Broadcast 19 July 2013

Editor’s Choice

Broadcast, 101 Finsbury Pavement, London EC2A 1RS or email lisa.campbell@broadcastnow.co.uk

Online this week www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Lisa Campbell, Editor

Top News

BBC must hold itself to account Licence fee payers deserve better than more spending scandals

S

ome years ago, while at Channel 4, former director general Mark Thompson famously described the BBC as basking in a “jacuzzi” of cash.

Nowadays, it’s more bonfire than jacuzzi as yet more licence fee-payers’ cash goes up in smoke.

Much as I’d like to refrain from a Daily Mail tirade, what’s come to light in recent weeks is indefensible.

‘The DMI, Savile and staff pay-offs show a startling lack of accountability at the corporation’ The fire was stoked last month with the £100m “steaming pile of shit” (as one insider dubbed it) otherwise known as the Digital Media Initiative (DMI). It kept burning by means of £60m-worth of payoffs, many over and above contractual agreements. Tuesday’s annual report fanned the flames, revealing the £5m spent on the Savile inquiry and a 62% increase in senior manager pay.

These revelations came with incredible timing, even by BBC standards: on the same day, social security benefits were capped at £26,000. That’s just £1,000 more than former DG George Entwistle was paid for three weeks’ salary when he resigned, on top of his £450,000 severance payment.

Amid claims of the BBC dropping the ball over John Inverdale’s misjudged comments, the report also looks at top talent. The number of stars paid at least £500,000 fell from 16 to 14; but the headline news was the £14m Jeremy Clarkson (right) took home last 2 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

è BBC comedy boss Shane Allen has criticised C4’s commissioning processes and admitted his departure from the channel last year was “a bit fractious”.

è BBC entertainment commissioner year. Although licence fee payers only contributed to Clarkson’s £1m salary, one argument for maintaining in-house production is that the British public benefit from the global exploitation of BBC brands.

While it did not appear obvious to previous BBC management, the DMI debacle, Savile scandal and exec payoffs show a startling lack of accountability at the corporation. The payoffs were signed off post the economic crash and after the MPs expenses’ scandal, yet people at the top felt either untouchable, or that licence fee cash was theirs to splash about on each other.

That the BBC was dragged before the Parliamentary Affairs Committee to explain itself was embarrassing enough; more so was the continual passing of the buck. The Trust blames the exec board led

by Mark Thompson, who in turn refutes the suggestion he misled the Trust. That has been described as a “disconnect” and a “disjuncture”, but the best way to characterise that relationship is “dysfunctional”.

Trust chairman Lord Patten confirmed this week that he will, unsurprisingly, not be seeking a second term. But unless the remit of the Trust changes, it’s hard to view the chairman’s job as anything other than a poisoned chalice.

We also learned this week that new DG Tony Hall, still drawing an £82,000 pension on top of his salary, is to get the consultants in – at yet more cost. At the same time, it was revealed that the BBC has 245 staff earning more than £100,000. I’m sure many of them could tell consultants the blindingly obvious: end the bureaucracy and give viewers the customer service they deserve.

Karl Warner has resigned to set up his own indie. Warner is thought to have secured an umbrella deal with SPT.

è The BBC will split new BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore’s (right) previous role as docs commissioning editor. It will seek a commissioner for docs on BBC2 and BBC4, and one for docs and features on BBC3.

Ratings Top Five 1 The return of Dynamo: Magician Impossible for a third series on Friday conjured up 850,000 viewers for Watch.

2 BBC2’s haunting new drama Top Of The Lake launched on Saturday with 2m, well above the slot average, but fell back over the hour it was on air, bowing out with 1.8m.

3 The Apprentice hit a series high on Wednesday. The gruelling interviews round drew a peak audience of 6.7m.

England’s agonising Ashes victory over Australia (below) provided Sky Sports with a peak audience of 1.3m on Sunday.

4

5 Channel 4’s urban drama Run got off to a strong start on Monday night with an audience of 1.5m, ahead of the 1.2m slot average.

Team Tweets è Tony Hall says payoffs not fault of those execs who have left with their pockets lined, but the BBC executive. @Jake_Kantar

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

News & Analysis

Indies: time to have your say

BY CHrIs CurtIs

Broadcast has teamed up with the Edinburgh International TV Festival to launch a major health check on the state of commissioning in British television.

The top 100 indie production companies, as ranked by turnover in Broadcast’s Indie Survey 2013, will be asked to fill out an anonymous survey detailing their relationships with broadcasters across the industry.

The survey will cover the experience of securing and taking part in pitching meetings, the ups and downs of the development process, and how broadcasters and indies work together during production and post-production.

It is intended to uncover both best practice and the dysfunctional elements of commissioning, with a view to improving the relationship on both sides.

Broadcast editor Lisa Campbell said: “Each year at Edinburgh, controllers and commissioners tell indie producers what they’re looking for and how they can best serve their channels’ needs. Now it’s the turn of the producers to have their say and offer their perspective.”

Clockwise from top left: panellists Cohen, FIncham, Murphy and Hunt

Need to Talk About Commissioning. The session will be chaired

by Boom Pictures executive chair Lorraine Heggessey, a former BBC1 controller.

The heads of the biggest broadcasters have all confirmed they will appear on a panel to discuss the survey’s findings, including BBC director of television Danny Cohen, ITV director of programmes

The survey, compiled in conjunction with research company GfK, will be sent out this week with a view to generating as many responses as possible. The aim is to build up a clear and credible picture of the commissioning culture in the UK. The results will be revealed at the festival in August and form the basis of a session called We

Peter Fincham, Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt and Sky director of entertainment channels Stuart Murphy.

The commissioning process has become a topic for hot debate this year. ITV has begun surveying its suppliers to get a better sense of how it is viewed by the indie community, and former BBC executive Tom Archer launched a furious attack earlier this month in which he claimed the programmemaking community is being creatively stifled.

Channel 4 also came in for strong criticism from producer Charlie Parsons and some anonymous indies at the start of the year for what was characterised as a system of micro-management.

The festival session is being produced by Broadcast and RDF Television head of entertainment development Neale Simpson, and the executive producer is Scripps senior vice-president of content and marketing Nick Thorogood.

We Need to Talk About Commissioning will take place on Friday 23 August at 3.15pm.

The Edinburgh International TV Festival is sponsored by The Guardian.

ITV returns to Wall to Wall for human interest ITV is hoping to build on returning factual brand Long Lost Family with two new human-interest shows from Wall to Wall Television.

The Shed Media-owned indie has been commissioned to produce Births, Deaths And Marriages (w/t), which will go behind the scenes at the famous Old Marylebone Town Hall register office, which has been the wedding venue for stars such as Paul McCartney and Liam Gallagher.

It also holds birth, death and marriage records for the likes of Winston Churchill, and Romeo and Brooklyn Beckham.

Births, Deaths And Marriages follows Old Marylebone Town www.broadcastnow.co.uk

GeTTy ImaGes

BY Jake kanter

The series will give a real heartfelt insight into 21st century Britain Jo Clinton-Davis, ITV

Old Marylebone: celeb weddings

Hall’s 21 registrars, including superintendent Alison, as they handle as many as 30 birth and death registrations and 14 marriage ceremonies a day. It will also focus on the people marking those important moments in their lives.

“This series will allow us a window into the big subjects of life and death, marriage and nationality, to give a real and heartfelt insight into 21st century Britain,” said ITV controller of factual Jo Clinton-Davis.

Clinton-Davis commissioned the show, which will be exec produced by Wall to Wall creative director Leanne Klein. The length of the run has yet to be decided,

but each episode will be 60 minutes and will air in primetime.

The “warm-hearted” documentary will join WAll to Wall ITV shows Long Lost Family, which pulled in a series high of 5.61 million (27.19%) viewers this week, and Secrets From The Workhouse, the hit history show that aired in June.

Wall to Wall is also developing a documentary that will focus on the emotional reunions and farewells at Heathrow’s arrivals and departures lounges. The indie is close to winning a commission for the series, which will likely film over the summer until September and attempt to capture moments akin to the final scene in film Love Actually. The show has the working title Arrivals And Departures.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 3

News & Analysis Skillset Census

Census reveals BAME drain

BY PEtER WhitE

The UK’s biggest broadcasters have launched a project to address the dramatic decline in the number of black, Asian and ethnic minority staff working in the industry.

Creative Skillset’s latest Employment Census shows representation among black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (BAME) within the TV, film and creative sector fell more than 15% between 2009 and 2012, from 12,250 in 2009 to 10,300 in 2012.

BAME staff made up 5.4% of the industry last year, compared with 6.7% in 2009 and 7.4% in 2006.

Creative Skillset chief executive Dinah Caine said that much more needed to be done to encourage greater diversity, adding: “We’ve got a real issue here.”

As a result, the Cultural Diversity Network has set up an initiative to improve equality monitoring and tracking, called Project Silvermouse (working title). ITV diversity manager Tanya Mukherjee said the project was one of the first tangible processes implemented since the broadcaster took over leadership of the CDN earlier this year. “We need to take equality monitoring more seriously,” she added.

The CDN, which includes the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Shine Group,

It is institutional racism. Many people see ethnic employees as junior and wet behind the ears Janice Turner, Bectu

Run: C4 drama was produced by upcoming British BAME talent

Pact and Bafta, has also changed the way it works to get more buy-in from senior executives.

“We’ve changed the operating model,” said Mukherjee. “The execs around the table are [now] from production, commissioning and news, rather than just diversity managers.”

The Skillset census highlights huge problems for the television industry, according to Janice Turner, diversity office at Bectu, which runs the union’s Move On Up project.

“It is institutional racism,” she said. “Many people see ethnic employees as junior and wet behind the ears.”

One of the challenges is how to develop BAME staff so they grow into senior positions. Caine said the industry has to think collectively about how to improve this. “It’s not just about getting into the industry, it’s about staying in. The role models at senior level are not as many as I’d like to see,” she added.

Tariq Wahr, founder of Film Industry Talent, an agency that represents cinematographers and production designers as well as hair and make-up artists, said it was important that the issue is addressed. “The talent is there, it’s about creating systems that are friendly to funders, producers and

talent – that monitor and track equal opportunities at every level of film-making. Nepotism cannot rein forever and industry organisations need to re-educate their members and not worry about upsetting the gravy train.”

Within TV, free-to-air networks increased their proportion of BAME staff in the past three years from 9.3% to 9.5%, but representation at pay-TV broadcasters fell from 12.3% to 9.1%, largely blamed on the recession, while the indie sector saw a big fall from 7% to 5%. Representation for ethnic minorities within studio operations was the most notable drop, falling from 16% of the total to 7%, while figures for news staff also fell from 13.6% to 10%.

However, there were more opportunities in the legal sector, which grew from 6.5% to 8.3%. ➤ See In My View, page 15

Industry initiatives reverse exodus of women It’s a good story; we focused a lot on training. But our work certainly isn’t done

BY PEtER WhitE

The number of women working in TV has increased substantially in the past three years, helped by a boom in the indie sector.

The number of women employed in the creative media industries has grown by almost 16,000, representing a rise from 27% to 36% of the total workforce, according to Creative Skillset’s latest research.

The rise has been attributed to a number of initiatives put in place since 2010, when Creative Skillset’s Women in the Creative Industries report found that around 4 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Kate O’Connor, Creative Skillset

Expert Women: mentoring success

30,000 women had left the industry. These included training programmes for female screenwriters, entrepreneur workshops, the

Women in Film and TV and Sound Women mentoring schemes, and Broadcast and the BBC Academy’s Expert Women training days.

The proportion of women working within independent production rose from 38% in 2009 to 48% in 2012. This tallies with

figures from the overall media, which showed that while just 8% of workers in content development were women in 2009, some 33% were women in 2012. Post-production figures were also positive, with 31% women, compared with 12% in the previous survey.

Kate O’Connor, executive director at Creative Skillset, said there was still some way to go to level the playing field, given that the total was still down on the UK’s overall female working population of 49%.

“It’s a good story; we focused a lot on training. But our work certainly isn’t done,” she said. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

News & Analysis

BBC2 bears brunt of DQF cuts

BY SUZANNE BEARNE

The BBC slashed the amount it spent on content for BBC2 by £11.8m in the last financial year, as part of the Delivering Quality First cuts.

Accounts revealed this week show that spending on BBC2 programming fell from £416.6m in 2011/12 to £404.8m in 2012/13 as the channel scrapped its original commissioning for daytime and bought fewer full-length films.

However, the corporation, which made efficiency savings of £580m over the same period, invested more in content for its three other main channels – BBC1, BBC3 and BBC4 – than in the previous year (see graphic, right).

For BBC1 and BBC3, the boosts were largely due to sports programming. BBC1 was handed an extra £88.1m, largely for its coverage of the London 2012 Olympics, taking its total spend to £1.1bn, while BBC3’s additional £5.9m was partly due to its coverage of the Euro 2012 football tournament.

BBC4’s £800,000 increase was more modest, but it nevertheless

PERFORMANCE BY SERVICE

2012/13 (2011/12 FIGURES IN BRACKETS)

Content

Reach

Time spent watching a channel each week

Appreciation Index

Costs per user per hour

£1,129.2m (£1,041.1m)

77.6% (78.8%)

7 hrs 51 mins (7 hrs 20 mins)

82.6 (82.2)

6.2p (6.1p)

£404.8m (£416.6m)

50.9% (54.3%)

3 hrs 15 mins (3 hrs 23 mins)

84.2 (83.5)

8.3p (7.8p)

£89.7m (£83.8m)

23.2% (23.3%)

1 hr 58 mins (1 hrs 51 mins)

84.0 (84.0)

6.6p (7.0p)

£50.0m (£49.2m)

14.2% (12.5%)

1 hr 44 mins (1 hr 38 mins)

85.6 (84.8)

6.8p (9.5p)

Source: BBC Annual Report 2012/13

managed to reduce its cost per viewer per hour from 9.5p to 6.8p.

A BBC spokeswoman attributed the lower cost to a rise in audience.

Total content spend rose by 3.4% to £2.5bn during the year, driven by the corporation’s coverage of the Olympics and its sur-

rounding programmes and events, which cost it £66m before rights.

The BBC declined to provide the figure it paid for broadcast rights.

The Olympics delivered record figures for the BBC, with 51.9m – 90% of the UK population – watching at least 15 minutes of coverage.

The Opening Ceremony drew the most viewers: 27.3 million.

The BBC has also been working hard to improve its efficiency. In 2012, 75p in every £1 it received was spent on content and the property and technology essential for its production, compared with 71p in 2011.

Patten: talent exodus on the horizon for BBC

BY SUZANNE BEARNE

Lord Patten has warned that the BBC’s ongoing drive to reduce costs will ultimately lead to the corporation losing talented staff and on-screen presenters.

Unveiling the BBC’s annual report, the Trust chairman admitted that its mission to cut headcount, salaries and drive down the pay of its top talent would have implications in the long term.

Patten, who intends to step down from his role when his term finishes in 2015, said: “Sooner or later, I am convinced that the quite proper attempts we have been making to reduce pay across the board will lead to charges that the BBC is losing talent.” He added: “That’s two or three years down www.broadcastnow.co.uk

the way, but I’m sure we will be getting rubbish from the other side about losing talented people.”

In 2012/13, the BBC slashed the amount it spent on its highest-paid stars – those earning £1m-plus – from £9.7m to £5.6m. Household names earning more than £1m are believed to include presenter Graham Norton and Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker. The amount the corporation spent on talent during the 12 months to the end of March fell from £203m to £200m.

However, Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson raked in more than £14m from the show, having received a dividend of £4.86m from Bedder 6, the firm he set up as a joint venture with the BBC to help maximise Top Gear’s global commercial potential.

Payments to senior managers rose 62%, largely due to payoffs of nearly £1.5m BBC Worldwide also paid the presenter £8.4m for his 30% stake in Bedder 6, after the BBC signed a deal in September to take full control of the firm. Clarkson reportedly took home a salary of just under £1m.

The BBC’s payments to senior managers rocketed by 62% to £4.13m during the financial year, largely as a result of payoffs of nearly £1.5m.

George Entwistle (pictured) left the BBC with £470,000, plus £107,000 in legal fees, while former chief operating officer Caroline Thomson received £683,000. Director of radio Helen Boaden was handed £101,000 in legal costs for giving evidence to the Pollard inquiry. The number of senior managers whose salaries range from less than £70,000 to £400,000 fell from 470 to 437.

The BBC is also cutting about 2,000 jobs as part of Delivering Quality First.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 5

News & Analysis

Davie retunes focus of BBCW France, India and the US will become core production hubs as BBCW reviews global alliances

BY PeTer WhiTe

BBC Worldwide is to phase out its investments in international production companies as it concentrates on its bases in the US, France and India.

Outlining some of his plans for the first time, chief executive Tim Davie told Broadcast that BBCW would exit its joint-venture partnership in Argentina with GP Media, having already withdrawn from Australian business Freehand Productions last year.

“In the short term, we’re going to focus on the production bases in LA, Paris and Mumbai. We see them as strong bases for BBC projects,” said Davie.

Those bases have been chosen ahead of the other international producers in which BBCW holds stakes, including Germany’s Tower Productions, Canada’s Temple Street Productions, Russia’s MIR Reality and Brazil’s Mixer.

BBCW is also seeking to expand the number of international channels it operates and is focusing on markets such as Asia. Davie said the channels group had done a good job in core markets but was “underexploited” elsewhere.

