Broadcast 26 July 2013

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26 July 2013

FACILITIES SPECIAL

INTERVIEW

COMMENT

Page 21

Page 38

Page 16

How post houses are poised for change

Julian Bellamy on Discovery’s secrets

Peter Fincham pays tribute to Mel Smith

slams BBC Production’s Younge Oliver TV for failing quits for ‘fresh challenge’ to land talent

BY LISA CAMPBELL

BY ALEX FARBER

Pat Younge is stepping down from his role as chief creative officer of BBC in-house production.

Younge, who is one of the most senior managers within the BBC, said his role had changed following the new genre-based structure of Television announced in May last year, which becomes fully operational in September.

Although he backed the change, which aims to improve the relationship between commissioning and production, it has removed some of his areas of responsibility and prompted his desire to seek a fresh challenge.

Younge also sat on the BBC management board until it was streamlined by new director general Tony Hall in April.

The former Travel Channel president and general manager told Broadcast he was considering his options both in other areas of the BBC and externally in the media and communications sector.

His resignation means he will not receive a severance payment – a controversial issue for the BBC – and will work his notice period until the end of the year. His remuneration of £255,800 is among the highest at the corporation.

Younge joined the BBC in January 2010 having resigned from The Travel Channel in May 2009.

His departure provides an opportunity for newly installed head of Television Danny Cohen to reassess the management structure of BBC Production, which is a 3,000-strong staff and freelance operation.

Jamie Oliver has condemned the lack of fresh thinking in TV commissioning and predicted original content could be funded through crowd-sourcing within 18 months.

Oliver’s Fresh One Productions recently picked up a Broadcast Digital Award for YouTube channel Food Tube, and the chef told Broadcast that TV was suffering from a lack of risk-taking.

“Looking at food on TV over the past 15 years compared with, say, comedy, it has been so boring with regards getting properly behind talent,” he said. “Maybe three or four bits of genuine talent have landed. YouTube has been amazing for allowing me to draw in disparate talent.”

Food Tube launched in January and has featured emerging chefs including Kerryann Dunlop, The Chiappas and DJ BBQ. Oliver said he had learned more about broadcasting with Food Tube than during the rest of his TV career. “It’s really important on YouTube to listen to the audience and be single-minded, agile and responsive. There is a lack of that in a lot of broadcasting,” he said. ➤ Turn to page 3

The Call Centre: Younge’s (below) in-house team picked up 26% of WoCC

One BBC Production exec said Younge made significant impact in terms of mentoring, developing and championing staff at all levels of the organisation, and that he had brought big-picture strategic insight to the role.

But he was unable to inspire BBC Production with the kind of competitive leadership that might

have helped it perform better in the WoCC (window of creative creation) against the more ruthless indie sector.

BBC in-house picked up 26% of WoCC hours compared with the indies’ 74% in 2012, and Cohen has stressed the need to increase investment in development.

Younge acknowledged improvements need to be made but stressed it was important to look at quality of output – with in-house dominating recent awards including the Baftas – and share of the BBC commissioning slate, as well as the number of WoCC hours won.

Younge paid tribute to “the most creative team of programmemakers in the business… who deliver the BBC’s biggest shows week in, week out, and drive the profitability of BBC Worldwide”.

Food Tube: 320,000 subscribers

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

Working for a better industry Relations between indies and broadcasters must be improved

T

he TV industry is built on relationships, and those relationships appear to be increasingly tense.

Just how fruitful – or how fractious – the association between indie producer and commissioner can be is one of the year’s biggest talking points, and it’s one reason why we were keen to launch our commissioning survey with the Edinburgh TV Festival.

The survey, which was sent out to the biggest 100 indies at the start of the week,

‘The survey’s purpose is not to name and shame, but to help the industry to change the way it operates’ aims to conduct a health check on commissioning across the board.

Each year at television’s most important festival, controllers and commissioners tell indie producers what they are looking for and how they can best serve their channels’ needs. Rarely do producers get the opportunity to have their say.

The survey’s purpose is not to name and shame, but to paint an honest picture and produce an accurate snapshot of how effective and efficient these relationships really are. The crucial point is to identify best practice and to see how it can be shared or replicated, helping the industry to change the way it operates for the better.

So if you haven’t filled it in yet, we urge you to do so.

The results are being collated by GfK and will form the basis for a session at the Edinburgh TV Festival involving key channel heads.

2 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Another area of tension is between the independent sector and in-house production, both ITV Studios and BBC Production. The recent Window of Creative Competition (WoCC) figures show that BBC in-house lost out to indies, picking up just 26% of WoCC hours compared with the indie sector’s 74%.

The numbers prompted Pact chairman John McVay to question whether the WoCC was acting as a cap on indies and stressed the need for it to be examined during charter renewal.

Pat Younge, stepping down from his post as in-house production boss, agrees.

However, he argues that more hours have been allocated to a new set of non-qualifying indies, due to recent ownership changes, and it is that part of the system that’s ripe for re-examination.

Whatever emerges, Younge is right to point out that hours should be only one measure of success. He has done much to motivate and champion a vast department that has dominated awards but rarely feels properly recognised. He has also promoted diversity, including appointing in-house entertainment’s first female boss, Katie Taylor – who revitalised Strictly (left) so successfully – and is famed for his digital savvy, something it seems a traditional broadcaster such as the BBC has been unable to fully tap in to. BBCiCreate is one of the exceptions, a method of allowing any member of staff to supply ideas. Just 20 weeks in, several are on the brink of a commission.

The foundations are stronger than they might appear; now we await to see how Danny Cohen will build on them.

è Sky has completed stage two of its factual and fact ent commissioning restructure, with Clare Handford, Colm Martin and Charlotte Desai set to leave.

Sky merged the teams in June.

è Channel 4 has shelved plans for a six-part series of Tiger Aspect’s Bad Sugar (below) due to cast and crew’s clashing projects. Written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and starring Olivia Colman, it was ordered following a 2012 pilot. è Netflix will order docs, stand-up specials and even movies as part of its original programming drive, offering opportunities for US and international producers.

Ratings Top Five 1 News of the royal baby’s arrival delivered a peak of 5 million across BBC1, BBC News and Sky News on Monday evening.

Phil Mickelson’s Open golf win saw BBC1 peak at 3.4 million on Sunday.

2

3 Acme Films’ four-part drama Run (below) finished with a 1 million average audience on Thursday for Channel 4.

4 Big Brother’s latest eviction scored 1.6 million for Channel 5 on Friday – the highest-rated original show in the slot.

5 Luther bowed out on Tuesday with 4.8 million for BBC1, its second-biggest audience of the series.

Team Tweets è Breaking into TV is tough.

Next intake of 18 BBC production trainees being selected from 4,457 applications, a ratio of 247:1.

Daunting odds @MsLisacampbell

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

News & Analysis

BBC raises diversity targets There is greater scrutiny, and we are starting to unpick why certain areas are doing particularly well

BY jakE kanTEr

The BBC has set itself “stretching” new diversity targets and will ramp up the pressure on individual divisions to hit them, after falling short of its goals for 2012.

Amanda Rice, BBC head of diversity, said there was more scrutiny than ever on how different areas of the corporation are recruiting and retaining black and minority ethnic (BME) people, women and those with disabilities.

Television is one of the least diverse divisions, with just 9.7% of its staff from a BME background.

The BBC’s annual report showed that overall, 12.4% of the corporation’s workforce were from a BME background as of December last year – meaning it fell just short of its target of 12.5%, put in place by then director general Mark Thompson in 2008.

At the same time, the BBC introduced a target that 6.5% of its senior management team should be BME. Again, the corporation narrowly missed this by 0.1% in 2012, but since then it has slipped further, with staff including chief finance officer Zarin Patel stepping down.

The BBC’s new targets mean that it wants 14.2% of its total staff

Amanda Rice, BBC

Luther: Television was BBC’s least diverse division, with 9.7% BME staff

to be from a BME background, with a 10% goal set for the senior management team.

Instead of a pan-BBC focus on the targets, the emphasis has now shifted onto individual divisions to make a difference, which Rice said was beginning to reap rewards.

BBC operations now have to report against their targets on a monthly basis and the onus is on them to form partnerships with organisations outside of the

corporation to provide access to more diverse staff.

Rice pointed to the work that BBC Television is doing with Mama Youth Project. The division has launched a 12-week training scheme with the organisation, which helps disadvantaged and marginalised young people gain new skills, and it is hoped this will help Television meet its BME target of 12.5% by 2017.

“On a divisional level, there is greater scrutiny and we’re starting

to unpick why certain areas of the BBC are doing particularly well,” said Rice. The most diverse sections of the BBC include Global News and BBC Worldwide.

Rice added that diversity has the backing of director general Tony Hall, who has “come in and made a clear statement of intent”.

The BBC Trust has also raised concerns that the corporation is not doing enough to support those with disabilities. Only 3.7% of the BBC’s workforce are disabled and Rice admitted there is a lot of work to do in this area.

She pointed to the Elev8 development scheme, which is designed to help disabled staff move up the BBC career ladder. On-screen initiatives such as Presentable are also set to be extended this year, with genres including children’s poised to sign up.

Oliver: crowd-sourcing is the future for funding I believe that in 18 months I will be able to get docs commissioned from crowd-sourcing on YouTube

Continued from page 1 Oliver also took aim at the “transience of TV governance and bosses” and the number of layers in the industry.

“I’ve been running an indie for 15 years and I’m sure I speak on behalf of many – it’s really hard and lethargic and possibly undynamic. You always have to be respectful to people who butter your bread, but at the same time, shit is changing,” Oliver said.

He added that Fresh One was investigating alternative funding models. “I believe that in 18 months I will be able to get documentaries commissioned from www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Jamie Oliver

Food Tube: instant ratings reports

crowd-sourcing on YouTube. We will still work as hard to develop ideas, but the audience will decide, not a person in a room who is

worrying about getting sacked, or who their next boss is going to be.”

Oliver also pointed to the inaccuracy of Barb ratings, an issue he said YouTube did not suffer from because of its instant reporting.

“As traditional TV talent, you

listen to that bullshit about ratings and things just don’t add up. The noise on the street and on social media about shows doesn’t match the reality of a few hundred boxes from around the country,” he said.

“The nice thing about YouTube is I can find out in an hour if I’m going in the right direction.”

Food Tube has acquired more than 320,000 subscribers since its launch in January. It is supported by multiplatform production company Spirit Digital.

Beyond the Food Tube venture, Oliver has appeared almost exclusively on Channel 4 in the UK, as well as making several series for US broadcasters.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 3

News & Analysis

DNI Lat Am scouts UK indies Over the past six months, half-a-dozen UK producers have sat down with me

BY cHris curTis

Discovery Networks International’s (DNI) Latin American commissioning hub has placed several orders with UK-based producers and its boss plans to come to the UK to scope out further opportunities.

The hub, which falls under the remit of DNI creative director and head of production and development Julian Bellamy, has commissioned series from Blink Films and Wag TV, as well as the local arm of UK-based super-indie Zodiak Media.

Blink’s 3 x 60-minute Building The World Cup has been 18 months in the making and investigates the $14bn (£9bn) of engineering and infrastructure improvements required for Brazil to host the 2014 World Cup. Projects featured include a $500m stadium built in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and a monorail being erected to combat the traffic in São Paulo.

Wag’s 8 x 60-minute Misterios De La Fe (Mysteries Of The Faith, w/t), a co-pro with Discovery en

Julian Bellamy, DNI

Misterios De La Fe: Wag TV series is a co-pro with Discovery en Español

Español, will send a Jesuit priest and a journalist to investigate religious miracles such as stigmata and statues shedding tears. It is characterised as an ‘open-minded’ series in which science can spot fakes but also deepen mysteries.

In both cases, Bellamy’s head of Latin America commissioning Michela Giorelli ordered the shows and will exec produce them.

Giorelli plans to come to London in late summer to investigate further opportunities.

Bellamy said: “That would just never have happened two years ago. For producers, the world is getting bigger, not smaller, and over the past six months, half-adozen UK producers have sat down with me and [chief content officer] Luis Silberwasser to talk

about how they can work with our Latin American networks.”

Giorelli has also tasked Zodiak Latino with making a 6 x 60-minute local version of Betty’s Ultimate Shopper, which plays out around the world.

Away from the region, DNI has ordered the 6 x 60-minute The Unexplained Files from Raw TV, which will investigate phenomena that science seemingly cannot explain. It has also handed recommissions to October Films’ You Have Been Warned (14 x 60), Dragonfly’s Car Vs Wild (formerly One Car Too Far, 8 x 60), Objective’s Breaking Magic (14 x 30) and Maverick’s Your Style In His Hands (8 x 60). ➤For more on Bellamy and DNI, see Interview, page 38

BY Lisa caMpBELL

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman is calling on broadcasters to agree a methodology for accurately measuring the number of older women working in the media and has suggested targets are the only answer to achieving equality.

Harman told Broadcast she wanted to “follow in the footsteps” of the magazine’s Expert Women campaign by tackling the gender imbalance, particularly with regard to older women onscreen, on-air or working behind the scenes.

She is spearheading Labour’s Commission on Older Women and compiling a report looking at women in their 50s and onwards in the workplace, at those with caring responsibilities, and those in public life. The findings will be 4 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Getty IMaGes

Harman calls for more action on older women Unless targets are set, there will not be sufficient progress Harriet Harman MP

Harman: championing older women

presented at the Labour Women’s Conference in September.

In June, Harman met with broadcasters after asking them to supply their data on older women.

Out of 481 presenters across the BBC, Sky, ITN and Channel 5, just 26 are women who are over 50 and on-air regularly.

A roundtable took place last week to address the issue. It was attended by 20 women, including Miriam O’Reilly, who is chairing the Labour commission, Fiona Mactaggart MP, Women in Film & TV’s Kate Kinninmont and Susanna White of Directors UK. The group agreed that better and broader data is needed and that broadcasters should be made to conduct exit interviews for women, with analyses of their reasons for leaving.

Harman also plans to push for implementation of dual discrimination provisions in the Equality Act. She said the cost of broadcasters supplying consistent data annually was “negligible” and she has asked the Creative Diversity Network to work on suitable metrics.

“Unless targets are set, there will not be sufficient progress,” she said.

Responding to recent Creative Skillset findings showing a marked decline in the number of minority ethnic groups working in broadcasting, Harman said that public service broadcasters had a remit to improve diversity and needed to fulfil it.

She added that Labour would consider whether the BBC’s Charter needs to be strengthened or amended during the renewal process in terms of its equality and diversity remit. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

News & Analysis

Channel 4 ratings tumble 10% The 8pm hour has been a particular problem with shows such as Compare Your Life

BY JAKE KANTER

Channel 5 outperformed Channel 4 last week for the first time – but its triumph is based on a wider trend of decline at the latter rather than significant growth for the Northern & Shell-owned broadcaster.

Last week, C5 picked up 5% of the total share of viewing, compared with its rival’s 4.94% share, beating it for the first time since its launch in 1997.

However, Broadcast analysis of consolidated audience data for 1 January to 15 July 2013 shows that C5 viewing has declined across all hours and in peak, despite the recent strength of Big Brother and its Ashes cricket highlights.

All hours viewing declined from 440,900 (4.59%) in 2012 to 416,400 (4.42%) this year. The channel’s peak audience, measured from 6pm to 10.30pm, was 991,100 (4.33%) – down more than 7% on last year’s figure of 1.07 million (4.61%).

But the losses at C4 were far more pronounced, with struggles in specific parts of the schedule.

The 8pm hour has been a particular problem, with the likes

Hollywood Me: show was one of several Channel 4 failures

CONSOLIDATED RATINGS 1 JANUARY- 15 JULY Channel

Year

All hours

Peak

2013 2012

543,000 (5.76%) 630,700 (6.57%)

1.38m (6.05%) 1.57m (6.73%)

2013 2012

416,400 (4.42%) 440,900 (4.59%)

991,100 (4.33%) 1.07m (4.61%) Source: Attentional

of Hollywood Me, Compare Your Life and Bedtime Live significantly underperforming.

C4 also suffered declines in daytime due to changes at BBC1,

where the children’s block has been axed and original content has moved over from BBC2.

C4’s all hours (2am to 2am) audience for the year to 15 July was

543,000 (5.76% share), compared with 630,700 (6.57%) over the same period in 2012.

The channel also suffered a 10% decline in primetime share.

Between 6pm and 10.30pm this year, C4 averaged 1.38 million (6.05%), down on last year’s figure of 1.57 million (6.73%). Using C4’s own definition of peak (5.30pm to 12am), its share declined even further, falling 11.5% year on year.

Underperforming shows at 9pm included The Intern, Ben Earl: Trick Artist and First Dates.

C4 has been working its way through creative renewal since deciding to drop Big Brother in 2010. One insider pointed out that creative renewal is still one of the broadcaster’s major priorities, but schedule transformation is not a quick process.

C5 teams up with Wonga for adventure series

BY PETER WHITE

Channel 5 Productions is making a 4 x 60-minute adventure series funded and co-developed by controversial loan company Wonga.

C5 director of programmes Ben Frow revealed last month that he was ramping up the broadcaster’s in-house production arm, and challenge series Go Hard Or Go Home is its highest-profile project since Marco Pierre White’s Kitchen Wars last summer.

The series was developed in association with presenter Hannah White, who has sailed the Atlantic solo three times. It will feature 16 members of the public preparing to take part in a lifechanging challenge, such as the world’s toughest canoe race in www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Go Hard Or Go Home: presenter Hannah White has sailed the Atlantic solo

Texas, or a 127-mile cycle race across the Pyrenees, known as the Bone Breaker.

The series has been funded

by Wonga as part of its new advertising campaign, the Wonga

Challenge, which aims to inspire 100,000 people to take up a personal challenge over the next three years.

Go Hard Or Go Home was commissioned by Jason Wells, acting

commissioning executive for factual and features at Channel 5.

The show forms part of the broadcaster’s overall strategy to increase the number of hours produced out of C5 Productions, its team based near Canary Wharf.

Frow told Broadcast’s Commissioning and Funding Forum earlier this month: “I am a great believer that it makes creative and commercial sense for the channel to have some of its programmes coming from its own production arm.

“However, this doesn’t mean the end of our many, varied and fruitful relationships with independents. On the contrary, by making some programmes at a lower cost, it frees up money for the rest of the schedule, which can only be a good thing.”

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 5

News & Analysis

Pretzel raids Rival for TV production push

BY Peter white

Commercials agency Pretzel Films is moving into TV production and has hired Rival Media’s Steve Wynne to lead the initiative.

The former Disney and Warner Bros exec’s departure will leave Rival co-founder Howard Myers in sole charge of the Mission Beach producer.

Wynne has joined Pretzel as head of TV and will report to managing director PJ Bickford.

Wynne said: “Pretzel has a hothouse of creative talent who are champing at the bit to get their ideas onto TV. They’re out every day shooting pilots and ideas, which is truly exciting.”

The company is already pitching its first scripted project, a youthskewing sitcom titled Doubt On Loan. The comedy, created by writer-director Ian Aryeh, follows a group of misfits and dropouts at the Shawcross Library and Interactive Centre as they try to keep libraries relevant in the modern world.

It stars David Fynn (Pete Versus Life), Sophie Colquhoun (Plebs), Bentley Kalu (Doctor Who) and Louise Ford (Doc Martin) and is

Sophie Colquhoun: Plebs star will appear in Pretzel comedy Doubt On Loan

described as ‘The Office set in a library’.

Commercials and corporate production company Pretzel also has a number of documentary series in development and is hoping to work in factual entertainment.

The company already employs several full-time directors and has its own post-production facilities.

