September 2015

Eurosport breaks from the pack RTS/IET JOINT PUBLIC LECTURE Wednesday 4 November 6:30pm for 6:45pm Demis Hassabis Founder of Deep Mind, artificial intelligence researcher, neuroscientist and computer game designer

Venue: British Museum, London WC1B 3DG Booking: www.rts.org.uk Journal of The Royal Television Society September 2015 l Volume 52/8

From the CEO It’s been a productive Brooke and Sue Robertson. Thanks, Cambridge participants, we have Tom summer at the RTS. too, to the brilliant Anne McElvoy, Mockridge, Stuart Murphy and Jane The big news is that who chaired the occasion. Tranter on stage. our new website went I was pleased to see at least one Accenture has kindly helped develop live in July. The feed- member of the BBC Trust in the audi- a special Cambridge app. This will back that I’ve received ence. Also present was Stewart Purvis, provide details of speakers, sessions, so far has been very one of the eight-strong panel advising schedules, any supporting research positive. We hope that everyone finds John Whittingdale on his post-green and the opportunity to vote live on the site intuitive to use. As our Digital paper Charter renewal review. some big industry issues. Editor, Tim Dickens, explains in this The culture secretary is a keynote Finally, I’d like to draw attention to issue of Television, we have added a lot speaker at the RTS Cambridge Con- September’s cover story, written by of new, training-related resources. vention, which is almost upon us. If The Guardian’s Owen Gibson. He pro- The debate over the future of the you haven’t booked, there is still time vides an incisive analysis of Discov- BBC is generating a wide range of but places are going fast. ery’s plans for Eurosport and reflects views across the creative industries. We have assembled a stunning on the consequences of the channel’s In July, Chris Bryant, the Shadow line-up­ of domestic and international recent Olympics rights deal. Secretary of State for Culture, Media players. One of the speakers is and Sport, spoke at an RTS early- All3Media CEO Jane Turton, profiled evening event where the BBC was in this issue. centre stage. I am thrilled that Emily Bell is flying I’d like to thank all those who over from New York to join a confer- ­attended and our producers, Dan ence session and that, among other Theresa Wise Contents Dan Brooke’s TV Diary Eighteen months to save the BBC On holiday with his kids, Dan Brooke is subjected to Shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant warns that 5 some urban slang. It’s not the kind of language he hears 16 reducing the scale and scope of the BBC would severely back home, at the House of Lords for dinner damage the UK’s thriving creative industries

Eurosport discovers a new playbook The business brain who rose to the top Now owned outright by Discovery, the pan-European Maggie Brown meets All3Media’s CEO Jane Turton, who 6 sports channel that recently bagged the Olympics is 20 knows the company inside out looking to a turbocharged future. Owen Gibson reports Our Friend in the capital A tough job in tough times Daunted by the digital disruption of TV? Then check out Controller of BBC Two Kim Shillinglaw tells Andrew Billen 23 one of London’s regular Meetups, says Terry Marsh 9 why she believes the health of her channel is vital to securing the corporation’s future ‘You’re hired!’ Apprenticeships in television and radio are expanding. The hands-on hit maker 24 Pippa Shawley hears why on-the-job training makes From Game of Thrones to True Detective and Girls, HBO sense 12 is riding high. Kate Bulkley talks to Michael Lombardo, the man who helped the US cable station rekindle its mojo IBC preview: The age of disruption Adrian Pennington looks at the big technology BT dials up a zombie invasion 26 trends that will dominate September’s International BT TV is opening up a new front in the battle with Broadcasting Convention 14 Sky by launching the first AMC-branded UK channel. Stuart Kemp investigates Cover picture: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

Editor Production, design, advertising Royal Television Society Subscription rates Printing Legal notice Steve Clarke Gordon Jamieson 3 Dorset Rise, UK £115 ISSN 0308-454X © Royal Television Society 2015. [email protected] [email protected] London EC4Y 8EN Overseas (surface) £146.11 Printer: FE Burman, The views expressed in Television Writer Sub-editor T: 020 7822 2810 Overseas (airmail) £172.22 20 Crimscott St, are not necessarily those of the RTS. Matthew Bell Sarah Bancroft E: [email protected] Enquiries: [email protected] London, SE1 5TP Registered Charity 313 728 [email protected] [email protected] W: www.rts.org.uk

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 3 Your guide to upcoming national and RTS NEWS regional events

Coventry Rd, Solihull, West Mid- ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 National events Local events lands B92 0EJ ■ [email protected] ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 RTS CONVENTION BRISTOL ■ [email protected] SCOTLAND 16-18 September Wednesday 16 September ■ James Wilson 07899 761167 RTS Cambridge Convention Boom Bust Boom NORTH EAST & THE BORDER ■ james.wilson@cityofglasgow- 2015: Happy Valley or House Film screening followed by dis- Wednesday 30 September college.ac.uk of Cards – Television in 2020 cussion with the directors Terry Networking evenings Venue: West Road Concert Hall, Jones and Ben Timlett. Organ- The last Wednesday of the month, SOUTHERN Cambridge CB3 9DP and King’s ised jointly with Encounters for anyone working in TV, film, Wednesday 14 October College, Cambridge CB2 1ST Short Film & Animation Festival. computer games or digital Ulltra-HDTV in UK TV ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk 8:00pm ­production. 6:00pm onwards. With Richard Salmon, BBC Venue: Watershed, 1 Canon’s Next event: ■ 28 October Research & Development. 7:30pm RTS EARLY EVENING EVENT Road, Bristol BS1 5TX Venue: Tyneside Bar Café, Tyne- Venue: Queen Mary College, Monday 28 September side Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, New- Cliddesden Road, Basingstoke, In conversation with Mike Wednesday 23 September castle upon Tyne NE1 6QG RG21 3HF Darcey, CEO, News UK In conversation with Philip ■ Gordon Cooper 6:30pm for 6:45pm Edgar-Jones, Director, Sky Arts Thursday 15 October ■ [email protected] Venue: The Hospital Club, 24 Commissioning strategy and the Keynote Lecture: Julian Bellamy, Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ Amplify initiative. 7:00pm Managing Director of ITV Studios THAMES VALLEY ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk Venue: TBC Venue: TBC Friday 27 November 25th Anniversary Dinner Dance JOINT PUBLIC LECTURE October – date TBC Tuesday 3 November Venue: Beaumont House Hotel, Wednesday 4 November Breaking into TV Digital guru: Stephen Whitelaw Burfield Rd, Old Windsor SL4 2JJ Joint RTS/IET public lecture Student event, preceded by a Venue: TBC ■ Penny Westlake with Demis Hassabis facilities tour. 2:00pm-4:00pm ■ Jill Graham ■ [email protected] Demis Hassabis is founder of Venue: Bath Spa University, ■ [email protected] Deep Mind and an artificial Newton St Loe, Bath BA2 9BN WALES intelligence researcher, neuro- ■ Belinda Biggam NORTH WEST September – date TBC scientist and computer game ■ [email protected] Thursday 1 October ‘Challenges and opportunities designer. 6:30pm for 6:45pm Awards launch for television in small nations’ Venue: British Museum, Great DEVON & CORNWALL Venue: Compass Rooms, Lowry A joint event with the University Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG ■ Contact TBC Centre, Salford Quays M50 3AZ of South Wales ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk Venue: The ATRiuM, University of EAST ANGLIA Saturday 14 November South Wales, 86-88 Adam St, RTS MASTERCLASSES ■ Contact TBC Annual Awards Cardiff CF24 2FN Tuesday 10 November Venue: Hilton Deansgate, 303 RTS Student Programme LONDON Deansgate, Manchester M3 4LQ Thursday 22 October Masterclasses Wednesday 23 September ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 IWA and RTS Wales ‘Coffee Venue: BFI Southbank, London IBC review ■ [email protected] Shop Debate’: The future of SE1 8XT 6:30 for 7:00pm Welsh broadcasting ■ Booking opening soon Venue: Riverside Bar, ITV Studios, NORTHERN IRELAND With Ken Skates AM, Deputy Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Thursday 5 November Minister for Culture, Sport and RTS MASTERCLASSES ■ Daniel Cherowbrier Inaugural Northern Ireland Tourism Wednesday 11 November ■ [email protected] Programme Awards Venue: Glyndwr University Wrex- RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses The centrepiece of the Belfast ham – TBC Venue: BFI Southbank, London MIDLANDS Media Festival ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 SE1 8XT Tuesday 1 September – TBC Venue: The MAC, 10 Exchange ■ [email protected] ■ Booking opening soon RTS Legends lunch with David Street West, Belfast BT1 2NJ Jennings, Head of Regional and ■ John Mitchell YORKSHIRE RTS AWARDS Local Programmes, BBC West ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@btinter- Thursday 15 October Monday 30 November Midlands net.com An evening with Barry Cryer RTS Craft & Design Awards Venue: BBC Birmingham, The Chair: Louis Barfe. 7:30pm 2014-2015 Mailbox, Birmingham B1 1RF REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Venue: Trinity Arts Centre, Boar The closing date for awards September – date TBC Lane, Leeds LS1 6HW entries is Tuesday 1 September Thursday 12 November Visit to the Vikings set. ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 Venue: The London Hilton, Park Awards/Student Awards Venue: Ashford Studios, Bally- ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. Lane, London W1K 1BE Venue: Motorcycle Museum, henry, Ashford, Co Wicklow co.uk

4 September 2015 www.rts.org.uk Television TV diary

On holiday with his kids, Dan Brooke is subjected to some urban slang. It’s not the kind of language he hears back home, at the House of Lords for dinner

ack to work for a no less, after those WWE-organised tolerate my presence as the Exec break after a week tag-team bouts. Diversity champion. of bodyboarding, My A-team of main-eventers – I think I’m in the role specifically go-karting and Mine- Chris, Harpreet, James, James, John, because I’m white, male, middle class crafting in southern Lynette and Mark (in alphabetical and public-school-educated. However, Spain with my kids order) – goes down a storm, making I am also half Brazilian and used to – Gus, 10, and Fordie, me look a lot better than the hoss have a disabled brother, which eight. They kept calling me a “nube”. mid-carder that I am. The extra intrigues them. BI’ve no idea what this means, cherry on top of the day is catching though urbandictionary.com says it up on two missed episodes of Humans. ■ For dinner, my old man invites me is “someone so pitiful and idiotic that to the House of Lords, which rarely they have not even the meagre skills ■ On Tuesday, the Channel 4 cricket turns out to be one of this mortal to be titled a noob”. team, which I captain, is off for a coil’s unpleasant shuffles. The second top definition is: “The Twenty20 evening match at a new My dad, Peter, prides himself on incorrect spelling of noob or newb. pitch in Hounslow. Ben, our Bob his memory. “My mind is less of a Only noobs spell this word as Willis-style opening bowler from factory,” he observes, not infrequently, ‘nube’.” Noof said. Lol. Sorry, Lool. Channel 4 News, emails, bemoaning “more of a warehouse.” Concerned the location and pointing out that that his asset is depreciating at an ■ Easing my return to the real world “when you move to Birmingham, undesirable rate, he has good news: is my new assistant, Harpreet, for there’s a much nicer ground in Soli- “I’ve developed a new system for whom new words also need invent- hull”. I haven’t the faintest idea what remembering things!” – though ing. She is that good. he’s on about. there’s bad news, too: “I sometimes First up is the Government’s crisply forget how the system works.” named Paralympic Legacy Advisory ■ Next, it’s a Channel 4 Board meet- He was a cabinet minister under Group, to present Channel 4’s excit- ing, which one member attends via both Margaret Thatcher and John ing plans for Rio 2016 to the new video conference. From our seats in Major, presiding, in his stint at what Minister of State for Disabled People, Horseferry Road, the hotel he is in is now the DCMS, over the creation civil servants and various charity has a portentously Fawlty Towers of Channel 5. This is, like his fondness group heads. feel, but the IT turns out to work like for double negatives and elaborate In the afternoon, my team makes a dream. clausal sentences, a source of not a presentation to Commissioning Less successful is the self-portrait insignificant family pleasure. about what we do in Marketing & I continue painting at home that night. Communications. My art-school training occurred ■ Friday morning, I breakfast with a In the hope of coming across as more than 25 years ago and it shows media journalist who passes on lots innovative and creative, we have in that left eye, which is drooping like of interesting gossip. I fail to recip- adopted the departmental acronym, one of Salvador Dali’s clocks. rocate adequately and feel decidedly “MAC”. nubish. Again. We come up with a theme for the ■ Thursday is the home of a diver- presentation, which, naturally sity task force meeting. Titans of the Dan Brooke is Director of Marketing and enough, is… wrestling. A SmackDown, subject, such as Oona, Ade and Ralph Communications at Channel 4.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 5 Eurosport Now owned outright by Discovery, the Eurosport pan-European sports channel that recently bagged the discovers Olympics is looking to a turbocharged future. Owen Gibson reports a new

