15 Jan 10

Weekly Broadcast News

15th January 2010

iPlayer tops 100m requests in December
The BBC Trust has fired the starting gun on a major review of the iPlayer and all of the BBC’s on-demand television services. The eight-week public consultation will examine how well the iPlayer has performed – both over the internet and through cable providers like Virgin Media – and whether it has met its obligations to be platform neutral. It will also look at the parental controls on the seven-day catch up service and the option for users to “series stack” and pre-book series ahead of TX. The iPlayer received 114 million download requests in December, led by Top Gear and Doctor Who, and is now available on mobiles and games consoles as well as computers. The last two weeks of December experienced a massive increase in iPlayer viewing via games consoles, with one in eight TV requests coming from the Wii or PS3, up 74% on the previous month. The BBC Trust study comes in line with a pledge to assess the on-demand services 24 months after launch. As well as the iPlayer, it will assess the performance of the Watch Live” simulcast function and BBC podcasts. It will not examine radio usage on the iPlayer since this was launched before 2007. The consultation ends on 12th March 2010 and the review will be published later this year. 

Gaming most popular internet activity for tweens
Nearly 80% of tweens spend the majority of their time on the internet playing games, according to a new report.
Children aged eight- to 14-years-old might be the most digitally aware generation yet, having never experienced life without mobiles, internet and computers, but 74% of children still opt for a modern version of old fashioned entertainment such as gaming. This is followed by 59% of children who most commonly use the web for homework. Although 95% of the 3,020 children surveyed said the internet was important to them, 30% said they would still prefer communicating with friends face to face while 15% would prefer texting and only 14% would rather chat online. Nearly 10% prefer communicating using their mobile phone. The study was conducted by The Walt Disney Company EMEA in Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Poland and Spain to analyse the core values across its target audience of eight- to 14-year-olds following the launch of its new Disney XD channel. It showed 53% of children believe the internet improves their life by helping them talk to their friends outside school, while 44% said the internet makes it easier to stay in touch with friends. The majority of children surveyed are financially aware, the report suggests, with 70% opting to save their pocket money over spending it and 64% of children aspiring to work for themselves rather than for someone else when they grow up.
The top five future professions amongst tweens are vet, teacher, footballer, doctor and police officer.
Nearly all children think it's important to the look after the planet, with 74% already recycling regularly.

TV ad revenues to outperform other traditional media in 2010
TV advertising revenues will outperform other traditional media in 2010, according to predictions from media analysts Screen Digest. Stabilisations of ad spend to -1.2% on average is expected in Europe, according to the forecast. However an advertising recovery remains elusive as, according to Screen Digest, a minimum GDP growth of 2-3% is historically required to trigger any advertising spend recovery and IMF forecasts fall short of that figure. Ad prices will gradually recover in 2010 and this, combined with the benefits of the World Cup suggest TV advertising will do better than other traditional media, the analysts say. The mobile app market is expected to become fiercely competitive in 2010, and is forecast to generate £890m in revenues with 4.4bn downloads in 2010. The online games market will be worth 24% of the market in the US in 2010, up from 18% in 2009, with the leading connected device in the living room continuing to be the games console.

X Factor performers prompt online buzz and sales surge
Guest performances on The X Factor’s Sunday results programmes led to large increases in online buzz and download sales of singles, according to research by The Nielsen Company. Almost all the 18 guest stars promoting a track on The X Factor enjoyed increased online buzz on social platforms such as Twitter after their performance. Only George Michael, Rihanna and Bon Jovi suffered a decrease in online mentions. Artists discovered by TV talent shows tended to benefit more in terms of online buzz, with an 87% increase on average. Susan Boyle (139%) and JLS (138%) benefited most during the weeks of their performances. Established artists who found a more traditional route to fame benefited less, with a 45% increase on average. Alicia Keys (130%) and Whitney Houston (114%) benefited the most of the more established artists. Helen Kosinski, international business development manager at Nielsen Music Control, suggested the decrease for certain artists may be due to buzz before their performance. “For some there may be a bigger build-up pre-performance than post-performance reaction”, she said. Stars discovered by TV talent shows also sold most online and on mobile after a performance on The X Factor, which generally coincided with the digital release of their single or album.