Bickford said: “This has been in the offing for over a year now.

Pretzel has been hunting and talking to many people in the

broadcast industry and I know that Steve is the perfect partner to launch and build our exciting new venture.”

Wynne and Myers founded Rival Media in 2007. The company has produced factual series such as Sky 1’s Rooftop Rainforest, as well as kids’ series including Hannah Montana: Live In London for the Disney Channel and international kids’ format Power Struggle, which aired on Al Jazeera-owned network JCC.

Clare Handford leaves Sky in factual reshuffle Sky has completed stage two of its factual and factual entertainment commissioning restructure, resulting in the departure of three execs, including Clare Handford.

Commissioning editors Handford, Colm Martin and Charlotte Desai will all leave after Sky merged the teams last month. Celia Taylor has become head of factual commissioning and Michelle Kurland, head of fact ent commissioning, has left the company.

Handford joined Sky in November 2011 from Nutopia. At Sky, she worked on shows including Sky Atlantic’s Bradley Wiggins: A Year In Yellow, which won Best Popular Factual Programme at this year’s Broadcast Digital Awards, and Sky Arts’ The Metamorphosis.

Desai, previously a producer on The Apprentice, joined in November 2012, while former Young Apprentice series editor Martin arrived in February.

Following the restructure, Sky execs Chris Wilson, Siobhan Mulholland and Lorraine ChalkerPhilips will become factual commissioning editors, reporting to Taylor.

An announcement is expected soon on Sky’s newly created factual production exec team, which will be led by fact ent and factual and features production exec Eleanor Bailey.

Studio Lambert to find Britain’s top interior designer for BBC2 Designers will tackle historical periods of British housing, such as Edwardian and Georgian

BY jAKe KAnter

BBC2 is set to hunt for Britain’s best amateur interior designer in a major early-peak format from Studio Lambert.

The channel has commissioned the All3Media indie to make Britain’s Best Interior Designer (w/t), which will pit home makeover enthusiasts against each other over 12 weeks. The show is being lined up to air in early 2014.

The amateur designers’ skills will be tested as they are asked to tackle different historical periods of British housing, including Edwardian and Georgian.

6 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Alison Kirkham: ordered show

They will explore architectural styles, interior fashions and the history of how we use space and the homes in which we live. The 12

x 60-minute series will also pass on practical tips and ideas for aspiring home designers.

The BBC has distanced the show from comparisons with The Great British Bake Off and Great British Sewing Bee, talking up the production’s historical elements. It is also being lined up for a 7pm

slot on BBC2, whereas Love Productions’ formats play at the later time of 8pm.

Britain’s Best Interior Designer was ordered by Alison Kirkham, BBC commissioning editor for features and formats, and Tanya Shaw, commissioning executive producer for features and formats on BBC1 and BBC2.

The executive producers for Studio Lambert are Alannah Richardson and head of development Tim Harcourt, who joined the indie from Fever Media in January last year.

It will be the production company’s first major series for BBC2. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Expert Women

EXPERT WOMEN

CAMPAIGN TAX BREAK

CAMPAIGN

‘Big picture’ needs women Al Jazeera and CNN show that females can cover more than lifestyle issues, says Lis Howell

T

his month, we looked at Russia Today at 8pm, Al Jazeera’s News Live at 8pm, BBC 5 Live Breakfast at 7am and CNN at 8:30pm.

First, the bad news. Russia Today had the lowest ratio of women to men authority figures we have ever monitored: 17:1.

There were days when no women experts featured at all. Each programme had about 10 slots for experts, so the lack of female voices was nothing to do with the programme format.

However, the bulletin focused on international news of the ‘big picture’ type. More female experts appear on programmes that deal with health, education and lifestyle issues, which might explain the lack of female authority figures (although women are perfectly capable of opining on big, international stories). The good news on Russia Today is that in the same period, the number of female correspondents outnumbered their male counterparts by 5:1. So the voice of female authority was there – and in far more force than on the BBC (see below) – but mostly within the broadcaster itself.

Al Jazeera maintained its high place in the score tables, with three women experts to every man. And when it came to journalists and correspondents, it had a ratio of just under two males to each female. Not quite the amazing ratio of female journalists that you find on Russia Today but still twice as good as the BBC. CNN News Center at 8:30pm had an average ratio of four male experts to every female expert but here too there were more female than male reporters overall, by a small majority. For operational reasons, CNN was surveyed Sunday to Thursday. On the Monday, there were two woman reporters and no men, and on the Wednesday there were four women reporters and no men. On Sunday and Thursday, the women covered www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Mishal Husain: publicity over appointment on Today programme highlights novelty of BBC senior female journalists

Women are perfectly capable of opining on big, inter­ national stories topics including business and war, and the men covered entertainment stories about Nigella Lawson and the death of James Gandolfini.

On BBC 5 Live Breakfast, the score was still bad – more than five male experts to every female, even including the score for Wednesday 12 June when the ratio was 9:5. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that on that day there was an item about women in media.

There were also items on e-cigarettes and alcohol advertising, both of which featured female experts, demonstrating that health and lifestyle stories have a greater chance of featuring female authority figures.

The ratio for the rest of the week was very poor. But the statistic about BBC 5 Live Breakfast that really needs attention is the lack of

female reporters or correspondents.

Out of 27 reports that used a named BBC journalist, only one came from a woman. What is going on? Since 2000, on average 70% of postgraduate journalism students have been women. Among new BBC reporters there should be a majority of talented women in their 30s on screen or on mic. Yet of the 500 or so students I have taught, the ones on screen or on air at the BBC are mostly male.

In a month when there has been a huge fuss about Mishal Husain joining the Today programme, little has been said about how rarely female journalists feature on BBC Radio 4 news and current affairs.

And although BBC television is slightly better, men do most of the reporting – and almost all the corresponding. It’s a national disgrace.

The argument that women don’t want to go ‘on the road’ because they need to be at home caring for family is nonsense. Look at Russia Today: its female reporters covered conflict in Mali, tear gas in Turkey, austerity in France,

Male/feMale ratio Al Jazeera 3:1 CNN 4:1 BBC 5 Live Breakfast 5:1 Russia Today 17:1 Period covers week beginning 7 June

elections in Iran, private prisons in the UK, and on and on. It wasn’t all health and lifestyle.

As so many BBC reports seem to be from the studio or from live links to Westminster, it would probably be possible to do the report and get home to make the kids’ tea anyway.

So please, BBC, could we have an explanation for the lack of women on air, particularly on radio?

I wish Mishal Husain all the luck in the world, but it is appalling that her appointment is so novel that it makes the national news. And as always, the fear is that one highly visible woman veils the fact that you can’t see or hear others.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 7

Commissioning News

NGCI orders Blast! Kennedy doc These latest greenlights illustrate NGCI’s incredible breadth of programming

BY jake kanter

National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) has ordered a two-hour documentary about former US president John F Kennedy from UK indie Blast!

Films to run alongside its forthcoming scripted drama Killing Kennedy.

The move is part of the factual broadcaster’s strategy of airing local shows around its big US content.

The 120-minute doc, JFK: Seven Days That Made A President, will air in September to mark the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death. It will investigate seven separate days during his life, including the day his patrol boat sank, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the day he met Marilyn Monroe.

The documentary will run alongside Killing Kennedy, a dramatised adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Kennedy: The End Of Camelot, which examines the assassination in 1963.

The drama will launch in November and is the follow-up to Killing Lincoln, which aired in February and averaged more than 3.4 million viewers in the US, the

highest total viewership in the channel’s history.

Hamish Mykura’s London production hub has also ordered a one-off 9/11 documentary from Testimony Films and has renewed Scam City for a second season.

9/11 Firehouse is a 1 x 60-minute documentary about Ten House, the fire station located next to the Twin Towers, whose fire-

fighters were first on the scene of the disaster. It is produced

by Testimony Films, which has previously made 9/11: The Miracle Survivor and 9/11: Escape From The Impact Zone.

Scam City, which is produced by Handel Productions and Zig Zag Productions, has been recommissioned. Again, it won a 10 x 60-minute order and will follow

Jonathan Ross returns to ITV for two more series

Channel 4 scraps Bad Sugar over clashing schedules

telenovelas and soap operas such as Dallas.

Jonathan Ross (pictured) will present another two series of his ITV chat show after extending his deal with the commercial broadcaster by a year. The extension comes despite The Jonathan Ross Show not being a major ratings winner.

The fourth series averaged an audience of 3.2 million (14.1%) earlier this year, bowing out on a record low of 2.1 million (9.34%) in May when it clashed with the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Jonathan Ross Show was reordered by ITV director of entertainment and comedy Elaine Bedell, and Claire Zolkwer, commissioning editor for comedy entertainment.

Channel 4 has shelved plans for a full series of spoof telenovela Bad Sugar because of clashing projects for the cast and crew. Following the broadcast of a 45-minute pilot during C4’s Funny Fortnight last August, the channel commissioned a sixpart series of the comedy, written

by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and produced by Tiger Aspect, to air this year. But C4 head of comedy Phil Clarke said work on the show had been halted. “In the end, it proved impossible to bring all the talent – writing and performing – together at the same time for a series,” he said. Bad Sugar was created by Bain and Armstrong and parodied the overthe-top melodrama of Hispanic

8 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Hamish Mykura, NGCI

killing kennedy: new doc is a companion piece to nat Geo dramatisation

Love examines female genital mutation for C4 Female genital mutilation survivor Leyla Hussein is to feature in a Love Productions documentary for Channel 4. The hour-long, untitled doc will investigate the procedure, practised in some African, Asian and Middle Eastern communities in the UK, in which young girls’ sexual organs are removed, often without anaesthetic. The victims, usually aged between four and 10, are often left with lifelong physical problems and psychological trauma. Sometimes, it can prove fatal. Hussein, along with other campaigners, has launched an e-petition asking the Home Office to take responsibility for stamping out the practice. The doc, due to air in the autumn, is exec produced by Kieran Smith.

host Conor Woodman as he travels to glamorous locations to expose their murky underworlds.

Mykura, executive vicepresident and head of international content at NGCI, said: “From an edgy look at the underbellies of the world’s most popular cities to new perspectives on historical moments that sent shockwaves across the globe, this latest set of greenlights illustrates the incredible breadth of programming that National Geographic Channel has to offer our audiences.”

For details of all commissions, see

http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

Nanny Mewes comes to the rescue for C4 family show Professional nanny Kathryn Mewes (below) is to front a Liberty Bell series for Channel 4 that will help parents struggling with difficult children. Call Nanny Mewes (w/t) is a 4 x 60-minute series, currently

in production, in which the host seeks to turn around unhappy homes in three days. Jamie Isaacs, who has worked on series such as Brat Camp and World’s Strictest Parents, will exec produce for Liberty Bell with Michele Carlisle.

The series has been ordered by C4 head of formats Dominic Bird. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

For more projects in development and the latest commissions, visit

http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

Q&A PAM CAVANNAGH Pam Cavannagh Commissioning executive, BBC Daytime and early Peak What’s your most recent commission and why?

Pressure Pad from 12 Yard is a 25 x 45-minute quiz series hosted

by John Barrowman, where questions appear via the high-res screen/floor of the set to create a quizzing arena.

Which TV character/personality would you most like to be?

Margo from The Good Life or Debs from Dexter – I think I’m a bit confused.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Made In Chelsea, Keith Lemon, swearing, Pot Noodles, eBay – I could go on.

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

That no one knows what will be a hit.

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

The shape of the rounds has been made more uniform and how the cash plays out in the end round has been reworked.

How quickly do you aim to respond to an idea?

Within two weeks.

What was it that grabbed you?

It’s a visually innovative way of presenting Q&A and has huge playalong possibilities.

Who has final sign-off?

Damian Kavanagh (no relation), controller of BBC Daytime and Early Peak

What would you like more of?

Quiz shows with standout premises and factual entertainment ideas for BBC1 afternoons and BBC2 early evening.

How should producers pitch to you?

Send over a brief outline of the idea you have and if we think that it’s a good fit for us, we should meet up to discuss things further.

What’s a definite no for you?

Copycats of shows that are already playing elsewhere.

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

“Of course it won’t be as good as it could be because of the money you pay.”

What’s your top pitching tip for producers?

Focus on the slots that you are pitching into. Immerse yourself in the output, past and present, and consider why some shows worked and others didn’t.

Further information and programming tariffs available at: How would you like to be remembered?

As a good mum.

http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk

THE KILLER PITCH POINTLESS POINTLESS Indie Remarkable Television Duration 45 minutes TX 5.15pm, Monday-Friday, BBC1 What sold it to you? It was a brilliant and simple twist on an idea and created something new in itself. Before it aired, we discussed the idea and it was one of those shows that everyone said they wished they had come up with. We hoped we had something special.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 9

International

Fremantle eyes digital future Departure of chief executive David Ellender and completion of restructure signals new era

BY Peter White

Fremantle Media is focusing on a digital future and searching for long-term replacements for its bigticket entertainment formats as it moves on from the departure of international boss David Ellender (pictured below).

Chief executive Cecile FrotCoutaz told staff this week that the company’s restructure has now been completed, having effectively dismantled Fremantle Media Enterprises by moving much of its digital resources, licensing activities and sponsorships businesses into its local production hubs. It launched Fremantle Media International, a slightly scaled-back global distribution business, in February.

While Frot-Coutaz’s strategy strengthened the company’s local production groups, it took significant power and control away from Ellender.

His departure, announced last week, was not a huge surprise to the international TV community.

Over the past 12 months, he has made no secret of the fact that he was disappointed not to get the top job following the exit of Tony Cohen, a position that was filled by Fremantle Media North America boss Frot-Coutaz.

Fremantle Media owner Bertelsmann has secured investment that will give the producer and distributor access to millions of pounds to spend on acquisitions, something that Frot-Coutaz reiterated this week.

She also told staff that the restructure had been essential.

“We needed to make some significant changes to our operations to create a clearer focus for our future as a stronger and more unified company; to support and grow our business of creating, producing and distributing market-leading content; and to strengthen our presence in the digital space,” she said.

The plan is to build on the deals that Ellender had begun striking in that space, such as representing Hulu’s original series internation10 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

the X Factor: Fremantle is heavily reliant on established formats, with new shows failing to hit the same heights

ally, and signing a first-look deal with Michael Eisner’s digital studio Vuguru. This is in addition to Fremantle Media being one of YouTube’s most significant partners, with millions of channel subscribers.

Drama and formats Frot-Coutaz has also been beefing up the company’s business in the US, hiring Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch producer Thom Beers as chief executive of its North American business, plus former Lionsgate exec Craig Cegielski as executive vice-president for scripted programming and development.

The latter will extend the company’s moves into high-profile drama in the US, which has been a

focus for Ellender over the past couple of years.

Ellender was instrumental in the company inking first-look deals with Smallville creator Mike Tollin, who also produced The Wedding Band for TBS; Bones exec producer Barry Jameson; and the US division of Peter Jackson-affiliated indie Pukeko Pictures; as well as projects with Independence Day director Roland Emmerich and a remake of Blake’s 7 with Georgeville TV for Syfy.

There has been a concern over the past couple of years that Fremantle Media’s format pipeline has begun to dry up. The company is still heavily reliant on The X Factor and Got Talent, with recent formats such as Everybody Dance Now, Unzipped and Bang! Bang! failing to attract the same attention from international networks.

“We must take care of the hugely successful programmes that we have already while scaling up our investment in development, creating new brands, building our digital future and diversifying into new genres,” Frot-Coutaz added.

Ellender will leave Stephen Street next month and the company has stated that it is looking for a like-for-like replacement. Potential candidates would include former BBC Worldwide

We need a clearer focus and to strengthen our presence in the digital space Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Fremantle Media

sales chief Steve Macallister and ex-Disney and Endemol boss Tom Toumazis, who exited European publishing company Mecom last year.

If Fremantle Media was looking slightly more left-field, it might consider Olivier Gers, who quit his post as brands chief at Endemol earlier this year, but previously worked in Fremantle Media’s licensing division, or Johannes Larcher, who stepped down as international boss of Hulu in May. Ellender, who joined Fremantle Media in 2001, is understood to have secured a new job at one of the London bases of a Hollywood studio. That would make sense, given the likes of CBS, Disney, Fox, NBC Universal, Sony and Warner Bros all continue to beef up their international programming businesses. Ellender is likely to be keen not only to work on the sales side, but to also delve into development, production and financing. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

VoD opportunities set to grow British producers set to benefit as digital platforms ramp up their original programming

BY Peter White

US digital streaming services Hulu and Netflix are ramping up their plans to produce original programming and British indies are expected to be the next major beneficiaries of the maturing VoD market.

Over the next 12 months, the companies will be looking to UK indies for both original content for their US services and local content for their international platforms.

Hulu recently failed to attract a buyer after it was put up for sale by owners Fox, NBC Universal and Disney for the second time in two years. It is now looking to stabilise its business and move aggressively into original content, having only dipped its toe into commissioning in the past.

It has previously ordered the likes of political comedy Battleground, Morgan Spurlock’s A Day In The Life and movie show Spoilers With Kevin Smith, but a lack of volume and a reliance on broadcast network programming were the main reasons that bidders such as Yahoo!, Time Warner and DirecTV couldn’t agree a deal.

One digital producer told Broadcast: “They might have found a buyer if they’d had a stronger slate of originals rather than relying on network shows.”

Following the collapse of the latest sale, the owners promised to spend $750m on the company, with much of it earmarked for original programming, international acquisitions and attracting executive talent.

Hulu is now searching for a permanent chief executive following the departure of Jason Kilar earlier this year. Interim boss Andy Forssell is expected to return to his position of senior vice-president of content following the search, and will be one of the execs taking calls from British producers alongside Charlotte Koh, the former Marvel exec who is Hulu’s head of development for original series.

The company co-commissioned its first British series late last year, www.broadcastnow.co.uk

the Wrong Mans: Mathew Baynton (left) and James Corden star in the BBC2/hulu comedy co-production

Hulu is absolutely crying out to work with more British producers Jim Field Smith

working with BBC Production on James Corden and Mathew Baynton’s The Wrong Mans, a Lethal Weapon-esque action comedy in which the pair play office workers caught up in a criminal adventure.

Producer Jim Field Smith said Hulu came on board very early, was extremely enthusiastic about the project and was incredibly easy to work with.

“They’re Anglophiles and they’re catering to TV fans and people that are binge-watching TV, so they weren’t trying to influence the show at all.

They completely got it,” he said.

Field Smith added that Hulu

was looking to work with more UK indies.

“They’re absolutely crying out to work with more British producers,” he said, adding that he had another cross-genre comedy project in development with Hulu and the BBC. Netflix is also keen to work with UK producers. It has previously commissioned House Of Cards (below) from Media Rights Capital in association with Sony Pictures Television, Arrested Development from 21st Century Fox and Orange Is The New Black from Mad Men producer Lionsgate, but its originations will not only be made by the Hollywood majors.

While its initial burst of bigbudget series were all US-produced, there are opportunities for British producers.

Netflix is understood to have held earlystage discussions with some of the larger UK indies as it eyes ambitious drama

and comedy ideas that can play on its services around the world.

Chief content officer Ted Sarandos is leading this charge, while David Lee, director of content acquisition for its UK and Irish service, is also thought to be a point of contact for British producers, broadcasters and distributors.

Netflix, which has just under 30 million subscribers in the US and more than 7 million internationally, has also unveiled plans to move into the factual space, which would be a boon for British documentary producers.

It will initially be commissioning documentaries and factual series for its US service, which will also play globally, but ultimately the company could order exclusive local content for each of its international services, from Latin America to Scandinavia and beyond.

Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings has welcomed the idea of increased competition in the VoD originations market.

“When Showtime does great work, it doesn’t take away from HBO. We think Hulu and Amazon will do great originals – it will grow the whole internet TV market, and then what controls our destiny is whether we do great programming,” he said.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 11

Multiplatform News in Brief TalkTalk hires pay-TV boss TalkTalk has hired former Modern Times Group exec Henrik Karlberg as head of pay TV following the departure of commercial director of TV Laurence Miall D’Aout. Karlberg, who joined from Qype, will take responsibility for growing the triple-play provider’s YouView revenues. The restructure comes as TalkTalk moves YouView into its second phase.

Sitcom comes to iPhone

Indie Disclosure has launched an iPhone app-based sitcom about two contrasting work colleagues. The eight-episode series, called Going Nowhere, was written, produced and directed by Robert SJ Lucas. The app was developed by Sebazzo, and an Android version is in production. The series is available to download for £2.49.

Radio gets digital leg-up Digital devices are boosting consumption of radio, with more than 25% of listeners tuning in to more content than they did via analogue. Research conducted by YouGov SixthSense found that 21% of radio listeners use catchup services such as iPlayer, with almost 10% listening to podcasts of current shows. YouGov research manager Tom Rees said: “Digital means it’s now possible to listen to things at any time across a myriad of devices, and broadcasters are catching on.”

S4C releases RWAS app S4C has launched an iPhone and Android app to support this year’s Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. The free bilingual app, developed by Moilin Cyf, features an interactive showground map, an events timetable and pictures and stories. The app is a joint venture between the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and S4C.

For the latest breaking news www.broadcastnow.co.uk 12 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Base79 appoints content chief to lead expansion BY alex farBer

Online video network Base79 will focus on international expansion, managing growth and brand relationships following YouTube executive Patrick Walker’s appointment as chief content officer.

Walker, who in 2006 became Google’s first YouTube appointment outside North America, will join the fledgling digital business, founded by Ashley Mackenzie, next month.

The YouTube senior director of partnerships, who joined Base79 as a non-executive director in 2008, said he was looking forward to getting “back to basics” and using his experience to help grow the company through its early phases and into a stable business.

“My jobs have always involved acting as a translator between the content and technical communities,” said Walker.

As chief content officer, he will help expand the 75-strong company into new territories from its London, Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney and Berlin offices, and build on its existing European relationships.

“We need to encourage those companies that have been waiting for things to settle down to get involved,” he said.

Walker: helping the fledgling digital business expand into new territories

Brands have been identified as a vital element of Base79’s future, both as potential content creators and partners for rights-holders.

“We can be a safe pair of hands for brands and help them reach consumers and get data and financial returns,” Walker said.

He added that YouTube’s Original Channels initiative, under which content creators received up to £500,000 to launch a channel, was a success. “While some could be doing better, we achieved our goal in terms of the learnings generated and the investment now coming in.

Channels are now seen as an important part of the future of media.”

Walker said content owners must prepare for a world in which the TV set is one of a number of digital screens. “It’s time for rights-holders to think about making content available across multiple platforms. It will help tackle piracy and generate incremental revenues.”

Base 79 the stats Content partners

400

Views per month

650 million

YouTube channels

800 Source: Base79

WeB Watch all3Media

A

ll3Media series including The Only Way Is Essex, Midsomer Murders and Shameless are now available on mobile after the super-indie launched an iOS app.

The All3Media Player app, which was unveiled earlier this month, allows users to stream a raft of series produced by indies from across the group for £2.99 per month.

The mobile app, developed by The App Business, follows the launch of the All3Media connected-TV app in March 2012.

Users are able to pause their viewing via the connected-TV app before picking up where they left off on their iPhone or iPad. The app also supports in-app purchases, enabling users to subscribe directly from the service.

Founder of The App Business Rob Evans said the aim was to offer fans of All3Media shows easy access to content.

“We created a seamless experience that enables viewers to move between devices and continue enjoying great All3Media shows without having to lift a finger,” he said.

URL iTunes Developer The App Business

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Technology & Facilities CREATIVE REVIEW

THE CAFÉ

4RAMADAN

LAVA CHASERS

Post Deluxe 142 Client Jellylegs Productions Brief Provide picture and audio post for the returning seven-part comedy drama.

How it was done The Café was originated on 3-perf 35mm film, a decision that was partially aesthetic but also related to its ability to capture very wide contrast ratios. Colourist Paul Staples said it was important to capture life inside and outside the café, leaving the production in the hands of the British weather and ever-changing light levels. The film was scanned at 2K on the Spirit 4K Datacine and conformed, despotted and graded on the Digital Vision Film Master. Online and VFX editor Nick Timms recreated a smoke trail left during a Red Arrows fly-by using Particular for After Effects to create the smoke, and Avid DS for compositing. Mathew Knights was the dubbing mixer.

Watch it Wednesdays, 9pm, Sky 1

Post Clear Cut Pictures Client Watershed TV Brief Full post for a series of 30 mini-docs produced quickly to TX every evening throughout Ramadan.

How it was done Clear Cut’s editors worked 24 hours a day on the fast-turnarounds, with finishing taking place at Clear Cut’s six online suites and eight theatres.

Picture locks with grade, online edit, mix and deliverables would all be done within two to three hours. Due to the use of informal domestic cameras, care was taken to convert the material to UK broadcast standards. The grade was completed in Symphony Nitris with online editors including Isis Zahiruddin, Gemma Comber and Sam Mangan, who created a warm tone to complement the material. As the docs were self-shot, background noise was prevalent and this was reduced in the mix by Adam Wood and Sonny Lota.

Watch it Daily, 7.55pm, C4

Post BTV Client Electric Sky Brief Provide picture post for the series in which a team of scientists visit Hawaii to study lava flows.

How it was done Online stereographer and colourist Ian Grey and online stereographer George Dutton used Mistika to edit, grade and composite the two-part series, which is also airing as a four-part series on The Weather Channel. Aerial helicopter shots, footage from active volcanoes, as well as underwater filming, all using different cameras, meant the footage had to be stabilised. Grey said some “stunning” images of lava deltas were shot at a distance through heavy plumes of white smoke, which caused the lava to become lost and flat within the image. He isolated the colours of the lava, using Mistika’s range of qualifying tools to boost them and accentuate the warm hues.

Watch it 3 August, 9pm, Discovery Channel and Sky 3D

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

The Mill moves to ‘world’s most advanced studio’ The Mill is moving from its office at Great Marlborough Street to a 29,000 sq ft studio in Windmill Street, Fitzrovia. The Mill chief executive Robin Shenfield said the new building would be the most advanced and flexible digital studio in the world. He said: “With the move to Windmill Street, we’ll be able to change up a gear and set the new benchmark for flexibility, just as we did when we moved into Great Marlborough Street in 1990.”

Trio team up to build on iTechnology capability Cooke Optics, Codex and The Pixel Farm have teamed up to develop a 14 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

metadata capture system that will build on the capabilities of iTechnology, which was originally developed by Cooke to record lens and camera data to aid post-production teams. Cooke Optics chairman and owner Les Zellan (pictured) said: “We’ve been talking for a long time with our friends at Codex and The Pixel Farm about how we could improve both the physical and digital capabilities of iTechnology in order to further assist VFX teams to help them solve difficult tracking shots.”

Box TV links up with WRN to offer channels over cloud Box TV has signed a deal with WRN Broadcast to make its portfolio of music channels available

across the globe using cloud-based broadcast technology solution Alto Cloud. Box TV director of international Scott Monks said: “If a platform has good IP connectivity, it can receive our premium channels in broadcast quality anywhere in the world.” Box TV’s network features seven music channels including Kiss, 4Music, Kerrang!, The Box, Magic, Smash Hits and Heat.

Luma parades with transparent overlay and bottom-right, lowerthird or full-screen positioning.

Atomos begins delivery of Samurai Blade recorder

Ex-Rain chief jailed for £5m film tax fraud

The latest recorder from Atomos, the Samurai Blade (pictured), has started shipping. The Blade offers 1280 x 720 touchscreen, 179-degree viewing, 400nit brightness and multi-frequency (48/50/60Hz) operation. The screen is calibrated to SMPTE Rec 709 colour space. It also includes waveform monitor functions, including vectorscope, RGB and

Former Rain Post chief operating officer Anish Anand has been jailed for seven years for his part in a £5m film tax fraud. The fraud involved bogus VAT receipts and film tax relief claims, and the creation of 20 front companies and multiple fake films. One of the other former directors of the defunct post facility, Afsana Karim, was ordered to carry out 100 hours of www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

BBC warms to potential of IP

BY GeorGe Bevir

The BBC has highlighted next year’s Commonwealth Games as a potential milestone in the rollout of its IP-based production tools, with delivery of 4K content over IP a possibility for the Glasgow event.

The importance of IP-based infrastructure for making and delivering programmes was highlighted at a BBC R&D event this week at which Phil Tudor, BBC R&D section lead for automated production and media management, said that in three to five years, IP camera links would be increasingly commonplace.

“We already have a production and delivery chain where programmes can be handled as files.

The next big step is live, and how live infrastructure moves to an IP platform,” said Tudor.

An R&D project named IP Studio is set to move live, studiobased productions away from Serial Digital Interface (SDI or HD-SDI) links to IP-based formats. Tudor said the BBC R&D team was working hard to develop a system for the Commonwealth

unpaid work and handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.

Eyeheight adds plug-in for Apple Final Cut Pro X Eyeheight has launched a plug-in legaliser, safe-area generator and graphic measurement toolset for Apple Final Cut Pro X. Eyeheight said that ComplianceSuiteFCX would allow file-based workflows by enabling users to verify and conform content prior to submission to any file-based qualitycontrol system from within Final Cut Pro. ComplianceSuiteFCX will be introduced at IBC in September.

Nugen Audio boosts VisLM with time-code feature Nugen Audio has added a timecode feature to its VisLM loudness monitoring plug-in (pictured).

Nugen said the timecode feature makes it possible to relate the www.broadcastnow.co.uk

We’re not there yet, but 4K could happen next year in a limited sense Matthew Postgate, BBC

Glastonbury: BBC r&D’s Stagebox was used to send coverage over iP

Games that would reduce the need for large-scale OB facilities by using locally sourced feeds.

The department’s Stagebox technology, which allows HD content to be sent over standard IP networks, was used for coverage of last month’s Glastonbury Festival.

It provided 18 feeds to the BBC’s R&D lab at White City, which was

used as a virtual control room. The Commonwealth Games coverage is likely to be more extensive, with the BBC keen to match its comprehensive coverage of last year’s Olympics in London.

BBC R&D is expected to be involved in other events taking place in 2014, such as the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, but a

loudness parameters directly to timecode references, giving audio engineers and editors a clear, frame-accurate position for any alerts, true-peak overs, maximum values and other indicators to picture.

of this year. Futuresource Consulting head of consumer electronics Simon Bryant said the format was set to grow rapidly. “4K still has a two- to three-year incubation period ahead, but it is making its presence known and is on track to become a significant technology segment,” he added.

Forbidden Technologies reports 15% revenue rise

Worldwide total for 4K TV sales to hit 22m by 2017 The number of 4K TVs sold around the world will reach 22 million units in four years’ time, according to Futuresource Consulting. The research predicts that 780,000 of the super highdefinition TVs will ship by the end

Forbidden Technologies’ revenue increased by 15% year on year to £401,278 for the six months to 30 June. The developer of cloud video platform FORscene said revenue from broadcast post-production rose by 61% to £217,739, while news and sport increased by 32%.

Over the period, the company made a loss of £189,618. Forbidden Technologies chairman Vic Steel said: “Revenue from broadcast post-production has increased substantially while

spokesman said it was too early to go into detail about specific technologies to be used at each event.

BBC R&D controller Matthew Postgate told Broadcast that a 4K version of the camera-mounted device is being worked on as part of Stagebox’s development.

“There is every chance 4K could be an IP-oriented service, and I can see [4K] tracking the rollout of super-fast broadband,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but 4K could happen next year in a limited sense.”

Tudor also raised the prospect of a shift to IP-based infrastructure allowing for a more “personalised” viewing experience. He said: “We are trying to create individual pieces of a jigsaw that can be sent out to a network and then pieced together by an end user’s system.

the company has continued to build on the foundations that the licence to YouTube created in the sports video environment at last year’s Olympics.”

Blackmagic Design updates Atem production switchers Blackmagic Design has released a software update for its Atem production switchers. Atem 4.1 lets users save and restore full or partial switcher states on all Atem switchers. It also adds 1080p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94 frame rates for the Atem Production Studio 4K model. Blackmagic said the upgraded function can be used to save and restore the entire switcher state, save only a piece to restore, or load just a piece of an entire saved state. “Customers can save as many settings files as they like and recall them as they want, just like macros,” said Blackmagic chief executive Grant Petty.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 15

Comment

For producers, the world’s getting bigger, not smaller Julian Bellamy, Interview, page 38

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16 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Mel Smith: in memoriam Colleague and friend Peter Fincham reflects on the comedian’s life He lived in the moment, and moments spent with Mel were very memorable

Odd couple: Smith (left) and Jones

M

el Smith and Griff Rhys Jones started Talkback in the early 1980s between series of Not The Nine O’Clock News, at least partly because they were unemployed and looking for something to do. This was long before the modern era in which comedy has become a cottage industry – an out-of-work comedian was much like an out-of-work actor looking for work. Mel and Griff had the vision to realise that if they made a success of a company, they could become masters of their own destiny. They also fancied having an office in the West End they could return to after lunch.

Talkback’s name derives from the ‘talkback’ button in a radio studio. Commercial radio had only begun a few years earlier and Mel and Griff thought they could improve the creative standards of the advertising. They were right, and when I joined in 1985 the mantelpiece was groaning with awards. There was only one problem: however good a radio ad is, you can’t charge much for it. The company was housed in a single room above a martial arts shop in Carnaby Street. If the phone didn’t ring after lunch, and it often didn’t, we’d go for a swim.

The relationship between Mel and Griff was a perfect mirror of the film The Odd Couple, with Mel playing the Walter Matthau part:

relaxed, urbane, unflustered, unhurried. They felt that most people who work in TV comedy are essentially students who’ve never grown up. So the Talkback offices had the untidy appearance of a junior common room (our great rivals were Hat Trick, whose offices were gleaming and immaculate and – we thought – resembled a private medical clinic. Mind you, it didn’t hold them back).

Defining moment The transforming moment in Talkback’s development came when the government created the 25% quota for independent production in 1987. When Mel and Griff ’s contract with the BBC came up a year or two later, the BBC was only too delighted to farm out the production – after all, as well as being one of their best-rated comedy double acts, Smith and Jones had their own production company.

And thus the growth of Talkback began, with new and younger talent – Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Sacha Baron-Cohen, Ricky Gervais and so on – joining and shaping the comedy of the ’90s.

Mel remained a constant but slightly distant presence, lurking behind a cloud of cigar smoke. He never seemed threatened by the never-ending waves of talent – he was delighted for them and for their success, and by our association with it. He took as much interest in the business as you asked him to, but no more.

Once I was going through the motions of a Talkback board meeting – just Mel, Griff and I – and explaining some financial results, when he wandered over to the phone and started a conversation. “Yes, that’s right, 3.30,” I heard him say. I thought he was booking a taxi – not unreasonable, we’d been talking for all of 20 minutes – until I realised he was placing a bet on the 3.30 at Goodwood. Maybe the financial results, which by then were pretty good, had spurred him on.

By the time we sold Talkback in 2000, Mel was less involved in the company day to day. Mel and Griff had started Talkback by issuing shares with a value (I think) of £100. Mel’s stake was now worth millions. There is a very tense period during these deals when the principle terms have been agreed but completion hasn’t taken place.

Griff and I nervously followed the deliberations of all the lawyers and accountants, determinedly refusing to count our chickens ahead of completion. Mel, by contrast, ordered himself a new Rolls-Royce.

He will be greatly missed. He was a brilliant comedian and comedy actor. He was a successful director of plays, musicals, commercials and feature films. He and Griff had the foresight to start their own company long before most of their contemporaries and it went on to become one of the UK’s most successful indies. He’d have loved to have seen the outpouring of nostalgia and affection that has flooded Twitter and the internet over the past few days, but he wouldn’t have taken it too seriously. He lived in the moment, and moments spent with Mel were very memorable. It’s sobering to think that there won’t be any more of them. ➤ Peter Fincham is ITV director of television and former managing director of Talkback www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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In my vIew: TrAInIng

The next rung on the ladder is just a step away

Apprenticeships are a great route into a chosen career

If you want to get ahead in this industry, you just have to ask, says Susie Worster

On-the-job training benefits young people and the wider industry, writes Tim Angel

T

wenty three years ago, I stepped onto the first rung on the TV ladder.

I had no training in media or production; all I knew about television was how much I loved watching it – and I’d certainly put the hours in on that front.

As a Sussex University graduate, I believed that the only way to get training was to break into the BBC. But the general perception among new starters at the time was that that meant having an Oxbridge degree, applying for a job advertised in The Guardian media pages and being prepared to spend months dealing with rejection after rejection.

Instead, I bought a copy of The Knowledge and started writing to all the production companies I liked the look of. Fortunately, I didn’t get beyond the Bs before I was offered a job, a lucky break – possibly helped by the fact that an old school friend of mine was already working there.

This was the early days of the independent sector. We were the first generation to embark on a career that didn’t come with any formal network or training. There was very little training at all outside of the BBC and some of the regional ITV companies. What training I did have came from being on the job: working hard, learning from mistakes and trying my best to work with people who had high production values and kept the bar high.

Most people spent years, not months, on each rung of the ladder. Networking meant keeping a contacts book and hoping that as you moved around the independent sector you would inevitably come across people you had worked with before. Some people moved faster than others, and more often than not, it was all www.broadcastnow.co.uk

about who you knew. In many ways, it still is.

Young people in television are no longer always graduates but they are always in a hurry, and they don’t want to hang around on the bottom rung for long. What has changed is that they are more in control of their journey than we ever were.

Networks that used to take years to build are now just a few clicks away. Organisations like RTS Futures offer regular events for young people in television, giving

‘Networks that used to take years to build are now just a few clicks away’ them access to an impressive array of the most senior people in the industry. Their ‘speed date the gurus’ events cover every genre, are always sold out and are willingly attended by commissioning editors as well as senior editorial names from across the independent sector.

The BBC Academy’s Fast Train offers networking days that are now being rolled out across the UK and there are a host of other fantastic initiatives and organisations, such as Get In days, Edinburgh Network, Broadcast Hot Shots, Channel 4, Bafta and Media Parents, all of which offer networking and/or training opportunities for those wanting to get ahead in the industry.

Being a freelancer in 2013 may require tenacity and the ability to survive an income that will fluctuate over the first few years, but there are a lot of friendly people out there willing to help and who are more than happy to share their knowledge. You just have to ask. ➤ Susie Worster is head of creative talent at Wall to Wall and sits on the RTS Futures committee

E

arlier this year, it was reported that more than 1 million applications had been submitted for 106,000 apprenticeship vacancies in 2012. With rising university fees and increased competition for jobs among young people, this is perhaps not a surprise. However, this figure demonstrates a real desire among college and school-leavers for highquality, on-the-job training.

When we launched our official apprenticeship scheme, we received more than 400 applications for just three places, and the dedicated apprenticeship page on our website had well over 2,000 hits.

Angels has been offering vocational training for years, but we were only able to formalise this through an apprenticeship scheme in 2011. Since then, eight apprentices having begun or completed their training with us: seven trainees are currently working towards level 3 Advanced Apprenticeships in Technical Theatre, and another completed her Advanced Web Media training and is now a fulltime employee.