ver-the-top hyperbole is usually de rigueur when it comes to playbook unveiling big TV sports-rights deals. But, this summer, whenO Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav declared his company’s €1.3bn, pan-European deal with the Interna- tional Olympic Committee a “game changer”, it seemed more like an understatement. The contract, which runs from 2018, caused many people’s jaws to drop – while others scratched their heads over its implications. It seemed like another blow to the BBC and its grip on the world’s greatest festival of sport. Discovery’s move ended more than half a century in which European pub- lic service broadcasters showed the Olympics and fuelled its growth into a commercial and cultural behemoth. Eurosport itself was launched in 1989 at the dawn of the satellite-TV revolution. Then, it was a joint venture between the European Broadcasting Union and the earliest iteration of Sky. The aim was to provide an outlet for rights the partners held but couldn’t utilise on their main channels. to 51% in 2014 and – around a month That is not always the case. When Now, with major US investment after the Olympics deal – Discovery the Tour de France explodes into col- turning it from a sleepy backwater bought out the remaining 49% from ourful, controversial life every July, for into a major player, Eurosport is in French broadcaster TF1. example, or during the French Open, the vanguard of a new era. This last move garnered surprisingly when the world’s best tennis players The pan-European, long-term few column inches, but it is equally compete in Paris, it sits at the centre nature of June’s IOC deal is, perhaps, significant in highlighting Discovery’s of the sporting world. But, in the main, the best signpost yet to where sports ambitions for the sports channel. it has remained a secondary player, broadcasting is heading. Eurosport’s brand has endured for rather than a big hitter. The pendulum certainly seems to three decades. It broadcasts to more The marriage of Discovery, the US be swinging towards complex, pan-­ than 50 countries in 20 languages. giant that grew from a single cable regional deals between sports bodies Yet, in quite a number of these terri- science channel in 1985 into a global and global players such as Fox, ESPN tories, it remains stuck in the popular broadcasting network, and Eurosport, and the Qatari-owned BeIN Sports. imagination as an esoteric home for the Paris-based, quintessentially Euro- The deal was masterminded by a continental smorgasbord of winter pean, sports broadcaster, appears, at Zaslav, who first acquired a 20% stake sports, cycling, tennis and other, more first glance, an unlikely one. in Eurosport in 2012. This increased specialised, fare. Reporting of the sports broadcasting

6 “The goal for every sports channel is Hockey match at the that you should be needed in a pay-TV London 2012 Olympics package and that people will miss you if you’re not there. You’ve got to make it part of people’s sporting lives.” When the IOC deal was announced, it genuinely came from left field. The attraction for the IOC is the allure of a pan-European broadcaster with deep pockets and global scale. What’s more, Eurosport can partner on the IOC’s still fuzzy vision for its own Olympics channel that can boost the profile of its sports between Games. But, on both sides, it remains a high- stakes gamble. Zaslav has been keen to highlight Eurosport’s “ability to develop and follow the same sports and athletes all year, combined with access to the archives”, which offers a win-win for both Discovery and the IOC. The latter is all too aware that Olym- pic sports tend to fade from view as soon as the flame dies at the closing ceremony. From 2018, across most of Europe (Russia aside) and in the UK and France from 2022, Discovery will hold exclusive rights to the biggest sporting show on earth. In practice, it will sub-­ license the rights to the Games in many markets. But Discovery’s patchwork of free- to-air channels (including in the UK and Germany), pay services and online offerings gives it myriad options both during the Olympics and between them. It is an innovative, in some ways brave, move from both sides. Under the IOC’s rules as they stand, at least 200 hours of the summer Games and 100 hours of the winter Olympics must be shown on free-to-air TV.

Getty Images Some countries, notably the UK, have listed-events legislation that requires world, as with many other business And they were also linked with the these competitions to be shown in their sectors (and, indeed, sports themselves), Serie A contract in Italy. entirety on free-to-air channels. can be reductive. But Peter Hutton, Eurosport’s Chief But, even in the UK, the options are It tends to be viewed through the Executive, cautions against the idea extensive. Eurosport could do a deal prism of winning and losing high-­ that the broadcaster intends to wade in with the BBC or Channel 4. Or it could profile rights packages when, in fact, for every available rights package. utilise space on Freeview to launch its the secret to success in a fast-changing Instead, says Hutton, Eurosport will own free-to-air Olympic channels. Or media landscape is increasingly more continue to invest heavily in produc- it could subcontract the best of the complex and subtle. tion – he cites the innovations during action and market itself as the only When Discovery took its controlling this summer’s Tour de France, such as place to see every last moment. stake in Eurosport, Zaslav eye-catch- on-board cameras – and in making The entrance of an emboldened, ingly said that the companies would channels more locally relevant. Discovery-backed Eurosport into the “look at opportunities to take bigger “You’ve got to be sensible,” insists market is yet another challenge to the swings in certain markets”. They flirted Hutton. “The most difficult decisions BBC’s grip on the sports rights that it with the 2014 UK rights auction for are to say no to things and to say, ‘Let’s still holds. Premier League football – eventually concentrate on the things we do well The intense competition between a £5bn carve-up between Sky and BT. and do [them] better’. pay-TV giants BT Sport and Sky has �

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 7 Eurosport

� already squeezed the BBC’s options That might mean, for example, and, while it is hopeful of coming to a THE GOAL FOR showing all the outside courts at the sub-licensing deal around the Games, French Open while the main channel it will no longer be able to market EVERY SPORTS concentrates on the show courts. Or itself as the home of the five rings. CHANNEL IS THAT it might mean offering limitless Recalling the political and popular options for enthusiasts to watch goodwill it earned from its London YOU SHOULD BE minority sports. 2012 coverage, the ramifications are NEEDED IN A PAY- Ever since the beginning of the wider than simply two weeks of broadband age, the idea that smaller sporting action. TV PACKAGE AND sports might be able to use the inter- This blow to the corporation’s sta- net to aggregate a large audience has tus as the place where the nation THAT PEOPLE remained tantalisingly out of reach. gathers to view major events such as WILL MISS YOU IF Hutton believes that this could the Olympics comes in the midst of a change as technological advances wide-­ranging debate about the BBC’s YOU’RE NOT THERE and shifting viewing habits lead fans future scale, scope and funding. to gorge on the sports they are most It is not only with the Olympics deal passionate about, rather than being that Discovery will look to take “Part of that is investing in produc- happy with a scheduled pick and mix. advantage of the patchwork of chan- tion and part of it is a focus on national “We saw research from the IOC nels it owns across the continent. players. In the UK, that might mean that showed that the number of Traditionally, as a way of keeping focusing on Andy Murray in the sports people are watching is decrea­ production costs down, Eurosport has French Open.” sing, but we’re watching more of the broadcast the same video feed across It is also bearing fruit: UK audiences things we care about,” he says. “You different territories but with localised are up 24% since Discovery took a drill down to the things you care commentary. That model is changing majority stake. Luck has also played about most.” swiftly. Under Discovery’s ownership, a part. Eurosport has benefited in the By the time Eurosport beams the Eurosport plans a different emphasis UK from the fact that its two highest 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeong- for each territory. profile sports – cycling and tennis Chang, the mutually dependent inter- “Before, Eurosport in Paris dictated – are undergoing a spell of home- ests of the sports industry and the policy to each local country. Now, that grown success. global media business are likely to needs to change: we need to provide Hutton also highlights the potential have shifted again. a toolbox for local countries to build of the Eurosport Player, an online If Discovery’s bold opening gambit channels out of,” says Hutton, who offering that currently has around over the past 12 months is anything to joined Eurosport in March from rights 200,000 paying subscribers. The go by, it is clearly determined that a agency MP & Silva and previously company intends to expand the ser- turbocharged, emboldened Eurosport worked at ESPN and Fox. vice and its user base. will be at the heart of them.

8 September 2015 www.rts.org.uk Television A tough job in tough times BBC

hen Kim singles, so you’re making decisions all Shillinglaw The Billen Profile the time.’” became She says she did not quite believe Controller of him. She does now. She is at her desk BBC Two last Controller of BBC Two in New Broadcasting House by 8:30am, year, one of Kim Shillinglaw making phone calls and writing emails. herW predecessors took her for a drink. Although she is at home to see her Roly Keating had launched BBC Four, tells Andrew Billen children, 14 and 11, to bed, she toils moved on to BBC Two and filled in as again until 11:00pm. Weekends are temporary boss of BBC One. In a why she believes the rarely work-free. meeting room in New Broadcasting health of her channel This is why, although she does not House, Shillinglaw recalls with number it in years, she knows her terrible clarity what he told her. is vital to securing the reign here must be “finite”. “He said, ‘You will find BBC Two Yet Keating, now Chief Executive is the toughest. Let me tell you that corporation’s future of the British Library, could not have now. BBC Four has a lot of individual known then how much stress the commissions but not very much nation a year – who the new Doctor BBC would be under a year on. I ask money, so there’s a limit to how many Who is – but, actually, the schedule is if she is up for a scrap to save the BBC things it can commission. very stable: EastEnders, Watchdog, the in its present comprehensive state, to ‘With BBC One, you make four or news. On BBC Two, you have an awful shout her case for what she does. Her five really important decisions for the lot of three-parters, two-parters and answer disappoints me a little. �

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 9 � “I hope we will always feel a real broadcasts a documentary on La Travi- A quick skim sense of clarity and purpose about ata, BBC Four might actually show the what we’re here for. Certainly, at BBC opera. through Kim Two, I do.” “That is a good idea,” she says. “We She is at the centre of the public-­ should have done that.” service remit, I suggest. These, however, are my quibbles and “I suppose so. I’m obviously a mas- my agenda. Most people agree that sive supporter of the fight for the BBC BBC Two is in good health. Documen- and what I and my team put on air taries are thriving again with the over the next years is obviously part of revival of Modern Times (although Shil- it, but our focus is very, very much on: linglaw is quiet when I ask if the strand where is the best talent? Are they will return). It continues to feed BBC making great things for us? What is the One with hits such as The Great British next Marvellous or Wolf Hall? How do we Bake Off and drama is back with suc- get the next Inside No 9?” cesses such as The Honourable Woman So, if she gets that right, the rest will and Line of Duty.