BBCW launched 15 new networks in 2012/13, including BBC HD in Brazil, BBC Entertainment in Indonesia and a number of channels in Burma and Cambodia, as well as BBC Knowledge CEE. BBCW’s results for 2012/13 show its revenues edged up 3% to £1.09bn, while its profits after tax were broadly flat at £155m.

Revenues fell at both its consumer products and global brands divisions compared with the previous year, as a result of HMV falling into administration and the closure of Good Food magazine in Australia respectively.

BBCW was restructured this year to operate and report across geographic lines rather than by business sector, and Davie hopes this will help boost these areas. It will also focus on gaming and live events. “We need to increase innovation in these areas,” he said.

6 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Dancing With The Stars: Mumbai, LA and Paris have been chosen as BBCW’s main international bases for projects

We’re not looking for a quick turn. We’re playing a long game when it comes to talent Tim Davie

The company’s distribution business saw healthy growth, and sales of programmes to international broadcasters rose from £292.7m to £312.3m, boosting profits from £72.3m to £79.3m.

It invested £104.2m in distribution rights, up from £98.6m the previous year. However, only 70% of this was spent on BBC commissions, down from 75% in 2011/12, meaning that BBCW spent more money on programming commissioned by rival broadcasters, including Sky drama Sinbad.

Davie said this strategy would continue, despite criticism from

the likes of BBC Trust chair Lord Patten. “The vision for BBCW is to support BBC Productions and continue to be the essential funder of projects beyond the BBC’s boundaries,” he said. “It is essential we are part of a thriving BBC in-house production environment, but the idea that we will no longer work with indies that make shows for other broadcasters is way offhand.”

The company also hopes to ramp up the number of first-look and development deals it strikes, following its latest deal with John Bishop’s indie Lola Entertainment.

“BBCW brings the ability for indies to achieve global scale with a partner that has a sense of longterm development at its heart.

We’re not looking for a quick turn.

We’re playing a long game when it comes to talent,” he added.

The company, which made £8m on the sale of its stake in Left Bank Pictures to Sony Pictures Television, will retain its equity stake in eight indies. Davie said there was no “moratorium” on equity investment in new indies, but that BBCW wasn’t currently on the hunt for acquisitions.

Nurturing talent “We haven’t been taking equity stakes, but that doesn’t stop us working with indies on development funding and co-production funding,” he said. “There are plenty of indies out there where we invest in content and become their distribution partner. It’s critical that BBCW is investing in nurturing the best talent when other funding is hard to come by.”

DG Tony Hall is expected to outline his wider strategy for the BBC in the autumn, when Davie will also deliver BBCW’s broader plans. “What are the channels we’re going to go for? What are the platforms? Where are we going to stop and start?” he said. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

TECHNOLOGY ● DEBATE ● TRAINING ● NETWORKING

SAVE THE DATE 23rd & 24th October

BFI Southbank, London

Event partners

Supported by

Commissioning News

Remedy bolsters Trace rebrand People think it is a live sports channel but we want to take more of an entertainment lifestyle approach

BY Peter White

International broadcaster Trace Sport has commissioned more than 100 hours of lifestyle and entertainment programming from indie Remedy Productions to help build on its rebrand.

Trace rebranded its eponymous UK channel earlier this month to Trace Sport Stars and wants to highlight that it airs entertainment programming around various sports stars and celebrities, rather than offering live sports coverage.

Trace chairman and chief exec­ utive Olivier Laouchez said: “We want viewers to have a clear view of the brand. Some people think it is more of a live sports channel but we want to take more of an entertainment life­ style approach.”

Under the commission, Argonon­owned Remedy, which produces events such as the NME Awards and Radio 1 Teen Awards, will deliver long­form series and short­form content for Trace.

Trace, which is carried by the Sky platform, is seeking presenter­led programming as well as formats.

Grand Designs returns for two more runs on C4 Channel 4 has commissioned another two series of Grand Designs (pictured). Fremantle Media UK label Boundless will produce series 14 and 15 of the Kevin McCloud­fronted franchise, both of which will be 8 x 60 minutes. “It’s all credit to Kevin’s passion, insight and commitment to follow every chapter of these ambitious builds that the series contin­ ues to resonate with such a wide audience,” said Boundless managing director Patrick Holland.

Channel 4 to examine Britain’s complaints culture Britain’s burgeoning complaints culture is to come under the micro­ 8 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Olivier Laouchez, Trace Sport

Winner’s Circle: trace is rebranding to emphasise its entertainment focus

Laouchez said Trace Sport put out a tender for the business and Remedy won against a number of rivals. “London will be an impor­ tant production hub for us, both for the UK as well as for the

channel in the rest of the world,” he added.

Trace launched via Sky in April 2012 and is in the middle of car­ riage negotiations with operators including Virgin Media, BT and

scope in a Channel 4 series partly inspired by a 16­year­old Cutting Edge film. Dragonfly Film and Television will produce 6 x 60­minute series The Complainers, which has secured access to some of the UK’s biggest companies and will feature their most harangued complaint handlers. The indie will examine how giants of industries including retail and telecoms are ploughing millions into cus­ tomer care and reveal the extraordi­ nary lengths some go to in the battle to retain busi­ ness. The Complainers will also cast a light on the complainers them­ selves, questioning whether they are taking advantage of companies at a vulnerable time, or justifiably exercising their consumer rights.

The series will be executive pro­

duced by Tamara Abood and will TX in 2014.

One Born relocates to Bristol for 20-episode run Channel 4 has commissioned a fifth run of One Born Every Minute as the documentary series moves from Leeds General Infirmary to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

The broadcaster has ordered a 20 x 60­minute series, up from its latest run of 14. Following the move, the series will be made by Dragonfly West for the first time. It will be filmed in the autumn and is due to air early next year. The series is executive produced by Madonna Benjamin for Channel 4. “One Born is a much­loved Channel 4 programme and we’re delighted to be moving to a new part of the country, after two brilliant series in Leeds,” said Benjamin. One Born Every Minute was first broadcast in 2010 and picked up a Bafta for best factual series in 2011.

TalkTalk. “We are in discussions at the moment and are optimistic that we will get something,” said Laouchez.

“The pay­TV market is very important and the pay­TV model is right for us.”

Separately, Trace has inked a deal with multiplatform operator Right­ ster to take Trace original content and distribute it online. The broad­ caster operates its bouquet of chan­ nels in 70 countries.

For details of all commisions, see

http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

Rufus Hound takes host’s chair for Channel 4 pilot Rufus Hound is to host a Channel 4 comedy panel show pilot giving guests the chance to control CGI characters. The commercial broad­ caster has commissioned Room 414 to make the non­TX pilot,with

the working title Name That Toon, which will be recorded at the London Studios on 29 July. Hound (pictured) will oversee teams of guests who will physically control computer­generated animations live in the studio. The animations will include animals and famous faces, such as Justin Bieber. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For more projects in development and the latest commissions, visit

http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

Q&A Clive eDwARDs Clive edwards Commissioner for UK current affairs, BBC

What’s the best line you’ve heard in a pitch?

“I know this sounds incredibly risky and impossibly difficult, but how about we...”

What’s your most recent commission and why?

The Men Who Made Us Buy from Fresh One Productions, a three­part series with Jacques Peretti for BBC2, about the manipulation of the con­ sumer. It’s the latest The Men Who Made Us…, and The Men Who Made Us Thin goes out next month.

These series have consistently offered an edgy and provocative way of looking at controversial subjects and drawing out the hidden connections.

What’s the worst line you’ve heard in a pitch?

“I know this has been done before, but if you change the presenter and...”

How much has the programme changed from what was initially pitched?

In broad terms it’s the same, but we did a lot of work shaping the themes for each episode to make sure it told a satisfying story.

What is the most important lesson life as a commissioner has taught you?

Be honest, or it will come back to haunt you as bad television.

What was it that grabbed you?

The Men Who Made Us Buy had lots of great stories about how con­ sumers are encouraged and sometimes suckered into buying. It promised the same qualities that made The Men Who Made Us Fat such a success. That reached audiences of well over 2 million and attracted viewers who would not normally come to current affairs, by bringing a distinctive new take on the subject, plus a certain irrever­ ence and lightness of tone.

What would you like more of?

Domestic ideas for 9pm on BBC2 – treatments that bring new revelations about life in Britain today. Plus stories that matter, which also offer the promise of reaching that important wider audience.

What’s a definite no for you?

Proposals about ‘issues’ with no thought to talent or approach.

Anything that I feel I’ve seen or heard before.

What’s your riskiest commission and why?

All current affairs commissions have some degree of risk or they wouldn’t be current affairs, but the standout was My Murder on BBC3. It was a factual drama based on the premise of the murder victim telling their own story (think Lovely Bones). It involved important subjects for a BBC3 audience – gang culture and knife violence – but the big risk was current affairs doing drama. It won the Broadcast Best Single Drama Award this year.

How quickly do you aim to respond to an idea?

As quickly as possible.

Who has final sign-off?

It’s a joint decision between me and the channel controllers.

How should producers pitch to you?

Through e­commissioning.

What’s your top pitching tip for producers?

Ask yourself, what makes your proposal stand out? What approach would best enhance the content? Who is the right talent? And does your idea bring new insight to a subject that is important to the audience?

Further information and programming tariffs available at: http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

ReCenT COmmissiOns

THe men WHo made Us BUy

ProsTiTUTion: WHaT’s THe Harm?

Indie Fresh One Length 3 x 60 minutes TX April/May 2014, BBC2 Summary Three-part series with Jacques Peretti.

Indie BBC Northern Ireland Length 1 x 60 minutes, BBC3 TX tbc Summary Investigating young people’s attitudes to prostitution and their experience of it.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 9

International

Syfy lands Sharknado for the UK

BY PeTer WhiTe

Syfy has acquired the UK rights to mockbuster action thriller Sharknado after the Tara Reid-fronted TV movie became a Twitter sensation in the US. The show aired on US cable sibling Syfy last week and became the broadcaster’s most-talkedabout show on social media, with more than 600,000 tweets about the 90-minute movie on its opening night.

The telemovie, which is produced by The Asylum Entertainment, drew more than 5,000 tweets a minute, more than the infamous Red Wedding episode of HBO’s Game Of Thrones, according to online data analyst Fizziology.

The $2m-budget Sharknado, which tells the story of a tornado full of deadly sharks attacking Los Angeles, also helped the NBC Universal-owned cable network lower its average audience age.

The B-movie recorded an audience of 1.4 million, up slightly on its average, according to ratings firm Nielsen, with more than 500,000

Creature features have great talkability, but nothing has caused a storm of anticipation like Sharknado Adam Collings, Syfy

Sharknado: the 90-minute TV movie’s debut sparked 600,000 tweets

viewers aged between 18 and 49, a 30% increase in this demographic.

The British pay-TV broadcaster will air the movie in September after acquiring the rights from Asylum. Channel director Adam Collings said that while such movies are commissioned by its US division, Syfy’s international arm has first option to acquire the global rights.

“Syfy US Original Movies, particularly creature features, form a unique strand in our exclusive programming mix,” said Collings.

“They’ve always got great talkability, but nothing has caused quite as huge a storm of anticipation as the mighty Sharknado.”

Sharknado, which also starred Beverly Hills 90210’s Ian Ziering and Home Alone’s John Heard, was

written by Thunder Levin (American Warships) and produced by The Asylum’s David Michael Latt, David Rimawi and Paul Bales.

The Asylum is known for producing over-the-top TV movies such as Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies and Nazis At The Center Of The Earth.

It ramped up its international distribution business at last October’s Mipcom, where it was celebrating its 15th anniversary and distributing titles such as Danny Trejo-fronted Rise Of The Zombies and horror film Hold Your Breath, starring 30 Rock’s Katrina Bowden.

Zig Zag signs up for Jack Black’s Hide And Seek These are three very different but equally compelling formats that we think have huge potential

BY PeTer WhiTe

Zig Zag Productions hopes to produce a UK version of gameshow Hide And Seek after striking a deal with Jack Black’s US production company Electric Dynamite.

The indie, run by Danny Fenton and Kevin Utton, has also optioned Irish and Canadian formats through its membership of independent producers’ alliance Sparks Network, which it joined last year.

Hide And Seek was originally produced by Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo. King Kong star Black’s Electric Dynamite is making a US version in association with T Group, the US indie set up by exTarget Entertainment exec Jenny Daly, after the latter struck a deal with Sparks’ formats distribution arm Eccho Rights. Zig Zag is now pitching the gameshow, in which a 10 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Danny Fenton, Zig Zag

Jockey Stars: gruelling training

family group of contestants play a game of hide and seek for a cash prize, to British broadcasters.

Meanwhile, the indie has optioned Jockey Stars from Irish producer Abu Media. The 6 x

45-minute show, originally commissioned by Irish-language public broadcaster TG4, follows a group of hopefuls through three months of gruelling training, culminating in a horserace to find the next champion jockey.

The Body Bizarre producer is also working on a UK version of Canadian dating format Wanted after striking a deal with Montreal producer Trio Orange. The format, which aired on Canadian general

entertainment station V, sees dating hopefuls try to secure a date by creating an online profile with the help of a psychologist and police profiling specialist.

“These are three very different but equally compelling formats that we think have huge potential. We’re very excited to be bringing them to UK broadcast partners,” said Zig Zag chief executive Fenton.

The deals come nine months after Zig Zag joined the Sparks Network, which is run by Nicola Söderlund and Fredrik af Malmborg, and counts producers such as Turkey’s Ay Yapim, Holland’s Flare Media and Spain’s Zebra Producciones as members.

British scripted indie Serena Cullen Productions, which made BBC1 comedy Me & Mrs Jones, is also part of Sparks Network. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

K

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

INTERVIEW MIKE SHEERIN

Canadian indie bids for a slice of UK cake The producer of Donut Showdown is on the hunt for hit formats. Peter White reports

C

anadian indie Architect Films is seeking to follow up the domestic success of property format Decked Out and food competition Donut Showdown by snagging a hot British format to remake.

Founder Mike Sheerin, who produced documentaries including The Path To War and The Secret Mulroney Tapes before setting up Architect three years ago, is aiming to expand with international ideas.

“What I’m interested in is learning about the international formats world. I’d like to take a hit show from the UK and make my own version,” he says.

Sheerin, who will be heading to Mipcom in October to talk to international producers, is also keen to take its slate of series to the global market, in association with his distribution partner Tricon Films & Television.

Thanks to terms of trade that are similar to the UK, Canada is one of the few countries around the world where producers keep hold of rights, thus allowing them to benefit more on such back-end deals.

Architect recently struck its first format deal, selling food trivia show Ice Cold Cash,

Left to right: Donut Showdown; Decked Out

originally commissioned by the Food Network in Canada, to Quebec-based Frenchlanguage broadcaster Zeste.

The indie’s latest series include Donut Showdown and Extreme Collectors. The former, which was commissioned by the Cooking Channel, is one of a long line of cake-based competition formats such as The Great British Bake Off, Cake Boss, Cupcake Wars and Last Cake Standing. It features established bakers who judge a cake-off, where the three finalists have a chance to win a £10,000 prize.

Meanwhile, Extreme Collectors, which was ordered by Shaw Media-owned general entertainment network Slice, follows professional appraiser Andrew Zegers as he travels the country looking for unique collections in a part-road trip, part-treasure hunt format.

Sheerin is hoping these shows can replicate the success of property renovation series Decked Out, which airs in the UK on Discovery Shed, and its spin-off Deck Wars, both of which have been sold to a number of international networks.

Hulu owners to invest $750m after halting sale

True Blood back for seventh season on HBO

UKTV snaps up Boston’s Finest for Watch

The owners of US online streaming service Hulu have called off its sale and committed $750m (£500m) in new funding to boost growth. 21st Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company and NBC Universal cancelled the sale for the second time after reportedly failing to agree terms with any of the bidders.

Companies including Yahoo!, Time Warner, DirecTV, talent agency WME, The Chernin Company and private equity firms KKR and Silver Lake Management had all submitted bids, but it is believed the stumbling block was the rights issues around programming from Hollywood studios rather than the initial asking price. However, it is thought that a minority stake of up to 25% could still be sold to Time Warner.

US cable network HBO has renewed vampire drama True Blood (pictured) for a seventh season. Pay-TV broadcaster Fox has the first-run rights to the Anna Paquinfronted series in the UK, while Sky Atlantic also shows episodes through its wide-ranging deal with HBO. The series also previously aired on Channel 4. The sixth season, which is airing in the US, is expected to be broadcast in the UK later this year.

True Blood, which also stars Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard and is based on the novels by Charlaine Harris, was created by Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. The show was recommissioned by HBO programming president Michael Lombardo.

UKTV has acquired reality series Boston’s Finest (pictured) after striking a deal with Endemol. The network has acquired the US series for pay-TV channel Watch and will launch it in August. The 8 x 60-minute series, which is exec produced by Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg, follows a group of Boston police officers including patrol officers, detectives, members of the SWAT team, and the fugitive and gang units. The show airs on US cable network TNT and is produced by the Jarrett Creative Group and Wahlberg’s Donnie D Productions. The deal was brokered by UKTV acquisitions exec Emma Sparks and Endemol

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Worldwide Distribution’s Gisela Asimus-Minnbergh.