The government has invested around £1.5bn in the past year on technical education, making it increasingly a genuine alternative to traditional academic routes.

Within TV, there are now several well-established and successful apprenticeship schemes offered by organisations such as ITV and the BBC that provide a direct route into a growing number of sectors.

It would appear, and experience confirms the fact at Angels, that this format of training is invaluable in our field. Young people have unrivalled access to established industry experts. Interacting with the industry itself from day one allows apprentices to develop their professional skills, as well as observing the inner workings of the business and forming

long-lasting relationships with contacts and colleagues.

I am keen to establish our costume and wardrobe apprenticeship scheme as Angels’ main recruitment pathway, because I believe that it is the best start for young people hoping to succeed in our industry. We have a representative on a steering group for Creative Skillset, which is aiming to develop a new national costume apprenticeship for the film and TV sector – something that can only benefit the industry as a whole.

‘We have found that apprentices bring fresh ideas and innovation to the table’ We have worked hard to create an apprenticeship system that helps the trainees, but also works for us as a company. Aside from the obvious advantages of training skilled, passionate young recruits, we have found that our apprentices often bring new ideas and innovation to the table.

Apprenticeships are invaluable within the creative industries; they should be viewed as a practical and equal alternative to university – not simply as a substitute for those who are not academically inclined.

Angels has a long history of encouraging young talent, and having been highly commended for its recruitment practice in the Creative Apprentice Employer of the Year Awards 2013, the firm is already perceived as one of the major trainers of professional, efficient and reliable wardrobe staff.

To my mind, apprenticeships are a sound investment in terms of both time and money: apprentices contribute to a pool of skilled and qualified employees from which a company (and the industry as a whole) might recruit in the future. ➤ Tim Angel is chairman of Angels costumiers 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 17

Masterclass trainee schemes

the apprentice: you’re hired As demand for the BBC’s production apprenticeships increases, Anne Morrison of the BBC Academy asks three former trainees how the scheme helped them in their careers This year, the BBC will hire 250 trainees and apprentices across 22 entry level schemes. The next intake of 18 production trainees is currently being selected from 4,457 applications – a ratio of 247: 1.

Even before these daunting odds are factored in, the tough economic climate offers fewer opportunities for raw recruits.

Paradoxically, we’ve never had a greater need for new talent. Our industry is one of the UK’s key growth sectors and realising our potential relies on fresh perspectives that only new talent can bring.

However, it’s not as simple as just recruiting the brightest graduates. The proportion of state-educated pupils at leading universities has dropped in the past decade, and tuition fees pushing £27,000 is having an impact on university admissions.

Last year, the BBC hired 37 non-graduate apprentices and that will rise to 80 this year. We’re already seeing great talent blossom as a result. Our most recent trainees have all gone on to secure good jobs in the industry. Here we catch up with some previous apprentices.

1 two years on Sophie Petzal Former BBC Production trainee has since scriptedited CBBC’s Wolfblood

My BBC Production Trainee Scheme whirlwind wound up at the end of February this year. I began with BBC radio drama, moved on to Coast, then worked in CBBC drama for my final two placements – in development and then in production – before staying on through to the end of May as assistant script editor on the second series of CBBC’s RTS Award-winning show Wolfblood.

Before I was even aware of the existence of the BBC trainee schemes, I was spending a socially crippling amount of time writing, making stuff and watching and reading as much as I could get my hands on. In short, ever since the day I learned that people actually ‘wrote for TV’, that’s all I have wanted to do. The scheme offered me the opportunity to explore my verve for media in all its manifestations, to experience jobs in vastly different departments, and to truly get to grips with each facet of how this industry works.

While working for CBBC drama, an adult TV drama pilot I wrote in my free time won the Sir Peter Ustinov Scriptwriting Award, issued by the International Emmys in New York.

Following that shock success, CBBC drama kindly offered me the chance to write a short prequel episode for the upcoming second series of Wolfblood.

18 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Wolfblood: Sophie Petzal wrotre a prequel episode for the second series

‘Thanks to the scheme’s unending training, support and encouragement, I have the confidence to pursue my aspirations’ Sophie Petzal

I leapt at the chance, and it has since been shot on location in Northumberland with the rest of the series, which will air this autumn on CBBC. Following on from that, and my script editing, I was offered two full half-hour episodes of a brand new series for CBBC drama. That was the end of May, and here I am, just over a month later, ‘freelance’, desk-bound, in the thick of drafts, outlines and research. I couldn’t be more excited.

I spent the better part of two years with the BBC, the first 18 months of which were majestically orchestrated by the BBC Production Trainee Scheme. I began the scheme hoping to refine and condense my aspirations, but to my disbelief, I have simply discovered umpteen more. These I now have the confidence to pursue, thanks to the scheme’s unending training,

support and encouragement. So you have it the scheme to blame for this jumped-up twentysomething with lofty ambitions to write and produce a Bafta Award-winning drama, to be screened on BBC2, Thursdays at 9pm, some time during the next 30 years.

2 two years on Helena Kidd Former apprentice and now production management assistant, BBC Sport – Football

I had always been interested in sport, having played football and worked in ➤ a gym before I came to the BBC. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com studiosandpostproduction@bbc.co.uk 020 3327 6900

Masterclass

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

trainee schemes But I never imagined I could get into the media until I saw the BBC Sport Apprenticeship. As a production management assistant in football, I was surprised at the amount of responsibility I was given. I was looked at in the same way as other members of the team and trusted to work on the live shows.

I’ve had amazing opportunities, from representing the BBC at outside broadcasts to booking all the travel and accommodation for production and talent teams at major events in the safest and cheapest way possible.

It’s all been a huge privilege for me.

Now that I’ve completed my apprenticeship, new staff members are asking me how to do it all.

My personal highlights include my first ever shift on Football Focus and working on my first live game – Barnsley vs Leeds. I was amazed at how it all worked, how you got from the work in the office to the studio and then on air. Working on the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year awards was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

3 Journalism Dr Smitha Mundasad Switched from medicine to journalism

As a child growing up in Wales, one of my strongest memories was watching Huw Edwards presenting the daily BBC News. I loved seeing other worlds and human lives come to life through his words, and knew I wanted to be involved in this in some way.

But with two parents who were doctors, I was also thrown into amazing meal-time conversations about operating on people’s eyes and helping children recover from devastating psychological harm. From a young age, I was hooked on the idea of working in both worlds.

I applied for the BBC Journalism Trainee Scheme in 2010, after three years of working in medicine. It was one of the happiest decisions I’ve made, though it was scary to even think about taking a break from the world of medicine that I knew so well.

20 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

It was incredible how quickly we were let loose on proper journalism, guided by the talented people I had, until then, only seen in 2D. I remember Alan Little’s writing tutorial on the BBC Academy’s College of Journalism website every time I’m trying to turn a complex scientific idea into something more suited to a general audience.

As the Arab Spring unfolded, I was lucky to have my first experience of BBC News working with the World Online and World Service radio teams.

With training courses from the BBC’s College of Journalism and support from each team, I was rapidly writing news stories about Osama Bin Laden’s death and putting together radio packages on subjects ranging from African fashion to tuberculosis.

We were also given the chance to organise work placements to other BBC departments. For a while, I worked with the Factual and Science documentary team, successfully pitching, with two friends, the original idea for Curious Cat, a children’s science TV show now in its second series.

My final work placement was with the health news team, where I have managed to stay. I have been working as an on-demand health reporter and producer, putting together stories for the web and TV. The icing on the cake will be meeting Huw one day.

‘It was incredible how quickly we were let loose on proper journalism, guided by people I had, until then, only seen in 2D’

bbc academy new apprenticeships

Technology To address the shortfall in broadcast engineers, the BBC has launched a new degree-level Technology Apprenticeship for school-leavers, supported by co-investment from the government’s Employer Ownership Fund and supported by the wider industry and Creative Skillset. Starting this September, the Technology Apprenticeship will take on 100 new apprentices over the next five years.

Production management Drawing on co-investment from the government’s Employers’ Ownership Fund, the BBC Academy has also launched a new higher-level apprenticeship scheme in production management, aimed at school-leavers who are looking to become production co-ordinators and with a career path to production management.

This qualification, equivalent to a foundation degree, has been developed in conjunction with Creative Skillset after consultation with industry experts from other broadcasters and indies. In September, the BBC will hire its first apprentices on a 15-month, fixed-term contract, offering placements across the industry, with training at the BBC Academy and from education partner Westminster Kingsway College.

Dr Smitha Mundasad

Sports Personality Of The Year: greatest experience for Helena Kidd www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Facilities Special 2013 The top post houses tackling an industry in transition

Contents Leader 24

28

30

Industry at a crossroads Post-production is at a crossroads. The majority of facilities still operate a business based on hefty capital investment in city centre premises with high rents, at a time when the industry is moving, at speed, to a model where internet Wide Area Networking is becoming an intrinsic part of how clients want to operate.

“Post is always in transition as new technology adrian PenningTOn emerges, but I’ve never known it to be at a more pivotal moment of survival,” states Paul Austin, head of post at Dock10. “Larger companies are growing their footprints and getting stronger, smaller ones with niche markets and higher margins in VFX or finishing will do well, but the small- to mid-sized companies will struggle. There’s over-saturation in the market and the market is killing itself.”

This is no dramatisation as these themes are borne out in our annual health check of the UK post-production sector. Concentrating squarely on those facilities involved in broadcast programming, the survey canvasses the opinion of more than 40 large, medium and small businesses to gauge the state of the market and to forecast the future of the industry.

While a select few super-facilities are expanding on the back of offline demand, many in the mid range are struggling as offline evaporates inhouse or is given away at low prices.

By all accounts, the future of post involves a greater role for facilities in data management right throughout the production chain, and a maintenance of its more traditional role as the best place for talent to craft programming with high production values.

“You simply cannot delete the key ingredient of people sitting together in a creative space, working collaboratively on a project,” stresses Ben Foakes, managing director of Sequence Post. “The problem is that the current creative spaces in most facilities are out of date, cost-heavy and unsustainable.” ➤ Adrian Pennington, supplement editor

Contents 32

24 Trends Demand picks up for full-service post houses.

28 Trends Specialists find their niche.

30 Future How technology is changing post.

32 Profiles An A to Z of UK facilities.

Cover image: Envy Baselight suite

Broadcast Editor Lisa Campbell Supplement Editor Adrian Pennington Features Editor Robin Parker Production Editor Dominic Needham Group Art Director, Media Peter Gingell Contributor Anm-Marie Corvin Senior Commercial Director, Media Alison Pitchford Deputy Sales Manager Sonya Jacobs Senior Account Manager Alex Murgo 22 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Facilities Special trends Full-service post houses

Feast or famine for post Prospects for post houses look to be improving on a tough start to the year following the 2012 Olympics. Ann-Marie Corvin looks at how are they coping with lumpy demand

T

he UK’s facilities sector is still recovering from the dip in work caused by the Olympics a year ago, which temporarily switched the nation’s focus away from prerecorded TV shows.

Added to this, some of our respondents reported a slower start to the year, which many attributed to a delay in the commissioning process – with some film and TV productions remaining on ice until the creative tax credits kicked in in April.

“The Olympics were disastrous for business – by contrast, this year has seemed remarkably strong,” says Evolutions managing director Simon Kanjee.

Prime Focus managing director Rowan Bray says 2013 started quietly due to delayed commissioning, but as sales values are the same, she expects an increase in work over the coming months.

24 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

‘The Olympics were disastrous for business – by contrast, this year has seemed remarkably strong’ Simon Kanjee, Evolutions

Even super-facility Envy made redundancies as it streamlined its track lay processes and deployed new upgrades to Baselight, which facilities director Natascha Cadle says is now able to conform material in “half the time”.

Envy is actively hiring people in other departments. High on the recruitment list are vacancies for ‘digital librarians’ – a cross between a DIT and a tape op. It’s a crucial role as clients look to archive their work in a file-based environment.

Mid-sized player LipSync was forced to renegotiate its debt through a CVA in April but with work picking up, particularly on the film side, director of post Peter Hampton says the facility is now far more confident about the future.

Smaller set-ups also describe the first half of the year as tough. Storm

co-founder Paul Ingvarsson observes that there appear to be fewer commissions around, with “lots of editors asking for work”. He adds that quieter times present a good opportunity for editors to cut their teeth on new kit.

Tough times ahead Storm underwent a fairly hefty upgrade in January and the lull in work has allowed the facility to test parallel workflows using existing and new kit, including DaVinci’s colour grading and master system Resolve.

Some of the larger VFX houses also see difficult times ahead. In March, The Mill chief executive Robin Shenfield closed down Mill TV, the company behind award-winning VFX work on Doctor Who and Merlin, due to a “hiatus” in demand for high-end VFX shows from both broadcasters and big Hollywood studios. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

LipSync’s Hampton says: “There used to be a very small pool of operators qualified to do high-end VFX, so it became one of the last bastions on which you could build up a profitable business. Now, because of oversupply, the rates have gone soft.”

On the finishing side of the business too, solo talents are setting up on their own and charging half the amount that mainstream companies can afford to offer for finishing.

“This was not feasible 10-15 years ago, when the tools of trade cost sixfigure sums, but it shouldn’t be ignored and is only likely to accelerate as talented individuals and affordable technology continue to converge,” says Sequence founder Ben Foakes.

Although the market in Scotland is currently buoyant on a mix of volume returning series and a healthy stream of new programme commissions, Bill Fairweather, business development manager of Glasgow-based Edit123, reports pressure points including “the rising number of in-house offline suites, rates that don’t rise in line with inflation, and capacity in terms of supply and demand as all the major facilities have added to their edit capacity in the past year.”

A silver lining, particularly for facilities specialising in film and drama, came this year in the form of the government’s high-end TV tax credits on productions worth more than £1m per slot hour.

LipSync finance director Norman Merry observes: “TV enquiries have picked up significantly in the past six months, partly due to the introduction of the UK tax credit but also a general rise in the quality and quantity of TV drama and more availability of funding for UK-produced projects.”

Molinare managing director Julie Parmenter predicts the next 12 months will be “an exciting time for UK drama”. Despite her enthusiasm, the former RollsRoyce exec has cut back on the facility’s film investment activities since taking the helm to focus purely on its post business.

“We have so much fantastic creative talent. Let’s be proud of what we are good at rather than trying to diversify into things that are not our forte,” she says. www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Clockwise from main pic: The Mill carried out VFX work for Doctor Who; Evolutions’ Berners Street facility; bar at Molinare; Top Gear, posted at Envy; Lipsync co-pro Birdsong

Others, however, have been keen to capitalise on this much-anticipated drama surge. LipSync, which has been involved in film financing for the past five years, recently announced its expansion into TV finance, having previously co-produced TV drama projects including Birdsong (below) and The Crimson Petal And The White.

It has already raised £5m through investors to help productions with gap financing as well as equity investment – injecting tax break cash up front on productions where the post budget is of “a reasonable size”.

While a stipulation that finance clients must do their post work at LipSync seems a reasonable way of securing work, given the risk that the facility is potentially taking, some have dismissed this practice as a way of buying turnover.

Halo chief executive John Rogerson has taken a slightly different approach with

‘There used to be a very small pool of operators qualified to do high-end VFX. Now, because of oversupply, the rates have gone soft’ Peter Hampton, LipSync

his TV and film finance arm, which was launched last year.

“We may quote for post work, but you can potentially put yourself into a difficult position if your producer is both a partner and a client, so we don’t insist that they do the post here too,” he says.

Either way, according to Rogerson, business on the film side of his post business couldn’t be better: the film division, set up just 18 months ago, now accounts for 25% of its business and remains “an obvious area for expansion”.

Offline boom Many facilities have reported a rise in demand for offline this year, though the approaches they are taking vary, depending on their size, ambition and business model.

The knowledge that Dave Cadle is already eyeing up a sixth facility to add to the Envy stable will raise few eyebrows. “We’re not going to stop now – we need the extra rooms,” he says. Envy has the third series of The Voice UK and the 20th of Top Gear to house over the coming months.

Cadle argues that many of these big productions require multiple suites, and it would have been impossible ➤ 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 25

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Top down: Sequence DaVinci Resolve; LipSync Baselight grading suite

to win these big gigs without sizing up to accommodate them.

Indeed, he argues that, far from being the loss leader it was once perceived as, offline now accounts for roughly £5m of Envy’s turnover.

This increase in capacity among some of the bigger players has caused concern, and a degree of incredulity, among mid-sized and smaller fullservice post houses.

Sequence’s Foakes commends “those putting their necks and wallets on the line, bravely securing major contracts and filling hundreds of rooms, but I fear they may have misjudged the long-term underpinning foundations holding up their houses”.

Offline oversupply The concern is that an oversupply of offline suites will drive down rates for everyone during quieter times. Even Nicky Sargent, joint managing director of the UK’s largest independent facility, The Farm, alludes to the growing pressure on rates: right now, she says, there is “plenty of work, seldom enough money”.

According to Rogerson, Halo has built up a client base that is happy to pay a fair price for a fair job. It has a modest amount of offline suites – around 30 – and he is careful not to fill them up with cheaper work.

“Demand for TV has always outstripped supply,” he says. “But it’s really important that we continue to www.broadcastnow.co.uk

‘It’s all about removing those extra costs and spending the money on the screen’ Richard Moss, Gorilla

offer a premium service with a personal touch, which can disappear when you get too big.”

Kanjee, meanwhile, says that Evolutions’ approach to busier periods (“it’s usually a three- or four-month thing from June to September”) has been to hire extra serviced offices around Soho. He says Evolutions has no intension of opening a permanent offline facility in central London.

“We just don’t get the same level of business from January through till June,” he says. Evolutions has,

however, recently opened a facility in Bristol – mainly, says Kanjee, because that is where his clients are, working on jobs such as DIY SOS for the BBC. Similarly, last October, Crow TV expanded its Birmingham facility, adding 11 offlines, in part because clients such as Endemol have picked up a raft of commissions in the region.

But it’s not just about Soho facilities expanding into the nations and regions; it’s also working the other way around: Welsh facility Gorilla snapped up W1 post house The Joint in February.

According to managing director Richard Moss, the facility often works remotely, bringing edit suits to the clients and “wherever the talent is remaining for the longest duration”.

He adds: “If the editor and director are based in Bristol then we’ll set up there – it’s only two hours across the bridge – and then we’ll approach companies that are hiring rooms.”

However, with overnight stays in London averaging £180 a night and travel costs on top, before you’ve even paid the operator’s fee, Moss points out that it made more sense for the company to invest in central London premises and present clients with the opportunity to take advantage of the most cost-effective locations.

“It’s all about removing those extra costs and spending the money on the screen,” he says.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 27

Facilities Special TRENDS SPECIALISTS

Doors open for boutiques Tax breaks and more affordable kit are a boon for niche operators. Adrian Pennington reports

W

hile super-facilities expand their footprints, they are often hothousing the next generation of owner-operators, who emerge blinking into the sunlight to run their own independent, craftoriented businesses.

Ben Haworth co-founded Manchester-based CGI, animation and VFX firm Flipbook Studio in 2010 with a colleague from now defunct Red Vision. “What we learned was not to put all our eggs in one basket. We work across long-form docs, the games industry and digital agencies,” he says.

“We multi-skill across different jobs and are flexible to last-minute editorial changes because we don’t have to turn around large pipelines. We deal with directors and editors rather than VFX supervisors and other management layers. I think we are able to give a more personal service to clients.”

Still, bigger jobs aren’t coming their way yet. “People think we aren’t big or good enough. It’s a shame that more boutiques don’t band together [to complete parts of a larger job] rather than being undercut by larger ones.”