BBC follow? What is more, in this spring’s Wolf “It’s not that. It’s bloody hard to Hall, there is no doubt that she deliv- Kim Shillinglaw, Controller, BBC Two make great television, or, rather, to ered the BBC an ace in its poker game enable other people to make great with the Government. Age 46 television. It’s a 24/7 job.” On the other hand, BBC Two has also Lives West London I am surprised by that answer. She surely delivered the BBC’s enemies a Married Steve Condie, TV producer; is one of the BBC’s most persuasive trump card in the BBC-mocking sitcom, two children executives, widely liked and pretty low W1A. Everyone says that it is not satire, Brought up Cameroon, Spain, on corporate speak: she should be out but documentary. London there speaking up for the BBC. But I “People also say it’s very funny,” she Educated Holland Park School; am happy to talk television, great and counters. “Do you know, the BBC and, Wadham College, Oxford less great, with her. I think, in particular, BBC Two just We disagree, I think, on how consist- need to do the right things creatively. 1990 Researcher, later series pro- ently high-brow BBC Two needs to be. When the Top Gear debacle was ducer, at Observer Films, followed by Coast, she points out, is highly appreci- unfolding, BBC Two had The Wrong contracts at ITV, Channel 4 and on ated by her viewers. She says she Mans making Top Gear jokes, we had the BBC’s The Money Programme favours, in the mix, more experts and Charlie Brooker making Top Gear jokes 2006 Creative Executive Producer fewer celebrity presenters, which is and W1A making Top Gear jokes. at BBC London Factual and Com- good. So why send Sue Perkins off to “And do you know what? With every missioning Editor for Independents, the Himalayas? single one of those, they came to me and CBBC “I’m not sure that that’s how I think of asked, ‘Is this all right?’ And I said yes, 2009 Commissioning Editor for Sue. I think that she’s actually a rather because this is the DNA of BBC Two and Science and Natural History Pro- intelligent and very funny woman.” all I can do is be the guardian of that.” gramming, BBC Talking of such, what has happened The non-renewal of Jeremy Clark- 2014 Controller of BBC Two (and to the remake of Civilisation, announced son’s contract to present Top Gear fol- BBC Four) more than a year ago? lowing his assault on a producer has “It’s progressing. It’s definitely been the great crisis of her tenure. Triumphs Stargazing Live; Earth- happening.” Clarkson contacted Danny Cohen, the flight; Frozen Planet, Marvellous, Has she found her expert presenter? BBC’s Director of Television, who then Wolf Hall “Well, I don’t find them. But the team phoned Shillinglaw and called her in Flops 3DTV, whose potential she working on it is close. It is very close.” to a meeting. was charged with investigating for Has it got to be a woman? “It was an incredibly difficult time the BBC “I never, ever, ever think about that. but, then again, Top Gear had been Disasters Jeremy Clarkson exits Top I said this about Top Gear: I never think pretty bumpy for a number of months Gear on her watch about individual programmes in terms that I’d been here and doing the job.” Watching Made in Chelsea, The of gender. I think it’s a really bad place She was a fan of the show’s “craft” Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, to get to. What I do think about is the and as a “collective viewing experi- Backchat with Jack Whitehall and totality in terms of gender.” ence” at home with the family. But did his Dad When I ask whether the time may she, as a woman and a graduate, con- On pitching ‘Most of the pitches have come to fold BBC Four into BBC sider its attitudes were outstaying their I get for auteur-driven documenta- Two – given that, outside Proms sea- welcome? ries are shit’ son, it rarely has more than an hour’s “I would not have cancelled the show, On BBC Four ‘BBC Two brings you new programming a night – she says if that’s what you’re asking me.” the universe and BBC Four, the that she is sad I should even moot it. But would she have wished to make atom’ With overall responsibility for both changes to it? On the 10:00pm slot ‘It is where channels, she is looking for a more “I’ve always had a robust conversation BBC Two should show its knickers’ “distinctive” yet “joined-up” strategy. with Jeremy and Andy [Wilman, its I suggest that the next time BBC Two producer]. It’s never been otherwise.

10 commissioner. Three years later, she was made Commissioning Editor for Science and Natural History, when she commissioned Stargazing Live, Frozen Planet and the science-drama­ The Challenger. In the process, she helped propel the television careers of Brian Cox, Dara Ó Briain, oceanographer Helen Czerski and physicist Jim Al-Khalili. She is said to be good with talent, and direct and decisive in meetings. Before our talk, at a meeting of the documentaries team, she has greenlit a follow-up to the series on sex crime investigations, The Detectives, and said “no” to one on butlers. I do wonder, however, whether her BBC Two would be brave and decisive enough to commission a piece that really challenged this Government’s agenda, at a time when the corpora- tion’s future lies in its hands. If Alan Bleasdale came to her with a Boys from the Blackstuff for the twenty-­ teens, would she commission it? “I think that’s a very interesting question. BBC Two has been incredibly looked after by my several predecessors, so it’s not a criticism – it’s more a question of how a channel evolves – but I have felt that BBC Two might Wolf Hall

BBC look a little bit more at what I call the national conversation, at contemporary Long before the final incident, we had Back in London, she attended Hol- Britain. had a number of lively conversations. land Park comprehensive school, where “There is a place you can end up That’s part of making any show that is she did well, although she says it was with an awful lot of bunting and cakes. pushing the line.” not “difficult to be bright there”. There’s nothing wrong with bunting Does she think that Clarkson, as “It was quite rough. I remember my and cakes and marquees, and they talent, was well handled? teacher’s car being burnt out in the have their place on the schedule. But I “By me, personally? Yes, I do. And I playground, and somebody getting do think it’s also important that BBC believe, and I hope – well, I genuinely stabbed in the corridor.” Two really makes sure that it calibrates believe – that Jeremy would say the She went to Wadham, Oxford, where that against quite a strong set of per- same. We always had a good, profes- she read history, partied and emerged spectives on contemporary Britain.” sional relationship that contained both with a 2:1. In her second year, she met And this, I realise, is why we need a support and the ability to say, ‘Jeremy, a friend who was working in television. BBC with people of Shillinglaw’s calibre I think you’ve crossed the line.’” He assured her that it was possible to and character near the top, and why Television must have looked very be paid to read the papers. the choices she makes in the next few different to her when she discovered it She wrote “a million” letters asking months will be a test of both. We talk in the 1980s. Her late father worked at for a job and got a lowly one on about the Charter fight again. the World Bank and in international Observer Films, where she rose to be “There are,” she says, “no wallflowers aid, jobs that took his family to Came- a series producer. She went freelance among the BBC’s critics. We need to roon and, later, Spain. and worked on The Money Programme, make sure that those of us who believe Until she returned to live in London from where, having “probably watched in the BBC and believe in its essential as a teenager, her experience of televi- Broadcast News too many times”, she purpose – whether, that’s the knowl- sion was limited. Cameroon had no pleaded for an attachment at Newsnight. edge mission or the space I believe BBC television at all. Later, in Spain, a friend It was “absolutely terrifying. I dis- Two should give the creative commu- of the family had moved away and left covered why I made long-form films.” nity to do their most signature work behind a stack of VHSs. It was also where she met her hus- – realise that this is not the time to be “And there was I, Claudius, Upstairs, band, producer Steve Condie, now a wallflower about our beliefs, either.” Downstairs, and so many, many other Head of Specialist Factual at 7 Wonder. It is good advice. The only thing things, all slightly out of date. It was such In 2006, she moved to the BBC’s is, I am not quite sure by this stage a precious introduction, and scarcity London Factual department with an whether she is addressing me, RTS always produces pleasure, doesn’t it?” add-on, part-time role as CBBC indie members or herself.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 11 The hands-on hit maker

Profile From Game of Thrones to True Detective and Girls, HBO is riding high. Kate Bulkley talks to Michael Lombardo, the man who helped the US cable station rekindle its mojo

BO’s President of “I felt a little bit like a kid in Programming, the candy store. I found myself Michael Lombardo, leaning into it, as Sheryl Sand- might have a berg would say.” reputation for being Lombardo is referring a touch obsessive, to the book Lean In by the but,H when it comes to his list of hit Facebook Chief Operating shows, it seems that such qualities Officer about how women work just fine. are stereotyped in the HBO has received 126 Emmy workplace. nominations this year, 24 for Game of Stereotyping is some- Thrones alone. Lombardo is the man thing that Lombardo has behind GoT and other bull’s eyes – from strong views on. He and edgy dramas, such as True Detective, his husband, Sonny, are with Matthew McConaughey, to push-­ the parents of two chil- the-envelope comedies, including Lena dren, and Lombardo Dunham’s Girls, to The Jinx, the mini-­ serves on the board of series about alleged murderer Robert GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Durst, which HBO won the rights to Straight Education after a nine-way bidding war. Network). In conversation, the New York native Lombardo has worked is disarmingly charming. He is one of for HBO for more than those rare people who understand 30 years. He joined both the financial and creative aspects HBO’s legal department of television. in New York in 1983 Lombardo reads scripts from begin- and, three years later, ning to end and has built a reputation relocated to Los Ange- for cultivating a deep working relation­ les to run business ship with talent, especially writers. affairs. There, he rose He believes that it is HBO’s willing- through the ranks to ness to roll up the proverbial shirt become Executive sleeves that gives it an edge. Vice-President,­ Busi- “I remain very fluent in the business ness Affairs, Produc- side of content creation,” says Lom- tion and Program­ ming­ bardo, on the phone from his Los Operations in 2003. Angeles office. “I understand the eco- It was in 2007 that Lombardo nomics of making a show intimately. was given the chance to begin But a number of years ago, when I flexing his creative muscles. It started using that muscle that you was an inauspicious moment. The require when you to talk to writers, I spectacular run of The Sopranos

found myself enjoying it enormously. had ended and there was not Shutterstock Startraks/Rex