Al Jazeera to air Premier League across Middle East Al Jazeera has acquired the rights to show English Premier League games after striking a deal with rights agency MP & Silva. The broadcaster has acquired the rights to all 380 games for three seasons starting this year, for TV, online and mobile across the Middle East and North Africa.

The company, which has 19 live sport and sports news channels, will launch three new HD channels to show the games. Former Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray will host the broadcaster’s English-language programmes, marking their return to TV after two years.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 11

Technology & Facilities CreATive review

Law and Order: UK

First dates

secret deaLers

Post Technicolor Client Kudos Productions Brief Complete the grade on the 6 x 60-minute series of the US franchise crime drama, which follows the lives of a team of police detectives and prosecutors.

How it was done Technicolor senior colourist Dan Coles graded the series using Baselight. Coles said he wanted to create a warm and rich feel for the series while maintaining a naturalistic, filmic quality. The grading was designed to complement both the on-location and studio scenes, with vignettes and varying amounts of contrast used to emphasise mood. This included a warm, golden hue for the courtroom scenes and cool blues, greens and cyans for the interview rooms and police station. Coles also accentuated some of the flare from the sun and artificial light sources to give the series a strong, contemporary look.

Watch it Sundays, 9pm, ITV

Titles and GFX Hello Charlie Client Twenty Twenty Brief Design and create 2D animations for titles, content animations, bumpers and straps for the 6 x 60-minute series about dating in which single people meet with potential partners they discovered online.

How it was done Designer Dan Taylor worked to create an animated title and a series of 10 in-show animations. The objective was to create a crafted aesthetic that also emphasised a romantic, delicate and human feel. The opening title has a ‘pop up’ and handmade quality. Following this design route, animations were then created in After Effects to help indicate the outcome of each of the dates. The creation of a consistent brand for the show that worked both on and off screen allowed the design to be used online – including on the dating pages on the C4 website.

Watch it Thursdays, 9pm, C4

Post Films@59 Client RDF Television West Brief Provide picture and audio post on ITV’s 30-part daytime series about antiques dealing.

How it was done With the series spread across a selection of vision and audio operators, a key challenge was to create a consistent style within a daytime budget. The grade and online edit was completed on Symphony Nitris by Films@59’s vision department, which delivered a consistently rich and colourful look to the series, working with material shot at many locations using the Canon XF305.

Multiple microphones, meanwhile, recorded the on-location sound. The track lay and mixing team combined this with music and voiceovers in Pro Tools and Pyramix, using a package of generic effects to tie the series together.

Watch it Weekdays from Monday, 3pm, ITV

You can view clips at broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/creative-review To include your work email george.bevir@broadcastnow.co.uk

BBC and universities link up for multiplatform research

LipSync Post hires Sal Umerji from Molinare

The BBC’s research and development team is to collaborate with six universities countrywide to explore the potential of new forms of broadcast content and interaction in a multiplatform world. The BBC User Experience Research Partnership will be a four-year collaboration between BBC R&D and the University of Bath, the University of Dundee, University College London, Newcastle University, the University of Nottingham and Swansea University.

The research partnership will also consider new ways of producing media that will help make content more accessible to audiences.

LipSync Post has appointed Sal Umerji (below) as head of visual effects production. Umerji joins from Molinare, where he held the role of VFX head of production. During his seven-year stint at Molinare, he worked on more than 50 film and TV productions including The King’s Speech and Flying Monsters With David Attenborough.

LipSync managing director Peter Hampden said: “Sal is exceptionally talented.”

12 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

TSL to deliver Birmingham playout centre for Comux Local-TV infrastructure provider Comux has selected systems integrator TSL to manage the

procurement, installation and delivery of its playout centre in Birmingham. Comux chief executive Ed Hall said that while the company had initially planned to manage the project in-house, because of a delay in receiving an award for the licence, it had opted to use a TSL systems integrator team to make sure that Comux hit its deadlines. Hall added: “TSL is in a position to deliver on price in a way that could be difficult for a new company [entering the market].”

Filmlight appoints Tyrell as first UK Baselight reseller Tyrell has been appointed as the first UK and Ireland reseller of Baselight Editions (above right), the software-only product from Filmlight. Baselight Editions provides the same core toolset as the full system but as a software-only package that can be fully incorpo-

rated into an existing NLE. Tyrell will focus on Baselight for Avid.

Filmlight international and UK account manager Arthur Johnsen said: “We want more customers to experience our grading tools via Baselight Editions, and bringing Tyrell on board is an excellent fit for us.”

AP extends Live U deal to cover streaming service Associated Press has expanded its deal with video-over-mobile provider Live U in a move that will allow its global network of journalists to stream real-time broadcastwww.broadcastnow.co.uk

For the latest technology and facilities news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils

Boxx launches rental firm to counter capex constraints

BY GeorGe Bevir

RF equipment firm Boxx TV has launched a new rental division as it looks to find a backer for its core manufacturing company.

The west London company has set up Zero Division to rent out microwave broadcast equipment including its Meridian transmitters, receivers and RF accessories, and provide engineer support to TV and film clients.

Boxx TV co-founder Darrell Bilton cited falling budgets as one reason for the push into the facilities sector. “It is difficult for companies to find the capital expenditure to buy kit. It is much easier to rent or lease equipment – a director of photography can make a decision to sign off a couple of grand but a £15,000 purchase might have to go to a finance director.”

One of Zero Division’s first jobs was last month’s Glastonbury Festival, where it provided Steadicam operator John Clarke with a Meridian transmitter and engineering support.

quality content to its London hub.

The deal will include a range of professional broadcast technology devices, including a backpack uplink unit with full high-definition capability, and technology to convert a laptop into a live video transmission unit. The investment will allow AP to deploy more than one unit on the same story, which it hopes will provide a “fuller picture” of unfolding events.

Glastonbury Festival: Meridian portable kit was used at the music event

It also recently provided wireless systems for a Sony F55 and an Arri Alexa for Sky 1’s upcoming The Town That Danced Again.

Bilton said manufacturing business Boxx TV was now “open to enquiries” from rivals and other suppliers that might want to integrate its technology with their own products. “It can cost £1m in research and development when we develop a new product, so to make more systems, it makes sense

to get a private equity firm behind Boxx or for it to be acquired. Zero Division can buy and rent kit but it doesn’t have the R&D funding requirement that Boxx TV has.”

Bilton also raised the prospect of Zero Division becoming a “fullyblown facilities house”.

“The starting position is the hire of Boxx’s main products but there is no reason why we couldn’t add other kit such as cameras and batteries,” he said.

expertise beyond our renowned Sohonet Media Network to include a range of specialist, media-aware infrastructure-as-a-service offerings, and Chuck Parker is the ideal person to keep us on track to achieve our ambitious objectives.”

co-founded the facility’s TV department. During his time at The Mill, he supervised the VFX for Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Merlin and Sinbad. In his new role, Houghton will liaise with clients and oversee all broadcast VFX projects, along with Prime Focus creative director Simon Clarke.

rTS recognises the value of sport with two awards

Sohonet hires Parker as non-executive chairman Former Technicolor chief commercial officer Chuck Parker has joined Sohonet as non-executive chairman. Parker, who is currently the chief revenue officer of Unicorn Media and chairman of the 2nd Screen Society, will help Sohonet with its plans for global expansion. Sohonet chief executive Dave Scammell said: “We are significantly extending our www.broadcastnow.co.uk

The Mill’s Houghton to head up vFX at Prime Focus Prime Focus has appointed David Houghton (above) to the role of VFX creative director in the drama division of its London-based broadcast team. Prior to joining Prime Focus, Houghton was VFX supervisor at The Mill, where he

The Royal Television Society has added two sport production and broadcasting categories to this year’s Craft and Design Awards.

The awards for Multi-camera Work and Tape & Film Editing have been included to recognise the important role that sport plays in the UK’s TV landscape, the RTS said. In addition, the Sound – Entertainment & Non Drama category is now open to entries from the genre. Awards

Air adopts Avid Interplay in facility upgrade Air Post Production has given its post workflow an overhaul with a £250,000 investment in Avid’s Interplay Production facility package.

The Shoreditch-based facility is one of four UK firms to adopt the Interplay package since it was introduced at NAB 2013, along with Serious in Glasgow and two as-yet-unnamed companies.

Altered Images supplied Air with the Avid kit, which includes licences for Media Composer 7, Symphony, Interplay Sphere remote editing software, Isis shared storage and Interplay Central for cloud-based remote workflow.

Air head of MCR Ed Spencer said: “The functionalities that Interplay Production offers will dramatically speed up our clients’ productivity and enable us to service projects more efficiently.”

As part of the overhaul, Air upgraded its Isis 5000 to 64TB and extended the Interplay Base client connections from 10 to 30.

Six of its edit suites were also updated with Media Composer Mojo DX hardware and HD monitoring.

chair Nigel Pickard said: “The time is right to recognise the special merits and skills of sports production.” The closing date for entries is Monday 2 September 2013. The awards will take place on Monday 18 November.

red Giant releases final BulletProof beta Red Giant has released the final public beta version of its offload, prep and delivery software BulletProof. The DIT tool will be available to new customers and the “several thousand” existing beta testers. The new release features a metadata export function, allowing users to send metadata to FCP 7, FCP X and Premiere Pro as XML or XMP. It also includes colour adjustments, in and out points and an option to trim the original clip or leave it as non-destructive metadata. Version 1.0 of the software is due to ship this summer.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 13

Comment

When I heard of The Village I thought, ‘shit, that’s what I’m doing’ John Fay on The Mill, In Focus, page 29

101 Finsbury Pavement, London EC2A 1RS Editor Lisa Campbell 020 3033 2813 Deputy Editor & News Editor Chris Curtis 020 3033 2718 Features Editor Robin Parker 020 3033 4202 Web Editor Alex Farber 020 3033 4204 Senior Reporter Jake Kanter 020 3033 4205 Senior Reporter, International Peter White 020 3033 4271 Technology and Facilities Editor George Bevir 020 3033 4207 Production Editor Dominic Needham 020 3033 4201 Group Art Director, MBI Peter Gingell 020 3033 4203 Head of Production and Art, MBI Mark Mowbray 020 3033 2817 Contributors Kate Bulkley, Stephen Price Group Commercial Director, MBI Alison Pitchford 020 3033 2949 Conference Director, MBI Charlotte Wheeler 07702 381809 Events Manager, MBI Mai Le 020 3033 2950 Deputy Sales Manager Sonya Jacobs 020 3638 5057 Senior Account Manager Alex Margo 020 3638 5064 Recruitment & Classified Manager Jonathan Thornley 020 3638 5065 Greenlight Co-ordinator Maria Sell 020 3033 2932 Sales Administrator Justyna Zieba 020 3033 2694 Marketing Executive Sheryl Rood 020 3033 2872 Production Manager, MBI David Cumming 020 3033 2678 Chief Executive, MBI Conor Dignam 020 3033 2717 Advertising Fax 020 3033 2604 Subscription Enquiries 01604 828705 Customer Services Email customerservices@broadcastnow.co.uk 0203 033 2626 The formula to email individual members of staff is: firstname.surname@broadcastnow.co.uk The formula to email individual members of staff with MBI after their job title: firstname.surname@mb-insight.com

To subscribe to Broadcast simply follow one of these steps VISIT www.subscription.co.uk/ broadcast/bmla Or Call 01604 828705 (UK) or +44 (0)1604 828705 (international) and quote BMLA Broadcast is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), publisher of Screen International & shots www.mb-insight.com

14 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

USP: new Virgin channel Ginx focuses on gaming

Tapping into a new mindset Bridging TV and online gap will attract millennials, says Kate Bulkley

O

ne topic on my TV brain at the moment is what channels will look like for the pivotal millennial generation – the difficult 16 to 34 year-old crew that everyone wants to attract.

Will they watch regular TV channels? Will they watch video recommended by their Facebook friends? Will they pay for TV? Will their viewing habits change as they get older?

One thing is for sure: a channel these days has multiple definitions. Online, YouTube channels are blooming and operators such as Machinima, Rightster, Base 79 and Awesomeness TV, among others, are attracting lots of attention, both from growing online audiences and from serious financial backers like Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg and ex-News Corp TV honcho Peter Chernin.

These new players are making traditional TV executives such as BBC director of television Danny Cohen revise how they see audiences. At Broadcast’s Commissioning & Funding Forum this month, Cohen said his competitors go beyond ITV and Sky to the likes of Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. The BBC is fighting for “screen time”, he says. “It’s not about audience TV time, but media minutes overall.”

Of course, there is still a lot of life in ye olde TV channels. They’re still being launched, even in mature TV markets such as the UK, the most recent being gaming channel Ginx on Virgin Media. But there’s a catch: a new TV channel today needs a USP beyond simply being a niche brand.

As an ex-MTV head honcho, Ginx boss Michiel Bakker knows a thing or two about multichannel rollouts. Ginx, with a staff of just 25 and some 350 hours of programming, is up to 10 million subs following

the Virgin launch. Bakker calls Ginx a “Groundhog Day experience” for him, but with a twist: he is targeting millennials – or “natural-born multi-screeners” who, as gamers, view high-speed broadband as a basic utility, up there with water and electricity.

Ginx’s USP is similar to that of BT Sports: it helps sell broadband as much as it attracts a young audience.

Bakker believes, however, that TV and online are still fundamentally different: Ginx is available online and, he believes, goes some way towards bridging the two worlds. Video-game reviews plus short ‘shows’ around topics like mobile gaming are all presented in a TV-like way, suitable for a 50-inch screen, whereas YouTube members might only record other gamers playing a video game.

Meanwhile in the US, Participant Media is launching Pivot TV on 1 August, both as a pay-TV channel and a live, streamed channel via a downloadable app. Its USP is that it is ‘socially aware’ telly that encourages millennials to get involved. A talk show called TakePart Live will dissect the daily news headlines and other programmes will have ‘authentic’ voices including a docu-soap featuring Meghan McCain, the outspoken daughter of Senator John McCain, exploring topics trending on Twitter.

As with Ginx, the idea is to try to bridge the gap between TV and online and tap into the online communities of interest that millennials take as second nature. ➤ Kate Bulkley is a print and TV journalist and awards secretary of the Broadcasting Press Guild. Follow her on Twitter @katecomments

‘A new TV channel today needs a USP beyond being a niche brand’

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Post your comments online at www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Your saY

In mY vIew Stanleys, for everything over the years.

Tony Gregory, director Over the years, Stanley Productions has offered the industry tremendous service and given our company stern competition. We wish Stanley Aaron the best of luck. From all at PMD Magnetics.

Sam Wilks, director, PMD Magnetics

Stanley Productions: end of an era

The news that Soho-based Stanley Productions is to close down due to founder Stanley Aaron’s ill health as well as tough marketing conditions prompted many responses from both clients and competitors. Here is a selection: That’s the last of the old-school Soho tape suppliers: first Transco, then Blanx and now Stanleys. As one of your competitors for a number of years, you kept me on my toes and I’m sorry to see the doors finally closing.

Having started my career in Soho more than 25 years ago with Maureen Bartlett down the road at the Film Stock Centre – now, sadly, a bakery chain outlet – it was reassuringly familiar to wander past the dusty window displays of ‘Stan’s’.

Soho has changed beyond recognition since those heady days of the 1980s, and I fear the high street will encroach further and erode its character evermore.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Kabir Malik, founder, Kabbage Stanleys was always there for those little production emergencies. I remember being a young studio director at Granada. We needed to make 50 episodes of a programme, and could barely afford the tapestock at Granada. I sent a runner on the train to London to buy the tapes – at half Granada’s internal prices.

Stanleys made it simple, and cost-effective. The Granada library refused to take in the tapes, as we hadn’t bought them from them, and we had to store all 300 in our office. Thank you www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Comment

Broadcast, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London NW1 7EJ or email bcletters@emap.com

Response on broadcastnow.co.uk to the story ‘Miranda Sawyer: Women on air stats “shocking”’ A very welcome piece of research that highlights a stark inequality in a great and supposedly more accessible medium. I suspect the focus of the exercise was on live programming rather than on recorded features.

Could the stats in recorded features show higher levels of contribution from women as producers, presenters and contributors?

Creative Skillset’s latest workforce survey gives some insight into how women are faring in technical roles.

Sharon Elliott, communications officer, Bectu Responses on broadcastnow.co.uk to the story ‘Shane Allen criticises C4 commissioning’ Shane is funny, warm and genuine.

His leaving do was brave and brilliant and was the funniest thing I’d seen in ages – he used comedy to make a serious point about the current direction of Channel 4 because he cares about C4.

As a true creative and a real enabler, that Shane felt frustrated enough to want to leave Horseferry Road says much about the new regime in place there.

Anonymous C4 is in a ratings rut because it is chasing a mainstream audience that seems adequately served elsewhere. The overnights in the past few weeks have been shocking, but this has nothing to do with comedy failures (as currently, there isn’t any comedy on the channel of which to speak).

Failure to hit 1 million viewers in peak with dull and derivative shows like Hollywood Me and Eye Spy is the real and ongoing problem for a C4 that has stopped taking risks and disenfranchised its previously loyal audience.

Anonymous

Cultural diversity is too important to give up on Industry must change its mindset if equality is to be achieved, says Simone Pennant

T

he results of Skillset’s employment census, a snapshot of those working in the creative media industries, has brought the issue of race back to the top of the agenda in the debate around diversity in TV. The creative media industry employs almost 200,000 people.

