier area for ITV to attempt. At the Forum, Paul Mortimer said ITV4 is keen to add formats in the 8pm and 9pm slots in “similar areas” to Storage Wars. ITV4 could be a learning slope, prior to a swift transfer to ITV. It seems baffling that ITV is launching a female-skewing channel when precious funds may be better used in beefing up its male offerings. ➤ Stephen Arnell is a consultant for TV and film For a longer version of this article, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk
ith inc reasing incred ulity, I read of London Live’s attempt to persuade Ofcom to reduce the number of hours it is required to devote to local content – and that the regulator is publicly consulting on this possibility. I helped London Live to bid for its licence, promising to assist it with disability issues and attracting the 1 million Londoners with disabilities, who collectively comprise London’s largest minority audience (as Boris Johnson has stated), if it won. However, once it had won, I was then told that it thought it could do this for itself. With programming that fails to appeal to, let alone focus on and attract, diverse minority audiences, I’m sure many would agree that it is little surprise that London Live is failing. Building niche audiences that can attract advertising and sponsorship that targets that same audience should surely be the lifeblood of true local TV. As a viewer, do I want to watch repeats of London’s Burning? Or turn to a local London channel for factual, community-led and focused content, that highlights local news, events and information, as well as
grassroots sport, cultural, ethnic and religious matters? Entertainment should be supplemental to this and highlight fresh local talent. Production could be either in partnership with, and/or outsourced to, local community, governmental and other organisations. Local advertisers, especially small businesses, would also welcome the opportunity of exposure within
‘Building niche audiences that can attract advertising should be the life blood of local TV’ the local footprint – something that is notable by its absence to date on London Live. London Live won its licence because Ofcom, like me, believed that its backers were best placed to understand the communities and needs of London. Regrettably, the reality is that it is just rather good at the marketing and distribution of a local newspaper. Far from allowing acceptance of a plan that makes a mockery of localism and London’s interests, Ofcom must tell London Live that its vision has failed and simply revoke its broadcasting licence. ➤ Jonathan Kaye is a disability inclusion and access consultant
London Live: seeking Ofcom approval to reduce amount of local content 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 17
The Broadcast Interview Murray Ferguson Clerkenwell FilMs
‘we like work that’s surprising and risky’ Clerkenwell Films’ chief executive talks to Robin Parker about the indie’s eclectic project slate and working with fresh talent FaCT File Selected shows
“W
Cut (2014) 6 x 45 minutes, C4 Scrotal Recall (2014) 6 x 30 minutes, C4 Misfits (2009-13) Five series, E4 Persuasion (2007) 1 x 90 minutes, ITV Diary Of A Nobody (pictured below, 2007) 4 x 30 minutes, BBC4 Afterlife (2006-07) 14 x 60 minutes, ITV Quite Ugly One Morning (2004) 1 x 120 minutes, ITV Rebus (2000-01) 4 x 120 minutes, ITV
18 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
e deliberately go for quite an eclectic mix,” says Clerkenwell Films chief executive Murray Ferguson, with no small understatement. While the industry goes quiet for the summer, cameras are about to roll on the BBC Worldwide-backed indie’s first sitcom, Channel 4’s attention grabbingly-titled Scrotal Recall; a second, Medics, is being piloted at Comedy Central; Cut, a new C4 drama, is entering its second shooting block; and development on its proposed blockbuster adaptation of Len Deighton’s nine Bernard Samson novels rolls on. On top of that, a webbased script is in the works and there’s talk of a film, The Dig, which centres on the archaeological discoveries at Sutton Hoo and is drawing comparisons with The Remains Of The Day. Meanwhile, the Misfits brand lives on, with a Russian pilot in the works and a long-mooted US version at script stage for Warner Brothers’ channel The CW. So, keeping busy then? “We’ve always mixed things up – we’ve done police procedurals, period adaptations, the supernatural – and were determined not to be pigeonholed after Misfits,” says Ferguson. “But what we saw from that show was that what seems risky can, if you get it right, open doors.” In hindsight, it’s easy to forget that the hit E4 series was no sure-fire bet: with its young cast, new talent behind the camera and a risky clash of genres, it emerged as a sleeper hit. “I don’t think anyone anticipated how well it would do in its first year,” reflects Murray. “It represents how important it is that our team feels passionate about having the right ideas and identifying writers who have
a vision and want to develop a relationship – plus that we had freedom not only from C4, but also internationally, in terms of taking time to find the right home for it.” (In the US, it debuted on Hulu, with many episodes entering the on-demand platform’s charts at number one).
Creative freedom He credits E4 for its “creative ambition” and the freedom it gave creator Howard Overman to realise his world, and sympathises with commissioners taking a gamble on acclaimed but niche series like C4’s Utopia, currently playing out its second series to less than a million. “Careers live or die by such decisions,” he says. “I’d much rather live in a landscape where commissioners move away from playing safe.” The success of Misfits has afforded Ferguson the luxury of taking a gamble with some of his current projects. Cut, for example, is the result of approaching playwright DC Moore, whose episode of Coming Up was his only previous TV credit, and saying “write whatever you like”.
“It was an unusual move for us,” Ferguson concedes. “But he has a unique voice and he’s clearly a new talent that we wanted to encourage. So we gave him enough money to write a script and then took it to [C4 head of drama] Piers Wenger. Moore’s writing all the episodes, which is a big achievement and a big responsibility. It’s nice that it can grow organically.” Both Cut and Scrotal Recall – Tom Edge’s comedy about a man with chlamydia revisiting his former girlfriends – are produced out of Clerkenwell’s new Scottish office, run by Jemma Rodgers, who has a brief to kickstart more projects from the nation. She is collaborating with the wider development team both to feed C4’s appetite for regionally produced programmes and to serve the wider market. The indie also has developments in progress at Sky, and Ferguson says he’s watching with interest how the broadcaster’s stake in Sky Deutschland and Italia translates into ambitions for more dramas that play across Europe. More widely, he’s enthused by every broadcaster seemingly upping their game in scripted. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
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Clockwise from main picture: Misfits star Antonia Roberts (left) will feature in Scrotal Recall; ITV’s Rebus; Persuasion; Zawe Ashton will star in Cut
Ferguson on... Remaking Misfits for the US “E4 is so free with what you can show that I was slightly concerned about ripping the heart out of it – but the surprising, sharp edges really haven’t been compromised. It still has all the right elements.”
Breaking new talent “In the US, people are tied up for seven years, agreeing to it even before they go to audition. Here, we have a real struggle to keep talent, particularly when working with exciting new stars. We discovered that on Misfits, when Robert Sheehan left. It’s got its challenges but its rewards too – and we’re now working with Antonia Thomas again on Scrotal Recall.”
Viewing habits “How long will people continue to tune in to follow a drama week after week? It’s a headache for broadcasters but as a producer, it’s quite liberating. People still want to watch high-quality content, however they watch it – and we can just focus on quality.”