12 much that was exciting on the channel. communicating with someone. Being The buzz in the business was that the WE FIND CLEAR hands-on is critical.” famous HBO acronym had come to In Sky, HBO has found a substantial mean “HB-Over”. VOICES AND European partner. Sky Atlantic renewed In the midst of this creative malaise, MORE VOICE- its exclusive UK access to all HBO Lombardo was given creative control DRIVEN SHOWS programmes in January 2014 in a deal of programming, overseeing the flag- – reportedly worth £275m – that runs ship channel, HBO, sister channel FROM OUR UK until 2020. Cinemax and HBO Films. His remit ARTISTS.… THEY Sky Italia and Sky Germany also was, and is, a big one, covering enter- have programme deals with HBO: tainment, documentaries, sport and HANDCRAFT co-production is very much part of the family programming. THEIR SCRIPTS… plan. In May, HBO, the Sky group and It’s easy to forget what a spectacular Canal+ greenlit Paolo Sorrentino’s The rejuvenation has been wrought by SOME MIGHT SAY Young Pope, an eight-parter starring Lombardo and HBO’s Chairman and SMALL BUT VERY Jude Law and Diane Keaton. “This is CEO, Richard Plepler, who was pro- something where the director is going moted to his present job in 2013. Argu- BEAUTIFUL to take a big, bold, beautiful swing. This ably, HBO’s reputation has never been is what we do at HBO,” says Lombardo. higher than it is today. He is a big fan of British talent. He “The secret sauce of HBO is about HBO is under more pressure to grow worked with Armando Iannucci on talent – and not just big, known talent,” since its parent company, Time Warner, Veep and, recently, he greenlit a series Lombardo says. “We offer a very hon- rejected an $80bn takeover bid from from Sharon Horgan called Divorce, est, value-added relationship and I Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. It starring Sex and the City actress Sarah think that stands for something. told shareholders that it could deliver Jessica Parker. “And we support our programming, value by expanding the business itself. “As a rule, we find clear voices and we stick with it and we let it grow.” A big part of that growth story, more voice-driven shows from our UK Unlike free-to-air broadcasters, HBO according to Time Warner boss Jeff artists,” says Lombardo. “They don’t doesn’t have to generate big ratings Bewkes, is the launch of HBO Now, a come from a culture where there are with every show. As a premium sub- stand-alone, $14.99-a-month stream- huge writing rooms. scription service, HBO can afford to ing service that doesn’t require a tradi- “They handcraft their scripts and take risks and support programmes tional pay-TV subscription. It looks like they are very specific – some might that might appeal only to some of its HBO’s answer to Netflix and Amazon say small but very beautiful.” subscribers, some of the time. Prime. With the launch of HBO Now, Lom- “The good part of this is that it Netflix has been gunning for HBO bardo is thinking about what content allows you to finely explore the almost since it launched. CEO Reed will work best on that platform. One [show’s] creative ambitions with Hastings famously said that his ambition obvious source is Vice Media, which someone without worrying about the was to “become HBO faster than HBO already produces a nightly programme demographics of the show or whether can become us”. on the HBO TV channel. there are unlikeable characters in the Indeed, Netflix beat HBO in the race Later this year, Vice will begin pro- scripts,” says Lombardo. to produce a US version of House of Cards. ducing a daily newscast and a branded HBO famously does not “do” focus HBO wanted a pilot first. But Netflix was channel on HBO Now. groups for its shows. Instead, it relies willing to back the series without one “The idea for HBO Now is to attract on the judgement of its programming and signed a bigger cheque to secure it. ‘cord nevers’, people who don’t pay for executives. But HBO does do develop- So was House of Cards the one that got TV,” explains Lombardo. “We aren’t ment (at any one time, up to 70 scripts away? “I think that waving a cheque at looking to cannibalise our existing are being developed) and it does do talent is one thing, but what talent is business. And, inevitably, these ‘cord pilots. The pilot for Game of Thrones is looking for is a relationship – someone nevers’ are younger viewers. These are believed to have cost $35m. Lombardo who gets what they are doing and gets millennials who are very price- and and his team were so unhappy with it what their ambition is,” says Lombardo. time-conscious. And Vice does really that the pilot was partially re-shot. “And that requires sitting down and well with that audience.” The drama series has been a break- If Vice is HBO’s next great asset, then out show around the world. In the UK, who is the future enemy? Netflix will the fifth series returned to Sky Atlantic WHAT TALENT IS probably play that role for at least a few in April with an average consolidated more years. However, HBO enemies audience of 2.7 million. This was twice LOOKING FOR IS beware: Lombardo has very definite as many viewers as for Sky’s own, A RELATIONSHIP views on his competitors. heavily marketed, original drama His put-downs are something to Fortitude. – SOMEONE WHO behold: “I would’ve liked our version HBO may be on a roll. Lombardo, GETS WHAT THEY of House of Cards” is his retort to my however, knows that creating ambitious question about what he thought of the shows, particularly dramas, is more ARE DOING AND Kevin Spacey interpretation. competitive than ever, with the rise of GETS WHAT THEIR Arguing with Michael Lombardo is global digital players led by Netflix and like facing up to Tony Soprano – Amazon. AMBITION IS there’s usually only one winner.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 13 ay-TV platform BT TV is hoping that an unfolding Pay-T V zombie apocalypse will help it bite out a bigger share of a competitive BT TV is opening UK market dominated up a new front in byP Sky. Fear the Walking Dead, the much-­ anticipated spin-off show of US flesh-­ the battle with eating drama The Walking Dead, is airing exclusively on BT TV as the flagship Sky by launching drama for the first AMC-branded the first channel in the UK. It is part of a wider deal struck in AMC-branded June between US cable operator AMC Networks and BT TV. UK channel. The headline-grabbing,­ multi-year Stuart Kemp deal gives BT TV exclusivity to all things AMC, the US stable that has investigates showcased some of the biggest and most celebrated series on US television in recent years, including Mad Men and Breaking Bad. While it may seem like a big gamble to pin a channel launch on an unproven spin-off show – it debuted in the US in August – it is exactly the sort of punt that BT TV is embracing. According to Delia Bushell, Managing Director of BT TV and BT Sport, the pact with AMC is about more than an exclu- sive carriage deal for AMC, because BT TV is jointly curating the content. Indeed, Bushell characterises it as a “great opportunity” for a full-on work- ing partnership between the companies. “The channel will broadly be very similar to AMC US in the sense that it will carry both premium original drama series and movies,” she says. “We will customise that for the UK to make it as strong as possible for a UK audience.” Fear the Walking Dead, starring Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Elizabeth Rod- riguez, Ruben Blades, Mercedes Mason and Lorenzo James Henrie, is set in Los Angeles just as the zombie apocalypse begins. BT dials up Billed as a companion piece to the original hit that has developed a cult following in the UK, both on free-to- air broadcaster Channel 5 and pay- TV’s Fox UK, the first season of Fear a zombie comprises six one-hour episodes. A second season is already scheduled to premiere in 2016 in BT TV house- holds, say BT and AMC. The plan is to use the show’s first season to frame invasion the AMC channel’s launch this month and to prove BT’s drama credentials and its ability to tailor AMC for UK eyeballs. Bushell and her team emphasise

BT TV BT that the channel will be home to other

14 soon-to-be-announced AMC dramas, “passed the price increases on to con- as well as scripted series from third- sumers straight away”. While consum- WE THINK THAT party producers and feature films. ers might feel the pinch, Morgan This is a big moment in BT TV’s Stanley analysts point out in a recent THIS IS A BIG evolution as it attempts to realise research note that Sky’s move shows TURNING POINT ­parent BT Group’s long-held ambition “pricing confidence” based on the to make its mark in the pay-TV arena. company’s “grip on a number of major FOR US IN TERMS The deal is BT TV’s highest-profile content strands, such as EPL football, OF THE QUALITY commitment to exclusive scripted the new output of the key movie stu- content since launching in 2006. dios and HBO”. AND THE DEPTH While Bushell describes the partner- Bushell, a former Sky high-flyer who ship with AMC as “a logical next step” ran operations in Ireland and Italy for OF OUR BT TV for BT, some have noted that this step Rupert Murdoch’s satellite empire, says OFFERING has been rather a long time coming. BT TV’s strategy is to address the middle But Bushell hints that BT had merely market “that is looking for a great- been waiting for the right opportunity. value selection of pay-TV but not “There is a clear appeal and traction ­necessarily the full-fat offering”. from premium US drama in the UK Others see it slightly differently. marketplace and that is something that “BT is using ambush tactics against we want to deliver to our customers,” Sky and they’re working with the she notes. “AMC was one of the first AMC deal, while stealing in to take and strongest opportunities we saw to the Champions League football games do that with a business that is trying to from under Sky’s nose and with the grow its brand and channel globally. It Premier League packages,” says one was just a win-win partnership oppor- media analyst. “It shows that there tunity for us and AMC.” is reward when BT doesn’t take Sky Since the announcement of the deal, head-on in the battle.” Bushell says that her team has been Bushell remains tight-lipped about approached by more content providers future deals and acquisitions, but says with ideas. All avenues will be explored. these will be informed by a strategic “Over the past 12 months, we feel that pledge to remain “financially disci- we have been quietly transforming our plined” while striving to continue to be BT TV service by adding Sky Sports 1 “a consumer price champion”. and 2, Netflix, buy-to-keep movies and In the national press, the battle box sets such as HBO series Game of between BT TV and Sky to sign up Thrones,” says Bushell. “We are now customers to service bundles that span evolving the BT TV service into some- pay-TV and broadband has been por- thing that is much stronger. trayed as increasingly “vicious”, as they “By looking at BT Sport and offering go toe to toe for business. a new Ultra-HDTV service, we think BT has AMC, Sky has a marquee deal that this is a big turning point for us in with HBO; both platforms offer box terms of the quality and the depth of sets and on-demand services; and Sky our BT TV offering.” publicly regards Netflix as a service While the AMC deal is something of consumers can choose to have along- a coup, it is, of course, BT’s audacious side their Sky subscription, rather than football rights deals that signpost seri- a competitor, while BT has Netflix as ous intent. an add-on to its menu. BT dished out just under £1bn for Both are tablet- and smartphone-­ two packages of Premier League foot- ­friendly and both are addressing the ball rights earlier this year, a cost growing pay-lite TV market: Sky’s Now dwarfed by the £4.2bn Sky stumped TV – a pay-to-play, dip-in-and-out up for five packages of rights in the service – is growing in popularity. blind bidding process. Only time will tell whether BT, It meant that, while the satellite armed with the financial firepower of operator got more matches to show – a company with a market cap of £39bn 126 per season versus 42 for BT Sport (compared with Sky’s £19bn), will be IT MAY SEEM LIKE – it paid just over £11m per game while able to build on its 1.2 million BT TV A BIG GAMBLE TO BT paid only £7.6m. subscribers and grow towards Sky’s It was the 83% jump in the price 12 million-strong customer base. PIN A CHANNEL paid by Sky, compared with a 30% rise But whether or not an army of AMC- in BT’s bill, which punctured Sky’s backed zombies will help BT TV’s LAUNCH ON AN reputation for deal-making acumen, assault on the UK’s 25 million-plus UNPROVEN according to one media analyst. television homes, the battle for sub- He notes that the satellite operator scribers is a gripping drama in itself. SPIN-OFF SHOW

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 15 months to save 18 the BBC Media policy Shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant warns that reducing the scale and scope of the BBC would severely damage the UK’s thriving creative industries Paul Hampartsoumian Paul