There’s some good news – women now represent 36% of this total workforce compared with 27% in 2009 – but in the past four years, more than 2,000 people from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds (BAME) have left the industry, reducing ethnic representation to just 5.4% of the total.

To most, this comes as no surprise. Five years ago, Trevor Phillips predicted the economic downturn could have an adverse effect on diversity in the media.

He noted that history has shown that “belts squeeze disproportionately” in relationship to ethnicminority employees.

Although the recession has had an effect, to some extent, the ball is in ITV’s court as the current chair of the Creative Diversity Network.

It has pledged to take analysis of the data to the new CDN industry working groups in commissioning, production and news.

I agree it is important to understand the data, but the lack of culturally diverse representation has been an issue since long before I started in telly more than a decade ago. For the past five years, I have been running the forum The TV Collective, which supports the needs of culturally diverse talent working in TV and digital media.

We’re currently working with Pact to produce a series of events scheduled for the autumn. We’re also in discussions with the CDN and ITV. The members I spoke to all knew someone who had left the industry; and they’re tired of having the

same conversation about cultural diversity that leads nowhere. I, too, felt a slight reluctance to bring up the topic yet again.

Somehow, the issue of cultural diversity has dropped off the agenda. Under the BBC’s leadership, the CDN embraced all forms of diversity, including those with disabilities, women, LGT and older people. Now with a wider remit, priorities have changed, and the general feeling is that ethnicity has got lost in the reshuffle.

‘Somehow, the issue of cultural diversity has dropped off the agenda’ If the industry can improve the fortunes of women in just four years, cultural diversity should be a piece of cake. The problem with race is that there is nothing tangible to fix. If someone is in a wheelchair, you can build a ramp; for women with children, you can offer flexible hours and childcare. But how do you tackle the ethnicity issue, especially when the needs of the talent are the same as anyone else’s?

The answer lies with an industry change in mindset. The solution is to tackle the lack of opportunities for BAME people, whether perceived or real.

One black assistant producer planning their exit from TV (who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal) told me they didn’t have the strength left to fight the industry, feeling they had not been given the opportunities to progress. “Producers see me as too much of a ‘risk’ as I don’t have the typical background,” they told me.

This is a familiar story but just told in different words. If the entire industry is serious about improving cultural diversity, it must act now. ➤ Simone Pennant heads The TV Collective. She can be contacted at simone@thetvcollective.org 19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 15

BIG

WHEN YOU NEED IT TO BE

Scalable storage, when you need it Sohonet Media Storage expands your storage capability at the flick of a switch. We offer pay as you go prices via our private Sohonet Media Network.

Project Parking, Archiving, Off Site Storage, Portable Media Replacement. www.sohonet.com

CONSTRUCT

STORE DESIGN

INSTALL

MANAGE

We are exhibition stand experts Since the 1960’s Limelight have been building stands in Cannes for the TV and Film markets.

t +44(0) 20 8989 6106

With design studios, production and storage facilities in the UK and France we provide unparalleled standards of design and build quality, almost obsessive dedication to service and a pricing structure that offers outstanding value, especially when storing in Cannes and reusing at future exhibitions.

f +44(0) 20 8989 7163

If you would like a chat, tour of our 20+ stands or even some free stand advice/ideas Adam House is in Cannes during the markets, and can be reached on +44(0)7584086580.

e adam@limelightdesign.co.uk www.limelightdesign.co.uk

Media Asset Management From logging to storage, the new paradigms for future-proofing metadata

Captivate Your Senses Captivate Your Senses Rediscover your source with luxurious treatments inspired by the philosophy Rediscover your source withinluxurious inspired by the philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Europe’s treatments first internationally-acclaimed Chuan Spa. of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Europe’s first internationally-acclaimed Chuan Spa. The Langham, London are proud to support Screen UK Stars of Tomorrow 2013.

The Langham, London are proud to support Screen UK Stars of Tomorrow 2013.

T h e L a n g h a m , L o n do n 1 c Po r t l a nd P T l ahc ee , LRe S tr Lonndo n W 1B 1JA a nge g hnta m , eLeot,n do 4 r(0 20 P7973 @ cndo h uannsWpa .c o1JA m 1Tc 4Po t l )a nd l a c e , 7550 Re ge nttlSl otrn.i e enfo t, Lo 1B w w w. chuan o . u@kc h ua ns pa .c o m T 4 4 (0 ) 20 7973 7550 tlsl opa n.i. cnfo w w w. c h u a n s pa . c o . u k

ChuanSpa ScreenInt-Jun2013.indd 1

12/06/2013 09:51

ChuanSpa ScreenInt-Jun2013.indd 1

12/06/2013 09:51

Contents Leader 20

22

25

The appliance of science Asset management has shaken off its roots as a discrete information technology bunkered in playout centres and machine rooms to become inextricably bound up with how a media organisation makes money.

It underpins production and distribution strategy and can streamline costs by cutting human intervention or speeding up asset retrieval. It can help adrian PenningTOn sweat more value from captured media and can aid discovery of content online. Increasingly, it is shaping decision-making strategy; so much so that broadcasters and indies are developing policies around it and creating new departments and roles to collect, curate and analyse it.

Fortunately, the broadcast industry already has intelligence built in.

It’s called metadata, and to a greater or lesser degree, every file passing through a facility has it embedded. The trick to successful asset management is harnessing that metadata and making use of it. The downside is that the sheer volume of data makes storing and editorialising it, for use now or in a decade’s time, problematic.

Early media asset management (MAM) systems were designed to connect silos of proprietary technology and processes within facilities that made the movement of media more efficient. These are being superseded by more agile, scaleable approaches that encompass the lifecycle of media from lens to screen, incorporating social media feedback on its consumption.

Last month came news of the high-profile collapse of the BBC’s Digital Media Initiative, whose fate was arguably sealed the moment it was greenlit in 2008. Locked into its own internal processes, its implementation would be much more flexible and cost-efficient if it were begun today with off-the-shelf software and cloud servers.

The sweep of asset management is wide and getting wider, a trend that the following pages attempt to trap. Here, we analyse big data, the critical importance of logging and concerns over media obsolescence, and we provide examples of asset intelligence in action. ➤ Adrian Pennington, supplement editor

Contents 26

20 Big Data Does the reality live up to the hype?

22 Archive Finding solutions to the problem of long-term storage.

25 Case Studies How MAM systems are being used across the industry.

26 Logging Simplifying the process of creating metadata.

cover image: edmund Sumner © BFi

Broadcast Editor Lisa Campbell Supplement Editor Adrian Pennington Features Editor Robin Parker Production Editor Dominic Needham Group Art Director, Media Peter Gingell Contributor Andy Stout Senior Commercial Director, Media Alison Pitchford Deputy Sales Manager Sonya Jacobs Senior Account Manager Alex Murgo

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 19

Production

getty IMAgeS

mam bIg data

Information overload?

Big data is claimed to offer valuable insight for broadcasters, but critics argue that relying on it too heavily can be dangerous. Adrian Pennington takes a look behind the hype

T

he hype surrounding ‘big data’ – the collection and analysis of very large data sets – is similar to that which heralded the cloud, not least in the vagueness of its application and the suspicions of its merits.

The concept has been around for years, not just in economics (GDP figures) and IT circles (business management software) but in broadcasting too (Barb reports).

A recent rebadging has focused attention on the idea – Deluxe Media chief operating officer Lesley Marr dubs it a “brand” – while claims for its ability to achieve original insight are based on advances in computer processing power.

“It’s now possible very quickly to capture and store for significant periods of time, at a reasonable cost, extremely large data sets,” says Mediasmiths chief technology officer Steve Sharman. “This could be log 20 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

‘Big data is not a replacement for estab­ lished research methods, and it’s no panacea’ Justin Sampson, Barb

information generated by systems on a network, or Twitter feeds.”

Where data was once collected under certain rules to generate statistically sound insight such as the population census, today’s data is less structured – Sharman puts Flickr tags, Twitter hashtags, blog posts, scripts and stories in this category. He believes Twitter is the worst offender for big data masquerading as science or insight.

Twitter spikes “There are many articles online making the shocking revelation that spikes in Twitter activity precede major events,” he says. “For example, that protests during the Arab Spring were preceded

by Twitter activity spikes, which is about as insightful as saying that heavy traffic on the road to Wembley preceded a major football match.”

Data sets are also being used to support real-time or near real-

time decision-making using algorithms rather than to support analysis by humans.

The positive spin on big data is that if you look hard enough for patterns, valuable new truths will be revealed.

Critics claim this method is blind and incurs a danger.

“It’s creating a bigger haystack in which to hide the needle,” says Barb chief executive Justin Sampson. “Big data feels valuable. When iPlayer delivers over 200 million requests a month, it’s clear we’re dealing with an explosion in data and any data set promising new insight should be seriously considered. But it’s not a replacement for established research methods, and it’s no panacea. The challenge is asking the right questions to make analysis more straightforward.”

Mediasmiths chief executive Niall Duffy agrees. “More data doesn’t mean more truth, but more danger that you’ll www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

find spurious correlations. The hard work is in constructing a data set that has a logic and consistency to it.”

Barb’s own data set is about to get bigger. Project Dovetail, which began last month, culls IP data from meters installed on PCs and mobile screens in panel homes covering a 28-day post-broadcast period.

“Computer-driven data analysis will be brilliant at measuring the quantity of interactions, but it doesn’t give you their quality,” says Sampson. “Barb’s benefit is that we have an established structure to allow for useful analysis.”

Marr suggests that unstructured data generated by web and social media has value.

“How can you design a structure for something you can’t foresee?” she says. “A data model works fine for small amounts of metadata, but the information from cloud and mobile is so vast. Too rigid a structure could inhibit your insight.”

Greater relevance Lacking the natural subscription information of a pay-TV broadcaster, Channel 4 has gone to some lengths to get a 360° picture of viewer habits, partnering with retail and financial services firms as well as expanding 4oD across platforms and making sure it protects personal data.

“Unstructured analysis of conversational streams can be misleading if it’s isolated outside the context of your existing customer base,” says C4 head of planning and analytics Sanjeevan Bala. “Our approach is to capture C4 registrations first, then encourage our viewers to add Facebook and Twitter against their C4 handles and bring the two sets together for greater relevance.”

The dominant application of big data is around personalisation of the consumer experience, such as making better recommendations, and targeted advertising around VoD. In this regard, most broadcasters are lagging far behind the curve, according to online video analytics specialist Ooyala.

“I’m not surprised about scepticism from TV, where the value of analytics is neither well understood nor advanced,” says Ooyala Europe vice-president Neil Berry. “We’re moving to a non-linear world driven by consumer demand and it’s essential that content providers use analytics to respond. The kind of valuable business insight you can collect from big data in a non-linear world is entirely different to what broadcasters can currently achieve.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk

through to viewer feedback; if they do, the chain can easily be broken as more facilities or co-producers get involved.

Marr suggests productions could employ a data producer with oversight of data during a show’s life cycle, while Berry says dedicated roles are already common among Ooyala’s clients, which range from The Sun to ESPN. “Data scientists in Silicon Valley command a huge premium for their skill set,” he adds. “The skill is to understand how to mine data and translate it into actionable results.”

4oD: viewer registration has given C4 valuable insight

‘The kind of valuable business insight you can collect from big data is entirely different to what broadcasters can currently achieve’

Online video analytics, he says, requires that media companies completely revise their approach.

“While much of the data may have already existed, it hasn’t been used from an editorial perspective or to make monetisation decisions,” says Berry. “Analytics is fundamental to driving decisions about how to socialise video or target advertising.”

Big-data techniques could also be applied to improve internal production and distribution chains.

“Broadcasters already have a business with a lot of intelligence built in,” says Tony Taylor, chief executive of Neil Berry, Ooyala MAM software manufacturer TMD. “It’s called metadata and it’s embedded in content to a greater or lesser degree. We can help broadcasters make better use of it to improve their operational performance.”

Network capacity, for example, is often misused or underused and could be fine-tuned with greater forecasting and planning.

“To a broadcaster, intelligent transport of media around and between facilities can have greater financial impact than consumer analysis,” says Duffy.

The bigger challenge, says Marr, is how to manage it all.

Broadcasters may employ specialists in handling large-scale data sets, such as Oracle or Ooyala, or they may bring expertise in-house.

While a larger indie such as Endemol can collect data on its own content to aid global The Apprentice: Lord syndication, few Sugar-fronted show is producers tag media a catalyst for spikes consistently from in Twitter activity location to production

Business change C4’s audience technologies and insight department was assembled for just this purpose. Bala, a former employee of Silicon Valley start-ups eBay and Tesco Clubcard creator Dunnhumby, was recruited to oversee a multimillion-pound investment in database infrastructure.

“The department doesn’t sit in marketing but reports direct to [C4 chief executive] David Abraham,” he says. “That’s important, because there’s a lot of hype about big data.

Too many organisations focus on the technology rather than on business change. You start with the end in mind and work out what data it will take to get there. For that, you need to pull in information from every department.”

The validity of adopting a bigdata policy ultimately boils down to whether it makes money.

“Will it help to grow my audience?” asks Berry. “‘Will it help me make more money? If it can’t do either, there’s no point having big data.”

Sharman questions the definition of big data. “Is it just a better term for statistical analysis of large data sets, or a giant scam that peddles garbage as value? At the moment, both are true. We see a continued evolution in the application of techniques on the ‘sell’ side of VoD and catch-up platforms, in recommending content to users. Whether we’ll see big data making real inroads into the way that content is actually made is a question for the future.”

Bala claims that tangible results of C4’s data efforts include new online ad products and increased viewing thanks to tailored communications: “The challenge now is learning how this might be deployed in traditional business areas like commissioning and scheduling, to deliver content in a more predictive way.”

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 21

Production mam archiving

To protect and conserve With current tape and disc formats likely to become obsolete in a few years, long-term content storage is a growing problem for the industry. Adrian Pennington examines the options

T

he issue is obvious to any owner of VHS, DVD, digital stills or even movies downloaded from an online store: will future technology be able to read them? Already the first iterations of de facto archive standard linear tape-open (LTO) are obsolete.

“There won’t be any devices in 100 years able to read current generations of LTO,” says Mediasmiths technology officer Steve Sharman. “Content shouldn’t be tied to a physical artefact but archived as a file format.”

Archiving on LTO is a migratory exercise requiring a co-ordinated transfer of material every few years.

Each generation of LTO is backwardscompatible with the two previous generations. Storage capacity roughly doubles with each upgrade, so in theory it should be able to keep pace with rising data volumes. In practice, however, it has been found wanting.

Sony is pushing Optical Disc Archive (ODA), which eliminates forced media migration and claims a 50 year-plus lifespan. But ODA cartridges are 10 times the price of £20 LTO-5 tapes.

“With the storage requirements of a typical client rising to 300,000 hours from 100,000 a few years ago, the roadmap for LTO is close to its limits,” says Sony specialist Colin Thompson.

“Broadcasters hate the forced migration plan, which is part of [primary LTO manufacturers] HP and IBM’s business models.

“We don’t intend ODA to compete with LTO; broadcaster investments are too entrenched. But you can run nearline LTO stores for easy access in tandem with a deep archive on disc that you will not have to migrate again.”

Since optical technology is unsophisticated and widely used, the odds that optical media players could be recreated in 50 years’ time are good, but not even Sony can 22 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

‘We don’t have any idea how we’ll even display images in 100 years’ Steve Sharman, mediasmiths

promise that. “That’s the millionpound question,” says Thompson.

“Manufacturers aim to create storage devices for the longest possible term, but this remains a consumer-driven business and there’s a history of formats that have come and gone.”

In Sony’s favour is that ODA is compatible with the Universal Disc Format, an ISO standard essentially uniting CDs made in 1982 with the optical file systems of tomorrow.

Ironically, given the widespread move to digitise film archives, the only option with a proven 100-year lifespan is celluloid. While planning to digitise 10,000 titles by 2017, the BFI preserves the nation’s film heritage on 450,000 cans in a £12m vault in Warwickshire.

Low-cost storage “The cost of maintaining film in a lowtemperature store is much smaller than the cost of managing data migration every five years, and of paying energy costs for storing tape – the power requirements of spinning discs are particularly high,” says Paul Collard, vice-president of film and digital services at post and restoration services provider Deluxe 142.

While it would be unrealistic to scan to film every piece of content now being shot in a file format, Collard says high-value content should be preserved in this way: “As 4K becomes the standard for post, you could record high-resolution content back to film in 4K, either as colour stock for 100 years or as black-and-white separations with a life of 200 years.”

What makes film particularly appealing for archive is that all it takes to read it back is a light source and a mechanism to move it frame by frame. “I’m convinced that those elements will still exist in 100 years’ time for someone to build one,” says Collard.

There is a downside though. Film is linear, not random, access. Expertise is required to handle it, and 35mm stock itself is likely to become a luxury item – assuming its manufacture doesn’t cease entirely as the cinema industry moves inexorably to digital.

Celluloid nitrates are prone to flammability and decomposition, yet digital media is not immune from ‘bitrot’ as tapes are demagnetised through long-term exposure to cosmic rays.

This will have a bigger impact on compressed than RAW files, which contain more information and are therefore more resilient to deconstruction.

Paranoia over irretrievable future media was more of a concern a few years ago when proprietary codecs were locked into turnkey hardware. The development of open-source framework FFmpeg permits files written in any mainstream codec to be decoded, in theory, at any point down the line.