Principal VFX plans to collaborate with fellow West Country boutique Artisan FX on a forthcoming project.

“It has some highly specialised 2D skills that our company doesn’t have, which makes it an ideal partner to co-bid on projects,” says co-founder Chris Hunt.

Armed with years of experience at facilities including Double Negative and MPC, Hunt and two colleagues launched Principal, which is focused primarily on TV and commercials VFX. 28 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

‘Being boutique outside London allows us to reduce the bulk in our overheads, and offer profit-sharing incentives’ Chris Hunt, Principal VFX

Clockwise from top left: Game Of Thrones (Bluebolt); Ice Age Giants (effects created by the Milk team); Metal Gear Vengeance (Flipbook produces effects for games as well as docs)

“Where film productions can be drawn out and the losses quite large, TV VFX deadlines seem a lot more set, profits are more predictable and there’s quick turnover of programming, so we can scale up and down very easily,” says Hunt.

Cloud model Principal is examining the same cloudbased tech model for rendering and other functions as Milk, the company set up by Will Cohen and colleagues after The Mill shut its TV VFX wing.

“We were frustrated that a lot of studios are based in areas with a high cost of living, yet VFX wages have barely risen for a decade,” says Hunt.

“Being boutique outside London allows us to reduce the bulk in our overheads, and offer profit-sharing incentives. It’s popular with artists and will enable us to keep innovating.”

The fickle nature of VFX projects that require massive scaling up one day and down the next has claimed casualties in the US, notably LA’s Rhythm and Hues, bankrupted by its Oscar-winning work for The Life Of Pi (below). UK boutiques are on the cusp of a renaissance thanks to tax credits and cheaper initial capital investment.

While successful companies have relied on top-tier in-house talent to attract customers, the trend towards boutique operations may contribute to a gradual erosion of superfacilities.

“We’re already seeing an exodus of individuals setting themselves up as solo operations, particularly with talented colourists and VFX artists, who are benefiting from an easier entry point into kit purchase than ever before,” says Sequence Post managing director Ben Foakes.

“Sound craft is one of the last vestiges of traditional post that still requires heavy infrastructure. The same sort of technological progression we have seen in non-linear editing, grading and VFX will start to infiltrate audio post.

But you need a certain degree of acoustic treatment and quality of monitoring to produce the best results.”

In five years, London will have an even better selection of high-end boutique houses spanning film and TV, predicts Bluebolt managing director Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor.

She says the market is buoyant as the new tax incentives attract interest from producers in the UK and overseas, which should help with VFX budgets.

Double Negative launched a TV division in April and is included here as a specialist even though it can take advantage of its much larger feature film pipeline. “As the technology for VFX and post becomes ever more advanced, the need for producers to think of VFX as part of pre-production will become imperative,” notes Double Negative VFX producer Louise Hussey.

“While off-the-shelf software packages remain affordable, the expectation for high-end TV VFX to be as creative and complicated as VFX in features makes investment in high level, proprietary software and expertise crucial.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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Facilities Special post-production thE futurE

Evolution of the post house Advances in technology and storage, plus indies carrying out more work in-house, could make the facility of the future a very different place. Adrian Pennington takes a look ahead

W

ith the middle squeezed and indies able to take more traditional work in-house, today’s post model seems broken.

“The sector needs a serious rethink,” says Sequence founder Ben Foakes. “Ninety per cent of the current market is controlled by businesses that capitalised on the last significant technological shift in TV post in the late 1990s to late 2000s, when editing was booming, machine rooms were stacked with video decks and the processes involved to get a show on screen were considered dark arts, sold with inflated price tags.”

Post is evolving into a pure IT industry, driven by desktop software, large-volume data storage and highspeed network connectivity.

“High infrastructure and running costs will have to become a thing of the past, replaced by rental of software and hardware in the cloud,” says Jellyfish creative director Phil Dobree.

“Successful companies will be those that can minimise overheads in real estate and still maximise technical development of IT infrastructure and accessibility,” adds Prime Focus operations manager Rachel Brook.

One consequence of post by Wide Area Networking is the decentralisation of facilities based in Soho. “In five years, I suspect rents may have risen to such an extent that post isn’t viable in central London,” says Halo chief executive John Rogerson. “Once the bigger players start to move out, we’ll see a lot of changes, or perhaps we’ll all just find a new ghetto.”

Halo is pretty substantial itself, but giants such as Envy and The Farm, both of which have vast central London footprints, seem less likely to uproot. “The technical side of things will change a lot but location and talent remain important factors,” says Envy managing director Dave Cadle. “The big post houses are still within a half mile of one another and I can’t see that changing for the foreseeable future.”

Farm Group co-founder Nicky Sargent says: “Geographically, the big 30 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

finishers will need to stay central, but the beginning of the post adventure can, and does, happen anywhere.”

Soho is still part of Deluxe 142’s business plans. “Post remains a highly creative and collaborative process that is best delivered from a location that easily accommodates the expert talent and kit that Soho facilities provide, along with the creative production team,” says director of operations Johnny Whitehead.

Pay as you go For outfits creating visual effects, the ‘pay-as-you go’ model for cloudhosted services – such as potential rendering overspill on a cloud platform – is, however, game-changing.

“Smart and cost-effective solutions to data storage will help smaller houses in particular to scale with the vast increases in data size,” says Milk founder Will Cohen.

Dobree predicts that working remotely, with the ability to contract and expand according to the workload, will be vital to the survival of

‘High infrastructure and running costs will have to become a thing of the past, replaced by rental of software and hardware in the cloud’ Phil Dobree, Jellyfish

VFX studios. “Client attendance and feedback will be restricted to a few suites and viewing areas, with supervisors and production management in central locations,” he says.

Remote access and cloud hosting is also expected to give production companies greater flexibility in choice of supplier. But far from spelling the end of the post business, facility expertise will still be required to manage data efficiently.

“The biggest problem that everyone is trying to solve is management and control of data,” says BBC North head of production Mark Harrison.

“The themes of trust and end-to-end process management are attractive to producers, and are what post houses have historically offered. Particularly for higher-budget productions, why would you not spend money with a post house making sure your data is safe?”

“While offline will shift away from post houses, there will be a greater reliance on them for storage and data management,” says LipSync financial www.broadcastnow.co.uk

The tax break should allow VFX to start making good headway into television in this country Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Bluebolt, page 32

director Norman Merry. “Shorter delivery times and more extensive delivery requirements (such as digital and online) will also increase the reliance on fully functional post houses.”

This is the scenario across the board. Evolutions’ model will become more about data management and archiving, says managing director Simon Kanjee, “whether locally or in the cloud, though we believe that editing and online will remain part of the post model”.

Data and media management will play a major role for Films at 59, says business development director George Panayiotou. “How efficiently and cost-effectively we achieve this will determine our success.”

The question, of course, is how facilities can ratecard data management, or, indeed, what producers are prepared to pay for care of their assets.

At Sunset+Vine, RAID storage is the most expensive item of purchase.

“Not only are we buying more and more storage, but we’re spending time to make sure all our content is safe,” says head of post Emma Riley. “If that was looked after by a third party, that would be brilliant, but it needs to be cheaper than we can do it ourselves.”

Gorilla managing director Richard Moss believes facilities should link up with production to guarantee overheads. “Cloud editing, logging and archive will be needed,” he says. “This will remain the care of post facilities.

Local core storage should be kept in the facility. Data scientists should be a transparent ratecard cost. Storage and retrieval of production rushes could be a good new revenue stream, or guarantee of production loyalty.”

Most facilities still expect grading, finishing and dubbing to occur in their suites, rather than being remotehosted or co-opted by indies. As Storm HD co-founder Paul Ingvarsson explains: “The costs and the talent involved with finishing remain in the

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

footprint of a facility that can output hundreds of hours of finished programmes a year.”

“Scripted reality will surely move to cloud editing,” says Thomas Urbye, owner of The Look. “The best talent is nearly always in-house at this level.”

With more organised internal post departments, the media management of fast-turnaround, multi-episodic shows may be increasingly handled by production companies throughout the early stages of production.

“This may put a lot more pressure on post facilities to offer skills and services to compete, such as DIT and remote-editing applications, in which indies cannot justify investing,” suggests Air Post facility manager Lara Moody.

Cloud hosting The inevitability of cloud hosting and remote viewing will mean control and management of projects and metadata is retained by the facility, says Natalie Bayford, facilities director of Directors’ Cut Films. The craft network of grading, audio and online will remain the sector’s backbone “alongside file-based QC and delivery, which also requires the expertise found within a facility”, she adds.

The increase in shoot ratios and higher-resolution capture is raising the bar for the data-storage hardware and processing power required for high-end, long-form work.

“This needs specialist investment and support and is the reason many production companies shy away from in-sourcing finishing post,” says Whitehead.

Ironically, as more content is distributed online, where budgets are a fraction of what they were in TV’s heyday, high-end production values are coming to the fore.

“As we move increasingly towards connected consumption of media, the thing that will stand out from the

‘Why would you not spend money with a post house making sure your data is safe?’

Mark Harrison, head of production, BBC North

Left to right: The Farm; Gorilla; G-Raid drive

noise will be quality,” says Harrison.

“There will be a push for quality from commissioners and broadcasters and the impact of this will be a push on producers to bust the boundaries of what they can accomplish in-house. It will warrant a return, in some cases, to the classic post-production model where only the bigger players capable of investing in equipment will be able to offer high production values.”

For most facility chiefs, being able to work with top creative talent is one of the main differences between outsourcing work and an in-house set-up.

“Post becomes more instrumental in the production process, so the relationships with clients should, if anything, get closer,” says Sargent.

“Talent in editing, grade and dub will be the differentiating factor in building a loyal client base for final post, particularly for drama and highvalue factual,” says Edit123 business development manager Bill Fairweather. “There will continue to be a large pool of freelance editors, but a few key talented staff will attract work and build the reputation of a successful post house.”

Molinare chairman Steve Milne also believes that producers working in higher-quality genres “will continue to show a strong desire to work with the best creatives, project managers and executives in post who can elevate the final programme”.

The pragmatic view is that you can have all the technology you want, but it won’t necessarily make for a better or cheaper programme.

“Without talent, we’re a generic bunch of buildings with the same kit and slightly different décor,” says Halo’s Rogerson. “It’s the people at every level that make post special or not. The kit is useless on its own, or in the hands of a fool. Good people equals good post, and any facility that misses that generally sinks like a stone.”

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 31

Facilities Special Profiles a to z

Who’s who in post Growing competition and falling budgets remain the biggest concerns for the facilities listed in our A to Z, but tax credits and an increase in commissions provide a positive outlook KEY

S

= Small company

M

= Medium company

air POst PrOductiOn M airpost.tv Locations Two in London Staff 14 Suites 18 Services Offline; online; dubbing; grading; storage Credits Best In Town (Predictable Media and Mox Productions for BBCW); Horsemeat Banquet (Dragonfly for C4); Chef Race (Fresh One for BBC America) Turnover £1m “While productions have pre­ dominantly moved to file­based workflows, infrastructure and software still lags behind. Our solution has been investment in bigger, more efficient storage and transcoding to give us the flexi­ bility to handle whatever formats are thrown at us.”

Lara Moody Facility manager

artisan visual effects S artisan-vfx.com Location South Wales Staff 2 Suites 3 Services VFX; compositing; stereo­ scopic VFX; VFX supervision; CGI Credits Da Vinci’s Demons; Earthflight 3D; Being Human (BBC3) Turnover Not available “Competition from outsourcing overseas remains high on the agenda. However, we strongly believe that British artists have a wealth of experience, creativity and talent that is second to none.”

Craig Higgins Co-founder

Big Bang POst S bigbangpost.com Location Bristol Staff 20 Suites 20 Services Offline; online; trans­ coding; grading; audio (foley, mix) Credits Wild Arabia (BBC2); Hairy Bikers; Natural World Turnover £1.6m 32 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

L

= Large company. Staff = permanent staff, turnover = 2012-13, suites = HQ only

“We see expansion in storage due to new, higher­than­HD camera formats; expansion in turnover; and increased competi­ tion from new facilities.”

Tim Bolt Managing director

BlueBOlt M blue-bolt.com Location London Staff 25 Seats 20­45 as required Services VFX Credits Peaky Blinders (Tiger Aspect); Great Expectations; Game Of Thrones season one (below) Turnover £2.25m “The TV tax break should allow VFX to start making good headway into television in this country.”

Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor Managing director

BuBBle tv grOuP M bubbletv.co.uk Location London Staff 20 Suites 13 Services Audio and video post Credits Mike The Knight; Panorama; Dispatches Turnover Not available

BBc studiOs and POst PrOductiOn M bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com Location(s) London, Elstree Staff 20 Suites 20 Services Editing; finishing; audio; grading Credits British Animal Honours (Whizz Kid Enter­ tainment for ITV); Friday Download (Salt­ beef TV for CBBC);

Deluxe 142 That Puppet Game Show (BBC/Jim Henson Company for BBC1) Turnover £52.2m (for 2011­12, including studios) “The market is hugely com­ petitive, but we’re looking forward to a busy autumn, including sup­ porting shows like Stepping Out and Strictly Come Dancing.”

Steve Kruger Post-production manager

deluxe 142 L deluxe142.co.uk Location London Staff 40 Suites 45 Services Grading; online; offline; VFX; telecine; dailies; sound (mixing, editorial, ADR, foley) Credits Luther (BBC1); Mr Selfridge (ITV); Broadchurch (Kudos for ITV) Turnover Not available “The main challenge for many facilities is balancing the inc­ reasing cost of being in Soho with reduced production budgets.”

Johnny Whitehead Director of operations

directOrs cut films M Directorscutfilms.com Location London Staff 25 Suites 20 Services Online; offline; audio; grading Credits Love Your Garden (Spun Gold for ITV); Panorama; Soldiers Turnover £2m “Strong demand for our services is leading to pressure on suites and storage, resulting in invest­ ment in Isis and additional near­ line storage with remote viewing.”

Natalie Bayford Facilities director

dneg tv S www.dnegtv.com Location London Staff 18 Services VFX (concept and storyboard, shoot supervision, production planning and support, animation, compositing); flexible studio spaces Credits Mr Selfridge series two (ITV); By Any Means (Red Planet for BBC1); Death In Paradise (Red Planet/Kudos for BBC1) Established April 2013 “We are talking to producers and broadcasters in the UK and US. The tax breaks are encouraging www.broadcastnow.co.uk

This was the most barking mad piece of telly I’d ever attempted to exec fiona Pitcher, Behind the scenes, page 42

them to be more ambitious in their proposals.”

Louise Hussey VFX producer

dOcK10 L dock10.co.uk Location MediaCityUK (Salford) Staff 97 (across post and studios) Suites 26 Services Offline; online; audio (5.1, foley, ADR); grading; cinema screening room; tech reviews; QC; Harding FPA tests; delivera­ bles; duplication; encoding; transcoding Credits Dragons’ Den (BBC2); Gok Live (Remarkable for C4); The Wright Way (BBC1) Turnover £10.2m+ “The aim is to grow further into the documentary and drama market over the next 12 months.

Another key opportunity is helping to bring [cloud­based asset management system] CentralParQ to the market.”

Paul Austin Head of post-production

edit 123 M edit123.co.uk Location Glasgow Staff 20 Suites 22 Services Crewing; editing; graphics; sound Credits Phil Spencer: Secret Agent (Raise The Roof Productions for C4); Disaster Chefs (Lucky Day Productions for CBBC); SPL cover­ age (Sky Sports News) Turnover £2.1m “Opportunities for growth will come from additional program­ ming and post in relation to the Commonwealth Games, BT Sports’ coverage of Scottish foot­ ball, and corporate production.”

Bill Fairweather Business development manager

envY L envypost.co.uk Location(s) Five in London Staff 220 Suites 127 Services Offline; online; grading; finishing; 3D; audio Credits The Voice UK (Wall to Wall for BBC1); Top Gear (BBC2); ITV rebrand Turnover £15.4m www.broadcastnow.co.uk

“Post­production is always a bit of a rollercoaster – you definitely need to make the ‘highs’ work for you. Multi­episodic series seem to be very popular at the moment. They require multiple rooms, which has really worked for Envy as our offline suites are very profitable.”

Dave Cadle Founder

evOlutiOns L evolutions.tv Location(s) Three in London, one in Bristol Staff 175 Suites 95 Services Offline; online; audio; grading; location services; duplication; Earth (design and animation) Credits The Apprentice (Bound­ less for BBC1); One Born Every Minute (Dragonfly for C4); The Graham Norton Show (So Tele­ vision for BBC1) Turnover £10m “The market is very strong.

We are busier than ever.

The challenge is to accom­ modate the huge demand for our suites and manage growth in a con­ trolled manner.”

Simon Kanjee Managing director

the farm grOuP L farmgroup.tv Locations London, Bristol, Salford, LA Staff 280 Suites 100+ Services Full post (editing, grading, audio, QC, content conversion, distribution) Credits Made Of Stone (Warp Films for Film 4); Downton Abbey (Carnival Films for ITV); Britain’s Got Talent (Syco/Thames for ITV) Turnover Not available “Plenty of work, seldom enough money.”

Nicky Sargent Joint managing director

films at 59 L filmsat59.com Location(s) Bristol, Cardiff Staff 135 Suites 46 Services Kit hire; offline; online; grading; VFX; finishing; audio Credits Ice Age Giants (BBC1); Trollied (Roughcut TV for Sky 1); North America (Discovery US) Turnover £8.9m “The opportunities lie in de­mystifying the tools and processes so we can meet crea­ tive aspirations. We know we have to work smart and

hard – we just have to keep per­ spective and do it with a smile.”

George Panayiotou Business development director

flix facilities M flixfacilities.com Location Manchester Staff 32 Suites 25 Services Offline; online; dubbing; CGI Credits Postman Pat (CBeebies); Rip Off Britain (BBC1); Panorama (BBC1) “The market is price­competitive but as a result of rapidly changing technology, new opportunities are emerging in remote editing, asset management and archiving.”

Leo Casserly Managing director

gOldcrest POst PrOductiOn M goldcrestfilms.com Location(s) Two in London, one in New York Staff 50 Suites 16 (+35 production offices) Services Audio (editing, design, ADR, foley); picture (offline, online, grading, finishing) Credits The Hollow Crown (Neal St/ Carnival for BBC2); Mad Dogs series three (Left Bank Pictures for Sky 1); Burton And Taylor (BBC4) Turnover £7m ➤

Envy 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 33

Facilities Special Profiles a to z “The market is extremely buoyant, with an exceptional level of high­ quality drama in post. To succeed, you need the talent and resources capable of delivering these projects. Running a facility in central London is not cheap, but digital workflow is helping to bring down the cost.”

Chris Quested Managing director

gOrilla tv L gorillagroup.tv Location(s) Three in Cardiff, one in London Staff 60 Suites 70 Services Offline; online; grading; audio; OB; studio; VFX; animation; motion graphics Credits How To Win The Grand National (Oxford Scientific Films for C4); Wild Shepherdess With Kate Humble (Indus Films for BBC2); Stella (Tidy Productions for Sky) Turnover £5m “Ever­decreasing budgets mean opportunities for workflow and technology services.”

Richard Moss Managing director

halO L halopost.tv Location(s) Three in London Staff 55 Suites 42

Halo 34 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Services Online; offline; audio (dubbing, ADR, sound design); grading; 3D Credits Micro Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (Colossus Productions for Sky); Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model (Sky Living) Turnover £4.8m “Opportunities include a significant increase in our film department and continued growth of our TV depart­ ment with factual and drama work.”