16 o one can now be in any madman would take an axe to the serious doubt that the tallest tree in the middle of the forest ONLY A MADMAN BBC is under siege. It and not expect to do serious harm to started the day after the the whole of the forest. WOULD TAKE general election. Maybe, The BBC doesn’t harm the wider AN AXE TO THE it’s the excitement of industry, it fosters it: it creates a com- unexpectedly winning the election petition for quality; and its £3.7bn from TALLEST TREE IN thatN has got to the Conservatives. the licence fee is the largest investment THE MIDDLE OF Maybe, they’ve just had an overdose of we make in the arts. testosterone. There are those who argue that the THE FOREST AND But it is all the more important that BBC is too big, and think the BBC we remind them that they do not carry should limit its ambition. The Secre- NOT EXPECT TO the nation with them on this particular tary of State thinks that it is “debata- DO SERIOUS HARM bully crusade. ble” whether the BBC should even With fixed-term parliaments, we make Strictly Come Dancing, let alone TO THE WHOLE OF should consider an 11-year Charter, to show it on Saturday night, and his THE FOREST take the next renewal out of the heat Charter Renewal is apparently meant of battle and well beyond the 2025 to be a root and branch review of the election. scope and scale of the BBC. That is not to say that I think the John Birt was absolutely right to BBC doesn’t need reform. I remain a build a strong BBC internet presence. critical friend. I will, for instance, con- Rupert Murdoch was wrong to claim tinue to criticise its record on diversity. that it was illegal state aid. Audiences The BBC cannot stand still; it has to continue to move online. The BBC of embrace change and reform, because 2027 can only manage that transition change is intrinsic to broadcasting. with a strong internet presence. We now watch audio-visual content And a BBC without sport would no in myriad ways – on tablets, on smart- more be a national broadcaster than phones, through YouTube, Facebook a BBC without a serious evening news and newspaper websites. bulletin. The remote control, the video cas- This goes to the heart of the issue. sette recorder, the hard-disk recorder The golden thread that runs through and the iPlayer have successively the BBC is that everyone gets some- changed our habits. thing out of it because everyone has The new means of watching paid for it. catch-up TV is adding audiences to Yes, it’s the BBC’s mission to do must-watch shows, so that, far from something more than just chase audi- disappearing from view, the shared ences, and I think the BBC could take national TV experience is still very the foot off the cross-promotion pedal, much alive. but popular programming is what The BBC is the cornerstone of the justifies the licence fee to the vast creative industries in this country and majority of my constituents. the creative industries, in turn, are not It cannot just be posh TV at the public just a pleasant added extra to the UK expense. A universal service that binds economy, a luxury if you like, they are the nation together, the BBC can remain the powerhouse of our future prosperity. our cultural NHS. They represent one in 11 jobs, they That is why, although I remain open bring in £76bn a year, they enhance to the idea of the household levy, I our reputation overseas, they are believe the licence fee should remain intrinsic to our whole added-value for the full period of the Charter, with economy and they have seen growth the CPI inflation rise, as promised. year on year well ahead of the rest of I don’t think that there is anyone the economy. who now believes that the governance The BBC co-operates with its com- structures of the BBC are fit for purpose. mercial competitors, it commissions The events of the last two weeks, work from a vast range of production when the Chancellor mounted a THE CORPORATION companies and it gives a platform for stick-up job on the Director-General DOUBTLESS HAD A actors, directors, singers and artists, and the Chair of the Trust, prove the whose work will regularly take them point. There was nobody independent GUN TO ITS HEAD from the very commercial to the enough of the BBC or of the Govern- remarkably niche. ment who was prepared to utter a AND CHOSE TO The point is that the British creative word of dissent. GET SHOT IN THE industries cohere as a balanced ecol- The Chair of the Trust issued a letter ogy with the BBC at its heart. Only a after the event, objecting to the process, � LEG INSTEAD

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 17 Staying to fight

Richard Ayre Paul Hampartsoumian Paul

BBC Trustee and former BBC Con- � but, since it was exactly the same For many years, the BBC has fought troller of Editorial Policy Richard Ayre process as was used in 2010, you might off external regulation. It has argued explained why he and his Trust col- have thought Trustees would have that it is unique, a one-off – and so it leagues did not threaten to resign made clear their objections in advance is. I do not think, however, that this over the Government’s decision to and in public. The end result is that the means that it should evade proper force the BBC to cover the cost of Trust has proved itself a busted flush. regulation and oversight. Parliament free TV licences for the over-75s. However able or independently will, of course, maintain an important Speaking from the floor, he said: minded the Chair might be – and it is role representing the public. But the ‘Yes, I listed the pros and cons. I not exactly an enviable position – she BBC should now be fully subject to didn’t [resign] because of the next will always be caught in a double bind the National Audit Office. six months. The BBC Trust and the of either undermining the corporation This leaves the question of regulation. Director-General are in a fight, a or lip-syncing the Director-General. The Culture, Media and Sport Com- licence-fee battle. I suggest that the BBC needs a mittee argued for a particular model, ‘If the BBC had no Trust – it takes proper unitary executive board, with a with this role split between Ofcom and [at least] six months to recruit non-executive Chair and a majority of a new Public Service Broadcasting trustees – there would be nobody non-executive directors, who should Commission. for the next six months, when it is be appointed for a fixed period so that I would far prefer to see the full vital to fight for the Charter. they retain their independence. regulatory role adopted by Ofcom. I ‘That is why we stayed. That is Their focus should be not to act as accept that some aspects of regulating what we will do.’ a regulator of the BBC, but to carry the the BBC would have to remain distinct He added: ‘Five years ago, I said fiduciary responsibility of the corpora- from the regulation of other commer- that I was willing to resign [when tion, ensuring that it is well run finan- cial broadcasters – not least because George Osborne first argued that cially and creatively and within the the BBC is not just a broadcaster. the BBC should pay for the over- law. But judgements on impartiality and 75s’ free licences]. We had every The Government should appoint the operation of electoral law apply indication that the coalition would the Chair after nomination hearings identically. So could matters of taste back down.’ by the parliamentary select committee. and decency. It should be for the Chair and the My fear is that, on this trajectory, if Reporting by Stuart Kemp. non-executive directors to appoint the Government engages in a deliber- the Director-General. ate attempt to limit the BBC in the

18 like the country that is paying for it. All too often, I just don’t think it QUESTION does and sometimes when it does, & ANSWER it goes to the stereotype. Anne McElvoy: Did the QBBC give in too easily to the Anne McElvoy: Is there Government over having to pay for Qanything you think the BBC free TV licences for the over-75s? should change that it isn’t doing at Chris Bryant: Yes, I think it did. the moment? AIt, doubtless, had a gun to its Chris Bryant: We need a head and chose to get shot in the Achange of the licence fee to leg instead but, sometimes, when deal with the iPlayer, to recognise you’re shot in the leg it leads to the the change in technology. The BBC same terminal effect. should do more to cut down on senior pay. Anne McElvoy: What would I don’t want to see cuts to ser- Qa Labour government have vices. And I think the BBC should done? do far more for diversity. When I Chris Bryant: A Labour said earlier that people want to see Agovernment would not have the world around them, I don’t held the BBC to pay for it. We mean that they only want to see introduced free TV licences for the world around them, sometimes the over-75s and it was an express you want to be taken to another part of the deal that this would not world on broadcast and in film. be paid for by the BBC, but paid Chris Bryant (left) for by the tax-payer. You cannot and Anne McElvoy

Paul Hampartsoumian Paul Anne McElvoy: Why do the turn the BBC into a subsidiary QBBC and other broadcasters of the Department for Work and Charter renewal, the BBC will be seem to have so much difficulty Pensions. [The BBC] will now have a national irrelevance by 2027, little with diversity? to make decisions about who gets more than a PBS channel. Chris Bryant: The truth is that free TV licences. I just don’t think Even if the BBC gets its CPI inflation Athe broadcasting industry in that’s morally defensible. rise as half-promised, it will still be this country (and the wider media) shrinking, even as sports rights, movie needs to find new audiences if it is Anne McElvoy: Which news rights and top-talent inflation are racing going to have a strong commercial Qdo you watch at 10:00pm? ahead. And we shall all be the poorer success in the future. Chris Bryant: I very rarely for it. Less British programming and To do so, it is going to have to Awatch the news. My news feed fewer great British talents on our change the set of faces on and is from Facebook and from Twitter. screens and winning Oscars. behind the screen. It’s a depressing I’m rarely home in time for 10:00pm Let’s be clear, if the Government aim fact that, according to the available and then, when I do get home, I go is to cut the BBC down to size, it does figures, the number of people from to various news websites. not carry the nation with it in this par- BAME communities working in the ticular bully crusade. media in the past seven years has Anne McElvoy: Does Labour And I will fight it every inch of the fallen, rather than risen. Qstill have a commitment way. I hope that you will do, too. We to oppose the privatisation of have just 18 months. Anne McElvoy: What should Channel 4? Qthe commissioners do to Chris Bryant: We still do. This is an edited version of Chris Bryant’s improve things? AThere’s an ecology here that speech to the RTS on 14 July (the full text is Chris Bryant: You have to works. Effortless British superiority available on the RTS website). ‘In conversa­ Ahave more [BAME and female] really does irritate me, but the tion with Chris Bryant’ was an RTS early-­ senior commissioners, you have to one thing where I think you can evening event held at The Hospital Club, make sure there is money available genuinely say we do something London, on 14 July. It was chaired by Anne for production, you have to be better than anyone else in the McElvoy and the producers were Dan absolutely determined about it. world, and every country would Brooke, Channel 4’s Director of Marketing In particular, people look to the probably agree, is broadcasting. and Communications, and Sue Robertson. national broadcaster that is funded Chris Bryant MP is Shadow Secretary by the licence-fee payer to look Reporting by Stuart Kemp. of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 19 here was a great deal of quiet satisfaction across the British production sector when Jane Turton was named Chief Execu- tive of All3Media back in February. The steely, 53-year-old Scot Thad triumphed over external candi- dates following a five-month, global search by its new US owners, hard-­ driving Discovery Communications and Liberty Global, who paid around £550m for this important producer. Instead of opting for a noisy outsider, an alpha name bent on making a mark, they backed the respected number two. Turton was deputy to one of All3’s key founders, Steve Morrison (who has The left after 12 years), and then its CEO of two years, Farah Ramzan Golant, who facilitated the sale. Lee Bartlett, who currently sits on the business All3Media board as Discovery Studios Production Group President, explains: “Motivating talent is one of the greatest gifts an executive can have and Jane is very good at that. She has the right brain who business skill sets and an understand- ing of the biggest markets for All3Media: the UK, the US and Germany.” The former senior BBC and All3Media executive Wayne Garvie, now at Sony, rose to the top says: “I’m a big fan, I really enjoyed working with her. She is fantastically bright, really able and good with Maggie Brown meets All3Media’s CEO Jane Turton, creatives.” who knows the company inside out Talk to people in the industry who broker commercial deals opposite her and similar responses comes back. Hilary Strong, Chief Executive of (Embarrassing Bodies and interesting UK. Of the remainder, half (28%) is Agatha Christie Ltd, negotiated spin-offs), Little Dot Studios (YouTube generated in the US. All3Media’s stake in the new BBC channels), Objective Productions So why does Turton think she got One drama Partners in Crime, starring (entertainment and Derren Brown) and the job? Initially, she laughs about how David Walliams and Jessica Raine, in Studio Lambert (Gogglebox). it is hard for a self-deprecating British return for distribution rights outside Stephen Lambert is a shining exam- person to praise themselves. Then, she the US. She says Turton is “a brilliant ple of how All3Media accommodates says: “Strong relationships with the choice” for a tough, challenging role. and retains top talent. In January, the operating companies, sector knowledge Another outside operator adds: “Jane’s influential creative and founder of and, finally, I’m ambitious. I really want also nice to deal with, straightforward.” Studio Lambert extended his contract this business to grow.” The key to her ascent is that to 2020. The months after the appointment All3Media, composed of 18 smallish Lambert took the pivotal role of proved how fast she could operate companies plus a rights business, oper- Chair of All3Media’s US operations, once freed from the company’s ates in a federal manner, which is quite which has been designated a key enforced period of inaction. This had complicated to understand and manage. growth area. Unusually for the group, been imposed when investor Permira As Turton explains, the individual All3Media America has a unitary struc- went into sales mode after 2010 in a operations are run by “these brilliant ture to better serve that market. lengthy four-year search for a buyer. people, creative entrepreneurs” – Turton runs the group from Holborn Now that All3Media has wealthy US which can also translate into lots of in London (though she is in the US owners, she is able to spend and take egos and angst. when needed), with a central team of full advantage of opportunities. All3Media includes Lion TV (Horrible around 30 executives specialising in “We can take risks and carry deficits. Histories), Lime Pictures (Hollyoaks), finance, human relations, corporate With capital behind us, we can do bigger, Optomen (Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares), development, legal issues and rights. better, challenging things,” she enthuses. One Potato Two Potato (a joint venture Some 43% of the company’s close- In March, Neal Street Productions with Gordon Ramsay), Maverick TV to-£600m turnover is earned in the – which makes Call the Midwife, Penny