“The starting point should not be the technology but the business rationale,” says Mediasmiths chief executive Niall Duffy. “Ask: what is the value in keeping it? We probably won’t want to retrieve an archive of The Jeremy Kyle Show [left] in 100 years. For me, the cut-off is 50 years, after which there’s only a historical and socio-anthropological reason for archiving.”

This approach, he suggests, should reduce costs substantially. “Today’s www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit

Edmund SumnEr © BFI

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Conserving Britain’s past: the BFI’s £12m film storage facility in Warwickshire; views inside the vault

fashion is to store everything, not just the master,” he says. “Part of the problem is there’s no structure to what data you need to keep and what you need to throw away.”

Second-guessing the business models of a decade’s time might be futile, but the issue of knowing what is valuable, and being able to find or delete it, is bound up with metadata.

“If the metadata’s strong and consistent, you can search and cross-populate to the latest format relatively easily, but it’s a real challenge if the metadata is poor,” says Matt Bowman, commercial director at JCA, which provides deep storage and asset-migration programmes for Shine Group. “The best practice is to maintain content on LTO for easy access, store multiple digital copies as well as a master copy, build in a certified data infrastructure [such as the Digital Production Partnership standard] and use high-security data centres for disaster recovery.”

Thompson says he could name fewer than 100 European broadcasters with disaster-recovery sites or back-up plans.

“If you don’t manage copyright and metadata information, the archive invariably becomes one very big repository,” he adds.

Inexpensive solutions such as LTO emerged from the IT industries, and companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft are now offering cloud www.broadcastnow.co.uk

storage to broadcasters. But few experts view it as a long-term solution.

“A lot of companies end up with massive cloud storage, but they just have a file name and they’re not really sure what’s in the content,” says Bowman. “While storing big data is not unique to the media industry, the size of files is. Regularly transferring and storing 100Gb files is a niche that the TV industry needs to take care of.”

Emerging technology

Preserving assets: Shine Group’s storage provider JCA

More robust archive technologies are being devised. These include holographic techniques that use light to read and write data in three dimensions. Digital Optical Technology System (Dots), another optical method, vouchsafes archived content for 100 years and contains a microscopic ‘Rosetta Stone’ of instructions on encoding data and how to construct a reader. Neither system, though, is yet commercially available.

Then there’s M-Disc, already available as Blu-ray, which engraves data by laser into a mineral layer with a claimed shelf life of 1,000 years. But that’s intended for consumers.

“We don’t have any idea how we’ll even display images in 100 years,” says Sharman. “Who knows? It may be via a multidimensional retina presentation linked to an electrode in the brain.”

Now there’s a thought.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 23

Production MAM cAse studies

Asset management in action Live sports production, cloud-hosted post and enterprise-wide metadata collection are prime examples of how MAM systems are being used across the industry. Adrian Pennington reports broadcaSter rtÉ

Wimbledon: immediate editing

SportS production Wimbledon 2013 brief To create a shared central server system with comprehensive logs of current and archived matches for access by rights-holding broadcasters for IMG Media on behalf of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Solution All live material shot by host broadcaster BBC from every match, plus roving ENG feeds, is recorded on 15 EVS XT servers, with low-resolution versions, generated via six additional EVS servers, for immediate browsing and editing on 50 IP Director desktop systems.

IBM loggers sitting courtside log statistics, including speed of serve, score and break points, while a BBCsupplied team log colourful action such as notable shots, cutaways to players or lines of commentary.

“We have a huge amount of technical data about every single point, but human-entered data is more useful for building the match story,” says managing director Daniel McDonnell.

IMG Media uses the Timeline system to provide a daily compilation of highlights, with compilations on nearline spinning disc available from six previous years.

It has built and run a similar operation for Racing UK, but with almost daily activity this generates a massive volume of data. To make this retrievable, daily media is stored on an EVS IP Archive to a deeper LTO tape storage with an asset-management system linking the two.

What’s next? Timeline is responsible for a similar archiving and EVS workflow at BT Sports’ production hub ready for a 1 August launch. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

brief As part of an HD and tapeless overhaul, Ireland’s national broadcaster required an enterprise-wide asset-management system to ‘provide a quantum leap in operational performance’.

Solution Central to RTÉ’s file acquisition and server technology (FAST) is Mediaflex CI from TMD, which provides process automation, business analytics and workflow development tools.

“The inclusion of a workflow engine inside asset management is not uncommon, but previously workflows were hard-coded into the system, making them inflexible,” says TMD chief executive Tony Taylor. “For new workflows, the original vendor had to do further work.”

Mediaflex harvests metadata from files coming into RTÉ and can route content automatically into the appropriate workflow. It is claimed to save RTÉ more than £300,000 a year.

RTÉ: tapeless overhaul

Mediaflex is integrated with subsystems, including Pilat channel management, Snell playout automation, Omneon storage networks, Avid post and Softel access services.

“By extracting as much technical and intellectual information as possible, we open up the data for the broadcaster to make decisions on the performance of

cloud Service dock10 brief Cloud-based content-management archive offering clients housed at MediaCityUK the opportunity to ingest, edit and store works-in-progress.

Solution Dock10, run by SIS and Peel Group, offers a managed services production platform with Dutch company Infastrada. The core hardware is a 250TB Avid Isis 7000 store, which production teams can access across the MediaCityUK campus on desktop media composers linked via a 10GB Cisco fibre network. Projects can be parked in an Isilon server linked to Spectra Logic LTO-5 tape archive. LTO-6 is available for longer-term rushes preservation.

Dock10: cloud-based content management

internal processes, such as transcodes, content movements and publishing,” explains Taylor.

The project was completed with systems integrator Eurotek.

What’s next? Overnight playout went live on 25 June, with the remaining functionality phased in

by September. Mediaflex is also being implemented at Discovery’s US and European facilities.

MediaDOQ modules provide ingest onto Infastrada’s cloud-based management system CentralParq.

Each clip is assigned a unique code that can speed up file identification along with metadata. Clips can be browsed at low res on CentralParq or pulled into Avid for craft production. The system can be scaled, is offered on a pay-per-use basis and is claimed both to speed up turnaround and boost operational efficiency.

“Typically, between 5% and 10% of all media that goes through an ingest process has an error, but we’ve reduced that to 1%,” says Dock10 chief technology officer Paul Clennell. “The workflow from capture to edit is up to 50% faster than other assetmanagement systems. Monolithic MAMs are a thing of the past. This off-the-shelf solution can be up and running within a day. It can be scaled to support the peaks and troughs of production and deliver pop-up post to any number of workstations.”

The system is being used at Infastrada’s Hilversum facility to produce the Dutch version of The Voice, but has yet to be used in anger at MediaCityUK. What’s next? A MediaDOQ hub is being installed at BT Tower, the first step in a nationwide rollout enabling remote ingest to the Dock10 platform for transcoding, edits or archive.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 25

Production MAM LOGGING

Overcoming the metadata challenge Metadata is increasingly vital to productions, but logging everything can be time-consuming and expensive. Andy Stout looks at what producers are doing to simplify the process

A

s tapeless workflows have been adopted more widely, the volume of rushes that shows – particularly reality formats – can generate has increased almost exponentially. Logging saves time in the edit, especially given that edit producers are not always part of the shoot and directors might not have been on set at every stage, but it can also be a boon when it comes to monetising productions once they hit the archive/ Blu-ray release stage.

The practice splits largely into three separate streams: shot logging for sport or rushes; compliance editing/ logging; and metadata capture for archive content.

As digital archives have swelled over the years, capturing metadata has become a potentially huge job as broadcasters and other media organisations seek to monetise their footage. IMG Media, for example, set up its searchable online IMG Sport Video Archive in May and is now ploughing through more than 10,000 hours of digitised content, with a further 500,000-item library, largely held on tape, to process.

IMG is using EVS’s IP Director for the task. “Its key functionality is to organise metadata in pre-defined keyword grids,” says head of digital media services Guy Taylor.

“This kind of functionality is ideal for sports logging, as many sports can be described through a limited set of actions such as throw-in, pass, foul, free kick, goal and so on. Additionally, the participants are known in advance, so team sheets of players’ names can be loaded into the system as a keyword grid.”

The two prime requirements of logging are speed and accuracy, and this sort of pre-loading can speed things up considerably.

26 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

‘To reduce costs, some broadcasters have just one logger sitting in a broadcast centre to log two or three games at the same time’ Jerome Wauthoz, EVS

For London 2012, the logging operation run by host Olympic Broadcasting Services was linked to the data feed. “All the logger then had to do was open up the associated keyword grid, which was kept up to date even with last-minute changes,” says EVS product manager Jerome Wauthoz.

Sport is a good benchmark of logging abilities. According to Taylor, a feed of a Premier League game – typically around 2.5 hours for the full feed – will take a day to log and may feature more than 400 individual entries for an archive-quality log.

There is, of course, the more rudimentary production log, which is used for fast turnaround of highlights packages and so on.

World-class logging Wauthoz says the most complete operation he has seen was that used by HBS for the 2010 Fifa World Cup: a first pass, with one operator looking at the programme feed of the match, was followed just after the game by another operator making a second pass to re-log all the material missed.

One for package assembly, the second for deep archive.

On the other hand, he says: “To reduce costs, some broadcasters have just one logger sitting in a broadcast centre to log two or three games at the same time.

“If a logger is creating an archive-quality log, featuring in-depth shot logs of the match or game – which will also capture additional details such as shots of sponsors or bloopers – it will typically take three hours to log one hour of footage,” says Taylor. “We estimate they will be able to do this at around 80% efficiency.”

Logging costs, of course, vary greatly depending on the system being used and the person using it.

That role has developed into a specialist, if lowly, position; Dragonfly unit manager Amanda Hibbitts pitches it as somewhere between runner and researcher.

“Attention to detail is important and typing speed too,” she says, adding that Dragonfly has used loggers or transcribers (who tend to be called into action on very fast-turnaround material with comparatively minimal rushes) on all of its productions over the past couple of years.

“We recently produced a 10 x 60-minute show for Discovery,” she says. “We had eight weeks of footage and two loggers working on it for eight to 10 weeks.”

The methods used for shot-logging range from informal jottings on an iPad to specialised systems such as Forscene and Cinegy.

“Forscene is essentially a cloudbased logging system where all media ingested into the Avid is uploaded to a server where it can be viewed anywhere online via a standard computer, www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

then logged, edited and brought back into Avid to continue editing,” says Evolutions head of operations James Clark.

Cinegy is similar, but rather than being cloud-based, it is run off storage held at Evos. All media is ingested into the Cinegy, parallel to ingesting into the Avid. Cinegy logging stations are set up and the client can then view, log and edit the media, before it is again brought back into the Avid to continue the editing.

There is also a popular workflow using Avid Unity that allows posthouse clients to view media and create sync pulls using the existing Avid media without the need for any additional transcoding, ingesting and upload time – though it is limited.

Jan Weigner, managing director and co-owner of Cinegy, whose logging system is the most commonly used for large-rig shoots, says logging should be undertaken during ingest, while the material rolls in, live or shortly thereafter.

“On some big reality show formats, we have had 30-plus loggers working on the material while it was captured. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Clockwise from top: IMG’s extensive Premier League archive; IMG has a 500,000 tape library to go through; a Premier League game typically takes a day to log

With non-live formats, this process can be sped up dramatically, but the logging should take place as early as possible in the production process, preferably by people involved in that process and not some poor librarian who has to guess what is going on.”

Naming convention Probably the most important thing after choosing whether to log is having a consistent file-naming convention. “From a post-production point of view, I am much more concerned that the client has a clear and structured naming convention and method of organising their media, as opposed to whether or not they are logging the media,” says Clark.

“If you still have to worry about file-name conventions then you are not using a MAM system,” says Weigner, with the clear implication that you should. “This should all be automatic, and created either by the live-capture software or derived from the files provided by the filebased cameras.”

Inevitably, further automation is a key focus for companies specialising

in logging software. Wauthoz talks of introducing voice recognition and linking it to pre-defined keywords, allowing for the automatic logging of sports action, at least to some extent.

There’s also talk of increasingly ergonomic keyword entry systems, but there is a reason that industries worldwide use the mouse and keyboard combo for text entry.

“We had some people trying touchscreens, but it did not work well because the operators got uncomfortable working with a vertical screen for a long time,” says Wauthoz.

The real consensus is that not only will more take place and in more detail as people look to cue up deep archive and long-tail-friendly extra content early on in a production, but more will happen on location too.

EVS is looking to develop its IPNotes iPad app to sync with nonlinear editors, while Cinegy’s Weigner says: “What will change is where metadata will be generated. We will see more metadata created in the field or during live production, using tablets and mobile phones connected to the cameras directly via Wi-Fi.” 19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 27

Media Asset Management

In Focus THE MILL

The other side of history Channel 4’s history and drama teams came together to deliver a ‘worm’s-eye view’ of the Industrial Revolution, told through real stories of young apprentices. Robin Parker reports

CREDITS Broadcaster Channel 4 Producer Darlow Smithson Productions Commissioning editors Julia Harrington; Sophie Gardiner Length 4 x 60 minutes TX 8pm, Sundays, from 28 July Executive producers Dominic Barlow; Julian Ware Producer Caroline Levy Writer John Fay Director James Hawes Creative director Emily Roe Editors Luke Dunkley; Pete Oliver Summary Drawing on the archives of Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, this drama documents the lives of young apprentices working in a mill in the turbulent year of 1833.

‘We wanted it to feel real, but not grim.

It had to do justice to the harshness of their lives, but not be too depressing’ James Hawes www.broadcastnow.co.uk

“W

hen I was at school, I couldn’t wait to drop history,” admits John Fay, the Brookside and Coronation Street alumnus behind Channel 4’s The Mill. “It was so dull: all kings and queens, that traditional view of the world that Michael Gove wants to bring back. It wasn’t until after school that I became interested in alternative views and got really fired up.”

Fay has proved an inspiring match for the drama, which he has dubbed “Roots with laughs”.

It was borne out of C4’s history department as a corrective to the idea that the Industrial Revolution was a story of factory owners and machinery inventors.

“I just knew there was something to be done that looked at young people and children at that time,” says history commissioning editor Julia Harrington. “This is a worm’seye view of history with something to say politically.”

The Mill took flight when the National Trust opened up the extraordinary archive at Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, which it has owned since the 1930s. A third of the mill’s workforce were young apprentices working 12-hour shifts for no money.

“I poked my head into the archive and emerged seven hours later,” says Emily Roe, creative director at Darlow Smithson Productions. “There are

She had a child. You can find all this out by reading through the gaps.”

As Roe recounted Esther’s story to Harrington, the idea of presenting it as a drama took hold and C4’s drama team came on board.

“There was enough of a framework, but not too much to hamstring a writer,” says Roe. “We knew what the apprentices did and what they ate, but not how they felt.”

Rooted and real

20,000 documents in there. I’ve never heard the voice of the workers of this period before.”

The key text was the ‘Mill Memorandum’, transcriptions of oral accounts from workers and owners, plus contracts, medical records and rulebooks. Spotted among them was the contract of sale that brought 12-year-old Esther Price (played by Kerrie Hayes, above) to the workhouse, which led Roe on a detective trail through the scraps of her life.

“She stood out head and shoulders, as it was so unusual for a child apprentice to have her voice heard,” Roe relates. “She was actually interviewed.

She had one day off in her time there.

The trick would be to document the facts of life in the mill without beating viewers over the head with a textbook, and to make it more than an extended version of the reconstructions that can drag down even the richest history documentaries. The result is a series that is arguably a little slower and drier than the average C4 drama, albeit one propelled throughout by a very human story.

“We wanted it to feel rooted and real, but not so grim,” says director James Hawes, whose previous excursion into the 19th century was ITV’s similarly fact-based The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher. “It had to do justice to the harshness of their lives, but not be too depressing – the adolescent spirit had to shine through.”

Hawes, who says he turned down Downton Abbey because he couldn’t work out what to do with it, expresses his hope that viewers will be gripped ➤

Working youth: a third of the workforce at Quarry Bank Mill were unpaid child apprentices

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 29

In Focus THE MILL

The Mill: Matthew McNulty as Daniel Bates with Holly Lucas as Susannah Catterall

by “a young woman finding her identity as one of the cogs in the mill”.

Quarry Bank Mill granted permission to film on site, with the mule room (see box) filmed in the disused Murray’s Mill in Manchester.

“There’s a thrill at being in the only surviving apprentice house, but also a lot of responsibility to do it right,” says Hawes.

This meant ‘dirtying up’ the sanitised version of the mill that the National Trust presents to visitors today. “There was a tension between pushing the drama as far as we can, but never leaving the truth behind,” he adds.

‘This is a worm’s-eye view of history with something to say politically’ Julia Harrington

This was Fay’s first costume drama, although, as he notes: “I’m not thinking about what they’re wearing as I write”. He had been through the factory gates before for BBC1’s Clocking Off and decided to make the mill home to the weight of the drama, as it was the place that dominated the apprentices’ lives, although the action does venture out to the workhouses and courts of Liverpool and Manchester in later episodes.

Fay was particularly energised by nailing the slang of the 19th century – viewers learn, for example, the rather literal origins of the phrase ‘cack-

handed’ at one point. He admits to spending considerable time putting the word ‘cock’ into idiomatic search boxes in the hope of reviving a juicy euphemism (although the word itself appears in episode one).