John Rogerson Chief executive

JellYfish Pictures S jellyfishpictures.co.uk Location London Staff 20 Suites 4 Services VFX; grading; viewing cinema; motion graphics; content design and creation Credits Challenger (BBC); The Whale (BBC); Could We Survive A Mega Tsunami (BBC) Turnover £2m “The market has been very tough for the past year and shows only slight signs of recovery – this could depend largely on the new TV tax incentives.”

Phil Dobree Creative director

liPsYnc POst M lipsyncpost.co.uk Location(s) Two in London Staff 72 Suites 22 Services DI; online; VFX; sound; deliverables; graphics Credits Dancing On The Edge (Ruby Films for BBC2, below); The Sparticle Mystery (Sparticle Pro­ ductions for CBBC); The Great Train Robbery (ITV Studios for ITV) Turnover £7.4m “TV enquiries have picked up significantly in the past six months, partly due to the tax credit but also a general rise in the quality and quantity of TV drama and more availability of funding.”

Norman Merry Finance director

the lOOK S thelooklondon.com Location London Staff 10 Suites 4 Services Grading; finishing; VFX Credits Top Boy series two (Cowboy Films for C4); Last Tango in Halifax (Red Pro­ ductions for BBC1); Whitechapel series four (Carnival Films for ITV)

“With the tax breaks now available for high­end drama, international sales and general improved stand­ ards of production, we are very excited about 2014.”

Thomas Urbye Owner

milK S milk-vfx.com Location London Staff 12 Seats 100 Services VFX; screening rooms; edit suites Credits [As Mill TV] Doctor Who series seven (BBC); Ice Age Giants (BBC); Skins-Redux (Company Pictures for E4) Turnover £4m as Mill TV. Milk established June 2013.

“US broadcasters are adding to the increase in activity. They’re still to filter through to confirma­ tions, but looking positive.”

Will Cohen Chief executive

mOlinare L molinare.co.uk Location London Staff 117 Suites 70 Services Grading; audio; offline; online; QC; DI; sound; VFX; library and data management; inter­ national servicing; post­produc­ tion management Credits Mad Dogs (Left Bank Pictures for Sky 1); Brazil with Michael Palin (BBC1); MasterChef (Shine TV for BBC1) Turnover Not available “Drama and indie film markets are relatively buoyant and we are benefiting from extensive invest­ ment in picture and audio over the past four years. The company is also free again, under independ­ ent ownership, to take advantage of changing market conditions.”

Steve Milne Chairman

munKY S munky.uk.com Location London Staff 7 Suites 3 Services VFX; animation; design; supervision Credits The Village (Company Pic­ tures for BBC1); Skins (Company Pictures for E4); The Escape Artist (Endor Pictures for BBC1) www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

Turnover £850,000 “Budgets continue to be chal­ lenging but our drama roster is busy and the calibre of shows coming our way really makes it all worthwhile.”

Gary Brown Creative director

Onsight M onsight.co.uk Location London Staff 60 Suites 8 Services Workflow planning; dailies; data management; conform; online; 3D; DI; com ­ positing; QC; mastering; giant screen services; sound Credits Micro Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (Colossus Pro­ ductions for Sky 3D & Sky 1 HD); Playhouse Presents: The Pavement Psychologist (Sprout Pictures for Sky Arts 1 HD); Mr Stink (BBC1 and BBC HD) Turnover £4m “With continuing pressure on budgets and schedules, it’s impor­ tant to stand out. By focusing not only on traditional services, our team’s deep understanding of new and emerging technologies allows us to offer clients a comprehensive range of opportunities.”

Andy Shelley Chief operating officer

PrinciPal vfx S principalvfx.com Location Bristol Staff 3 Suites Establishing demand before investing Services CG environments; characters and creatures; animation; set extensions; fluid and particle FX Credits Freelance artists on the movies The Great Gatsby; Total Recall; John Carter Turnover Not available “Our main focus over the next year is in broadcast and commercials from clients looking to reduce or maintain levels of spending but increase quality and speed.”

Chris Hunt Co-founder

Prime fOcus L primefocusgroup.com Location(s) Three in London Staff 145 www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Molinare Suites 60+ Services Online; finishing; grade; audio; deliverables; QC; duplica­ tion; conversion; encoding; resto­ ration; VFX Credits First Cut: Scientology (Roast Beef for C4); Paranormal Witness (Raw TV for Syfy); 1980s: The Decade That Made Us (Nutopia for Nat Geo) Turnover Not available “2013 started more quietly than last year, due to delayed commis­ sioning, but the sales values are the same. Therefore, we expect an increase in work in the second half of the year.”

Rowan Bray Managing director

raPid Pictures S rapidpictures.co.uk Location London Staff 14 Suites 17 Services Offline; online; audio; grading; duplication; digital media Credits Get Squiggling Letters (Dot to Dot Productions for CBeebies); True Stories (Blink Films for Discovery, C5 and Smithsonian); Street Patrol UK (Leopard Films for BBC1) Turnover £1.5m “Things will continue as they are: production companies trying

to cut costs by taking offline in house and leaving the final post for facilities.”

Elouise Carden Bell Managing director

sequence POst S sequence-post.co.uk Location London Staff 8 Suites 7 Services Offline; grading; online; finishing; Protools [with Wise Buddah]; file mastering; QC Credits Murder In The French Alps (Rize USA for C4); The Plantaganets (BBC Factual); Girls Aloud: The Hits Tour (MTV) Turnover £600,000 “The democratisation of tech­ nology, convergence of genres and shifting financial and production models are moving more rapidly than most houses can keep up with. Only the most innovative, customer­focused and techno­ logically adaptable companies are likely to enjoy longevity.”

Ben Foakes Founder

stOrm hd S stormhd.tv Location London Staff 12 Suites 15

Services Offline; online; grading; audio (5.1, ADR); sound design; deliverables Credits Robson Green: How the North Was Built (Silver River for ITV); Natural World: Elephant Island (Mike Birkhead Associates for BBC); You Have Been Warned (October Films for Discovery) Turnover £970,000 “The current raft of ‘low­cost’, high­end finishing solutions incur a lot of hidden costs – such as the need for time devoted to staff training, workflow integration and promotion to clients.”

Paul Ingvarsson Co-founder

unit media M unit.tv Location London Staff 55 Suites 20 Services Offline; grading; finishing; 3D; audio Credits The Council (TLC for Discovery); MTV promos; Auto Trader idents Turnover £8m “Facilities need to adopt new technology, like Nuke, to main­ tain a competitive edge and achieve great results on tighter budgets.”

Darryl Bolton Commercial director 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 35

Facilities Special 2013

The Broadcast Interview Julian Bellamy Discovery networks international

a whole world of Discovery From Latin America to Asia Pacific, by way of the UK, Julian Bellamy’s global content push is gathering pace. Chris Curtis asks what lessons he’s learned after two years at DNI

A

sk a British TV exec to name a massive ratings smash and it’s unlikely they’ll come up with One Car Too Far. But Dragonfly’s Bear Grylls-meets-Top Gear survival format has got Julian Bellamy (right) grinning from ear to ear. Discovery Networks International’s (DNI) creative director and head of production and development has spent the past two years trying to make good on his promise to supercharge its original commissioning. He’s starting to see his hard work pay off – although he admits the successes might not always be obvious to the rest of the industry.

“One Car Too Far isn’t one of our top-rated shows in the UK, but it’s done really well for us globally and has been watched by 100 million people around the world – that compares to the Superbowl,” he says. “When we’re looking at big international shows, we don’t measure success in terms of hundreds of thousands, or whether we get 2 million in the overnights, we measure in tens of millions across the world.

And we’re feeling encouraged.”

He is not going overboard – “so far, so good” is his modest progress report on his first two years at DNI – but he seems to feel that it’s easy for the industry to lose perspective and become trapped in the bubble of UK overnights.

“There’s a paradigm shift in terms of how you measure success,” Bellamy contends. “Some people live and breathe through one market, where we live through 200. Breaking Magic [made by Objective Productions] has been watched by 70 million people around the world. Many people just don’t feel that because they aren’t in those markets.”

There are still some suspicions.

“Smoke and mirrors” is how one dubious supplier describes Bellamy’s ratings assessment, but the same producer admits that the former Channel 4 exec has made a genuine difference in broadening DNI’s supply base. It is now working with big boys such as Endemol, Shine Group and All3Media, as well as smaller opera38 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

example, Wag TV is working on a co-pro about the investigation of religious miracles and Blink Films has a documentary 18 months in the making. Both were ordered by the local commissioning team (see News).

“Over the past six months, half-adozen UK producers have wanted to sit down with me and [chief content officer] Luis Silberwasser to talk about how they can work with our Latin American networks,” reveals Bellamy.

“It’s crept up on us slightly. It’s about producers seeing the opportunities Discovery offers, and we’re seizing that and being proactive about it.”

A bigger TV world tors such as Nerd, thanks to Bellamy’s charm offensive – although he doesn’t much like the phrase.

“I’d put it differently,” he states. “It’s about creating an environment where indies feel they’re treated in a straightforward, supportive, transparent way, where they can do their best work – and about offering good deals. We’re paying well and ordering volume that you rarely see from terrestrials. More and more UK producers are coming to us ahead of terrestrials and seeing us as a gateway to new markets.”

Take Latin America, where Discovery is rapidly growing and ramping up its investment. For

‘We don’t measure success in terms of hundreds of thousands, but in tens of millions across the world’

UK interest has been so strong that Bellamy is bringing his head of Latin American commissioning Michela Giorelli to London to hold a commissioning day just after the summer.

“That would never have happened two years ago,” he says. “For producers, the world’s getting bigger, not smaller, and there’s so much creativity in Discovery’s networks around the world.”

Some Discovery content now goes on a cyclical journey. Shopping Night, a major domestic hit for Discovery Real Time Italy, caught the eye of the London-based DNI commissioning team. It drafted in indie Betty, which DNI bought in November 2011, to reversion the show as Ultimate

Julian Bellamy on…

Discovery’s revived relationship with Bear Grylls (right) “Sometimes you fall out with a very good friend – but you always make up. We’re delighted to have Bear back. Lee Bartlett and I cooked up a plan and using Betty TV was a key part of rebuilding the relationship.”

The size of DNI’s task “Our commissions and co-pros equate to 75% of our networks’ output, or 1,200 hours a year, everywhere outside America.

The networks are hungry for hours – there’s a lot of mouths to feed.”

On-screen talent “For us, diversity isn’t finding talent outside the M25 – it’s talent from across the world. We spend a lot of our development dollars on finding and casting talent.”

Racking up air miles “I talk to my six direct reports every week and live on video and conference calls. I spend 40% of my time outside the UK – my daughter has a burgeoning snowglobe collection.”

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

‘More UK producers are coming to us ahead of terrestrials, seeing us as a gateway to new markets’ hitting home well at the moment that’s more entertainment-driven, such as Breaking Magic, which is a real blend of entertainment and factual. But don’t forget we have a portfolio of channels, from Animal Planet to Discovery Channel and TLC. Our slate is very broad and includes factual of the highest ambition, such as How We Invented The World, North America and two or three big projects coming down the line.

“We’re as focused on finding the next big blue-chip factual project as we are on finding the next twist on fact ent formats.”

Discovery may have to do that without the BBC, with confirmation expected shortly that its formal co-pro deal with the corporation will not be renewed. Bellamy, as you would expect, declines to comment. But he is adamant that natural history flagships remain incredibly important.

“A core element of our mission is ordering big, blue-chip series. Regardless of what goes on, I see no prospect of that changing,” he insists.

Hunting for innovation

Shopper, which now goes out in 160 countries. In turn, that did so well in Latin America that a local version, Desafío Fashionista, has followed.

These collaborations are “fascinating and very powerful”, according to Bellamy, who also praises the buy-in to his project from Discovery’s separate creative and commissioning teams in the US. “Two-thirds of our commissions designed for the international market have been picked up by the US,” he says. “That simply hasn’t happened before. That’s about the team at DNI, but also the support of the presidents of the US networks.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk

He cites the likes of Naked Castaway, the DNI-Discovery US co-pro version of Tigress’s Naked And Marooned With Ed Stafford, and DNI-Science Channel co-pro The Unexplained Files. The latter is a new 6 x 60-minute series from Raw TV that combines scientific rigour, drama reconstruction and first-person testimony to investigate unexplained phenomena. Like much of DNI’s output, it is a broad factual piece with some entertainment sensibilities – but Bellamy rejects the idea that a lighter tone has become the dominant force in DNI’s programming.

“There’s no question that there’s a strand of our programming that’s

Clockwise from top: Raw TV’s forthcoming The Unexplained Files; Desafío Fashionista, a Latin American version of Ultimate shopper; One Car Too Far, recommissioned as Car vs Wild

But plenty else is changing, especially outside the UK. Bellamy is at pains to stress the creative excellence of the UK’s production community, but his praise for its domestic broadcasters is more measured.

“When you look at the broadcasting landscape, a lot of other markets are challenging the UK’s pre-eminence when it comes to risk and innovation: Scandinavia, Western Europe, Israel.

In the US, factual shows such as Duck Dynasty on A&E or Amish Mafia on Discovery are really experimenting with genre, storytelling and format.

You could argue that in factual there’s more innovation from challenger broadcasters in the US than there is in the UK.” He is quick to qualify – “don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of great TV in the UK” – but Bellamy’s remit has him scouring the world to try to identify lessons from around the planet. His is a global job – and he’s looking for global answers.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 39

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Behind the Scenes the burrowers

Taking the viewer down the rabbit hole Trying to ‘cut a British hillside in half ’ and film the animals inside was the most barking mad thing I’ve ever done in TV, says Fiona Pitcher Fiona Pitcher Executive producer

W

hat if we could cut a British hillside in half, reveal all the burrowing animals living inside it, and film them? That was the vision of BBC commissioner for science and natural history Kim Shillinglaw and Dragonfly head of specialist factual Ed Silver. Could Dragonfly’s reputation for fixed-rig, fearless factual and a sharp eye for the human world realise this vision in the world of wildlife?

Vision is good. Ambition is good.

British hillsides are good. Filming wildlife that lives in burrows? Not quite so good. We didn’t actually cut a hill in half, but we did recreate three mega-scale habitats for some iconic British burrowers: badgers, water voles, rabbits and moles.

This was the most barking mad piece of telly I’d ever attempted to exec; even more so than the three weeks of live wildlife TV that is BBC2’s Springwatch, which I had worked on for the BBC’s Natural History Unit.

It’s counter-intuitive, but filming British animals in their burrows is much tougher than filming a lion in the Serengeti. I can get you one of those within 24 hours of leaving Heathrow.

We had around nine months to build the largest man-made burrow of its kind, get our animals settled, observe them over as many weeks as possible, and turn it into science-rich 42 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

telly. We also attempted to excavate an entire abandoned rabbit warren by filling it with 10 tons of concrete in the snow, then digging away to reveal the cast of the tunnels and chambers left behind. And it worked, a first in the world: a rabbit sculpture worthy of Tate Modern.

Blinking into the light after weeks of simultaneous shooting and editing, with great support from commissioning executive Cassian Harrison, all of us feel we’ve achieved some firsts: moles and water voles with their food stash; badger cubs, their every breath registering on camera as they form a lifetime bond that should ensure their survival; and tiny pink new-born rabbits huddling together to keep warm. And then there was presenter Chris Packham, loving everything he saw.

To tie in with the animals’ breeding cycle, we had less than four months to design and build a replica badger sett, mole and water vole burrows and a rabbit warren. We started just before one of the worst winters in recent memory. At our Devon farm base, there wasn’t a single day of building when we weren’t lashed with rain, hail, wind or snow.

As we asked around the world of scientists, conservationists, wildlife centres and zoos, we realised there wasn’t anything on which we could base our replica burrower homes. This really was a blank canvas – though possibly not in a good way: Grand Designs meets raw nature without an architect, a show home or the requisite budget. Chris and his team of experts found out all they could from wild burrows, and so work began.

‘It’s counterintuitive, but filming british animals in their burrows is much tougher than filming a lion in the serengeti’ Fiona Pitcher

the burrowers

Production company Dragonfly tX 9pm, Fridays, from 9 August, BBC2 Length 3 x 60 minutes Commissioners Cassian Harrison; Kim Shillinglaw Co-producers Shine International; S4C; BBC Learning executive producers Fiona Pitcher; Edwina Silver series producer Martin Williams Producer/directors Kirsty Wilson; Oliver Page Producer Owen Gower editors Niels Bellinger; Darren Jonusas; Tom Deverell Production managers Samara Friend; Kate Boundy Post house Evolutions summary Chris Packham leads a groundbreaking experiment to film the secret lives of badgers, water voles, rabbits and moles.

Fiona Pitcher My tricks of the trade n Be patient and let the animals write

some of your script.

n The best creative decisions usually

happen in a field, sometimes in the rain, or in a pub. Not in the office. n Spend energy on what you can make better or change; let go of the things you can’t. n Not all problems need to be solved immediately and under pressure.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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

We muddled and chipped and chiselled our way through under the guidance of two people with a rare combination of skills: conservationist, farmer and creator of sets for wildlife photography Derek Gow; and Alastair MacEwan, one of the world’s finest wildlife lighting cameramen.

And the burrowing animals themselves? Not quite as simple as you might think. At every stage of this production, animal welfare and ethics had to be the priority. No animal can be taken from the wild just for filming, so we teamed up with existing conservation or rescue initiatives.

It worked remarkably well. In fact, if I can go a bit Disney here, it was beyond our wildest dreams. Our initial group of 10 rabbits bred to become 50 in just a few weeks, just as they would in the wild. The orphan badger cubs, without any parents around to guide them, looked almost ready for their release later in the year. The water voles, despite a somewhat frosty relationship, produced two litters, and they’ll also be released to help save a critically endangered species.

So next time someone asks me to “cut a hill in half ”, I will say: “Of course – as long as it’s somewhere warm.” www.broadcastnow.co.uk

Clockwise from bottom left: presenter Chris Packham poses next to the rabbit warren; badgers in their sett; mole tunnelling; rabbit up close; Packham outside the Hobbit door

the burrowers GoING uNDerGrouND Kirsty Wilson Producer/director

The Burrowers marks the start of Dragonfly’s latest move: into innovative natural history TV. The biggest challenge was the structure of the burrows themselves.

Unlike most wildlife-filming set-ups, our animals would live in the burrows permanently, not just for filming. But burrowing animals have the power to dig and claw their way through almost anything. Our replica burrows (pictured) had to withstand that; cement was called for, softened with handcarved polystyrene, then covered with a safe, burrow-like surface.

We realised that the way to achieve stunning images of the burrowers was to put top natural history cameramen in place to observe the action. But this was the first attempt at getting stunning HD images of these animals in replica burrows; most of what had been filmed before was in grainy black and white or SD. We didn’t know if the animals would tolerate lighting. But our

experts thought that as they were semihabituated and used to seeing humans, they would be OK if we could do it all gently. Andy Peakin helped with the technical rig and designed a bespoke lighting system using LED bulbs on dimmers and small magic arms so our animals could adjust slowly, and to achieve a perfect light for filming.

We also had to design viewing windows, with toughened glass we could access to clean. Fur, hay, urine – and the rest – all had to be painstakingly cleaned, almost hourly. Then there was the Hobbit door at the rabbit warren entrance. There was debate about this but in the end we went for circular, wood and, well, magical.

After some tough months, the result is burrow systems on a scale that even we couldn’t believe – and homes that all our animals made their own.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 43

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26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 45

Appointments

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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 2nd August 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.