20 degree at St Andrews and then worked abroad in the paper industry. Her father had a printing company and she thought she might take over the business. After five years, she decided she didn’t want to spend her life in that sector, so went to Cranfield and did an MBA. That led her to PwC, where she was a consultant for two years. When Clive Hollick’s MAI won the Meridian ITV franchise in 1993, Turton joined his management team. As ITV consolidated, she became Controller of Business Affairs at United Productions and then at LWT as well; and, ulti- mately, Director of Business Affairs for the whole network, before joining All3Media in 2008 as Director of Busi- ness Development and Business Affairs. Along the way, she married another PwC employee and they have three children, 21, 19 and 16. She has a house in Fife, Scotland, where they holiday, and has inherited her parents’ home in Tuscany. One key to All3Media’s success, Tur- ton believes, has been its flexibility in the deals it strikes with its customers, the broadcasters: “You win by being flexible. You have got to be nimble, you must adapt to the environment.” All3Media is very willing, she says, to deficit finance and enter into joint-­ venture arrangements. “We have a history of being good partners,” she insists. “We are very, very driven and commercial. We will do anything to

All3Media fund things. This is a changing world”. “We would love to make some more Dreadful, The Hollow Crown and stage hit This is a critical part of Turton’s role: programmes for Discovery – that would Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – was refreshing talent in the companies. be cool.” But she doesn’t have an output bought for a sum believed to top £40m. “Absolutely, [it is] a constant process,” deal. Turton says the business link is of “We loved the programmes, the says Turton. She previously worked particular interest to All3Media’s North people, the exceptional talent. The with Buck at United Productions and One factual independent, which is catalogue is fabulous,” says Turton. ITV between 1998 and 2007. based in Birmingham. Founded in 2003 by Pippa Harris, In another fast move, in April, Turton She says she would love to extend the Sam Mendes and Caro Newling, Neal hired the highly experienced Sara group’s geographical spread in Europe Street also saw in All3Media an alter- Geater as Chief Operating Officer (her beyond Germany and the Netherlands, native to purchase by a US studio. own former role), reinforcing the cen- something that dovetails with both “We always look at great acquisi- tral team. Geater is a close friend of Discovery’s and Liberty’s ambitions. tions… and start-ups, too,” adds Turton. Turton’s and oversaw a major restruc- Inevitably, the US is also on her The deal means that she has enhanced turing of FremantleMedia UK as its agenda. the group’s high-end drama and film Chief Executive. She pushed its “label” Turton says she is “far from compla- capacity – both eligible for tax breaks. strategy by setting up genre specialists, cent about the challenges” she faces. Since then, Michele Buck, co-founder such as Euston Films, Boundless and As we talk, she has the Ofcom report of Poldark producer Mammoth Screen Retort. Her previous posts include Head on public service broadcasting in front (bought by ITV in June), has joined of Commercial Affairs at Channel 4 and of her. It charts the 15% drop in invest- All3Media to run Company Pictures. Director of Rights and Business Affairs ment in new British PSB content Company is off its peak after the flop at the BBC. But the process is never between 2008 and 2014. of BBC One drama The White Queen and finished. Entertainment producer “I always say that we should be the departure of its founders. Objective has recently lost its founders, ­terribly proud of what we do in this Turton says: “She’s a very classy one of them to ITV Studios. country, creating world-beating for- drama producer and will bring an Turton has never worked in televi- mats,” says Turton. “We are an extraor- energy and focus [to the company].” sion production. She took a French dinary nation. Let’s celebrate that.”

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 21 Claire Enders CEO of Enders Analysis The RTS Campbell 16 November Swinton 6:00pm for 6:30pm Venue: BBC Scotland 40 Pacific Quay, Lecture Glasgow G51 1DA Booking: 2015 www.rts.org.uk OUR FRIEND IN THE CAPITAL

s I find my seat Daunted by the Fortunately, these Meetups, which among the 150 or are free, but fill quickly, offer one of more people who digital disruption the most thought-provoking ways of have come to Steve keeping up with the digital informa- Dann’s latest Meet- of TV? Then tion overload. And there is usually up, I know that the check out one of one happening most evenings at evening will be different venues across the city. stimulating and, possibly, provocative. London’s regular People from all disciplines gather Dann,A CEO of Amplified Robot, runs to listen to the latest in “augmenting regular monthly Meetups, and this Meetups, says reality” or “mobile start-up stories” one, “AR and VR in medical educa- Terry Marsh or “big data” or, even, to attend a tion”, is being held in a lecture theatre “data scientist networking gala”. at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. As I write, for example, there is London is an exciting place to be, a Meetup on “Programmatic buying as we live and work through the digi- technologies reshaping marketing tal revolution in content creation and strategies” – who knew that “algorith- distribution. mic” would become a buzzword in TV! For one thing, London is home to Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist the Digital Production Partnership, at the Consumer Electronics Associa- set up (initially by the PSB broadcast- tion, maintains that we are at the ers) to support the digitisation of our beginning of a perfect storm of digital industry. As it has grown, it has change, with the coalition of comput- guided broadcasters, production ing power, always-on internet, the companies and other players through proliferation of inexpensive consumer the move to file-based delivery and products and (his great new portman- on to IP distribution and Ultra-HDTV. teau word) “smartifacts” – smart arte- But this Meetup is just one of the facts with sensors providing data from many in London that look further the “internet of things”. into the future, to where the global However, it’s the consumer products digital revolution is disrupting the part that is driving content creation

very definition of television. Marsh Terry right now. The sheer accessibility of Tonight, we are watching a surgeon these innovative technologies means operating on a patient, filmed in 360°. So, here he is at Dann’s Meetup, that, alongside the new tech busi- The total immersion provides a which is one of his favourites. We nesses, the erstwhile consumer or unique feeling of presence alongside agree that the most successful ones are viewer is also a producer (see the the operating team. This virtual-reality run by leaders who show real knowl- wonderful 360° films on the Kolor experience is already being used to edge, passion and drive – and offer the Eyes app). train doctors and other medical staff, best networking opportunities. So, how are virtual reality, the inter- and there is a genuine sense of the At the end of the session I join the net of things, big data and mobile disparate cultures of IT, communica- queue to get hands-on experience for start-ups affecting the TV industry? tions and media merging and bringing myself on an Oculus Rift, then we Already, production companies are expertise from one world into another. move on to a bar to network further. being inspired by these technologies My original guide to Meetups is also At every Meetup it becomes more to devise innovative formats based on here tonight – long-time expert in obvious that what was geekery a them. Maybe we are just at the begin- “contextual technologies” Ken while back (drones, virtual reality, ning of a digital future that will disrupt Blakeslee, Chairman of WebMobility augmented reality, the internet of and permanently change “television” Ventures. He certainly knows his way things) is now infiltrating more main- – for the better. around these events, attending two or stream areas. Indeed, the rate at which three a month. He restricts himself to change is happening is accelerating, Terry Marsh is Secretary of RTS London, the few that attract a useful cross-­ and I believe that Fear of Missing Out Chair of the RTS Young Technologist section of technologists, developers, now qualifies as a real industrial of the Year Jury and an independent entrepreneurs and investors. ­disease in media-tech. consultant.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 23 Employment Apprenticeships in television and radio are expanding. Pippa Shawley hears why on-the-job training makes sense ‘You’re hired!’ hen Tony Hall With the Creative Media Workforce university. It’s a genuine choice about was appointed Survey 2014 revealing that 72% of those what’s best for the individual.” BBC Director-­ working in TV are educated to degree Last year, the BBC received around General, he level, apprenticeships are seen as a 4,500 applications for 46 places on its pledged to good way to discover young talent Local Apprenticeship Scheme. widen the from beyond the graduate pool. In response to this demand, both the corporation’sW recruitment net by While it’s still early days for the BBC BBC and ITV plan to expand the num- ensuring that 1% of its public-service apprenticeships, according to Paul, all ber of places available. workforce were apprentices by 2016. of last year’s production apprentices Business, administration and tech- He reached the target two years successfully competed with graduates nology are the dominant areas ahead of schedule. By the end of 2014, to secure jobs in the industry. employing apprentices in broadcast- 177 apprentices were employed across In the past, TV apprenticeships have ing, though production is making a the UK in departments ranging from suffered from a notion that they do not growing contribution. local radio to business management. carry the same clout as degrees. How- With 48% of the creative workforce BBC apprenticeships last between ever, with broadcasters offering an having undertaken unpaid work at 12 months and three years. Participants increasingly wide range of apprentice- some point in their career, this oppor- on the production scheme undertake ships – many of them leading to degree- tunity to gain experience while being placements on programmes in addi- level qualifications – the tide is turning. paid is something that today’s school tion to training with the BBC Academy. Laura Boswell, 4Talent Industry Talent leavers are not taking for granted. Those on the three-year engineering Specialist at Channel 4, has found that “There is absolutely no way that I scheme work towards a degree in apprenticeships attract young people would have been able to work in the broadcast engineering, taught jointly who are very career-driven: “They want broadcasting industry without this by the University of Salford and Bir- to be creative and practical, and have a apprenticeship,” says Robby West, a mingham City University, while gain- tangible purpose to be working local apprentice with BBC Radio Essex. ing industrial experience. towards, so they feel that the education After leaving school, West trained as “Apprenticeships are a great way for setting doesn’t fit their skill set.” an electrician, working in building us to connect with young people who Apprenticeships represent a practical maintenance, but it wasn’t a good fit. might never have considered applying choice for school leavers, believes Paul. When he saw an advert for the BBC for a job at the BBC,” says Claire Paul, the She points to other countries to illus- Local Apprenticeship Scheme on Twit- BBC Academy’s Head of New Talent. trate the potential of apprenticeship ter, he says, “I knew that second that At Sky, training for creative and schemes: “In Germany, an apprentice- I had to apply”. digital media and for customer service ship is not something you do because Local apprentices such as West are lasts one year. The broadcaster has you can’t afford higher education or based at one of 45 local radio stations schemes in other areas, including jour- because you aren’t smart enough for across the UK and the Channel Islands. nalism, operations and finance, which They work for 15 months towards an last two years. NCTJ-accredited Level 3 Diploma in All placements at ITV and Channel 4 AS I DIDN’T Journalism, and receive their training last one year. Channel 4 changes its from the BBC Academy and City of slate of apprenticeships each year in KNOW ANYONE Wolverhampton College. response to demand. Candidates know IN THIS FIELD, Before embarking on the appren- from the outset, however, that they will ticeship, West struggled to gain work not necessarily be offered a permanent AND HAD NO experience in the industry, despite job at the end of their course. REAL TRAINING spending his spare time blogging about In contrast, Sky apprentices start on local politics in Essex. a permanent contract “so that they’re IN THE MEDIA, I “For years leading up to this scheme, guaranteed employment right from NEVER EVEN GOT I applied for various work experience day one,” explains Martha Jennings, roles in the BBC, ITV and Channel 4,” he Sky’s Starting Out Manager. AN INTERVIEW recalls. “As I didn’t know anyone in this