“It’s an exciting time and a complex period for scripted shows in general, where many are pieced together in the same way as film financing.” Clerkenwell has not yet made shows of sufficient scale to warrant using UK tax breaks or securing multiple production partners, but it’s clear that this is the way the wind is blowing. The adaptation of Deighton’s spy novels has been bubbling away for some time. “We’re starting the scripts in the near future and will package them up with talent and then take them out. We’re not committed to anybody yet, and it’ll take another two or three years to make it.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk
‘It’s an exciting time and a complex period for scripted shows in general’
Nevertheless, it’s more than a toe in the water for international co-pros and Ferguson hopes to tap into the experience of BBCW exec Ben Donald, whose label Cosmopolitan Pictures is hosted at Clerkenwell. It’s a quid pro quo: any commissions he gets will be co-produced with Clerkenwell, which in turn can appeal to his market knowledge. BBCW maintains its 25% stake in Clerkenwell, which is one of a handful of UK drama producers not under majority ownership. For now, Ferguson likes it that way. “Decisions are under our control and I’m happy to remain in the UK and form relationships on a project-by-project basis,” he says.
Ferguson’s own drama tastes range from the mandatory Breaking Bad to American Horror Story, The Returned and Luther; he’s an admirer of Last Tango In Halifax, too. “That’s a really hard show to get right,” he says. “There aren’t a lot of places to take risks but that show is risky in its own right. Even police procedurals, which we started out in with Rebus, are risky today – how do you do something fresh? But that’s the challenge – at Clerkenwell, we like to have quality work that’s surprising and takes a few risks. But we’re not frightened of the mainstream – we just want to work in the mainstream and do it really well.” 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 19
Behind the Scenes Evermoor Manor
Delivering the Disney magic to 160 countries Making a live-action drama for teens to be shown on Disney Channel around the world was a real eye-opener, says Rebecca Hodgson Rebecca Hodgson Executive producer
I
nside Evermoor Manor, her eerie new home, US teenager Tara Crossley discovers a magical tapestry that tells the future. It is tended to by a sinister sewing circle known as the Everines. Their leader, the formidable Esmerelda Dwyer, is determined to get rid of our heroine and her family at all costs. Tara and her British stepbrother Seb must unite to save their new home and her family’s future. It’s a story with danger, mystery and intrigue as well as twists, turns and young love. Behind the scenes has been fairly eventful too. Created by Tim Compton and Diane Whitley, and made by Lime Pictures, Evermoor is the first long-form live-action series produced in the UK for broadcast on Disney Channel around the world. Working on something that is very much a global show has really opened my eyes. The original idea came from Lime but it was developed at an early stage with Disney. I came into the process relatively late, about a year in. By then, we already had a script. A storylining week, attended by representatives of both Disney US and Disney Europe, had shaped the plot. Tim and Diane were essentially locked away in a room for five days while they came up with the story lines. Bede Blake was then brought in to write it. This part of the process was not completely alien to Lime; this is how 20 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
we storyline a lot of our shows. Sticking a couple of writers and a producer in a room and giving them a deadline puts them under a positive pressure to come up with something exciting by the time the execs come back. The US element is unique, though. I was nervous about what it would be like working with Disney, not least when I met them to assure them I was the right person to exec. But we soon realised we were all on the same page. Making something for an inter national market is very different to making it just for the UK, not least in the fact that not all the slot lengths are the same. In the UK, Evermoor will be broadcast as four 22-minute episodes. In other territories, it will be shown as a movie. Different people want different breaks – some want four episodes, some want a movie – and, as a result, you get asked a lot of questions. Ultimately, it is because 160 countries are going to see it, not one. Any global show will involve a lot of people. This made it an unusually talkative process, which was not the way I was used to working. We had an international conference call every Friday with 25 people, including marketing, casting and PR. This was terrifying at first but I soon realised that the reason everyone was on that call was because they wanted to make sure the production works, that the marketing works and that all the territories know about it. It proved to be a useful exercise. Making Evermoor has taught me the importance of communication and the need for different ways of communicating. Sometimes your instinct as a producer is to keep
‘We wanted Tara in short dungarees; to Europe and the US, it was a bit Worzel Gummidge’ Rebecca Hodgson
Evermoor Manor
Production company Lime Pictures TX Disney Channel, date tbc, autumn Creators Diane Whitley; Tim Compton Writer Bede Blake Executive producer Rebecca Hodgson Producer Tim Compton Director Chris Cottam Line producer Colette Chard Production designer Julian Perkins Casting directors Jessica Ronane; Howard Meltzer Summary A comedic mystery adventure in which teenager Tara Crossley is uprooted from her city home in the US and brought to Evermoor, a beautiful but isolated village in England.
everything quiet and sort it all out by yourself and then let everyone know. But when you’re working with a brand as big as Disney, you don’t do that. You need to share – and not feel embarrassed about sharing – and work it out between you. This collaborative, communicative approach permeated Evermoor from script to sets. We agreed with Disney early on that we wanted Evermoor to be completely bespoke and to build the sets from scratch. The alternative would be a compromise and www.broadcastnow.co.uk
For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk
we would end up making the story fit the locations. The exterior of Arley Hall in Cheshire, which acts as Evermoor Manor, was perfect but the interior wouldn’t have worked for either the story or the channel. Instead, the show has an intricately designed set that Disney gave us the freedom to make. Under extreme pressure, the design team did a fantastic job transforming a Warrington warehouse into the spooky manor’s interior. Deciding on costumes was a real eyeopener too. The week before we started shooting, we met with the European and US execs at Lime’s offices to look at the different costumes. Perhaps not entirely surprisingly, we came at it from completely different points of view. We were keen to have Tara in short dungarees – I have an 11-year-old daughter who lives in them and it is very ‘on trend’ in the UK. That’s not the case in the US or Italy, though. Or, it would seem, anywhere else. It was quite clear that they thought we were mad. To them, it was a bit Worzel Gummidge. From dialogue to locations, we offered up choices for discussion and, while not everyone agreed, thanks to the input of a lot of people, I think we’ve pulled together a great show that will appeal to a global audience. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Clockwise from bottom left: on the set at Arley Hall, Cheshire; Naomi Sequeira as lead character Tara Crossley; George Sear (Seb), Jordan Loughran (Sorsha Doyle), Sequeira, Georgie Farmer (Jake) and Georgia Lock (Bella); preparing for a scene at Arley Hall
EvErmoor manor GLoBaL aPPEaL David Levine VP programming, production and strategic development, Disney Channels EMEA
Our strategy in Europe is to create content that complements the programming from our LA production hub. In the US, we primarily shoot multi-camera sitcoms and singlecamera comedies, so we look to produce other genres and scripted formats out of Europe. We’ve had a lot of success in recent times with a telenovela format called Violetta (pictured) that we co-produce with our Latin American office. So, in a similar vein, we were looking to explore genres of suspense and mystery, and Evermoor was one of the concepts that came our way. To ensure that Evermoor, or any show we produce in the UK, dovetails with the rest of our output and works globally, we main-
tain close contact with our American colleagues. We have a range of sensibilities at the table during every step of the creative process, looking at the writing, dialogue, costumes, sets and locations. Every aspect is jointly evaluated and reviewed in advance by both the US and the UK teams to ensure the show will work globally. On Evermoor, we tried to ensure that American characters sound American, even if they are played by Brits. We took great care over this, looking at every single word and removing references that were too local, to ensure the slang was globally understandable. We had to strike a balance between the British and American acting styles, bringing some of the broader American strokes into a British sensibility for a unique blend. The extra discussion time and the approval process that this requires does lengthen the production, but the results are worth it.