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46 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

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Ratings Mon 15 July – Sun 21 July

Sugar’s still the daddy The Apprentice goes out strongly despite the heat, while Diana’s Dresses impresses for C4

BY Stephen price

There are few things better than lying on a beach listening to Test Match Special’s team wittering on about buses, pigeons, ex-captains being stuck in lifts and, occasionally, a cricket match. Never mind such trivialities as our ever-expanding royal family; if anyone tries to mess with Aggers, Blowers or Tuffers I’ll be first to the barricades, whereupon we’d all tuck in to specially baked cake, perhaps while sipping something sparkling.

After a week in Cornwall, aka Barbados-on-A30, listening to England take revenge on Australia after years of torture, it’s time to look at telly. With the heat on full blast, it’s not surprising to see that total peak-time viewing this week was 10% down on the same week last year.

On Monday at 9pm, BBC1’s Panorama: Broken By Battle achieved 1.6 million/8%. Maybe war-minded politicians should all get a free copy. Opposite, ITV’s Long Lost Family scored its biggest rating yet with 5.4 million/26% (194,000 +1).

On Tuesday, part three of BBC1’s Luther achieved 4.4 million/21%, the lowest live rating of its third series, but only half a share point behind the launch episode’s 5 million/22%. The second and final part of ITV’s Robson Green: How The North Was Built achieved 1.8 million/9% (150,000 +1), 400,000 and two share points short of last week’s opener.

Channel 4 squeaked past with 1.9 million/9% (284,000 +1) for Princess Diana’s Dresses: The 48 | Broadcast | 26 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 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 45 47 48 49 50

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Broadcaster/ Producer*

Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street EastEnders Emmerdale Emmerdale The Apprentice: The Final EastEnders Emmerdale Long Lost Family Emmerdale Emmerdale Emmerdale EastEnders EastEnders Law & Order: UK BBC News At Ten Countryfile Luther BBC News Holby City Casualty Top Gear BBC News At Six BBC News At Ten Mrs Brown's Boys Eat Well For Less?

BBC News Nick And Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits The National Lottery: In It To Win It BBC News At Ten BBC News At Ten The Zoo BBC News At Six BBC News At Six All Star Mr & Mrs The White Queen BBC News At Ten The Dales Tipping Point: Lucky Stars BBC News At Six Your Money, Their Tricks ITV News & Weather Britain’s Favourite Supermarket Foods BBC News At Six Doc Martin ITV News & Weather ITV News & Weather

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

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

7.80 7.49 6.75 6.65 6.41 6.22 6.20 5.79 5.70 5.66 5.65 5.61 5.56 5.40 5.29 5.20 5.19 4.65 4.55 4.52 4.41 4.30 4.21 4.20 4.15 4.04 3.94 3.94 3.88 3.85 3.77 3.74 3.73 3.69 3.67 3.66 3.57 3.55 3.51 3.42 3.39 3.36 3.34 3.21 3.19 3.19 3.17 3.14 3.10 3.01

40.16 35.64 37.83 38.90 34.89 31.09 35.58 35.93 27.61 32.15 32.09 27.19 33.92 33.45 32.97 30.21 30.76 20.90 25.18 20.14 21.22 22.20 22.53 22.88 18.48 27.79 21.85 23.17 21.03 23.73 19.76 21.71 20.00 19.14 18.07 26.42 26.51 15.81 15.76 18.89 16.97 18.75 25.44 18.89 21.98 18.19 23.82 17.11 19.61 20.04

ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1/Boundless BBC1 ITV ITV/Wall to Wall ITV ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1 ITV/Kudos Film & TV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC 2 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1/Box-Pix/RTÉ BBC1/RDF TV BBC1 BBC1/Silver River BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV/WIld Pictures BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1/Company Pictures BBC1 ITV/Shiver ITV/RDF TV BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1 BBC1 ITV/Buffalo Pictures ITV ITV

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Britain’s Favourite Supermarket Foods

Wheelers, Dealers And Del Boys www.broadcastnow.co.uk

All BARB ratings supplied by: Attentional

Source: BARB

51 51 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 63 65 66 66 68 69 70 71 72 72 72 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 81 83 84 85 86 86 88 88 88 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 99

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Broadcaster/ Producer*

Harbour Lives The One Show – Best Of Britain Your Face Sounds Familiar Raiders Of The Lost Ark ITV News & Weather BBC News BBC News Wheelers, Dealers And Del Boys Would I Lie To You? ITV News & Weather ITV News At Ten & Weather ITV News & Weather My £9.50 Holiday Married To The Job ITV Britain Ray Mears’ Close Encounters Love Your Garden Plan Bee: Tonight You’ve Been Framed!

Golf: The Open Championship ITV News & Weather 24 Hours In A&E The One Show – Best Of Britain All Star Family Fortunes The Chase The Chase Meet The Landlords BBC News At One Nature’s Newborns BBC News At One The Chase The One Show – Best Of Britain The Chase Pointless ITV News & Weather Princess Diana's Dresses: The Auction BBC News At One You’ve Been Framed!

Pointless Pointless Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone The Briefs ITV News At Ten & Weather BBC News At One Sherlock The Chase University Challenge Pointless ITV News At Ten & Weather Robson Green: How The North Was Built

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

20.00 19.00 19.30 18.30 18.45 18.10 19.30 22.35 22.35 18.30 22.00 18.30 22.35 20.30 20.30 21.00 20.00 19.30 19.00 12.40 18.15 21.00 19.00 20.45 17.00 17.00 22.35 13.00 19.30 13.00 17.00 19.00 17.00 17.15 22.00 21.00 13.00 18.30 17.15 17.15 15.10 21.00 22.00 13.00 20.30 17.00 20.00 17.15 22.00 21.00

2.97 2.97 2.94 2.93 2.91 2.86 2.80 2.77 2.74 2.73 2.68 2.67 2.65 2.65 2.63 2.60 2.60 2.56 2.53 2.50 2.48 2.47 2.47 2.47 2.45 2.44 2.38 2.36 2.35 2.34 2.32 2.32 2.26 2.25 2.23 2.19 2.19 2.17 2.17 2.17 2.16 2.08 2.07 2.04 2.01 2.00 1.95 1.92 1.91 1.91

17.25 18.10 18.12 19.42 18.34 21.61 15.18 21.31 19.39 18.84 14.08 18.60 17.97 15.18 12.51 12.39 13.90 15.15 16.82 21.80 18.33 11.77 15.30 13.64 21.82 23.70 18.41 37.13 13.37 38.86 22.11 14.43 21.28 20.49 11.51 10.56 37.10 15.64 18.48 20.16 20.95 10.91 11.58 31.46 10.96 18.93 9.75 17.55 10.74 9.19

ITV/Shiver BBC1 ITV BBC1 ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1/RDF TV BBC1/Zeppotron ITV/ITN ITV/ITN ITV/ITN BBC1/Blakeway North ITV/Landmark Films BBC1 ITV ITV/Spun Gold ITV ITV BBC1 ITV/ITN C4/The Garden BBC1 ITV/Thames ITV ITV BBC1/Blast! Films BBC1 ITV/Wall to Wall BBC1 ITV BBC1 ITV BBC1/Remarkable Television ITV/ITN C4/Firecracker Films BBC1 ITV BBC1/Remarkable Television BBC1/Remarkable Television ITV ITV/Chameleon Television ITV/ITN BBC1 BBC1/Hartswood Films ITV BBC2 BBC1/Remarkable Television ITV/ITN ITV/Silver River

*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.

princess Diana’s Dresses: the Auction www.broadcastnow.co.uk

the Briefs

Auction. A rare victory in a tough week for the fourth channel.

BBC1’s The Apprentice finished on Wednesday this week, averaging 5.7 million/28% from 8pm in a slightly confusing new two-hour slot. 2012’s final was on a Sunday and from 8.45pm on 3 June averaged 5.9 million/25%; in terms of share, at least 2013’s final on another hot day was better.

More than 1 million recorded 2012’s episode, so once this year’s recording numbers are in, we’ll see where we’re at. Also at 8pm, ITV’s The Zoo achieved 3.5 million/ 17% (186,000 +1) followed by new series Ray Mears’ Close

‘The White Queen once again found Bradley Walsh too much to handle’ Encounters on 2.4 million/12% (193,000 +1). At 10.35pm, BBC1’s one-off doc – one of three in that slot this week – Wheelers, Dealers And Del Boys achieved 2.8 million/21%. I suspect that’s not the last we’ll see of that.

At 8pm on Thursday, BBC1’s Britain’s Favourite Supermarket Foods achieved 3.2 million/18%.

At 8.30pm, the second part of ITV’s Married To The Job dropped by 300,000 on launch, but kept share with 2.5 million/ 14% (130,000 +1). At 9pm, a new series of ITV’s The Briefs crept in with 1.9 million/10% (167,000 +1) – half the audience of BBC1’s Nick And Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits’ 3.8 million/20%, which was down more than 700,000 and three share points on last week.

ITV’s best performer on Saturday was Your Face Sounds Familiar with 2.9 million/18% (including +1) at 7.30pm. At 6.30pm, BBC1 dusted off Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which achieved 2.9 million/ 19%. BBC1’s best was Casualty at 9.10pm with 4.2 million/ 23%.

From 8.45pm, ITV’s All Star Family Fortunes managed 2.5 million/14% (incl +1) The White Queen once again found Bradley Walsh too much to handle, as ITV’s Law and Order: UK (4.3 million/19%; 370,000 +1) defeated BBC1’s medieval romp (3.5 million/16%) on Sunday at 9pm.

See over for digital focus, plus channel and genre overviews 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 49

Ratings Mon 15 July – Sun 21 July Channel Overview

Weak outing from Strong BY stephen price

I thought it was just spoonbending. But it turns out Uri Geller, once a sort of secular swami figure to Mexico’s first lady, may also have knocked out radar systems with his mind. Elsewhere, Count Arthur’s ratings were anything but strong, while The Ashes delivered nicely for Channel 5.

At 8.30pm on Monday, opposite Corrie on ITV, BBC2’s Count Arthur Strong (800,000/4%) fell 170,000 short of last week’s launch and behind Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped (1.1 million/5%; 100,000 +1). To give the old boy a chance, Arthur will move to Tuesday at 8pm from 30 July, swapping with Raymond Blanc’s How To Cook Well, which this week achieved 1.4 million/8%.

The first part of BBC2’s documentary The Real White Queen And Her Rivals achieved 1.9 million/9% at 9pm on Wednesday, behind C4’s 24 Hours in A&E (2.1 million/10%; 331,000 +1). Both easily beat C5’s Slaughtered At The Murder Hotel (900,000/4%; 44,000 +1).

On Sunday at 9pm, BBC2’s The Secret Life Of Uri Geller’s 1.4 million/6% was ahead of C4’s The Returned (900,000/4%; 156,000 +1). However, C5’s Big Brother (1.5 million/7%; 178,000 +1) beat both.

C5’s best rating for its highlights packages of The Ashes was Sunday’s 1.2 million/7% (79,000 +1) at 7pm.

Source: BARB

WEEk 29 Average hours per viewer Daytime Share (%) Peaktime Share (%) w/c 15.07.13 Peaktime share (%) w/c 16.07.12 yEAR TO dATE Average hours per viewer Audience share (%) Audience share (2012)

BBC1 4.45 17.84 20.64 20.34 BBC1 5.79 21.18 20.93

BBC2 1.42 6.29 7.56 6.58 BBC2 1.58 5.77 6.16

ITV1 3.42 13.84 19.01 18.48 ITV1 4.40 16.10 16.10

C4 1.15 4.64 5.72 6.90 C4 1.57 5.76 6.58

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

50 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Total 22.78 100.00 100.00 100.00 Total 27.32 100.00 100.00

TOp 30 BBC2, CHAnnEL 4 And CHAnnEL 5 Title

Broadcaster

1

Top Gear

Sun

20.00

4.15

18.48

BBC2

2

24 Hours In A&E

Wed

21.00

2.47

11.77

C4 C4

3

Princess Diana's Dresses: The Auction

Tue

21.00

2.19

10.56

4

University Challenge

Mon

20.00

1.95

9.75

BBC2

5

The Real White Queen And Her Rivals

Wed

21.00

1.91

9.07

BBC2

6

Mock The Week

Thu

22.00

1.80

10.01

BBC2

7

Hebrides: Islands On The Edge

Thu

21.00

1.76

9.24

BBC2

7

Big Brother

Tue

22.00

1.76

10.36

7

Rick Stein’s India

Mon

21.00

1.76

8.52

10

Undercover Boss

Mon

21.00

1.75

8.50

C4

11

The Route Masters: Running London’s Roads

Tue

21.00

1.70

8.20

BBC2

12

Big Brother

Mon

22.00

1.69

9.49

C5

12

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Tue

21.00

1.69

8.12

C5

C5 BBC2

14

Big Brother

Sun

21.00

1.68

7.56

15

Golf: The Open Championship

Sat

18.10

1.64

11.42

16

Big Brother: Live Eviction

Fri

21.00

1.62

8.89

C5

17

Restoration Home

Wed

20.00

1.61

7.93

BBC2

C5 BBC2

18

Big Brother

Wed

22.00

1.60

9.68

C5

19

Natural World Special – The Mating Game

Fri

21.00

1.57

8.53

BBC2

20

Big Brother

Thu

22.00

1.50

9.11

C5

21

Gardeners’ World

Fri

20.30

1.48

8.06

BBC2

22

Run

Mon

22.00

1.46

8.21

C4

23

Raymond Blanc: How To Cook Well

Tue

20.00

1.42

7.88

BBC2

24

The Secret Life Of Uri Geller

Sun

21.00

1.41

6.35

BBC2

25

The Cruise: A Life At Sea

Tue

20.30

1.39

7.22

BBC2

26

The Plane That Saved Britain

Sun

20.00

1.38

6.17

C4

27

Wild Cameramen At Work

Sun

19.30

1.36

7.23

BBC2

28

QI

Fri

22.00

1.33

7.38

BBC2

29

The Million Pound Drop Live

Fri

21.00

1.32

7.26

C4

30

Cricket: The Ashes – England V Australia

Sun

19.00

1.31

7.28

C5

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Multichannel 42.18

Average audience for C4’s Run – which ended with half of episode one’s 1.5m (Mon-Thu, 10pm)

Others 11.30 53.14 42.18 43.54 Others 12.87 47.11 45.87

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

dAyTiME SHARE (%) w/c 15.07.13

pEAkTiME SHARE (%) w/c 15.07.13

1.1m

C5 1.05 4.24 4.90 4.16 C5 1.11 4.07 4.36

BBC1 20.64

ITV1 19.01

C5 4.90 C4 5.72

BBC2 7.56

Multichannel 53.14

797k Christopher Guest’s comedy Family Tree made a low-key start on BBC2 (Tue, 10pm)

BBC1 17.84

ITV1 3.84

C5 4.24

BBC2 6.29

C4 4.64

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

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Newsround Officially Amazing Officially Amazing Blue Peter – You Decide!

Teen Beach Movie Officially Amazing Diddy Movies New Dennis The Menace/Gnasher Brand New Mike The Knight

toP 10 FaCtuaL ProGrammes

Day

Start

Viewers (Age 4-15)

Share (%)

Channel

Title

Thu Thu Thu Mon Mon Fri Tue Fri Thu Wed

16.00 16.25 16.30 16.30 17.00 18.00 16.30 08.00 15.45 08.00

246,300 219,200 203,700 202,600 202,400 199,200 197,200 186,000 185,600 184,300

30.11 23.56 19.35 17.94 15.92 15.17 16.95 15.16 30.92 16.05

CBBC CBBC CBBC CBBC CBBC Disney CBBC CBBC CBBC CBeebies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Apprentice: The Final Long Lost Family Countryfile Top Gear Eat Well For Less?

Nick And Margaret: We All Pay...

The Zoo The Dales Your Money Their Tricks Britain’s Favourite Supermarket...

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Wed Mon Sun Sun Mon Thu Wed Mon Wed Thu

20.00 21.00 20.00 20.00 19.00 21.00 20.00 20.00 19.00 20.00

5.70 5.61 4.52 4.15 3.88 3.77 3.67 3.39 3.21 3.19

27.61 27.19 20.14 18.48 21.03 19.76 18.07 16.97 18.89 18.19

BBC1 ITV BBC1 BBC2 BBC1 BBC1 ITV ITV BBC1 BBC1

➤ Horrible Histories’ swansong, unusually, missed the top 10 for 14-15s, leaving fellow CBBC show scooby-doo! mystery incorporated on top. officially amazing had another strong week, while there was a place for Blue Peter – you decide!. Disney also picked up a rare entry.

➤ the apprentice final was more than 1 million short of last week and it was one of the series’ worst-rated conclusions on record, but it still topped the factual line-up. Elsewhere, Long Lost Family hit a high of 5.6 million and top Gear continued to wobble.

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 Sherlock CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Run Top Of The Lake

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Sun Tue Tue Sat Sun Fri Fri Tue Mon Sat

21.00 21.00 20.00 21.10 21.00 21.00 20.30 21.00 22.00 21.10

4.65 4.41 4.21 4.20 3.51 3.14 2.01 1.69 1.46 1.29

20.90 21.22 22.53 22.88 15.76 17.11 10.96 8.12 8.21 7.06

ITV BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 BBC1 ITV BBC1 C5 C4 BBC2

➤ Law & order: uk was the biggest drama show for the second week on the trot. It was more than 1 million ahead of Sunday night rival the white Queen, which languished in fifth, behind BBC1’s medical favourites Holby City and Casualty.

uP Long Lost Family gains 850,000

down The Apprentice falls 1m

National Lottery: In It To Win It All Star Mr & Mrs Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Your Face Sounds Familiar Would I Lie To You? You’ve Been Framed!

All Star Family Fortunes The Chase The Chase The Chase

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Sat Sun Sun Sat Fri Sat Sat Mon Wed Tue

20.20 20.00 19.00 19.30 22.35 19.00 20.45 17.00 17.00 17.00

3.74 3.55 3.36 2.94 2.74 2.53 2.47 2.45 2.44 2.32

21.71 15.81 18.75 18.12 19.39 16.82 13.64 21.82 23.70 22.11

BBC1 ITV ITV ITV BBC1 ITV ITV ITV ITV ITV

➤ your Face sounds Familiar dived to a new low, but remained in fourth place in the entertainment line-up. the national Lottery took the honours for another week in a relatively quiet period for the genre, where the Chase clocked up three entries.

uP Tipping Point: Lucky Stars up 3.36m

down Nick And Margaret down 780,000

uP All Star Mr & Mrs adds 290,000

toP 10 Current aFFairs ProGrammes

Title

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Golf: The Open Championship Golf: The Open Championship Golf: The Open Championship Cricket: Ashes – Eng V Aus MotoGP: USA Cricket: Ashes – Eng V Aus Tour De France 2013 Live Cricket: Ashes – Eng V Aus Golf: The Open Championship Golf: The Open Championship

Sun Sat Sat Sun Sun Sat Sun Fri Sun Sat

12.40 18.10 12.10 19.00 22.00 19.00 16.30 19.00 11.00 10.00

2.50 1.64 1.59 1.31 1.24 1.14 1.12 1.11 0.87 0.84

21.80 11.42 17.48 7.28 7.45 7.42 6.41 6.68 10.92 13.24

BBC1 BBC2 BBC1 C5 BBC2 C5 ITV4 C5 BBC1 BBC1

➤ Phil Mickelson’s final flourish at the open Championship drew the biggest audience on a big weekend for sport. It nudged ahead of Channel 5 and ITV4’s coverage of the ashes and tour de France respectively. motoGP featured for BBC2. next week Comedy and musiC & arts www.broadcastnow.co.uk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

down Luther drops 330,000

uP National Lottery rises 180,000

toP 10 sPort ProGrammes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Title

Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Tonight: Plan Bee Broken By Battle The Andrew Marr Show Channel 4 Dispatches This Week Newsnight Newsnight Newsnight Newsnight Newsnight

Day

Start

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

Thu Mon Sun Mon Thu Fri Thu Mon Tue Wed

19.30 21.00 09.00 20.00 23.25 22.30 22.30 22.30 22.30 22.30

2.56 1.64 1.57 0.83 0.75 0.67 0.63 0.58 0.52 0.46

15.15 7.95 22.90 4.15 10.06 4.60 4.61 3.98 3.76 3.38

ITV BBC1 BBC1 C4 BBC1 BBC2 BBC2 BBC2 BBC2 BBC2

➤ BBC2’s current affairs flagship had a good week, registering five separate entries. None of these could mount a tilt at the top, however, with tonight: Plan Bee taking the honours. the andrew marr show and Channel 4’s dispatches were familiar fixtures.