24 Big Creative Education offers London based media training courses and apprenticeships BCE field, and had no real training in the the future talent of the business. “In the Stephen Lawrence Trust, 47% of the media, I never even got an interview.” order for a young person to join our BBC’s current production apprentices West has been offered a contract with business and hit the ground running, are from black, Asian or minority ethnic BBC Essex as a broadcast journalist they need to have confidence in their backgrounds. Many of those on other once he completes his apprenticeship. ability to face the challenges of a bus- schemes come from homes where their This chance to earn while learning is tling work environment,” she says. parents did not go to university. a draw for candidates concerned that The benefits of this are twofold, she “This is a huge cultural shift for an going to university is too expensive. continues: “[The apprentices] are learn- industry dominated by Russell Group Although the National Minimum ing how we do things here at Sky, and alumni,” says Paul. Her team is Wage for apprentices will rise by 57p to are able to bring a fresh pair of eyes to increasingly supported by Jobcentres £3.30 per hour in October, broadcasting our work. We know that a diverse and around the UK. These help the BBC to apprenticeship salaries vary tremen- broad workforce helps to ensure the talent spot high-potential candidates dously. ITV apprentices on a 12-month best service for our customers.” whom it would otherwise miss. contract are paid £8,000, which rises to Paul takes a stronger view, arguing Speaking to both recruiters and £10,000 for those working in London; that apprentices are vital to the future employees, it’s clear that apprenticeship Channel 4 apprentices earn twice as of broadcasting: “Our industry lives schemes are popular across the board. much, receiving £16,000. and dies by its creativity and cutting-­ Despite the minor problems that are The BBC’s engineering apprentices edge innovation, so it’s hard to envis- inevitable when hiring people who get a training allowance of £11,500 per age a time when we won’t need a haven’t worked before, or who are used year while studying for a BEng, with constant supply of great new talent.” to working only with colleagues from a their tuition fees picked up by their Fifteen per cent of the television similar background, the overwhelming employer. workforce attended private school, impression is of great excitement. “It’s definitely nice not to be living compared with 7% of the overall UK “I think some people don’t realise on a student budget like some of my population, and the sector has long how easy it is to take on apprentices,” friends are,” says Carys Blackburn. been criticised for its domination by reckons Channel 4’s Boswell, “and that She applied for a degree in media Oxbridge graduates. there’s funding in place to pay for the culture and production, but then chose Apprenticeships have gone some academic side.” to embark on a technology apprentice- way to redressing the balance, not least Paul agrees that more companies ship in broadcast services at Sky. This because most employers offering them should consider hiring apprentices. allowed her to gain work experience insist that candidates must not hold a She suggests that, without apprentice- while earning. qualification higher than A levels or the ships, “it is unlikely that this exciting As Sky’s Jennings highlights, invest- equivalent. talent would ever have considered a ing in apprentices means investing in Thanks largely to a collaboration with job in the media”.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 25 IBC preview The age of disruption Adrian Pennington looks at the big technology trends that will dominate September’s International Broadcasting Convention

Curved screen display at CES 2015 Panasonic

eptember’s International announced suitable models in the The ability to repurpose and deliver Broadcasting Convention course of this year, with BT selecting content to multiple screens more effi- (IBC) will mark the transi- the Sony version to shoot its live ciently than with the bespoke equip- tion from hype to reality Ultra-HD work. ment and tape-based workflows of old for a wide range of trans- One element of the traditional cam- has been embraced on an enterprise-­ formative new technolo- era chain that is still missing in 4K is wide scale at Italy’s RAI, France’s gies.S Attendees of the week-long live coverage from wireless cameras. Canal+ and Disney/ABC. All three com- broadcasting conference and exhibi- Existing 4K transmitters are simply too panies will share their experiences in tion in Amsterdam will be able to bulky to be mounted on a hand-held conference sessions at IBC. assess the growing impact of Ultra- camera and the video signal latency The last step is live production. No HDTV, big data and Cloud computing. (the delay while the signal is processed) longer an experiment, this is the most It is no coincidence that IBC has is still too great to sync reliably with fundamental technical change to sweep themed its entire conference as “The audio. broadcast in decades. Expect the first future of media in an age of disruption”. But that will change, as it did with IP live production technology to be The hardware to make programmes HDTV, which suffered the same diffi- available to buy on the IBC exhibition in the 4K version of Ultra-HDTV is now culties in its infancy, and possibly as floor (see box on page 27). available, albeit at a hefty price. In the soon as IBC. Big data is another buzz phrase that US, DirecTV has announced that it will With Futuresource Consulting pre- has been translated into genuine TV follow Netflix into making Ultra-HDTV dicting that 20% of UK homes will have currency. The traditional, pre-sold, shows for the video-on-demand mar- a 4K-capable TV by 2018, a business 30-second spot advert is under threat ket. In the UK, BT TV has unveiled BT case can be made for offering 4K con- from real-time, automated ad trading Sport Ultra HD, the first 4K channel in tent, if only to reduce churn among based on big data about viewers. Europe. pay-TV subscribers (see box on page 28). Channel 4, one of the first broad- Live 4K production became a practi- Having made big inroads into media casters to introduce programmatic cal possibility even more recently, with archiving and distribution, Cloud com- advertising, will share its experience the arrival of cameras that can slot into puting is now pushing into non-live at the IBC conference. Twitter will talk existing outside broadcast workflows TV production. Cloud workflows rely about how social media can trigger and use standard zoom lenses. All the on transporting video as packets of content discovery to create a new main manufacturers – FOR-A, Grass data over internet protocol (IP) net- personalised programme guide. Valley, Panasonic and Sony – have works (see box on page 28). One technology whose transfor­- �

26 Production Sports producers look for their 10%

International JB Perrette and Delia Bushell, has been in the way in which live sports Managing Director of BT TV and BT Sport, are presented digitally. Since London giving timely keynotes. 2012, it is clear that the trend is for in- ‘[Although] 90% of the technology we ternational sports events such as the use is standard issue and established,’ Olympics to be consumed less on says James Abraham, Director of Digital free-to-air, linear TV than on streams Strategy at Sunset+Vine Digital, ‘it’s how to mobiles, where viewers can pick and Vancouver 2010 Winter Olypmics

IOC you weave in that 10% that makes the choose content, including camera angles, difference.’ of their choice. The value of sport in driving pay-TV His company broadcasts the Henley Sports programming that is distributed businesses is evident in the recent deals Royal Regatta using rugged, lightweight over the open internet is characterised struck by BT Sport, which landed Cham- GoPro cameras on rowing boats and on as an OTT (over the top) service. pions League soccer from this season, drones over the Thames. The production and packaging of and Discovery, which gained exclusive ‘There’s always a lot of new stuff, but sports offerings such as YouTube channel rights to the Olympics in Europe from the tricky bit is deciding what to use and Copa90 and Whistle Sports (part-owned 2022. where to use it in an editorially relevant by Sky) will be discussed at IBC by exec- Both will feature prominently at IBC, way,’ adds Abraham. utives from Major League Baseball and with President of Discovery Networks Gadgets aside, most of the innovation digital consultancy Seven League.

Data More Cloud on the horizon

Cloud computing is beginning to make Manufacturer LiveU targets the news significant inroads into certain genres of gathering market. The specialist in television production. IP-based, live video services is contin- Two genres that particularly benefit uing to construct its Cloud network for from off-site, scalable computing resour­ hosting video captured by roving news ces and data storage are news reporting crews on wireless cameras. and observational documentaries. Panasonic camcorders offer a live video review services to programme-makers. The production workflows that make uplink to LiveU’s Cloud platform, the same At IBC, film-maker Paul Kittel will explain best use of the Cloud are characterised platform used by Sky in May to live stream how he transferred footage direct from by the sifting of large amounts of footage 150 feeds on election night in the UK. camera into the Cloud and whittled to build storylines and the need to get Forscene and Aframe are among the down thousands of hours for Channel 4’s on air fast. vendors renting Cloud-based editing and Born Naughty? series.

Shooting Drones get their own aviary

One of the most dramatic innovations co-founder of drone operator Batcam. to enter the mainstream over the past Fox Sports used drones to cover the US year is the drone. Affordable and (rela- Open golf for the first time this June. tively) easily controlled miniature flying Operators are also testing the prac- machines, coupled with a new breed of ticality of carrying heavier, high-speed small HDTV and Ultra-HDTV cameras, cameras, such as the Panasonic Vari- have created a new tool that can capture cam 4K or Phantom Flex4K, for super- Aerigon stunning aerial viewpoints. slow-motion shots. drone

But a drone sitting on an exhibition Aerigon ‘Drones are opening up new sports, stand isn’t that exciting, so IBC visitors such as mountain biking or surfing, will be able to see them in action in the such as tracking overhead coverage of a which TV has not been able to cover Drop Zone, a ‘large outdoor flying cage’. football match or following a golf ball as before [as easily],’ says Jeremy Braben, ‘Imagine console-type camera angles, the golfer hits it,’ suggests Jon Hurndall, owner of Helicopter Film Services.

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 27 IP communication Signal problems cause delay

gigabit ethernet cable using IP is a lot or resolution, to Ultra-HDTV 8K and to Ethernet cables more efficient than routing it through anything beyond or in between. four parallel SDI cables. Another cost saving is live, remote The trouble with IP in a live television production. At IBC, equipment service environment boils down to timing. With provider Gearhouse Broadcast will SDI, engineers can guarantee that video be demonstrating this by sending HD emanating from one source (a camera, footage down a single 10Gb ethernet say) will arrive in sync at a particular connection and editing the pictures on end point, such as a vision mixer. This an IP-enabled switcher from EVS. cannot be said about IP with the same ‘We’re increasingly being asked about n The migration to Ultra-HDTV produc- degree of assurance. remote production by customers,’ says tion is intimately linked to the IP (inter- ‘It is much more difficult to see what’s Ed Tischler, Gearhouse’s Head of Pro- net protocol) communications standard going on in IP,’ says Tim Felstead, Head jects. ‘It’s still very early days, but new that is ubiquitous in the IT industry. of Product Marketing at Quantel Snell. technology means that we’re now in a IP is less reliable than the broad- ‘Where SDI routers were very reliable, IP position to offer remote production as casting industry’s existing connectivity systems are more opaque. This creates a workable solution.’ standard, SDI (serial digital interface). risk and a lack of confidence.’ Since live production is subject to However, a single SDI cable cannot The cost advantages of IP are not on-the-fly changes to complex mate- handle the volume of data required by limited to the price of cabling. Instead rial – a late-breaking news story that Ultra-HDTV, which, in its 4K incarnation, of ripping out and replacing equipment includes a satellite link, for instance – is at least four times greater than that every time there’s a demand for new it could be the best part of a decade used in HDTV. formats, an IP infrastructure can scale before risk-averse broadcasters consign Transporting this data along a single to accommodate leaps in frame rate SDI to history.