1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 21
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1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 23
Ratings Mon 21 Jul – Sun 27 Jul
Mixed fortunes for Games Opening Ceremony tops the table for BBC1 but Games proper puts in an average performance BY Stephen Price
The hidden apparatus lurking within a kilt has been the source of some mystery and many a gag, the most vivid of which might be Spike Milligan’s Kilt Chimes – see it once, chaps, and forever wince at the sound of campanology both distant and near. On Wednesday, the mystery was solved, the gag broken. It turns out that what actually lies in wait under the kilt is John Barrowman on a truck. This was so alarming that the dancing tea cakes with the bearded man sporting antlers on his deerstalker appeared quite hum-drum. Social historians of the future are going to have a field day with these opening ceremonies. On Monday at 9pm, ITV’s Long Lost Family won the slot with 4.3 million/20% (256,000 +1). ITV’s best non-soap show of the week was well ahead of BBC1’s John Bishop’s Australia (3.6 million/17%). At 8pm on Tuesday, BBC1’s Holby City (3.9 million/21%) defeated ITV’s Love Your Garden (2.4 million/13%; 198,000 +1), while at 9pm, BBC1’s Crimewatch also won with 3.8 million/ 20%, ahead of ITV’s 56 Up (1.9 million/11%; 177,000 +1). On Wednesday, Scotland’s Commonwealth Games got going with the Opening Ceremony averaging 7.6 million/41% from 8pm on BBC1, over-running to 11.45pm and peaking with 9.4 million/44% at 9.30pm. BBC1 Scotland’s share was a thumping 71% overall, with a peak of 1.8 million/77% at 9.30pm. Opposite at 8pm, ITV’s All Star Mr and Mrs managed 2.6 million/14% (167,000 +1), while a 24 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Broadcast/Barb Top 100 network programmes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 35 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 47 47 50
Title
Day
Start
Viewers (m) (all homes)
Share %
Broadcaster/ Producer*
Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony BBC News* Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street EastEnders Coronation Street Coronation Street Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale BBC News At Ten Emmerdale Emmerdale BBC News At Ten BBC News At Ten Long Lost Family BBC News EastEnders BBC News At Six EastEnders EastEnders BBC News At Ten Holby City BBC News At Six Crimewatch BBC News At Six BBC News At Six Commonwealth Games 2014 John Bishop’s Australia BBC News At Six Commonwealth Games 2014 BBC News F1: Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights ITV News & Weather Commonwealth Games 2014 The One Show Commonwealth Games 2014 BBC News The One Show ITV News & Weather The One Show The Cruise Ship All Star Mr & Mrs Catchphrase Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Countrywise ITV News & Weather Love Your Garden
Wed Wed Mon Mon Wed Mon Fri Fri Mon Wed Tue Thu Tue Fri Thu Mon Thu Mon Sun Fri Mon Tue Thu Fri Tue Thu Tue Wed Tue Thu Mon Fri Sun Sat Sun Sun Fri Wed Sat Sat Mon Mon Tue Fri Wed Sun Sat Mon Wed Tue
20.00 23.00 19.30 20.30 19.30 20.00 19.30 20.30 19.00 19.00 19.00 20.00 22.00 19.00 19.00 22.00 22.00 21.00 22.10 20.00 18.00 19.30 19.30 22.00 20.00 18.00 21.00 18.00 18.00 19.00 21.00 18.00 19.10 22.10 17.10 19.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 17.25 19.00 18.30 19.00 20.00 20.00 19.15 19.30 20.00 18.30 20.00
7.86 6.65 6.48 6.41 6.17 5.89 5.81 5.45 5.35 5.17 5.07 4.91 4.69 4.69 4.68 4.65 4.59 4.56 4.04 3.98 3.97 3.95 3.94 3.89 3.86 3.84 3.79 3.74 3.71 3.63 3.61 3.52 3.50 3.41 3.20 3.20 3.17 3.11 3.06 2.96 2.95 2.92 2.91 2.87 2.84 2.76 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.64
40.23 46.62 36.68 32.46 36.46 31.31 34.85 29.27 32.39 33.34 30.50 27.93 26.64 30.46 29.71 25.00 25.82 21.71 22.31 22.54 29.20 22.32 23.76 22.66 21.48 28.80 19.65 29.12 28.57 20.50 17.18 26.47 17.78 20.54 21.98 19.29 18.09 19.17 19.55 29.55 17.87 19.22 18.74 16.27 15.47 15.29 17.98 14.46 19.78 14.69
BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV ITV BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 ITV/Wall To Wall BBC1 BBC2 BBC1 BBC1 BBC2 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1/Lola Entertainment BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC1 ITV/Pulse ITV/CPL Productions ITV/STV Productions ITV/RDF TV ITV ITV/ITN ITV/Spun Gold TV
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable *Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony overran into BBC News slot
Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
Diamond Geezers And Gold Dealers
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All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional
Source: BARB
50 52 53 54 55 55 57 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 65 67 68 69 70 71 71 73 74 75 75 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 89 91 92 93 94 95 96 96 98 99 99
Title
Day
Start
Viewers (m) (all homes)
Share %
Broadcaster/ Producer*
BBC News At One ITV News & Weather Crimewatch Update ITV News & Weather Commonwealth Games 2014 Diamond Geezers And Gold Dealers ITV News & Weather How Safe Is Your House? Foyle’s War Commonwealth Games 2014 Pointless BBC News At One ITV News At Ten & Weather Pointless Dragons’ Den BBC News At One Red Arrows: Inside The Bubble The National Lottery Live Harbour Lives The Chase BBC News ITV News & Weather University Challenge The Chase BBC News At One Doc Martin Panorama: Drivers Who Kill The Chase ITV News At Ten & Weather Royal Marines Commando School Pointless 56 Up Commonwealth Games 2014 The Chase Tonight: Is Britain Christian? BBC News At One Amazing Spaces Shed Of The Year Commonwealth Games 2014 ITV News At Ten & Weather The Chase Kevin Bridges Live At The Commonwealth Tipping Point The Mill You’ve Been Framed! ITV News & Weather Bargain Hunt ITV News At Ten & Weather Inside Death Row With Trevor Mcdonald Bargain Hunt Coast