“It had to feel true within the world we were creating and that meant no anachronistic speech,” he says. “But I made small tweaks to the timelines of some of the people depicted; and if the bonnets had been absolutely accurate we’d have covered their faces; we would also have had no candles in the dorms.”

Fay chose to set the drama in 1833, the year of the 10-hour movement and

The real deal: Esther Price’s contract; Quarry Bank Mill interiors

30 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit www.broadcastnow.co.uk

the Factory Act, which enforced the first factory regulations. The bill to end slavery in the colonies was also drawn up that year, providing irresistible parallels with the unpaid mill workers, not least as – in a twist that might seem improbable in a work of fiction – many English mill owners also owned slave-labour plantations.

The shadow of Dickens The drama is careful, however, not to demonise the owners and to offer some ambiguity over their motives and treatment of their workers.

“Dickens was sitting on our shoulders the whole time,” observes Hawes.

In depicting the relationships between workers and owners, and drawing on oral history to tell the story of a community, The Mill cannot help but invite viewers to see it as both the flip side to Downton Abbey and a companion to The Village, as Fay readily acknowledges.

“When I heard of The Village I thought, ‘shit, that’s what I’m doing’,” he recalls. “I too have ambitions for it to go on through various generations. But it’s great to see history develop through the working class. I hope this view of history is a trend that will continue.”

THE MILL sETTIng THE wHEELs In MoTIon The clanking and whirring of the spinning mules provides much of the rhythm of The Mill’s workhouse scenes. As part of the production team’s efforts to achieve authenticity, these machines were built from scratch – no easy task when there’s no prototype to work from and just one original machine in existence today… and the budget doesn’t stretch to a recce to the Belgian museum that houses it.

“The mule room was a production in itself,” recalls director James Hawes. “The design team really did have to relearn how to craft industrial machines from 300 years ago.”

Drawing on photos emailed from Belgium and original construction drawings from the Quarry Bank Mill archive, art director Freddie Evard simplified them to a basic frame design.

Specialist art director David Bowes then made 3D models on his computer and his team sent JPEGs of the drawings to a construction company to make prototypes, substituting the original cast iron for timber and metallic paint, and using a simplified mechanical system of modern-day cogs, nuts and bolts.

Three machines were built on this model, each fully functional as a cotton-spinner that could be used by the cast on set. Five more basic machines, using motorised systems, appear in the background.

Working machines featuring metal spikes, threads and rollers that risked trapping the thumbs of a cast that included several under-16s made for a compliance headache, with the Health & Safety Executive talked through the various safeguards. One joiner was even put in costume and cast as an extra in case the cast got into any scrapes once cameras rolled.

Production designer Pat Campbell credits set decorator Elaine McLenachan, painter Dion Banner and the three-man joiner team of Pete Johnson, Louis Connoways and Alan Sprawson with realising the vision.

“We were stunned, we never thought we’d do it,” admits Campbell. “We build sets normally,

not machines, but we had fantastic experts working with us. The National Trust was blown away too. And while it proved quite the challenge for the sound designer, they weren’t as noisy as the real machines, as they had none of the dead rattling of cast iron.”

Nevertheless, producer Caroline Levy says: “We had to guesstimate the sound levels a bit and a lot of dialogue got looped in post.”

But the process led to another inspired creative decision. “We sent a location recordist and used samples of the machinery for base lines for the original score,” says Levy. “It feels like the music grows out of the place.”

Writer John Fay says that walking into that room was his favourite moment on set.

“A lot of skill, love and craft went into it.

The production team were at the top of their game,” he says. “These machines originally took five years to design and build – they did it in 11 weeks.”

‘We were stunned, we never thought we’d do it.

We build sets normally, not machines’ Pat Campbell

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 31

Are you up for the challenge?

LO N D O N -TO - A M S T E R D A M 300 MILES London to Amsterdam - 300 miles in three days - 6th-8th September 2013 A gruelling test of stamina and will, raising money for VICTA and The Vision Charity, changing the lives of blind and partially sighted children.

To find out more about taking part and the commitment required please email info@ibc2ibc.com of telephone us on 020 7083 7213.

OFFiCIAL BENEFICIARY:

EVENT ORGANISERS:

w w w. f 1 3 eve nt s . co . u k

www.ibc2ibc.com

Marketplace

To advertise here, contact Jon Thornley on 020 3638 5065 email jonathan.thornley@broadcastnow.co.uk

EQUIPMENT AUCTION

DUBBING

SUMMER AUCTION Bidding now OPEN!

Sony HDV, P2, DV cameras; DVW & SRW recorders; Avid HD Adrenalines; Prospect 4-wire boxes; Atto FC-41ES 4Gb/s Fibre PCIe adapters; DSLR Cage & shoulder rigs, follow focus, Matte boxes; LED lighting kits; HDMI camera monitors, Fresnel lights, blondes, dimmers, redheads; Motorola GP300 radios; PPM audio meters; HD/SD-SDI to HDMI converters, distribution; BVM grading & production monitors, etc.

www.techbid.co.uk

FILMING AND PRODUCTION SERVICES

TRANSFERS Tape Dubbing Tape to Drive Drive to Tape FCP Archive formats Rushes Editing & QC 50i, 60i etc 24hr service bookings@tvset.com TV Set 10-11 Percy St, W1

TV STUDIO

ASSETS PURCHASED

Filming in London?

Our fully equipped TV studio is ideal for down-the-line interviews, panel discussions, corporate videos and media training.

To find out more visit ft.com/tvstudio or contact us on 0207 873 4334 or studiosales@ft.com

TOP 50 FACILITIES FOCUS Issue date 26th July Copy deadline 23rd July midday

For more information please contact Jonathan Thornley 020 3638 5065

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 33

Appointments

EMS

technical personnel are looking for: Broadcast Project Managers: Hants Avid and EVS support engineers: East London Sales Director, Software: London Call us, e-mail your CV or register online. +44(0)20 8948 9400 recruit@ems-tp.com. www.ems-tp.com

To advertise here, contact Jon Thornley on 020 3638 5065 email jonathan.thornley@broadcastnow.co.uk

Following a successful year, Molinare is looking to expand their Senior Management and Sales teams with a number of new positions. These are integral roles working within one of the most creative and ambitious post production houses in the industry. We are keen to meet enthusiastic and dynamic people who will be an asset to our existing team. Experience within the post production sector is desirable but not essential: General Manager – Sales This role will head up Molinare’s sales team and report directly to the Managing Director. The candidate will be responsible for setting and delivering sales targets, have significant input into the sales strategy and will also be expected to investigate new business opportunities. The successful candidate will have strong people management experience and will have a proven track record of running a successful sales team. The individual must have a strong commercial mind-set and have excellent customer focus. They must be a self-starter as well as being able to motivate the sales team to deliver the results expected.

Post Production Manager This role will report to the General Manager – Post Production, and will be an integral part of the Post Production Management team. The role will involve building long term relationships with clients so the candidate must have excellent customer service skills and attention to detail is essential. The candidate must have previous experience of working as a Post Production Manager in a post facility, and must be knowledgeable in all aspects of post production workflows.

Please mention Broadcast when replying to adverts in this section

Business Software Integrator Reporting to the IT Manager, the candidate will liaise internally and with external suppliers to refine the current software systems in place and will work with suppliers to propose and implement further developments. The role requires a self-motivated candidate who has business analysis and project management skills, in addition to experience of scheduling systems (ideally CETA iCFM) and web based applications.

Please send your CV and covering letter (stating the role you are applying for, salary expectations and notice period) through to hr@molinare.co.uk by Friday 26th July 2013

“I want to let you know how delighted we have been with the response to the recruitment advertisements we have recently been running in Broadcast.

As you know we do not typically need to advertise, but we had to fill numerous roles pretty quickly. These roles were varied and outside our normal area of expertise and knowledge. The responses came in thick and fast and the vast majority were of a very high quality. We have now filled most of the roles with people who applied to the advertisements in Broadcast”.

“I have to say that working with you guys was a really good experience. You made it easy from start to finish and delivered immediate, plentiful and quality results. I will not hesitate to use you again, should the need arise.

Rest assured that I will recommend your services liberally.

Dominic Lobo; Head of Production

Nicky Sargent; CEO

34 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Appointments

To advertise here, contact Jon Thornley on 020 3638 5065 email jonathan.thornley@broadcastnow.co.uk

Leading lifestyle broadcaster Scripps Networks International is one of the fastest growing media businesses in the UK and EMEA. Broadcast in more than 130 countries, our brands are household names.

We’re home to Food Network UK, Britain’s number 1 lifestyle channel; Travel Channel, the world’s leading travel entertainment broadcaster; and Fine Living, the international lifestyle channel.

We’re currently recruiting talented people for the following roles: Vice President of Marketing and Communications Creative Director Senior Advertising Sales Executive Marketing and Communications Manager PA to the Legal Team

For more information or to apply, please email ukrecruitment@scrippsnetworks.com

TALENT

___________________ L I M I T E D ___________________

FILM & TV CREWS

Lighting: Gaffers Electricians

As a result of winning new contracts, Key Talent Ltd are looking for key studio and location talent to add to our portfolio of bookable individuals in the following categories; Scenic: Scenic Painters and Carpenters Supervisors and Operatives Construction Management

Also: Cameras Sound Studio Engineers

And many other crafts.

If you’re looking for work or for Key Talent to deliver your production needs, contact us today or drop us your CV. info@keylight.tv Tel: 020 8963 9931

MGM Worldwide Television Group International Television

MGM Worldwide Television Group seeks dynamic Sales Coordinator to support executives within our London-based International Television Distribution team. The ideal candidate will be comfortable managing core office tasks and helping manage all aspects of international client relationships. Full literacy in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint is essential.

Language fluency in French, German or Spanish a plus.

Please forward cover letter and CV to Amanda Millett, Human Resources and Administration at amillett@mgm.com

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

‘Great service provided with plenty of candidates. We have had a good success rate through using Broadcast.’

Adam Luckwell, CEO Unit Post Production

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 35

Ratings Mon 8 July – Sun 14 July

Sun leaves TV in the shade Heatwave keeps viewers away from the screen, but old favourites and docs hold their own BY roBin parker

Last Monday morning, blearyeyed Britons turned as one to their news outlet of choice to check that it hadn’t been a dream brought on by excesses of cold beer and barbecued burgers: a Brit really had won Wimbledon and, more importantly, summer really was here.

The onset of balmier evenings made it a struggle for any show to reach 8 million last week, and even Suralan was thinking of popping out of the boardroom for a sunny stroll (not Nick and Margaret though, who were off practising their best dumbfounded stares at the unfortunate souls facing both life on benefits and a grilling from the pair).

With Wimbledon over, Monday’s Coronation Street double took the top two places. Best of these was the 7.30pm episode, which dipped by 510,000 week on week to 7.7 million/42% (incl +1).

EastEnders at 8pm slipped 530,000 to 6.4 million/32%, but its share was up slightly. BBC1 basked in the nation’s Wimbledon hangover with a canny repeat of Andy Murray: Man Behind The Racquet at 9pm, but with 4 million/ 18%, it was eclipsed by ITV’s Long Lost Family on 4.3 million/20% (4.8 million/22% incl +1).

On Tuesday at 9pm, Luther made 4.7 million think twice about using their toothbrushes: a slight dip on episode one’s 5 million, but a 1.1% growth in share to 22.8%. ITV’s new entry, Robson Green: How The North Was Built attracted a belowpar 2 million/10%; even with +1, that’s only 2.3 million/11%, just ahead of C4 and C5.

36 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

BroadcaST/BarB Top 100 neTwork programmeS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 44 46 46 48 49 50

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Broadcaster/ Producer*

Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street The Apprentice Coronation Street Coronation Street EastEnders Eastenders Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale EastEnders EastEnders Countryfile BBC News At Ten Law & Order: UK Long Lost Family BBC News Luther Nick And Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits The Zoo Mrs Brown’s Boys Holby City Casualty BBC News At Ten Top Gear BBC News At Ten Andy Murray: Man Behind The Racquet BBC News At Ten Antiques Roadshow BBC News At Six BBC News BBC News At Ten Great British Budget Menu The White Queen The National Lottery: In It To Win It The One Show BBC News At Six BBC News At Six Doc Martin Your Money, Their Tricks BBC News At Six All Star Mr & Mrs BBC News At Six BBC News ITV News & Weather Harbour Lives

Mon Mon Wed Wed Fri Fri Mon Tue Mon Wed Thu Fri Tue Thu Fri Thu Sun Mon Sun Mon Sun Tue Thu Wed Sat Tue Sat Tue Sun Thu Mon Wed Sun Mon Sat Fri Thu Sun Sat Mon Wed Tue Fri Wed Fri Sun Thu Sun Mon Fri

19.30 20.30 19.30 21.00 19.30 20.30 20.00 19.30 19.00 19.00 20.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 20.00 19.30 20.00 22.00 21.00 21.00 22.00 21.00 21.00 20.00 22.00 20.00 21.10 22.00 20.00 22.00 21.00 22.00 19.00 18.00 22.30 22.00 20.00 21.00 20.20 19.00 18.00 18.00 21.00 20.00 18.00 20.00 18.00 18.35 18.30 20.00

7.68 7.57 7.44 6.75 6.72 6.55 6.35 6.19 6.01 5.78 5.74 5.65 5.63 5.55 5.39 5.29 5.13 4.90 4.86 4.76 4.76 4.74 4.55 4.44 4.32 4.24 4.18 4.12 4.12 4.04 3.97 3.95 3.83 3.81 3.76 3.73 3.66 3.59 3.56 3.50 3.48 3.43 3.41 3.28 3.28 3.26 3.26 3.21 3.20 3.12

41.96 35.65 40.57 29.27 39.21 35.58 32.28 35.52 36.18 34.45 30.63 35.64 34.73 34.78 30.56 31.01 24.40 25.33 22.01 22.07 24.42 22.80 22.93 23.89 25.12 22.71 22.67 21.95 19.59 22.41 18.41 20.85 22.20 28.02 23.75 20.52 19.57 16.27 21.44 21.05 24.92 25.52 18.50 17.65 24.72 15.51 24.97 23.35 21.44 17.68

ITV ITV ITV BBC1/Boundless ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/Kudos Film & TV ITV/Wall to Wall BBC1 BBC1 BBC1/Silver River ITV/Wild Pictures BBC1/Boc-Pix/RTÉ BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC2 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1/Optomen BBC1/Company Pictures BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1/Buffalo Pictures BBC1 ITV/CPL Productions BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV/Shiver

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

nick & Margaret: We all pay Your Benefits

The Zoo www.broadcastnow.co.uk

All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional

Source: BARB

51 52 52 52 55 56 56 56 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 69 71 72 73 74 75 76 76 78 79 80 80 82 83 84 85 86 86 88 89 89 91 91 93 94 95 95 97 98 98 100

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Broadcaster/ Producer*

Love And Marriage The One Show The Queen’s Coronation Festival Gala The One Show The Dales Your Face Sounds Familiar Married To The Job ITV News & Weather Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Fake Britain ITV News & Weather ITV News & Weather BBC News The One Show The One Show ITV News & Weather Crisis In A&E: Tonight All Star Family Fortunes Love Your Garden ITV News At Ten & Weather ITV News & Weather The Chase The Chase The Chase Brady And Hindley: Possession The Chase John Bishop: The Sunshine Tour Sherlock The Apprentice: You’re Fired Robson Green: How The North Was Built BBC News At One You’ve Been Framed!

Rhys Jones's Wildlife Patrol BBC News At One The Chase ITV News At Ten & Weather Nature’s Newborns 24 Hours In A&E The Apprentice: The Final Five Imagine... Rod Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now Pointless Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals Pointless Pointless Celebrities Pointless BBC News At One ITV News & Weather Pointless ITV News At Ten & Weather BBC News At One

Wed Wed Sat Tue Mon Sat Thu Fri Sun Mon Wed Tue Sat Thu Fri Thu Thu Sat Tue Mon Sun Tue Mon Wed Thu Thu Fri Fri Wed Tue Wed Sat Wed Mon Fri Fri Tue Wed Mon Tue Mon Sun Fri Sat Wed Fri Sat Tue Thu Tue

21.00 19.00 19.00 19.00 20.00 19.30 20.30 18.30 19.00 19.30 18.30 18.30 18.40 19.00 19.00 18.30 19.30 20.45 20.00 22.00 22.00 17.00 17.00 17.00 21.00 17.00 22.35 20.30 22.00 21.00 13.00 19.00 19.30 13.00 17.00 22.00 19.30 21.00 22.35 22.35 17.15 21.00 17.15 17.50 17.15 13.00 18.15 17.15 22.00 13.00

3.10 3.09 3.09 3.09 3.07 3.01 3.01 3.01 3.00 2.99 2.91 2.86 2.83 2.80 2.75 2.74 2.72 2.65 2.56 2.56 2.54 2.53 2.51 2.49 2.46 2.43 2.43 2.40 2.35 2.32 2.32 2.31 2.30 2.27 2.22 2.21 2.21 2.20 2.17 2.17 2.16 2.16 2.12 2.11 2.10 2.10 2.08 2.00 2.00 1.99

13.44 18.44 20.85 19.03 15.61 19.29 16.12 21.26 17.38 16.32 19.55 19.29 22.84 17.50 17.36 19.32 15.93 14.80 13.73 13.52 13.03 24.25 24.31 22.52 12.42 23.85 20.39 13.01 12.54 11.16 35.76 16.66 12.56 37.50 20.84 12.32 12.69 9.54 17.40 19.18 19.97 9.78 19.13 18.45 18.22 36.09 17.55 18.27 11.26 35.42

ITV/Tiger Aspect BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/Shiver ITV ITV/Landmark Films ITV/ITN ITV/RDF TV BBC1/Screenchannel Television ITV/ITN ITV/ITN BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/ITN ITV ITV/Thames ITV/Spun Gold ITV/ITN ITV/ITN ITV ITV ITV ITV/Wild Pictures ITV BBC1 BBC1/Hartswood Films BBC2/Boundless ITV/Silver River BBC1 ITV BBC1/Wales & Co BBC1 ITV ITV/ITN ITV/Wall to Wall C4/The Garden BBC1/Boundless BBC1 BBC1/Remarkable Television BBC2/Lion Television BBC1/Remarkable Television BBC1/Remarkable Television BBC1/Remarkable Television BBC1 ITV BBC1/Remarkable Television ITV/ITN BBC1

*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.