Five puts Chinese cookery AFP on peaktime menu
Five’s next step in its AFP output strategy is to serve up a peaktime Chinese cookery show paid for by Sharwood’s owner Premier Foods. Chinese Food In Minutes will be a 13 x 30-minute series and will launch in about a month’s time, in the week leading up to Chinese New Year. It will be hosted by self-taught chef and author Ching-He Huang, who will show two novice cooks how to prepare three dishes before challenging them to reproduce the meal for their friends. Premier Foods will fund the series.

BBC iPlayer coming to Samsung TVs
Samung has announced that BBC iPlayer will be built into its forthcoming range of integrated TV sets, along with various other entertainment Apps. Following recent speculation at the CES show in Las Vegas, the consumer electronics giant confirmed that the BBC's catch-up platform will be offered in its Internet@TV service. Over the coming months, the service will also be updated to include the Muzu.tv music library and LoveFilm's online DVD-rental offering. Full pricing for the TV sets will be revealed shortly. Samsung hopes to eventually offer around 100 different Internet@TV Apps on its new IP-connected TVs and Blu-ray players, with some being free and others carrying a charge. Sky News recently unveiled a dedicated TV widget giving access to its latest breaking news stories on Samsung TVs.

Sky, 3ality agree 3D production deal, 3D glasses could ‘cost 50p on first pint’
Sky has sealed a strategic partnership deal with 3ality Digital to use the firm's production technology and equipment for its forthcoming 3D TV channel. Under the arrangement, Sky will utilise 3ality's state-of-the-art 3D camera rigs and image processors for producing the channel's entertainment, sport, factual and arts content. The firm's 3flex camera rigs are claimed to enable operators to capture near pixel-perfect live-action 3D footage when used in conjunction with its image processing systems. Launching at some point in 2010, Sky's new 3D channel will be broadcast over its existing high definition infrastructure, meaning that around 1.6m Sky+ HD subscribers will just need to purchase a 3D-ready TV set to view the content. Sky are also investigating different revenue models for its 3D TV service, which will launch in pubs this April. The service will feature predominantly live sports programming at launch, and a key issue to be determined is the distribution of glasses which are required to view 3D TV. BSkyB chief engineer Chris Johns said: “There are several routes we could go down. In conjunction with landlords, 50p could be put on a price of a pint in return for a take-away pair of glasses. Or we could offer the 3DTV service exclusively to a national pub chain which would expect to see a rise in numbers of customers. “There is also the possibility of putting advertising branding on the glasses themselves.” Sky is likely to use glasses from Californian company RealD, whose technology is compatible with new 3D consumer displays from Sony, Samsung and JVC and Panasonic. RealD polarized glasses are designed to be disposable, and cost around 60p a pair to produce. UK cinema-goers pay a premium of up to £3 to watch 3D movies, with box office receipts for 3D features up a third over 2D versions of the same film.

Six-year-olds are illegally downloading TV shows
Children as young as six are illegally downloading TV shows before they are aired in Britain, research has found.
Shows such as Glee, Heroes, Lost and House can be downloaded hours after they are broadcast in the US, and played back on a computer or TV. Some 31% of children aged six to 14 admit they regularly watch programmes illegally, either by downloading or streaming them to a TV, according to the study commissioned by New Media Age. 16% also download pirate films before they are released, the survey of 4,347 children found. “We were incredibly surprised by how young these children are — for six-year-olds to be downloading is astonishing,” said Justin Pearse, editor of New Media Age magazine. “Kids are leading the way when it comes to the convergence of broadcast television and the internet. However, there are also legal issues, and parents only have themselves to blame if they are not monitoring what their children are doing online. “Copyright and legality don't seem to be a barrier for kids — if they want to see something before it's on TV or DVD, they'll just get it online.” The problem is so bad it could force broadcasters to air shows at the same time as in the US.

Top 10 illegal downloads

1. Lost 2. Heroes 3. House 4. Gossip Girl 5. Dexter 6. The Simpsons
7. Desperate Housewives 8. Family Guy 9. Smallville 10. Stargate Atlantis

Sources: MediaGuardian.co.uk / BBC / MediaTel / WARC / Digital Spy / brandrepublic.com / nma.co.uk / broadcastnow.co.uk / Ofcom