Mon Fri Tue Tue Sat Thu Thu Mon Sun Sun Mon Tue Mon Wed Sun Thu Sun Sat Thu Tue Sun Sun Mon Mon Wed Fri Mon Wed Wed Mon Tue Tue Thu Fri Thu Fri Thu Sat Thu Thu Mon Sun Sun Sat Sat Mon Tue Wed Tue Tue
13.00 18.30 22.40 18.30 17.45 21.00 18.30 19.30 20.00 18.30 17.15 13.00 22.00 17.15 20.00 13.00 21.00 22.30 20.30 17.00 16.50 22.00 20.00 17.00 13.00 21.00 20.30 17.00 22.00 21.00 17.15 21.00 15.00 17.00 19.30 13.00 20.00 12.15 22.00 17.00 22.40 17.50 20.00 19.00 18.45 12.15 22.00 21.00 12.15 21.00
2.64 2.61 2.60 2.58 2.57 2.57 2.56 2.56 2.49 2.46 2.45 2.44 2.42 2.37 2.35 2.35 2.32 2.30 2.28 2.26 2.25 2.25 2.24 2.22 2.21 2.21 2.20 2.19 2.17 2.16 2.15 2.09 2.06 2.05 2.04 2.00 1.97 1.93 1.89 1.89 1.84 1.83 1.82 1.82 1.76 1.74 1.74 1.72 1.69 1.69
40.22 18.82 18.25 18.64 21.12 13.33 18.07 14.46 12.21 15.50 22.90 40.50 13.33 23.19 11.80 36.74 11.11 14.93 12.82 22.62 18.87 11.66 11.88 21.59 36.96 12.02 11.14 22.36 10.97 10.26 20.59 10.84 24.51 18.63 12.27 31.40 11.15 26.66 10.97 18.22 14.39 11.93 9.11 13.53 13.55 30.68 10.05 8.09 32.78 8.75
BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC1 ITV/BriteSpark Films ITV/ITN BBC1/Lion TV ITV/Eleventh Hour Films BBC1 BBC1/Remarkable TV BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC1/Remarkable TV BBC2 BBC1 BBC2/Archie Productions BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1 ITV/ITN BBC2 ITV BBC1 ITV/Buffalo Pictures BBC1 ITV ITV/ITN C4/Twofour BBC1/Remarkable TV ITV BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1 C4/Plum Pictures BBC1 ITV/ITN ITV BBC1/Open Mike Scotland ITV/RDF TV C4/Darlow Smithson ITV ITV/ITN BBC1 ITV/ITN ITV/Plum Pictures BBC1 BBC2
*To include producer credits email robin.parker@emap.com by noon on Tuesday. Tables exclude programmes timed under 5 minutes long and omnibus editions, eg soaps.
Red Arrows: Inside The Bubble www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Amazing Spaces Shed Of The Year
repeat of Inside Death Row With Trevor MacDonald mustered 1.6 million/7% (156,000 +1). BBC1’s Thursday 7pm-10pm Games coverage proper averaged 3.6 million/21%, slightly more than the previous Thursday’s 3.4 million/ 19%, and peaking at 4.6 million/ 24% at 9.10pm. BBC1 Scotland averaged 613,000/38% across the three hours, twice as strong as the previous Thursday (286,000/ 19%). ITV’s best was Emmerdale’s 4.7 million/26% (238,000 +1) at 8pm, with Diamond Geezers And Gold Dealers managing 2.4 million/12% (203,000 +1) at 9pm.
‘The Games averaged 7.6 million; BBC1 Scotland’s share was a thumping 71% overall’ Friday’s peaktime coverage of the Games averaged 3.2 million/18% on BBC1 from 7pm to 10pm, six share points behind the previous sport-free Friday (4.2 million/24%). BBC1 Scotland averaged 431,000/ 30%, up on the previous Friday (382,000/24%). ITV was ahead from 7.30pm thanks to Coronation Street (5.6 million/34%; 200,000 +1), but at 8pm, The Cruise Ship dropped to 2.6 million/15% (205,000 +1). At 9pm, a Doc Martin repeat drew 2.1 million/11% (110,000 +1). Saturday’s 7pm-10.10pm Games coverage averaged 3.1 million/20% on BBC1, a whisker ahead of the previous Saturday’s 3.1 million/18%. BBC1 Scotland averaged 484,000/ 33% compared with last week’s 434,000/26%. Opposite, ITV’s best was Tipping Point at 7.30pm with 2.6 million/17% (168,000 +1), while Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones attracted just 1.4 million/9% (139,000 +1) from 8.30pm to 11.15pm. BBC1’s peaktime Games coverage from 7.10pm to 10.05pm on Sunday averaged 3.5 million/18% compared with 4.5 million/22% for the same time band the previous Sunday. BBC1 Scotland averaged 453,000/27%, compared with 349,000/21% the previous week. Opposite, the best of ITV’s repeats was Catchphrase at 7.15pm with 2.5 million/14% (212,000 +1) and a Foyle’s War rerun, which averaged 2.3 million/ 11% (199,000 +1) from 8pm.
See over for digital focus, plus channel and genre overviews 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 25
Ratings Mon 21 Jul – Sun 27 Jul Channel Overview
Dragons roar on Sunday BY Stephen Price
When we had to identify cities on the map during geography lessons, it was asserted that Edinburgh was in Scotland. Having watched BBC2 on Friday and listened to the residents of the Moray Estate, it is clear that Edinburgh is actually in Surrey, so posh were the residents. Elsewhere, as the Commonwealth Games dominated BBC1, BBC2 borrowed EastEnders (the best: Friday at 8pm with 4 million/23%), while Channel 4’s Marines still yomped home strongly. At 9pm on Monday, C4’s Royal Marines Commando School, with 1.8 million/9% (321,000 +1), defeated C5’s Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole (1.5 million/7%; 149,000 +1) and BBC2’s Clothes To Die For (700,000/4%). On Friday at 9pm, BBC2’s The Secret History Of Our Streets achieved 1.6 million/9%, trumping C4’s Alan Carr: Chatty Man Summer Special (1.2 million/ 7%; 243,000 +1) and C5’s Big Brother: Live Eviction (1.2 million/7%; 85,000 +1). On Sunday at 8pm, BBC2’s Dragons’ Den averaged 2.4 million/12%, defeating C4’s drama The Mill (1.6 million/8%; 194,000 +1). At 9pm, BBC2 doc Red Arrows: Inside The Bubble’s 2.3 million/11% was ahead of C4’s Child Genius (1.3 million/6%; 261,000 +1) and C5’s Big Brother (1.1 million/5%; 182,000 +1).