Great British Budget Menu www.broadcastnow.co.uk

robson Green: How The north Was Built

Wednesday brought bad news for BBC1’s Your Money, Their Tricks, which lost 1.3 million and 5% share on its launch to average 3.3 million/ 18%. Trampling all over it was the return of ITV1’s The Zoo. With 3.9 million/21%, it almost matched the series high from series one, broadcast three years ago, and +1 brought it up to 4.4 million/24%.

At 9pm, the penultimate episode of BBC1’s The Apprentice delivered a series high of 6.8 million/ 29% – more than double the audience for ITV’s Love And Marriage, which bowed out mutedly with 3.1 million/13% (incl +1) and a series average of 3.6 million/15%.

‘The onset of balmier evenings made it a struggle for any show to reach 8 million’ Over the 8pm hour on Thursday, ITV won the first 30 minutes with Emmerdale’s 5 million/27% (5.7 million/31% incl +1), but with neither Paul O’Grady nor cute dogs, Married To The Job (2.5 million/1%; 3 million/16% incl +1) fell prey to the second half of BBC1’s Great British Budget Menu (3.7 million/20% over the hour).

At 9pm, BBC1 won the battle of the colons with Nick And Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits averaging 4.6 million/23% opposite ITV’s grislier double act of Brady And Hindley: Possession (2.1 million/11%, rising to 2.5 million/12% incl +1).

Another sign of summer’s arrival was the clash of the repeated dramas on Friday. From 8pm Doc Martin won out for ITV with 3.4 million/19% (incl +1) while Sherlock brought 2.4 million/13% to BBC1 from 8.30pm.

And so it continued on Saturday, where a repeat of Mrs Brown’s Boys (4.3 million/25%) was as exciting as it got outside of BBC2’s Top Of The Lake, which just missed out on a Top 100 placing.

New drama returned to the main channels on Sunday, but Law And Order: UK faced its lowest debut figures in two years. But 4.9 million/22% incl +1 still left it comfortably ahead of BBC1’s The White Queen and the 2 million/ 10% for BBC2’s doc Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals.

See over for digital focus, plus channel and genre overviews 19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 37

Ratings Mon 8 July – Sun 14 July Channel Overview

BBC2 in gear with F1 doc BY roBin parker

Sixteen years since his Edinburgh Fringe debut and eight since his Radio 4 series launched, Steve Delaney followed Miranda Hart last week in finally securing a BBC2 transfer, for his Count Arthur Strong character. But Count Arthur Strong’s appeal remains Marmite: where Miranda launched to 2.6 million/10% back in November 2011, the Count mustered just 971,000/4.6% last Monday. Still, the BBC has faith, confirming a second series before the week was out.

Tuesday brought the battle of the documentaries. With 1.8 million/ 10% (incl +1) over two hours, the courtroom drama of Channel 4’s The Murder Trial proved more gripping from 9pm than CSI’s fictional case on Channel 5 (1.8 million/8% incl +1). Losing out was BBC2’s Piper Alpha: Fire In The Night with 1.1 million/6%.

BBC2 came into its own at the weekend with two big-hitters. On Saturday at 9.10pm, Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake attracted 1.9 million/11% – its fourth highestrated drama series launch of 2013.

Canny scheduling on Sunday helped Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals pick up some of Top Gear’s slipstream with 2.2 million/10% from 9pm. Meanwhile, C5 enjoyed its best cricket audiences in two years, with Ashes highlights delivering 1.5 million/ 9% over the hour from 7pm.

Source: BARB

Week 28 Average hours per viewer Daytime Share (%) Peaktime Share (%) w/c 08.07.13 Peaktime share (%) w/c 09.07.12 yeAR TO dATe Average hours per viewer Audience share (%) Audience share (2012)

BBC1 4.42 16.08 21.89 20.68 BBC1 5.83 21.24 21.00

BBC2 1.13 3.97 6.80 6.81 BBC2 1.58 5.76 6.17

ITV1 3.40 14.35 19.43 19.37 ITV1 4.43 16.14 16.16

C4 1.13 4.82 5.44 6.55 C4 1.59 5.78 6.59

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

38 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Total 22.18 100.00 100.00 100.00 Total 27.46 100.00 100.00

TOP 30 bbC2, CHANNeL 4 ANd CHANNeL 5 Title

Share %

Broadcaster

1

Top Gear

Sun

20.00

4.12

19.59

BBC2

2

The Apprentice: You’re Fired

Wed

22.00

2.35

12.54

BBC2

3

24 Hours In A&E

Wed

21.00

2.20

9.54

C4

4

Hunt vs Lauda: F1’s Greatest Racing Rivals

Sun

21.00

2.16

9.78

BBC2

5

Top Of The Lake

Sat

21.10

1.93

10.56

BBC2

6

The Cruise: A Life At Sea

Tue

20.30

1.88

9.65

BBC2

7

The Murder Trial

Tue

21.00

1.84

9.85

C4

8

NCIS

Wed

21.00

1.81

7.86

C5

9

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Tue

21.00

1.76

8.48

C5

10

Mock The Week

Thu

22.00

1.60

8.94

BBC2

11

Rick Stein’s India

Mon

21.00

1.58

7.30

BBC2

12

Hebrides: Islands On The Edge

Thu

21.00

1.56

7.87

BBC2

13

Big Brother: Live Eviction

Fri

21.00

1.54

8.38

C5

14

Big Brother

Thu

22.00

1.52

9.26

C5

15

Restoration Home

Wed

20.00

1.48

7.95

BBC2

16

Cricket: The Ashes – England vs Australia

Sun

19.00

1.47

8.52

C5

17

The Million Pound Drop Live

Fri

21.00

1.47

8.04

C4

18

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Mon

20.00

1.47

7.46

BBC2

19

Big Brother

Sun

21.00

1.46

6.63

C5

20

Raymond Blanc: How To Cook Well

Tue

20.00

1.46

8.20

BBC2

21

Big Brother

Wed

22.00

1.45

8.55

C5

22

Big Brother

Mon

22.00

1.44

8.29

C5

23

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Thu

20.00

1.44

7.68

BBC2

24

Horizon: The Truth About Personality

Wed

21.00

1.43

6.21

BBC2

25

Big Brother

Tue

22.00

1.42

8.25

C5 C4

26

The Simpsons

Tue

18.00

1.39

10.33

27

Undercover Boss

Mon

21.00

1.37

6.34

C4

28

QI XL

Sat

20.25

1.31

7.82

BBC2

29

Blackadder The Third

Sun

22.00

1.29

7.14

BBC2

30

Food Unwrapped

Mon

20.30

1.28

6.02

C4

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Multichannel 41.48

Audience for the first part of BBC2’s ob-doc Hebrides: Islands On The Edge (Thurs, 8pm)

Others 11.07 56.31 41.48 42.15 Others 12.92 47.04 45.73

Daytime is 09.30-18.00. Peaktime is 18.00-22.30. Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

dAyTIMe SHARe (%) w/c 08.07.13

PeAkTIMe SHARe (%) w/c 08.07.13

1.6m

C5 1.03 4.47 4.96 4.44 C5 1.11 4.05 4.36

BBC1 21.89

ITV1 19.43

C5 4.96 C4 5.44

BBC2 6.80

Multichannel 56.31

1.8m

The finale of Channel 5 import NCIS delivered the biggest audience of the series (Weds, 9pm)

BBC1 16.08

ITV1 14.35

C5 4.47

BBC2 3.97

C4 4.82

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional

Genre Overview

Source: BARB

top 10 cHiLdren’s prograMMes Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Horrible Histories Strange Hill High Officially Amazing Officially Amazing Swashbuckle Mike The Knight Newsround Horrible Histories Diddy Movies Diddy Movies

top 10 factuaL prograMMes

Day

Start

Viewers (Age 4-15)

Share (%)

Channel

Tue Wed Wed Tue Sat Thu Wed Sun Wed Tue

17.00 17.00 16.30 16.30 11.00 08.00 16.20 08.55 07.50 07.50

231,800 219,300 217,800 203,000 196,500 195,900 191,900 187,800 185,700 185,500

18.68 16.52 19.43 17.63 18.92 15.23 19.06 16.40 14.25 15.04

CBBC CBBC CBBC CBBC CBeebies CBeebies CBBC CBBC CBBC CBBC

Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Apprentice Countryfile Long Lost Family Nick And Margaret: We All Pay...

The Zoo Top Gear Andy Murray: Man Behind Racquet Antiques Roadshow Great British Budget Menu The One Show

Day

Start

Wed Sun Mon Thu Wed Sun Mon Sun Thu Mon

21.00 20.00 21.00 21.00 20.00 20.00 21.00 19.00 20.00 19.00

Viewers (millions)

6.75 5.13 4.76 4.55 4.44 4.12 3.97 3.83 3.66 3.50

Share (%)

Channel

29.27 24.40 22.07 22.93 23.89 19.59 18.41 22.20 19.57 21.05

BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1 ITV BBC2 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1

➤ Horrible Histories reigned supreme for the second week running with its share of available viewers rising by 3% to 19%. CBBC’s strange Hill High came in second and officially amazing notched up two entries.

New gameshow swashbuckle delivered well for CBeebies.

➤ the apprentice held firm, while Nick and Margaret found a decent audience with we all pay Your Benefits. ITV’s the Zoo returned to solid numbers after three years away and BBC1 rode Murraymania with a swift repeat of andy Murray: the Man Behind the racquet.

top 10 draMa prograMMes

top 10 entertainMent prograMMes

Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Law & Order: UK Luther Holby City Casualty The White Queen Doc Martin Love And Marriage Sherlock Top Of The Lake NCIS

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Sun Tue Tue Sat Sun Fri Wed Fri Sat Wed

21.00 21.00 20.00 21.10 21.00 21.00 21.00 20.30 21.10 21.00

4.86 4.74 4.24 4.18 3.59 3.41 3.10 2.40 1.93 1.81

22.01 22.80 22.71 22.67 16.27 18.50 13.44 13.01 10.56 7.86

ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1 BBC2 C5

➤ A crime double at the top, with the returning Law and order: uk stealing Luther’s crown. Recurring shows are largely keeping to recent patterns, with Friday night repeats of doc Martin and sherlock causing some disruption. BBC2 scored well for its new drama top of the Lake.

up The Apprentice adds 450,000

down Your Money, Their Tricks down 1.3 million

up Luther’s share up 1%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mrs Brown’s Boys John Bishop: The Sunshine Tour Benidorm The Big Bang Theory The Simpsons Blackadder The Third How I Met Your Mother The Simpsons The Simpsons Count Arthur Strong

National Lottery: In It To Win It All Star Mr & Mrs The Queen’s Coronation Festival...

Your Face Sounds Familiar Tipping Point: Lucky Stars All Star Family Fortunes The Chase The Chase The Chase The Chase

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Sat Sun Sat Sat Sun Sat Tue Mon Wed Thu

20.20 20.00 19.00 19.30 19.00 20.45 17.00 17.00 17.00 17.00

3.56 3.26 3.09 3.01 3.00 2.65 2.53 2.51 2.49 2.43

21.44 15.51 20.85 19.29 17.38 14.80 24.25 24.31 22.52 23.85

BBC1 ITV BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV

➤ Tuesday’s edition of ITV’s the chase fell from third place to seventh, one of four entries for the quiz. Meanwhile, Your face sounds familiar didn’t budge from fourth, just behind the BBC’s coverage of the Queen’s coronation festival. all star family fortunes also took a tumble.

up Swashbuckle adds 20,000

down Long Lost Family drops 450,000

up Watch scores 2013 high with Dynamo

top 10 Music & arts prograMMes

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Sat Fri Mon Thu Tue Sun Thu Thu Mon Mon

22.00 22.35 22.35 20.00 18.00 22.00 20.30 18.00 18.00 20.30

4.32 2.43 1.74 1.66 1.39 1.29 1.19 1.10 0.99 0.97

25.12 20.39 11.74 8.86 10.33 7.14 6.38 8.39 7.27 4.57

BBC1 BBC1 ITV E4 CH4 BBC2 E4 C4 C4 BBC2

➤ Radio 4’s count arthur strong found fewer than 1 million viewers upon its transfer to BBC2. A repeat of BBC1’s Mrs Brown’s Boys secured the biggest audience of Saturday night, while a classic Blackadder repeat delivered for BBC2. next week sport and current affairs www.broadcastnow.co.uk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

down Thursday’s The Chase falls 690,000

top 10 coMedY prograMMes Title

Title

1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 9 10

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Imagine... Rod Stewart: Can't Stop..

First Night Of The Proms Alive: Rankin Faces Death...

When Albums Ruled The World The Old Grey Whistle Test The Joy Of The Single Random Acts The Killers @ T China In Six Easy Pieces Mumford & Sons/Chase & Status...

Tue Fri Sat Fri Tue Fri Tue Sun Tue Fri

22.35 20.00 22.10 21.00 00.00 22.30 23.05 21.30 21.00 22.00

2.17 0.65 0.56 0.52 0.52 0.51 0.50 0.41 0.40 0.35

19.18 3.57 3.65 2.86 12.40 3.87 4.34 2.40 1.92 2.87

BBC1 BBC2 BBC2 BBC4 BBC1 BBC4 C4 BBC3 BBC4 BBC3

➤ Rod Stewart was a hit for BBC1’s imagine strand, ahead of a slightly lacklustre live TV audience for the proms. BBC4’s Friday music night delivered a couple of archive-based shows, while art travelogue china in six easy pieces found a modest audience.

See over for demographic and digital focus 19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 39

Ratings Mon 8 July – Sun 14 July Demographic focus Channels

Individuals Share (%)

Adults ABC1 Share (%)1

Source: BARB Adults ABC1 Profile (%)2

Adults 16-34 Share (%)1

Adults 16-34 Profile (%)2

Male Share (%)1

Male Profile (%)2

Female Share (%)1

Female Profile (%)2

55.50

BBC1

19.94

24.23

47.21

11.56

10.71

19.10

44.50

20.66

ITV

15.52

13.36

33.43

10.55

12.54

12.00

35.90

18.58

64.10

C4

5.04

4.83

37.23

6.51

23.85

4.94

45.49

5.13

54.51

BBC2

5.03

6.66

51.44

3.77

13.84

5.67

52.34

4.47

47.66

C5

4.89

4.48

35.57

5.19

19.62

4.20

39.94

5.48

60.05

ITV2

3.13

2.58

32.00

4.85

28.63

2.91

43.24

3.32

56.75

ITV3

2.87

2.55

34.42

0.64

4.08

2.38

38.52

3.30

61.51

E4

2.24

2.29

39.66

6.66

54.98

2.03

42.04

2.42

57.98

BBC3

1.58

1.60

39.34

3.14

36.70

1.94

57.15

1.26

42.83

Dave

1.57

1.47

36.33

2.71

31.93

2.12

62.79

1.09

37.19

ITV4

1.50

1.78

45.87

1.40

17.15

2.17

66.91

0.93

33.09

Film 4

1.39

1.31

36.59

1.29

17.13

1.64

55.00

1.17

45.03

5 USA

1.26

0.89

27.60

1.00

14.69

1.11

41.03

1.39

59.01

More 4

1.04

1.07

39.92

0.98

17.31

0.96

42.94

1.11

57.06

BBC4

0.93

1.34

55.80

0.38

7.57

1.13

56.34

0.76

43.66

Sky 1

0.77

0.83

41.85

1.44

34.57

0.84

50.90

0.71

49.12

Yesterday

0.73

0.60

32.21

0.25

6.44

0.92

59.12

0.55

40.91

5*

0.59

0.50

32.89

0.79

24.74

0.56

43.99

0.62

55.94

Sky Living

0.59

0.61

40.02

0.82

25.74

0.49

38.79

0.67

61.18

29%

Channel 4’s A Very British Ramadan attracted more 16-34s than the 8pm Monday slot average. Typically, they make up 18% of C4’s audience at that time.

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

BBC4 bowls them over

BY RoBin PaRkeR

As The Ashes kicked off, BBC4 took a sideways look back at cricket, airing Aussie two-part factual drama Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War. A live rating of 238,000/1.2% on Monday at 9pm was boosted by 110,000 for a Thursday night repeat.

If it’s Tuesday, it must be China.

Two hours of it, in fact. BBC4’s global tour told the story of China In Six Easy Pieces from 9pm, averaging 399,000/2%; straight after, the first of the six-part Wild China topped it with 402,000/2%.