See over for demographic and digital focus 26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 51

Ratings Mon 15 July – Sun 21 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

BBC1

19.70

24.03

47.97

12.01

11.28

19.57

46.59

19.83

53.41

ITV

15.23

12.94

33.43

10.74

13.04

11.76

36.22

18.31

63.78

BBC2

6.21

7.99

50.62

4.10

12.24

7.36

55.63

5.19

44.37

C4

4.93

5.02

40.05

5.68

21.30

4.57

43.55

5.24

56.44

C5

4.87

4.54

36.66

5.19

19.71

3.96

38.11

5.68

61.90

ITV3

2.96

2.69

35.79

0.50

3.13

2.41

38.24

3.45

61.77

ITV2

2.93

2.26

30.38

4.34

27.40

2.60

41.65

3.22

58.35

ITV4

2.10

2.62

49.07

2.03

17.88

2.97

66.35

1.33

33.62

E4

1.83

1.87

40.09

5.12

51.66

1.61

41.31

2.03

58.67

BBC3

1.78

1.73

38.17

3.98

41.30

2.23

58.77

1.38

41.24

Film 4

1.59

1.38

34.29

1.43

16.69

1.97

58.21

1.25

41.80

Dave

1.51

1.31

34.07

2.49

30.45

2.04

63.25

1.05

36.78

5 USA

1.14

0.85

29.41

0.85

13.84

1.02

42.13

1.24

57.87

More 4

1.08

1.19

43.49

0.99

17.02

0.98

42.67

1.17

57.26

BBC4

0.89

1.26

55.80

0.41

8.55

1.06

55.67

0.74

44.29

Sky 1

0.77

0.75

38.19

1.43

34.54

0.87

52.88

0.68

47.12

Yesterday

0.69

0.62

35.24

0.21

5.48

0.85

57.30

0.56

42.67

Sky Living

0.61

0.62

39.76

1.00

30.18

0.51

38.81

0.71

61.19

5*

0.60

0.50

32.81

0.79

24.46

0.56

44.16

0.63

55.84

59%

BBC1 can still bank on Raiders Of The Lost Ark to deliver, but it lost ground on ABC1s. DEs were the largest group – 35.1% compared with the 26.3% average. Combined, C2s/DEs made up 59% of viewers, up from the 46.4% average.

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

The Force is with ITV

BY Stephen price

In the ancient battle of the sexes, it was refreshing to see that when it comes to football, men and women are equal in their ineptitude, as England got booted out of the Women’s Euro tournament. BBC4, meanwhile, began a history of art collections as ITV2 waved goodbye to the ‘Force’.

BBC3’s coverage of England’s squib-like exit from the Uefa Women’s Euro Championships 2013 on Thursday netted 645,000/ 4% from 7pm to 10pm, peaking at 8.45pm with 1.1 million/6%.

BBC4’s Bought With Love: The Secret History Of British Art Collections achieved a modest 258,000/1% on Wednesday at 9pm. The only repeat, later that night, added just 20,000.

ITV2’s Star Wars saga ended on Sunday with Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi from 5.50pm. It achieved 1.5 million/10%, beating Episode V’s 1.3 million/12% the previous week. The best of the series was 30 June’s Episode III, which scored 1.6 million/10%.

52 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

Source: BARB

dIgITAL HOmES

TOp 30 mULTICHAnnEL pROgRAmmES Title

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 16 16 18 19 19 21 21 21 24 24 26 27 27 27 27

Star Wars: Episode VI Family Guy Family Guy Foyle’s War Tour De France 2013 Live Lewis Family Guy Only Connect Foyle’s War Salt Foyle’s War Live Cricket: The Ashes Family Guy Taken Family Guy: Greatest...

Hollyoaks Family Guy Mamma Mia! Family Guy Family Guy: Greatest...

F Mercury: Great Pretender Foyle's War The Karate Kid Foyle's War New Girl Hollyoaks Dynamo: Magician Imp...

Family Guy: Greatest...

The Incredible Hulk Tour De France H’lights

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Day

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

Start

17.05 22.00 22.20 21.00 16.30 21.00 21.30 20.30 21.00 21.00 21.00 10.00 22.45 21.00 23.00 19.00 23.00 19.30 21.00 23.25 21.00 18.55 21.00 21.00 21.00 19.00 21.00 22.30 19.45 19.00

Viewers (millions)

Share (%)

Channel

1.47 1.36 1.30 1.14 1.12 1.09 0.98 0.89 0.88 0.87 0.86 0.81 0.79 0.78 0.78 0.77 0.77 0.76 0.75 0.75 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.73 0.73 0.72 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71

9.51 7.07 8.08 5.93 6.41 6.29 4.44 4.23 4.97 4.97 4.60 7.80 6.38 4.45 6.64 4.41 7.11 4.48 3.38 7.99 4.07 4.64 4.40 3.88 3.54 4.38 3.73 4.53 3.21 4.15

ITV2 BBC3 BBC3 ITV3 ITV4 ITV3 BBC3 BBC4 ITV3 Film 4 ITV3 Sky Sports 2 BBC 3 Film4 BBC3 E4 BBC3 ITV2 BBC3 BBC3 BBC4 ITV3 Film 4 ITV3 E4 E4 Watch BBC3 ITV2 ITV4

Channels

Share (%)

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

19.70 15.23 6.21 4.93 4.87 49.05 2.96 2.93 2.10 1.98 1.83 1.78 1.59 1.51 1.20 1.14 1.09 1.08

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

2.1m Peak audience for ITV4’s Tour de France as Chris Froome crossed the finishing line (Sun, 8.30pm)

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

All BARB ratings supplied by, Attentional

NoN-PSB toP 50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Title

Day

Start

Live Cricket: The Ashes Dynamo: Magician Impossible Live Cricket: The Ashes Mrs Brown’s Boys Mrs Brown’s Boys Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Storage Hunters Geordie Shore Storage Hunters QI XL Storage Hunters Live Cricket: The Ashes Storage Hunters Mrs Brown’s Boys Mock The Week Storage Hunters Storage Hunters The Simpsons QI XL Mock The Week The Simpsons Live Cricket: The Ashes Have I Got A Bit More News For You Storage Hunters Have I Got A Bit More News For You The Simpsons Have I Got A Bit More News For You Teen Beach Movie The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons Revolution Russell Howard’s Good News QI Dynamo: Magician Impossible Megatruckers The Simpsons Mock The Week The Simpsons Storage Hunters QI XL The Simpsons Gold Rush The Simpsons Frank Skinner’s Opinionated Not Going Out Modern Family Stargate SG-1

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

10.00 21.00 10.00 21.00 21.40 20.30 20.30 20.30 22.00 20.00 22.00 20.00 10.00 20.00 22.20 23.00 20.30 20.30 19.30 21.00 23.00 19.00 10.00 21.00 20.00 22.00 19.00 22.00 18.00 19.30 18.30 19.30 19.00 21.00 21.00 23.00 21.00 19.30 18.30 23.00 19.30 20.00 21.00 19.00 21.00 18.30 23.40 22.20 20.30 20.00

Viewers (000s) Share (all homes) % 806,800 711,700 651,600 618,600 611,900 576,700 546,200 531,800 528,500 474,900 452,200 451,400 442,900 437,100 424,800 409,500 398,100 393,300 385,500 374,700 374,200 373,300 371,600 368,200 361,600 355,600 349,500 330,400 324,000 323,200 323,100 320,900 320,200 313,800 312,900 309,900 306,200 298,500 288,800 286,300 280,500 278,200 276,200 275,700 270,400 268,300 266,100 265,400 261,700 258,900

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

Teen Beach Movie www,broadcastnow,co,uk

Megatruckers

7.80 3.73 7.34 2.77 2.97 3.31 2.83 2.52 3.11 2.63 2.54 2.31 6.02 2.48 2.75 3.80 1.89 2.14 2.19 1.80 3.69 2.31 5.09 1.78 2.10 2.09 2.13 2.00 2.21 1.81 2.15 1.90 1.99 1.71 1.49 3.03 1.47 1.70 1.99 2.60 1.79 1.39 1.50 1.58 1.30 1.70 3.83 1.69 1.35 1.27

Broadcaster/ Producer* Sky Sports 2 Watch Sky Sports 2 Gold/Boc-Pix/RTÉ Gold/Boc-Pix/RTÉ Dave/Avalon Dave/Avalon Dave/Avalon MTV/Lime Pictures Dave/Avalon Dave/Talkback Dave/Avalon Sky Sports 2 Dave/Avalon Gold/Boc-Pix/RTÉ Dave/Angst Productions Dave/Avalon Dave/Avalon Sky 1 Dave/Talkback Dave/Angst Productions Sky 1 Sky Sports 2 Dave/Hat trick Productions Dave/Avalon Dave/Hat trick Productions Sky 1 Dave/Hat trick Productions Disney Channel Sky 1 Sky 1 Sky 1 Sky 1 Sky 1 Dave/Avalon Dave/Talkback Watch Dave Sky 1 Dave/Angst Productions Sky 1 Dave/Avalon Dave/Talkback Sky 1 Discovery/Raw TV Sky 1 Dave/Avalon Dave/Avalon Sky 1 Pick TV

113k US import Ray Donovan beat the 95,000 slot average (Tue, 10pm)

Sky’s Ashes hit rivals for six

BY STephen price

I do wish film titles would be less ambiguous. I mean, what could Disney’s Teen Beach Movie be about? Whatever it was, it hooked ’em in. Elsewhere, in a veritable cornucopia of a week, Dave mined a new, maybe less banterish seam with Megatruckers, while Dynamo slipped a tad for Watch.

Disney Channel’s Teen Beach Movie (time-travelling teenage surfers in case you were wondering – see, there was a twist) scored 324,000/2% on Friday at 6pm. It was repeated three times to total 785,000. The Friday showing attracted a 19% share of four to 15 year-old girls; across all four transmissions, it averaged 18%.

Dave’s Megatruckers launched on Tuesday at 7pm with 203,000/ 1%; but the 7.30pm episode was the best with 299,000/2%. Both were repeated four times, with the 7.30pm episode’s total of 691,000 the best of the two.

The second episode of the new Dynamo: Magician Impossible achieved 712,000/4% on Thursday at 9pm, just 130,000 and half a share point shy of last week’s opener. The best repeat was Sunday’s at 7pm with 250,000/1.4%.

Sky Sports 2, rebranded as Sky Sports Ashes for the duration, topped the week with its Live Cricket: The Ashes averaging 807,000/8% on Sunday, peaking at 1.5 million/10% at 6.30pm.

26 July 2013 | Broadcast | 53

Ratings Mon 8 July – Sun 14 July

All BARB ratings supplied by. Attentional

Consolidated Ratings

A Shore-fire hit for MTV

BY Stephen price

And the heat goes on; it’s great. I’ve forgotten what long trousers are like. In decades to come, Brits will talk dreamily of the summer of ’13, remembering it came on the heels of a Met Office report offering the bone-crushing prospect of 10 years of wet summers; after last year’s barbecue debacle, that was a smart PR move by the weather seers.

Still, those glamorous Geordies were taking no chances and headed off to Australia for the launch of their new series.

Elsewhere in telly-land, Law and Order was restored in a very healthy way, while in something resembling the sort of thing kids did in the 1930s, Dave benefited from racing soap boxes.

Source. BARB

MTV: Geordie Shore Geordie Shore lapped up onto MTV for a sixth series on Tuesday 9 July at 10pm, where it played to 556,000/3%. Almost as many people recorded it as watched it live (551,000) to deliver a final rating of 1.11 million/5.7% – the constructed reality show’s best ever performance and a new record for MTV. After five repeats, it totalled nearly 1.5 million in the week.

However, like the swimming costumes the cast wear, its record was brief; sneaking ahead, episode two on 16 July consolidated to 1.13 million/5.7% after more than 600,000 recorded and watched.

ITV: Law And Order: UK Law And Order: UK returned to ITV for the summer and it appeared in fine fettle. The first episode of this latest run, on Sunday, began with a live rating of 5 million/23%. After more than 1 million recorded and watched, it delivered a final rating of 6.1 million/24%.

It was all too much for BBC1’s historical drama The White Queen, which fell to its lowest number yet with a consolidated rating of 4.6 million/18% for episode five, after 1 million recorded and watched; the first time it has dipped below 5 million.

Dave: Red Bull Soap Box Race Dave’s Red Bull Soap Box Race evoked notions of wooden crates, pram wheels and yards of string, but it was probably more professional than that – and certainly drew a decent crowd. For two hours from 4pm on Sunday 14 July, it averaged 535,000/5% live ratings. It wasn’t recorded hugely, as live events tend not to be, but it finished on 563,000/6%, peaking at a beefy 709,000/7% at 5.20pm.

Audience for BBC2 drama Top Of The Lake, after 770,000 watched via PVR and catch-up

UP Friday’s 8.30pm Corrie back up to 8.1m

Channel 4: The Returned C4’s spooky The Returned this week achieved 1.1 million/5% live ratings on Sunday 14 July at 9pm. After a decent 545,000 recorded and watched, it hit 1.7 million/7% – bang on last week’s figure.

TOP 30 CONSOLIDATeD RATINGS. RANKeD By GAIN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 16 16 19 20 21 22 22 24 24 26 27 28 29 30

2.7m DOWN Luther down 480,000 week on week

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Title

Day

Start

Viewers (m) (all homes)

Share %

Gain (m)

Gain %

The Apprentice The Apprentice: The Final Five Luther Law & Order: UK The White Queen Coronation Street Coronation Street Casualty EastEnders Top Of The Lake EastEnders Coronation Street Love And Marriage CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Top Gear Coronation Street EastEnders EastEnders The Big Bang Theory Coronation Street Revolution The Apprentice – You're Fired!

The Apprentice – Why I Fired Them Geordie Shore The Returned Long Lost Family The Only Way Is Essex The Americans Hannibal Andy Murray: The Man Behind The Racquet

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

20.59 22.38 21.00 21.02 21.00 20.29 19.32 21.09 19.59 21.12 19.28 20.29 21.02 21.02 19.59 19.30 19.59 19.28 20.01 19.32 21.00 21.59 22.38 22.00 21.00 21.00 22.03 21.49 21.59 20.59

8.24 3.39 5.95 6.07 4.56 8.12 7.97 5.00 6.30 2.70 6.99 8.89 3.83 2.56 4.83 8.62 7.22 6.11 2.53 8.67 0.94 2.91 2.38 1.11 1.68 5.39 1.33 1.61 0.62 4.41

31.13 23.62 24.87 23.70 18.00 39.37 42.20 23.88 32.74 13.01 37.44 38.43 14.42 10.61 21.37 43.50 34.43 33.98 12.16 43.45 4.64 13.81 17.53 5.67 6.77 22.41 6.74 8.27 3.20 18.45

1.46 1.32 1.22 1.08 0.98 0.97 0.89 0.81 0.78 0.77 0.75 0.72 0.71 0.69 0.68 0.63 0.63 0.63 0.61 0.60 0.58 0.57 0.57 0.55 0.55 0.53 0.52 0.51 0.47 0.46

21.60 64.00 25.70 21.50 27.30 13.60 12.50 19.30 14.10 40.30 12.00 8.90 22.80 37.00 16.50 8.00 9.60 11.40 31.60 7.40 161.00 24.50 31.30 99.10 48.20 10.90 64.10 46.60 297.80 11.70

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

Figures include HD and +1 where applicable

54 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

www.broadcastnow.co.uk

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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.

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Off Cuts ALL A TWITTER Kudos to the BBC for no longer shrinking credits. Now if we could just get rid of those awful “next time” trails that spoil a good ending... @rpg3000 (Robert Goldsbrough) Writer, Doctors; Casualty

Dear TV industry. Let’s have one day a year where no one uses buzzwords. Just one day!

Something original might come out of it. @mikechristieuk (Mike Christie) Producer/director

Wall to wall placentas today as we read through Episodes 2, 3 and 4 of #callthemidwife AND the Duchess goes into labour with the #RoyalBaby @HeidiThomasMcG (Heidi Thomas McGann) Writer, Call The Midwife

Julia Davis is doing the VO for #IHeartOneDirection! My turn to fangirl... Swoon @daisyasquith (Daisy Asquith) Producer/director

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Reporting’s a bit of a labour The world’s media descended on Buckingham Palace this week, but the BBC’s Nick Higham managed to escape the scrum. Opening a BBC R&D session in the Radio Theatre at New Broadcasting House, a visibly relieved Higham declared: “I’m very pleased to be here, otherwise I’d be outside a hospital. For those of you who don’t know, she’s gone into labour. Thank god for that.

We’ve been outside that hospital for weeks.”

Kittens at Chickens Hosting the Q&A at the screening of Sky’s latest comedy Chickens, Richard Bacon (right) heaved a sigh of relief that it wasn’t his usual live radio interview when one of the show’s stars, Barry Humphries,

AND FINALLY ...

Kate Pengilley Studio manager, Jungle

Higham: royal baby blues

discussed his role playing a seedy headmaster. He joked: “It brought back memories of Melbourne, where most of my school masters were serving in the war, so instead we had elderly, drunken... failed, successful or aspiring paeodophiles.” Bacon noted that his 5 Live producer would have been having kittens by now, and Humphries responded: “What’s happened to the BBC?”

Was The Apprentice finalist Luisa Zissman hoping to secure her own cupcake show on The Food Network at parent company Scripps Network’s jetsettingthemed summer party this week? Zissman, who owns Dixie’s Cupcakery, was seen in conversation with programming boss Nick Thorogood moments after he arrived dressed as an airline pilot.

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

Swearing blind to my teacher that I hadn’t stolen my friend’s shell, which she’d brought in for show and tell. I had. I still feel guilty.

Which TV or radio programme would you resuscitate?

The Crystal Maze (below) and The Adventure Game.

Who would you least like to share a taxi with?

Michael Gove… yes, definitely him.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given?

Make a decision. If it turns out to be wrong, make another decision, and keep doing that until you get to where you want to be.

What’s the most embarrassing item in your wardrobe?

A tie-dye patchwork waistcoat from 20 years ago.

The best and worst things about working in TV or radio...

Best: being surrounded by like-minded, interesting and creative people. Worst: the bulk of the best companies and facilities are in London; for me, that means a three-hour round-trip commute.

“The ALEXA provides a canvas that gives you total creative confidence to use different optics for different projects, safe in the knowledge that the core quality is already outstanding.”

Cinematographer John Conroy, ISC (Luther (S-3), The Smoke, Silk, Selfridges, Upstairs Downstairs, Silent Witness)

TruLy CInEmATIC www.arri.com/alexa

56 | Broadcast | 26 July 2013

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