Source: BARB
WEEK 30 Average hours per viewer Daytime share (%) Peaktime share (%) w/c 21.07.14 Peaktime share (%) w/c 22.07.13 Year to date Average hours per viewer Audience share (%) Audience share (%) 2013
BBC1 4.74 20.78 22.04 21.18 BBC1 5.63 21.91 21.14
BBC2 1.37 5.91 7.69 6.89 BBC2 1.62 6.31 5.76
ITV1 2.91 11.71 17.22 19.17 ITV1 4.02 15.64 16.06
C4 1.16 4.65 6.17 6.35 C4 1.45 5.65 5.76
26 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Total 22.02 100.00 100.00 100.00 Total 25.70 100.00 100.00
Day
Start
Viewers (m) (all homes)
Share %
Broadcaster BBC2
Top 30 bbc2, channel 4 and channel 5 Title 1
EastEnders
Fri
20.00
3.98
22.54
2
EastEnders
Thu
19.30
3.94
23.76
BBC2
3
Dragons’ Den
Sun
20.00
2.35
11.80
BBC2
4
Red Arrows: Inside The Bubble
Sun
21.00
2.32
11.11
BBC2
4
University Challenge
Mon
20.00
2.24
11.88
BBC2
6
Royal Marines Commando School
Mon
21.00
2.16
10.26
C4
7
Amazing Spaces Shed Of The Year
Thu
20.00
1.97
11.15
C4
8
The Mill
Sun
20.00
1.82
9.11
C4
9
Coast
Tue
21.00
1.69
8.75
BBC2
10
Food & Drink
Mon
20.30
1.65
8.37
BBC2
11
The Secret History Of Our Streets
Fri
21.00
1.61
8.78
BBC2
12
Pointless
Fri
17.15
1.60
14.08
BBC2
13
Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole
Mon
21.00
1.60
7.63
C5
14
Paul
Sat
21.00
1.60
9.93
C4
15
Commonwealth Games 2014
Sun
16.50
1.59
11.29
16
Child Genius
Sun
21.00
1.55
7.40
C4 BBC2
BBC2
17
Gardeners’ World
Fri
20.30
1.54
8.28
17
The Honourable Woman
Thu
21.00
1.51
7.83
BBC2
19
The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway
Wed
21.00
1.50
7.03
BBC2
20
F1: Hungarian GP – Qualifying Highlights
Sat
17.40
1.50
12.42
BBC2
21
Pointless
Thu
17.15
1.45
13.50
BBC2
22
Antiques Road Trip
Sun
19.00
1.45
8.22
BBC2
23
Alan Carr: Chatty Man Summer Special
Fri
21.00
1.45
7.88
C4
24
Big Brother
Mon
22.00
1.40
8.47
C5
25
Undercover Boss
Tue
21.00
1.37
7.09
C4
26
Dad’s Army
Sat
19.55
1.34
8.63
BBC2
26
Tom’s Fantastic Floating Home
Sun
19.00
1.33
7.56
C4
28
Commonwealth Games 2014
Thu
18.00
1.33
9.69
BBC2
29
Embarrassing Bodies
Thu
21.00
1.33
6.89
C4
30
Flog It! Trade Secrets
Sun
18.30
1.32
8.41
BBC2
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable
Multichannel 42.76
Simon Pegg-starring sci-fi comedy Paul put C4 ahead of ITV’s Star Wars film on Saturday night
Others 10.94 53.03 42.76 42.02 Others 11.96 46.53 47.21
Daytime is 09.30-18.00. Peaktime is 18.00-22.30. Figures include HD and +1 where applicable
daytime share (%) w/c 21.07.14
peaktime share (%) w/c 21.07.14
1.6m
C5 0.90 3.93 4.12 4.40 C5 1.02 3.95 4.08
BBC1 22.04
ITV 17.22
C5 4.12 C4 6.17
BBC2 7.69
Multichannel 53.03
1.3m
C5’s Autopsy: The Last Hours of Michael Hutchence couldn’t match series 1’s Michael Jackson ep (1.6m)
BBC1 20.78
ITV 11.71
BBC2 5.91 C5 3.93 C4 4.65
www.broadcastnow.co.uk
All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional
Genre Overview
Source: BARB
Top 10 children’s programmes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Title
Day
Show Me Show Me Swashbuckle Mr Bloom’s Nursery: Get Set, Grow! Topsy And Tim Woolly & Tig Balamory Bing Melody Kerwhizz Something Special
Fri Sun Fri Tue Fri Sun Fri Fri Sun Fri
Top 10 Factual programmes Start
Viewers (Age 4-15)
10.10 179,200 11.00 166,100 10.30 161,100 17.20 157,900 09.35 157,800 12.25 151,900 10.05 151,300 10.55 150,800 11.25 147,200 09.45 145,800
Long Lost Family
Share (%)
Channel
17.85 16.46 16.16 14.05 15.24 15.67 13.76 15.49 15.46 13.84
CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies CBeebies
Title
Holby City Foyle’s War Doc Martin The Mill The Honourable Woman CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The 100 Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders Foyle’s War
UP The Honourable Woman adds 3,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CW Games Opening Ceremony Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014 F1: Hungarian GP Highlights Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014 Commonwealth Games 2014
Start
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
Channel
Mon Mon Wed Mon Tue Fri Mon Tue Thu Mon
21.00 21.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 21.00 19.30
4.56 3.61 3.11 2.95 2.91 2.87 2.72 2.64 2.57 2.56
21.71 17.18 19.17 17.87 18.74 16.27 14.46 14.69 13.33 14.46
ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV BBC1
Top 10 Entertainment programmes
Day
Start
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
Channel
Tue Sun Fri Sun Thu Tue Mon Sun Tue Sat
20.00 20.00 21.00 20.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 15.50 20.00 21.00
3.86 2.49 2.21 1.82 1.51 1.30 1.07 1.05 1.05 0.98
21.48 12.21 12.02 9.11 7.83 6.72 5.11 8.75 5.64 6.01
BBC1 ITV ITV C4 BBC2 C5 E4 ITV ITV3 ITV3
DOWN The 100 loses 140,000
Title
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
All Star Mr & Mrs Catchphrase Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Pointless Pointless The National Lottery Live The Chase University Challenge The Chase The Chase
DOWN The Mill sheds 240,000
UP Foyle’s War gains 140,000
UP John Bishop’s Australia up 390,000
Day
Start
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
Channel
Wed Sun Sat Mon Wed Sat Tue Mon Mon Wed
20.00 19.15 19.30 17.15 17.15 22.30 17.00 20.00 17.00 17.00
2.84 2.76 2.72 2.45 2.37 2.30 2.26 2.24 2.22 2.19
15.47 15.29 17.98 22.90 23.19 14.93 22.62 11.88 21.59 22.36
ITV ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC2 ITV ITV
DOWN Long Lost Family drops 390,000
UP Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole gains 4,000
Top 10 Current affairs programmes Day
Start
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
Channel
Wed Thu Sun Sun Fri Sat Sat Sun Thu Sat
20.00 19.00 19.10 17.10 19.00 19.00 17.45 18.30 15.00 12.15
7.86 3.63 3.50 3.20 3.17 3.06 2.57 2.46 2.06 1.93
40.23 20.50 17.78 21.98 18.09 19.55 21.12 15.50 24.51 26.66
BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1
next week comedy and Music & Arts www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Long Lost Family John Bishop’s Australia The One Show The One Show The One Show The Cruise Ship Countrywise Love Your Garden Diamond Geezers And Gold Dealers How Safe Is Your House?