Opposite, BBC3 returned to the serious side of the beautiful game with the documentary Football’s Suicide Secret, attracting a decent 465,000/2% from 9pm.

E4’s Skins suffered from diminishing returns, with episode two of its final run dropping by almost 200,000 viewers to 594,000/3% at 10pm on Monday. Repeats totalling 341,000 made this a little more respectable. E4 remains on safer ground with The Big Bang Theory, which topped the chart with 1.7 million/9% on Thursday at 8pm.

40 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

Source: BARB

dIgITal HomES

ToP 30 mulTICHannEl ProgrammES Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 12 15 15 15 18 18 18 18 22 22 24 24 26 27 28 29 29

The Big Bang Theory Star Wars: Episode V How I Met Your Mother Lewis The Mummy: Tomb Of The...

Midsomer Murders Storage Hunters New Dynamo: Magician Imp...

Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders New Girl Star Wars: Episode IV The Only Way Is Essex Don't Call Me Crazy Family Guy Family Guy Women’s Euro 2013...

Hollyoaks Shaun Of The Dead The Big Bang Theory Family Guy Grand Prix: The Killer Years Hollyoaks The Big Bang Theory Hollyoaks The Big Bang Theory Storage Hunters The Big Bang Theory Only Connect 2 Broke Girls

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Day

Thu Sun Thu Sat Sun Mon Tue Thu Wed Tue Tue Sat Wed Mon Tue Tue Fri Mon Fri Tue Thu Sun Wed Wed Tue Mon Tue Tue Mon Thu

Start

20.00 16.10 20.30 21.00 18.45 21.00 20.30 21.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 16.55 22.00 21.00 23.00 23.25 19.00 19.00 21.00 20.30 23.25 22.00 19.00 18.30 19.00 18.30 20.00 18.30 20.30 21.30

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

1.66 1.27 1.19 0.94 0.91 0.89 0.86 0.85 0.82 0.80 0.77 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.73 0.73 0.73 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.72 0.71 0.71 0.70 0.70 0.68 0.67 0.66 0.65 0.65

8.86 11.93 6.38 5.43 4.90 4.57 4.40 4.26 4.10 4.19 3.73 6.63 4.24 3.45 6.56 8.06 4.15 4.35 4.13 3.70 8.21 4.35 4.25 4.73 4.29 4.56 3.77 4.46 3.06 3.19

E4 ITV2 E4 ITV3 ITV2 ITV3 Dave Watch ITV3 ITV3 E4 ITV2 ITV2 BBC3 BBC3 BBC3 BBC3 E4 ITV2 E4 BBC3 BBC4 E4 E4 E4 E4 Dave E4 BBC4 E4

Channels

Share (%)

BBC1 ITV C4 BBC2 Channel 5 Total Multichannel ITV2 ITV3 E4 Sky Sports 2 BBC3 Dave ITV4 Film 4 CBeebies 5 USA BBC News Pick TV

19.94 15.52 5.04 5.03 4.89 49.59 3.13 2.87 2.24 2.09 1.58 1.57 1.50 1.39 1.27 1.26 1.18 1.10

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

358k Audience for BBC4’s Some Vicars With Jokes (Weds, 9pm)

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

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (000s) (all homes)

Share (%)

Broadcaster/ Producer*

Storage Hunters Dynamo: Magician Impossible Storage Hunters Live Cricket: The Ashes Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Red Bull Soapbox Race Geordie Shore Live Cricket: The Ashes Storage Hunters Live Cricket: The Ashes Live Cricket: The Ashes

Tue Thu Tue Sat Wed Wed Sun Tue Sun Thu Wed Fri

20.30 21.00 20.00 10.00 20.30 20.00 16.00 22.00 10.00 20.30 10.00 10.00

856,900 845,400 672,200 641,500 589,500 548,600 523,500 502,300 486,400 478,300 469,200 429,800

4.40 4.26 3.77 8.44 3.03 3.09 5.33 2.93 5.66 2.56 6.39 6.20

Dave Watch Dave Sky Sports 2 Dave Dave Dave MTV Sky Sports 2 Dave Sky Sports 2 Sky Sports 2

13

QI XL

Sun

22.00

428,700

2.62

Dave/Talkback

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

QI XL QI XL Live Cricket: The Ashes QI XL Have I Got A Bit More News For You Xmas...

QI XL Criminal Minds The Simpsons The Simpsons Storage Hunters The Simpsons The Simpsons Mock The Week Russell Howard's Good News Not Going Out The Simpsons The Simpsons Storage Hunters Revolution The Simpsons Mock The Week The Simpsons The Simpsons Not Going Out An Idiot Abroad 2 Stargate SG-1 Not Going Out QI XL The Simpsons Modern Family Gold Rush Stargate SG-1 The Simpsons Stargate SG-1 The Simpsons Austin Powers In Goldmember Not Going Out

Sun Tue Thu Sun Tue Mon Mon Mon Tue Fri Wed Mon Tue Wed Sat Wed Tue Thu Fri Thu Mon Thu Sat Sat Sun Wed Thu Sun Tue Wed Tue Tue Thu Mon Wed Sat Sat

21.00 21.00 10.00 23.00 22.00 22.00 21.00 19.00 19.00 20.30 19.00 19.30 22.55 22.00 21.40 19.30 19.30 20.00 21.00 19.30 23.00 19.00 19.30 22.20 21.00 20.00 22.20 00.00 18.30 20.00 21.00 20.00 18.30 20.00 18.30 21.00 21.00

423,800 418,300 413,200 407,300 405,500 404,700 381,800 375,000 374,800 364,600 360,500 353,200 350,000 348,700 348,600 345,600 340,200 329,700 324,200 318,000 308,600 308,500 308,200 305,100 295,100 294,500 292,800 292,700 292,600 291,100 288,600 287,400 286,800 277,800 275,400 271,300 269,000

1.92 2.01 6.14 4.68 2.33 2.33 1.77 2.26 2.31 1.98 2.15 1.93 3.14 2.05 1.95 1.88 1.95 1.76 1.76 1.87 3.03 1.93 2.04 1.95 1.34 1.58 1.88 6.51 1.98 1.64 1.39 1.54 2.02 1.36 1.85 1.55 1.48

Dave/Talkback Dave/Talkback Sky Sports 2 Dave/Talkback Dave/Hat Trick Productions Dave/Talkback Sky Living Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Angst Productions Dave/Avalon Dave/Avalon Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Avalon Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Angst Productions Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Avalon Pick TV/Risk Productions Pick TV Dave/Avalon Dave/Talkback Sky 1 Sky 1 Discovery/Raw TV Pick TV Sky 1 Pick TV Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Avalon

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

red Bull Soapbox race www.broadcastnow.co.uk

The ashes

845k Overnight audience for the return of Dynamo: Magician Impossible

Dynamo’s magic touch BY roBin parker

Last year, he smashed ratings records; this year, the magic wasn’t quite there. But still, UKTV’s Watch will be happy that Dynamo’s trip to New York delivered its biggest audience of the year, with part one of series three debuting to 845,000/4% at 9pm on Thursday – demolishing Channel 4, where First Dates played to just 560,000/3%. The illusionist’s series two opener attracted 1.2 million viewers; with two narrative repeats, last week’s episode slipped past that to reach 1.3 million.

It was also a good week for stable-mate Dave. Not only did Storage Hunters return to the top the chart (857,000/4% for Tuesday’s 8.30pm episode) and deliver four more top 10 entries, but Sunday afternoon’s coverage of the Red Bull Soapbox Race at Alexandra Palace netted 524,000/5% from 4pm.

Lime Pictures’ Geordie Shore returned to MTV for its latest series on Tuesday. From 10pm, the constructed reality show attracted 502,300/3% fans.

For Sky, it was all about one thing: cricket. In terms of all-day average numbers, Saturday’s coverage of The Ashes came out on top with 642,000/8% over nine hours, but the peak came the next day with 1.3 million/16% cheering wildly as England took the final wicket to beat Australia at 2.20pm.

19 July 2013 | Broadcast | 41

Ratings Mon 1 July – Sun 7 July

All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional

CONSOLIDATED RATINGS

Luther packs a punch for BBC

Source: BARB

consolidation took the older episode up to 6.45 million, while an extra 1.4 million pushed the new one up to 6.43 million.

ITV: Coronation Street Andy Murray’s semi-final thrill ride took some of the wind out of Corrie’s sails on Friday 5 July, BBC1: Luther Perhaps Luther is more of a with a lowly 5.6 million at 8.30pm. daytime show. Not that its heady Soaps live in the moment, so it was always going to be a cocktail of violence, horror and tough task getting up shouty police could play to last week’s consoliafter Bargain Hunt; it’s dated figure of 8.6 more that viewing it million/36%. close to bedtime In the end it didn’t might not be the Consolidated figure make it, but it did best option. Espefor opening episode put in a respectable cially given what you of Undercover Boss performance as catchmight find under the up figures tipped just bed, as episode one of past 1 million to reach a series three proved. total of 6.6 million/27%. Normal Neil Cross’s drama returned to 5 million on its original TX, service was later resumed. a decent number but slightly lacking the punch of the Channel 4: Undercover Boss 5.5 million who tuned in for series The original UK version of Studio two’s opener back in 2011.

Lambert’s Undercover Boss has lost Not to fear, for catch-up a little of its original sheen due to put them on an equal footing: familiarity, but it can still be relied

BY ROBIN PARKER

2.1m

‘Neil Cross’s drama returned to 5 million on its original TX – decent but slightly down on 2011’ upon to give C4’s weeknight schedule a lift. The opener of the latest series played out to 1.9 million/8%, just shy of 2012’s debut figure of 2.1 million/9%.

Consolidation continued that pattern, with the 1 July episode finishing on 2.1 million/8% compared with 2012’s 2.2 million/9%.

E4: Skins

Total audience for Griff Rhys Jones’ BBC2 doc Burma, My Father And The Forgotten Army

The return of popular character Effy for one last storyline appears to have lit a spark under Skins as it enters its swansong. A live rating of 783,000/4% trumped the 545,000/3% the show achieved in January last year.

PVR and catch-up took part one of Skins: Fire to 1.1 million/5%, while narrative repeats added a further 400,000.

TOP 30 CONSOLIDATED RATINGS: RANKED BY GAIN

1 2 3 3 5 6 7 7 9 10 11 12 12 14 15 16 16 18 19 19 21 22 22 22 25 25 27 27 29 30

1.9m UP The Apprentice adds 230,000 week on week DOWN Top Gear down 240,000

Sign up to receive our ratings newsletter at broadcastnow.co.uk

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Gain (m)

Gain %

Luther The Apprentice Coronation Street The White Queen EastEnders Casualty Love And Marriage Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street EastEnders EastEnders EastEnders Top Gear Waterloo Road CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs Revolution Hannibal Emmerdale Coronation Street The Big Bang Theory Long Lost Family The Returned NCIS Secrets From The Workhouse The Apprentice – You're Fired!

The Americans Big Brother The Only Way Is Essex

Tue Wed Fri Sun Fri Sat Wed Fri Mon Wed Tue Mon Thu Sun Thu Tue Thu Fri Tue Fri Mon Thu Mon Sun Wed Tue Wed Sat Wed Wed

21.00 21.00 20.30 21.00 21.45 21.10 21.00 19.30 20.30 19.30 19.30 20.00 19.30 20.20 20.00 21.00 20.30 21.00 22.00 19.00 19.30 20.00 21.00 21.00 21.00 21.01 22.00 21.50 22.00 22.00

6.43 7.53 6.61 5.00 6.44 4.99 3.98 6.93 9.32 8.79 7.60 7.94 6.97 5.31 3.41 2.65 5.78 0.98 0.76 5.50 9.10 2.50 5.84 1.70 2.15 3.59 2.58 1.56 1.72 1.36

24.12 28.54 26.81 20.54 27.49 25.24 14.94 32.10 37.90 40.52 34.17 33.89 35.45 22.15 15.67 9.85 26.13 3.91 4.06 27.78 41.72 11.29 23.23 7.06 8.05 13.37 11.85 8.22 8.65 6.64

1.39 1.19 1.02 1.02 0.95 0.85 0.77 0.77 0.74 0.69 0.68 0.67 0.67 0.65 0.63 0.61 0.61 0.59 0.58 0.58 0.55 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.45 0.45 0.40 0.40 0.38 0.36

27.60 18.70 18.30 25.50 17.20 20.50 24.10 12.50 8.60 8.50 9.80 9.30 10.70 13.80 22.70 30.10 11.80 155.40 328.70 11.80 6.50 25.30 9.40 41.30 26.90 14.20 18.60 34.10 28.30 36.20

Broadcaster BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC 2 BBC1 C5 ITV Sky 1 Sky Living ITV ITV E4 ITV C4 C5 ITV BBC2 ITV C5 ITV2

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

42 | Broadcast | 19 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Four days of spectacular events and brushing shoulders with A-listers. Endless opportunities for networking, discovering the best in global programming and sealing big deals. They say success is all about being in the right place at the right time.

They’re right. The red carpet’s waiting. The moment is yours.

Register today.

The world’s entertainment content market

mipcom

7-10 October, 2013, Cannes – France mipcom.com

>

mipjunior

Register before 4 October and save nearly €200

Take a stand to showcase your product to a worldwide audience.

Promote your product by advertising in the Preview or Daily News.

Contact Peter Rhodes now and find out how to make MIPCOM work for you. peter.rhodes@reedmidem.com

Off Cuts

£4.99

Do you have a story that you’d like to share?

Contact robin.parker@emap.com

ALL A TWITTER

Hall managing director Anthony Utley (far right).

DG’s down with the kids

The Dalai Lama, a right laugh. Rick Stein, desperate to use a fork.

All shook up: Elvis tribute

It seems that BBC director general Tony Hall’s love of all things arts and culture stretches further than many might have thought. At the annual report presentation this week, the ex-Royal Opera House boss waxed lyrical about recent BBC festival coverage. His highlight? Rapper Professor Green.

The kings of rock ‘n’ rap

A promise for the young

The 10th birthday bash for the Children’s Media Conference kicked off with CBeebies favourite Sid Sloane belting out a gangstastyle version of one of his Number Raps, but even that was topped by the cream of children’s telly execs joining the headline Elvis show.

Among them were HIT Entertainment head of content and production Michael Carrington (far left) and, looking very fetching in his best party dress, former Cosgrove

A word about the Promise Foundation, a new charity that provides mentoring opportunities for underprivileged young people. On the board is Cineflix Productions managing director Camilla Lewis, who has helped to raise £34,000 for its pilot scheme, with support from C4’s David Glover, October Films’ Adam Bullmore and Wall to Wall’s Gavin Rota. Find out more at www.justgiving.com/local/ project/promisefoundation.

@JanetHorsfield (Janet Horsfield) Make-up designer, Fresh Meat

There’s just too many jokes in #run. We should have held back. It’s just too soft. That’s Dan and Marlon [writers] though... always seeing the sunshine. @ChrisCareyWTPC (Chris Carey) Producer, Run

#Run on @Channel4. Have we accidentally stumbled back to c.2004? We’re playing social realism cliché bingo – pretty close to calling House! @aaz_ (Aaron Young) Producer/director

In my Glorious Rule TV producers who show the highlights at the beginning of a programme will be given fore knowledge of their own deaths.

Visitors to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 were treated to a performance from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra on Tuesday. Fresh from the Proms, the musicians belted out music from Doctor Who, with a Cyberman and Dalek keeping the public in check.

@RevRichardColes (Richard Coles) Co-presenter, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live

AND FINALLY ...

Craig Stevens Presenter

What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told?

I told Bruce Willis I liked his film.

He knew I was lying. I don’t think even he liked his film.

Tell us one of your most hilarious faux pas On a live gameshow on Channel 5, a contestant fainted as we were going to a break. I managed to catch her with one arm while still talking to camera, but as soon as we were into the ads, I dropped her.

Which TV or radio programme would you resuscitate?

There was a great show when I was young called Last Chance Lottery, hosted by Patrick Kielty.

I always thought that I could host it; just don’t tell Patrick.

Who would you be on Stars In Their Eyes?

Michael Jackson, as my pasty face and ability to go almost a metre moonwalking surely puts me in a great position.

Who is your pin-up?

Megan Fox. I once asked her if she could transform into anyone, who would it be? She said Johnny Depp’s wife. She asked me the same question, so I said Johnny Depp. She asked why. Not the sharpest.

Who would you like to play yourself in a movie?

Ryan Gosling [right].

He’s one of the coolest men on the planet so he would be totally miscast, but the film would sell.

From commission to transmission From commission to transmission

provides up-to-date information on UKbroadcast programming with more Broadcast Greenlight: the essential online database than 5,000 programmes, 650 indies and 200 commissioners. provides up-to-date information on UK programming with more than 5,000 programmes, 650 indies and 200 commissioners.

Join Broadcast today and save 20% subscription.co.uk/broadcast/BMAB Join Broadcast today and save 20% subscription.co.uk/broadcast/BMAB

BRDCST096 Greenlight strip ad.indd 1

| 19 July 2013 BRDCST096 Greenlight strip ad.indd 44 | Broadcast

BRDCST085 BRDCST085

You focus on the industry. on bigger the industry.

We You givefocus you the picture.

We give you the bigger picture.

Broadcast Greenlight: the essential broadcast online database

05/09/2012 12:12 1

05/09/2012 12:12 www.broadcastnow.co.uk