Day
Commonwealth Games 2014
Top 10 Sport programmes Title
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Holby City
Top 10 Drama programmes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10
Title
Title
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Crimewatch Crimewatch Update Panorama: Drivers Who Kill Tonight: Is Britain Christian? Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole The Andrew Marr Show Newsnight Black Market Britain: Undercover Newsnight Newsnight
Day
Start
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
Channel
Tue Tue Mon Thu Mon Sun Mon Thu Thu Tue
21.00 22.40 20.30 19.30 21.00 08.00 22.30 20.00 22.30 22.30
3.79 2.60 2.20 2.04 1.60 1.21 0.77 0.72 0.70 0.60
19.65 18.25 11.14 12.27 7.63 28.40 5.64 4.10 5.35 4.59
BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV C5 BBC1 BBC2 C5 BBC2 BBC2
See over for demographic and digital focus 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 27
Ratings Mon 21 Jul – Sun 27 Jul Demographic Focus Channels
Individuals Share (%)
Adults ABC1 Share (%)1
BBC1
22.11
ITV
13.36
Source: BARB
Adults ABC1 Profile (%)2
Adults 16-34 Share (%)1
Adults 16-34 Profile (%)2
Male Share (%)1
27.66
51.19
11.78
36.08
Male Profile (%)2
Female Share (%)1
Female Profile (%)2
13.98
11.02
22.88
47.19
21.46
52.81
9.19
11.99
10.63
36.30
15.64
63.69 53.60
BBC2
6.19
7.46
49.28
3.58
10.08
6.30
46.40
6.10
C4
5.14
5.49
43.69
7.40
25.07
4.77
42.31
5.45
57.69
C5
4.23
3.79
36.63
4.72
19.43
3.33
35.83
4.99
64.16
ITV3
2.47
2.33
38.56
0.52
3.68
2.12
39.13
2.76
60.85
ITV2
2.40
1.93
32.91
4.27
31.00
1.93
36.72
2.79
63.27
BBC3
2.17
2.18
41.09
4.49
36.12
2.59
54.50
1.81
45.49
E4
2.07
1.82
35.93
5.77
48.58
2.11
46.45
2.04
53.55
Film 4
1.63
1.42
35.58
1.86
19.87
1.93
53.73
1.39
46.25
ITV4
1.56
1.82
47.56
1.37
15.28
2.25
65.66
0.99
34.38
Dave
1.37
1.44
42.93
2.24
28.45
1.84
61.24
0.98
38.80 55.23
More 4
1.16
1.21
42.84
1.11
16.70
1.14
44.68
1.18
5 USA
1.10
0.84
30.98
0.73
11.60
0.93
38.36
1.25
61.62
BBC 4
0.90
1.28
57.90
0.38
7.37
1.08
54.46
0.76
45.54
Sky 1
0.85
0.84
40.43
1.77
36.41
0.96
51.52
0.76
48.53
Drama
0.84
0.89
43.35
0.22
4.57
0.78
42.43
0.89
57.55
Yesterday
0.65
0.58
35.97
0.26
6.97
0.84
58.39
0.50
41.61
5*
0.56
0.47
34.03
0.92
28.59
0.56
45.63
0.56
54.36
35%
E4 panel show Virtually Famous debuted slightly below average with an overnight of 393,000/2%, but beat the 28% Monday 10pm slot average for 16-24s.
Share covers all hours. Figures include HD and +1 where applicable 1: Each channel’s share of total demographic. 2: Demographic as a percentage of the channel’s total viewers.
Digital focus
Family Guy fends off 100 BY Stephen Price
The lull of the summer leads to repeats and a host of films – eight in this week’s top 30 alone. The best was Film 4’s Solomon Kane on Sunday at 9pm (760,000/4%), while E4’s The 100 proved that there’s still room for new stuff. The 100 achieved 1.1 million/5% for E4, the lowest of its three Monday 9pm outings so far and just behind BBC3’s best of the week, an episode of Family Guy on Sunday at 10.25pm with 1.2 million/7%. ITV2’s best this week was Sunday’s The Only Way Is Essex with 1.1 million/6% at 10pm, the best performer of the show’s two series this year so far. A repeat of Inspector Montalbano on Saturday at 9pm (600,000/4%) was BBC4’s best, ahead of Friday’s doc Northern Soul: Living For The Weekend – 520,000/3% at 9.30pm. ITV3’s best, Midsomer Murders, achieved 1.1 million/6% on Tuesday at 8pm. 28 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
Source: BARB
digital homes
Top 30 multichannel programmes Title
1 2 3 3 5 6 7 7 9 10 11 12 13 13 13 16 16 18 19 20 20 22 22 24 25 25 25 28 28 30
Family Guy The 100 The Only Way Is Essex Midsomer Murders Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Foyle’s War Lewis Hollyoaks Solomon Kane About A Boy The Big Bang Theory American Dad! X-Men Inspector Montalbano It’ll Be Alright On The Night… EastEnders The Mechanic Mr Magorium’s Wonder… Geordie Shore Tour De France Highlights Northern Soul: Living For… The Guard Paul O’G: For The Love… Russell H’s Good News Commonwealth Games Treasures Of Ancient Egypt A Touch Of Frost From Russia With Love Bridesmaids New Girl
Day
Sun Mon Sun Tue Sun Sat Wed Tue Sun Sun Mon Tue Sun Sat Sun Tue Tue Sun Tue Wed Fri Mon Sun Tue Sun Sat Mon Sat Fri Tue
Start
22.25 21.00 22.00 20.00 12.00 21.00 20.00 19.00 21.00 20.00 18.30 23.45 20.00 21.00 21.00 22.30 21.00 18.05 22.00 19.00 21.30 21.00 20.30 22.00 14.00 20.00 19.55 20.00 21.00 21.00
Viewers (millions)
Share (%)
1.19 1.07 1.05 1.05 1.00 0.98 0.81 0.81 0.76 0.74 0.67 0.63 0.60 0.60 0.60 0.58 0.58 0.55 0.54 0.52 0.52 0.51 0.51 0.50 0.49 0.49 0.49 0.48 0.48 0.47
7.32 5.11 6.09 5.64 10.91 6.01 4.11 5.24 4.13 3.63 4.45 9.92 2.94 3.67 2.86 3.97 3.17 3.33 3.35 3.22 2.92 2.64 2.52 2.83 4.15 3.11 2.42 2.93 2.98 2.44
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable. Only the top-ranked episode of each show is included
Channel
BBC3 E4 ITV2 ITV3 Sky Spts F1 ITV3 ITV3 E4 Film 4 ITV2 E4 BBC3 E4 BBC4 ITV3 BBC3 Film 4 ITV2 MTV ITV4 BBC4 Film 4 ITV3 BBC3 BBC3 BBC4 ITV3 ITV4 Film 4 E4
Channels
Share (%)
BBC1 ITV BBC2 C4 C5 Total multichannel ITV3 ITV2 BBC3 E4 Film 4 ITV4 Dave CBeebies More 4 5 USA BBC News Pick
22.11 13.36 6.19 5.14 4.23 48.97 2.47 2.40 2.17 2.07 1.63 1.56 1.37 1.22 1.16 1.10 1.07 0.93
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable
403k
BBC3 beat C4’s The Mimic with The Truth About Magaluf: Stacey Dooley Investigates (Wednesday, 10pm) www.broadcastnow.co.uk
All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional
Non-PSB top 50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
Title
Day
Start
Viewers (all homes)
Share %
Broadcaster/ Producer*
Live Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Geordie Shore The Simpsons Live International Cricket Hungarian F1 Gp Qualifying Mock The Week Darts Gold New Tricks 8 Out Of 10 Cats Murdoch Mysteries Would I Lie To You? QI QI XL Live Darts: World Matchplay Death In Paradise Keeping Up Appearances Have I Got A Bit More News For You Live Hungarian F1 GP: Paddock Couples Who Kill Storage Hunters As Time Goes By Sinbad Top Gear Last Of The Summer Wine Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled America’s Next Top Model Modern Family One Foot In The Grave Glee Wheeler Dealers Forensic Detectives The Agatha Christie Hour Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People… Ghost Adventures Only Fools And Horses Got To Dance: The Warm Up Brit Cops: Frontline Crime Sky News At Ten Night Cops Baggage Battles Who Do You Think You Are? Nikita Futurama How Do They Do It? Criminal Minds Cold Blood Live International Champions Cup Stargate Sg-1 Sofia The First Road Wars
Sun Tue Sun Sun Sat Tue Sat Mon Tue Sun Sun Sat Mon Sun Mon Thu Fri Sun Sat Sat Thu Tue Sun Sun Sat Thu Wed Fri Thu Thu Sat Sun Tue Thu Sun Sun Sat Thu Thu Sun Sun Mon Sat Tue Mon Thu Sun Tue Mon Fri
12.00 22.00 19.00 14.00 12.00 22.35 22.00 21.00 22.00 20.00 22.00 22.20 21.00 18.45 21.00 20.20 20.00 15.30 22.00 19.30 19.40 21.00 18.00 20.20 23.00 20.00 20.30 21.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 19.00 21.00 21.00 19.40 20.00 23.00 22.00 22.00 17.00 21.00 21.00 19.00 23.00 23.00 22.00 20.55 20.00 17.50 21.00
996,000 540,500 452,100 424,100 402,300 389,200 368,900 355,500 354,300 351,000 345,200 334,400 311,000 307,900 306,700 285,200 274,400 266,100 261,000 257,100 233,500 225,800 224,900 222,300 215,000 209,500 207,500 207,400 206,800 204,600 197,600 193,700 191,600 191,500 190,200 189,200 187,000 186,100 182,500 180,500 178,200 177,700 177,300 177,000 176,200 175,600 175,500 175,200 172,900 172,500
10.91 3.35 2.67 3.56 5.59 2.90 2.19 1.69 2.03 1.76 1.92 2.22 1.48 1.67 1.50 1.60 1.51 2.65 1.67 1.75 1.36 1.17 1.45 1.10 2.24 1.19 1.09 1.13 1.07 1.06 1.17 1.10 0.99 0.99 1.00 0.95 1.95 1.06 1.14 1.38 0.85 0.85 1.32 1.73 1.95 1.10 0.93 0.97 1.38 0.94
Sky Sports F1 MTV Sky 1 Sky Sports 2 Sky Sports F1 Dave Sky Sports 1 Drama Dave Drama Dave Dave Dave Sky Sports 1 Alibi Drama Dave Sky Sports F1 Quest Dave Drama Pick Dave Yesterday Dave Sky Living Sky 1 Yesterday Sky 1 Quest Quest Drama Yesterday Really Gold Sky 1 Pick Sky News Pick Quest Yesterday Sky Living Sky 1 Quest Pick CBS Reality Sky Sports 1 Pick Disney Junior Pick
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable. Only the top-ranked episode of each show is included
Geordie Shore www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Got To Dance: The Warm Up
143k Gold picked up a few more Monty Python fans with an uncensored repeat of the final live show
Sky 1 toasts Glee’s 100th BY Stephen Price
The never-understated Geordies walked among us once more this week, claiming a high-profile scalp in the process, and the 100th episode of Glee pranced into view, making me at least wonder what a Geordie Glee Club might look and sound like. Throw into the mix the upcoming Got To Dance and we have got the next entertainment hit right there. Yikes. MTV’s Geordie Shore flowed back on to telly on Tuesday at 10pm with 541,000/3% – more than Channel 4’s Utopia opposite (448,000/2.8% incl +1) and the show’s best 10pm episode since April 2013. Six repeats added another 212,000. Sky 1’s best UK origination was Got To Dance: The Warm Up with 189,000/1% on Sunday at 8pm. On Thursday at 9pm, the 100th episode of Glee achieved 207,000/1% – 30,000 more than last week’s 99th. Drama’s best was New Tricks on Monday at 9pm with 356,000/ 2%, followed by the mostly Canadian Murdoch Mysteries’ 351,000/1.8% on Sunday at 8pm. On Tuesday at 9pm, Pick achieved 226,000/1% for the first episode of the epic 12-part drama Sinbad, first shown on Sky 1. Yesterday’s best documentary of the week was Pompeii: The Mystery Of The People Frozen In Time with 192,000/1% on Tuesday at 9pm. 1 August 2014 | Broadcast | 29
Ratings Mon 14 Jul – Sun 20 Jul
All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional
Consolidated Ratings
Honourable loss for BBC2 BY Stephen Price
Maybe it’s a Europe thing; a UKIP pencil-snapping clause in the European Working Time Directive perhaps. Whatever the reason, the latest series of 24 was only 12 episodes long, so just half a day of gutbusting world-saving. Elsewhere, Channel 5 reaped the benefit of Benefits, Channel 4 exploited Victorian children, while the timing of The Honourable Woman was as apposite as that of any programme, ever.
Sky 1: 24: Live Another Day Sky 1’s 24: Live Another Day launched simultaneously and transatlantically at 1am and 2am on Monday 5 May with 554,000/15% and 392,000/17% respectively after recording. The more civilised launch was on Wednesday at 9pm and 10pm, achieving 1.2 million/5%
Source: BARB
and 1.1 million/6% respectively; thereafter it’s premiere transmission slot was 9pm on Wednesdays. Overall, it averaged 1.2 million/5%. The finale on 16 July delivered 1.3 million/6% after more than 745,000 recorded and watched. Among 16-34 adults, it achieved 381,000/8%, 6.5 points over slot average, while for ABC1 adults (789,000/7%) it was 5.7 share points above slot average.
C5: Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole The penultimate episode of Channel 5’s Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole on 14 July achieved 2.08 million/8% after 463,000 recorded and watched. The final episode on 21 July finished on 2.09 million/9% after more than 480,000 recorded and watched. The series averaged 2.6 million/11%, the best being 7 July’s 3.2 million/13%. It’s the second best series for Channel 5 this year after Celebrity Big Brother (3.7 million/15% on 29 January) and the best 5Production show since it was launched in 2012.
C4: The Mill Channel 4 Victorian misery-odrama The Mill returned on Sunday 20 July in its 8pm slot. The first series in July/August 2013 averaged 3.2 million/13%, the best of which was the opener’s 3.8 million/15% on 28 July. It’s ABC1 content averaged 1.4 million/13%, while 16-34s were, perhaps unsurprisingly, less interested (359,000/7.6%). The new series returned with a consolidated rating of 2.7 million/12%, half a million and 1 share point behind 2013’s series. It’s ABC1 content was 1.3 million/ 12%, with 238,000/6% 16-34s. A good return with minimal attrition rate so far.
Monday’s Utopia opening episode added 420,000 with recording, a 72% increase
BBC2: The Honourable Woman
UP The Only Way Is Essex adds 140,000
BBC2’s eight-part drama The Honourable Woman launched on Thursday 3 July at 9pm with 3.2 million/14%. Episode two on 10 July delivered 2.5 million/11%, while the third episode on 17 July consolidated to 2.3 million/10%, the lowest so far.
Top 30 Consolidated Ratings: ranked by gain
1 2 3 4 5 5 7 8 9 9 11 12 13 14 15 15 17 18 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 28 28
1.0m DOWN The 100 loses 490,000
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Title
Day
Start
Viewers (m) (all homes)
Share %
Gain (m)
Gain %
Coronation Street The Honourable Woman Eastenders Coronation Street The Only Way Is Essex Eastenders 24: Live Another Day Celebrity Masterchef Eastenders The 100 Coronation Street CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Coronation Street Celebrity MasterChef Friday Night Dinner Coronation Street Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes Long Lost Family Royal Marines Commando School EastEnders The Only Way Is Essex The Mill Emmerdale Benefits Britain: Life On The Dole One Born Every Minute Weatherview Royal Marines Commando School Mock The Week George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces Utopia
Fri Thu Tue Fri Sun Mon Wed Fri Thu Mon Wed Tue Mon Thu Fri Mon Sat Mon Mon Fri Wed Sun Fri Mon Wed Fri Tue Thu Thu Mon
20.30 21.00 19.30 19.30 22.00 20.00 21.00 20.30 19.30 21.00 19.30 21.00 20.30 21.00 22.00 19.30 21.00 21.00 21.00 20.00 22.00 20.00 19.00 21.00 21.00 25.35 23.00 22.00 20.00 22.00
7.29 2.29 5.32 7.19 1.72 7.54 1.30 5.53 5.98 2.03 7.77 2.22 8.37 5.17 1.55 8.29 3.92 5.69 3.13 6.01 1.43 2.68 5.38 2.08 2.18 0.65 0.82 1.74 1.98 1.00
34.21 10.25 27.36 37.95 8.63 33.94 5.82 26.69 32.95 8.05 39.95 9.88 37.08 23.12 8.08 39.98 19.55 22.71 12.49 31.73 7.87 11.77 30.91 8.31 9.71 18.30 8.56 8.79 10.18 5.62
1.08 0.82 0.80 0.79 0.78 0.78 0.75 0.74 0.70 0.70 0.69 0.68 0.67 0.66 0.64 0.64 0.62 0.60 0.60 0.58 0.57 0.56 0.47 0.46 0.45 0.44 0.43 0.42 0.42 0.42
17.50 55.40 17.60 12.30 82.80 11.50 133.40 15.30 13.20 52.30 9.70 44.20 8.70 14.70 71.00 8.30 18.70 11.90 23.50 10.70 66.20 26.40 9.50 28.60 25.90 202.50 111.70 32.20 27.00 72.10
Broadcaster ITV BBC2 BBC1 ITV ITV2 BBC1 Sky 1 BBC1 BBC1 E4 ITV C5 ITV BBC1 C4 ITV C4 ITV C4 BBC1 ITV2 C4 ITV C5 C4 BBC1 C4 BBC2 C4 C4
Figures include HD and +1 where applicable
30 | Broadcast | 1 August 2014
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ALL A TWITTER They say the people who organised this had an eighth of Danny Boyle’s budget. I reckon they had an eighth of skunk. #openingceremony @pete_sinclair (Pete Sinclair) Writer, Have I Got News For You
Talks of the town The industry eagerly awaits Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham’s MacTaggart speech at Edinburgh, but it’s not the only major telly talk in town that night. Word reaches us that fleet-footed festival delegates can hot-foot it to the exotically
named The Banshee Labyrinth (“Scotland’s most haunted pub”) to see Richard Burdett (left), managing director of Horse & Country TV – and former head of C4’s ad agency 4Creative – deliver an Edinburgh Skeptics Society talk on Truth And Lies In Advertising. Compare and contrast…
Now that @sebcoe has withdrawn from the race to chair the #BBC Trust, it is surely time for one man to come forward: Steve Ovett. @eddiemair (Eddie Mair) Presenter, PM, Radio 4
Great interview with Fatah rep on Newsnight pointlessly cut short by an item on Twitch. Sort out your priorities. @PaulVanezis (Paul Vanezis) Producer, BBC Stargazing
Enjoying this show Oranges Are Not The Only New Black Fruit but how did this little ginger English girl end up in an American prison? @sambaintv (Sam Bain) Co-writer, Peep Show; Fresh Meat
Nat Geo’s picked out an eclectic bunch to promote its series The 90s: The Decade That Connected Us. We’re sure one-time A Question Of Sport fixture and pub quiz team-name pun staple Kriss Akabusi will be delighted to appear alongside a Power Ranger and Pamela Anderson. And what’s that on the desks? SL2’s mighty On A Ragga Tip…
AND FINALLY ... Sam Sniderman Managing director, films and TV, Pulse Films
Tell us one of your most hilarious faux pas Making a suggestive comment about my maths professor’s wife in a university exam. Who would you least like to share a taxi with? Wayne Rooney. (Does he speak?) Who is your pin-up? Tom Selleck or Marie Osmond. How do you get your own way? Smile prettily (never works), then move to gentle persuasion (rarely works) then get pushy/aggressive (never works). What is your greatest extravagance? I have two young children so I am no longer entitled to any extravagances. What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Walk softly and carry a big stick. Who would you like to play yourself in a movie? Tom Selleck [pictured]. If you could be reincarnated, who or what would you come back as? Fabio. What’s the cruellest thing you’ve ever done? Teasing my wife’s family about their Australian expressions and cultural reference points.
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