Ultra-HDTV The pipeline starts to fill

Even before the first generation of One of the bodies shaping the devel- Ultra-HDTV – 4K – has had its problems opment of Ultra-HDTV is the Ultra-HD Ikegami ironed out, equipment for the next Forum, an alliance of manufacturers that generation is on its way. includes Dolby, Ericsson, LG and Sony. Ultra-HDTV 8K – offering 16 times ‘Ultra-HDTV is now entering a phase the resolution of HD – cameras and where content, technology and con- Ikegami SHK-810 4K/8K camera post-production equipment are being sumer experience have to be aligned,’ pushed by vendors such as Ikegami says the forum’s President, Thierry (high frame rate) and NGA (next gener- and Quantel. They have one eye on Fautier. ation audio. feature film production and the other The forum is establishing guidelines An indication of the importance of on the Japanese domestic market. for the implementation of a broad range HDR is that IBC has awarded its 2015 Japanese broadcaster NHK is com- of new Ultra-HD technologies. Conference Prize to a paper from two mitted to adding 8K transmission by Abbreviations that we can expect to BBC R&D staffers, Andrew Cotton and 2018, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and see stickered on consumer kit in the Tim Borer, for their report, ‘A display-­ Paralympic Games will be covered in near future include WCG (wide colour independent, high-dynamic-range both Ultra-HD 4K and 8K. gamut), HDR (high dynamic range), HFR television system’.

� formative potential remains the stuff There’s no doubt that VR content is IBC will look at the threat to tradi- of speculation, with only conflicting sufficiently different to conventional tional broadcasters from content guestimates as to its likely commercial programmes for it to be labelled a distributed by the likes of Netflix, impact, is virtual reality (VR). disruptive technology. YouTube and Amazon over the open Even so, the format’s promise has So, too, is the “internet of things”, internet as an OTT (over-the-top) caught the imagination, and IBC is the machine-to-machine communi- service. One conference session poses reflecting this with a series of tech- cations network that is just beginning the question, “Is video-on-­demand nology exhibits in its Future Zone, on to seep into broadcasters’ business the new broadcasting gold?” the exhibition floor, and in the con- plans. For example, video content Another session asks: “Is OTT simply ference. For the latter, the focus is streamed to a home could be modi- broadcast rebooted?” The rhetoric very much on VR – and its sibling, fied in response to data received from behind these is clear. Over-the-top augmented reality – as a new creative web-connected health and lifestyle-­ video could simply be broadcasting storytelling medium. related gadgets in that building. as we know it from now on.

28 September 2015 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS NEWS BBC drama tops Yorkshire Awards

eading indie Red clocked up more than Production Company 30 years on C4. was the night’s big “Once again, the awards winner at the York- reflect just how much skill Lshire Centre Awards, which and talent there is in this were held at the Royal region. And, given the quality Armouries in Leeds towards as well as the quantity of the the end of June. entries, it’s no surprise that Red’s hard-hitting police Yorkshire productions across drama Happy Valley picked up all genres continue to have a clutch of prizes. such a significant impact The six-part series, which regionally, nationally and aired on BBC One last year to internationally,” said York- Harry Gration (right) receives his award from Nick Hewer

critical acclaim and strong shire Centre Chair Mike Best. Photography Harness Paul audiences, won the awards Emma Glasbey from Look for Filmed in Yorkshire, North was named Outstand- ­factual entertainment spe- and the Made in Yorkshire Writer (for Sally Wainwright), ing Journalist. ITV regional cialist also took the Inde- awards. On-­Screen Performance show Calendar picked up the pendent Spirit award. Rocket won the Second (Sarah Lancashire) and News Programme award for The Factual Series winner Screen Award for the website Drama. its coverage of the sentenc- was Junior Vets (True North of C4’s Embarrassing Bodies: The long-serving­ anchor ing of Will Cornick, the Productions for CBBC). Live from the Clinic. of BBC One regional news schoolboy­ convicted of The award for Promotion The Yorkshire Centre programme Look North, Harry ­murdering his teacher Ann or Commercial Production made craft awards to lighting Gration, and the Channel 4 Maguire. Calendar’s Vidhi went to Roger Keech Pro- cameraman John Anderson, daytime show Countdown Doshi was named One To ductions for When the Tour de Look North’s Alistair Candelin were both honoured with Watch. France Came to Yorkshire. (Professional Excellence: RTS Yorkshire Centre Awards. The Miners’ Strike and Me, Children of the Holocaust Production) and True North The evening was hosted by made by Shiver for ITV, (Fettle Animation for BBC Post (Professional Excellence: Nick Hewer, the current host won the Factual Programme Learning) took both the Post-Production). of Countdown, which has prize. The Leeds-based Animation and Visual Effects Matthew Bell Thames Valley's daredevil drone

Aerial-filming specialist The drone proved its sta- command-and-control Skypower provided a wire- bility in the gusty wind and, vehicle, one of a pair designed cam system, typically used with the help of GPS, was and custom-built for the above sports stadia, and two able to return home auto- University of Southampton drones for the display, matically and land almost by Broadcast Networks, was although the larger, six-rotor exactly where it took off. brought to the display by the Skypower drone in flight Hexacopter proved too diffi- Cleaver flew the drone out company’s Ian Davis, Phil cult to handle in the wind. to its 500-metre limit and Keeling and Tom Haye. n Thames Valley hosted a The lightweight, four-rotor then back directly towards The vehicle provides com- display of drone technology Quadcopter was launched the Centre members at a mand-and-control facilities in July at Pincents Manor, and reached a height of more speed approaching 90kph. for a range of international featuring daring fly-past than 100m. Cleaver and Neil He also performed a pirou- airborne research missions, stunts from Skypower’s Rus- Willis operated the drone; ette with the drone, complet- including pollution monitor- sell Cleaver, who guided a one piloted the craft while ing a circuit of the field while ing, weather prediction and drone to hover in front of, and the other operated the 4K spinning on its axis. civil aviation. then fly towards, a setting sun. camera mounted on a gimbal. An unmanned airborne Julian Knight and Geoff Love

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 29 RTS NEWS Midlands boosts kids’ TV skills ednesfield High work. There is a widespread School was belief that UK school leavers declared the often lack the right skills to winner at the make them “employable”. Wgrand finale of Midlands At the end of each work- Centre’s schools challenge, shop, students were given during a ceremony hosted a certificate of achievement, by the BBC at its Birmingham listing the skills they had headquarters in June. developed, such as confi- Ten schools were repre- dence, communication and sented, and the prize for the leadership. winning team, which was Some 880 students from awarded by BBC Midlands 10 schools took part in this Today presenter Nick Owen, year’s programme. They was a VIP tour of BBC Bir- found the workshops “fun mingham. and stimulating”, and many “BBC West Midlands was said they gave them a better delighted to be involved in the Midlands understanding of the televi- schools challenge,” said David Today sion industry. presenter Jennings Head of Regional Teachers, too, were appre- Nick Owen and Local Programmes for the BBC ciative of the RTS centre’s West Midlands, who was one efforts. “Your approach was of the judges. “Members of education programme, now explored TV jobs and, at each just right for our students our teams gave their time in its second year, run by the one, professionals, including and it was great to see them willingly to visit the partici- RTS centre. an employee from BBC Bir- motivated, buzzing with pating schools, and there From March to June this mingham – which worked ideas and totally engaged was a terrific buzz around year, it organised a series of closely with Midlands Centre for the entire day,” said Rosie our Birmingham HQ when workshops for year 8 and 9 on the project – offered their Moss, Assistant Principal of 80 youngsters joined us for students at schools across the take on the industry. Baxter College. “The input the finale.” West Midlands, offering an The workshops also sought from the professionals really The competition was part insight into the TV industry. to provide students with struck a chord with students.” of a wider secondary school The four-hour workshops skills in preparation for Matthew Bell

CORRECTION ONLINE at the RTS In last month’s interview of Paul Reveley by Donald n The RTS has comprehen- months to come. There are system: entries for all our F McLean, we inadver- sively rebuilt its website and also videos with tips from awards are now submitted tently introduced an error. extended its online services Sky Academy, 4Talent and and judged online. We kicked It was wrongly stated that – with more to come soon. the BBC Academy, and details this off in July with a call for the scanning machines of This is not simply a redesign of our technology and pro- entries to the RTS Student the Baird-designed colour of the Society’s online show- duction bursaries. Television Awards, and the projection television sys- case for its wide-ranging In addition, we’ve written first videos have already tem rotated at 17,500rpm. activities. A big priority was about our marvellous Patrons, been submitted. This was incorrect and to offer a valuable resource with a section devoted to And what else is hot? we apologise to Donald for people starting out on their news and videos (rts.org. Video Producer Rebecca F McLean for any embar- their television careers. uk/patrons). Stewart took a trip to Elstree rassment this may have Cue a brand-new Education Plus, there’s a new series to film backstage at the riot- caused. and Training section (rts.org.uk/ of guest posts, offering ous Sky 1 show A League of education-training). From unique insight from industry Their Own: j.mp/RTSaloto putting together your CV for game-changers, such as this The site is now much more But it is also a work in pro- that first runner’s job to tips one from Fujitsu’s Haydn user-friendly and accessible, gress, so I would love to hear on how to pitch to commis- Jones – j.mp/rtsguest. and we hope it will widen the your comments and sugges- sioners, there is a no short- Under the bonnet, we’ve reach of the RTS beyond our tions, either by email at age of helpful information, been working hard on our current members to “anyone [email protected] or Twitter: with more to appear in the new, web-based awards interested in television”. @tim_dickens.

30 RTS PATRONS

RTS Principal BBC BSkyB Channel 4 ITV Patrons

RTS Discovery Networks Turner Broadcasting System Inc International Liberty Global Viacom International Media Patrons NBCUniversal International Networks The Walt Disney Company YouTube

RTS Accenture FremantleMedia KPMG Virgin Media Major Channel 5 Fujitsu McKinsey and Co YouView Patrons Deloitte IBM S4C Enders Analysis IMG Studios STV Group EY ITN UKTV

RTS Autocue ITV London ITV Yorkshire Quantel Patrons Digital Television Group ITV Meridian ITV Wales Raidió Teilifís Éireann ITV Anglia ITV Tyne Tees Lumina Search UTV Television ITV Granada ITV West PricewaterhouseCoopers Vinten Broadcast

Who’s who Patron Chair of RTS Trustees CENTRES COUNCIL History at the RTS HRH The Prince of Wales John Hardie Lynn Barlow Don McLean Mike Best President Honorary Secretary Charles Byrne IBC Conference Liaison Sir Peter Bazalgette David Lowen Isabel Clarke Terry Marsh Alex Connock Vice-Presidents Honorary Treasurer Gordon Cooper RTS Legends Dawn Airey Mike Green Tim Hartley Paul Jackson Sir David Attenborough OM Kingsley Marshall CH CVO CBE FRS BOARD OF TRUSTEES Kristin Mason RTS Technology Bursaries Baroness Floella Tim Davie Graeme Thompson Simon Pitts Benjamin OBE Mike Green Penny Westlake Dame Colette Bowe OBE John Hardie James Wilson AWARDS COMMITTEE John Cresswell Huw Jones Michael Wilson CHAIRS Mike Darcey Jane Lighting Awards & Fellowship Greg Dyke Graham McWilliam SPECIALIST GROUP Policy Lorraine Heggessey David Lowen CHAIRS David Lowen Ashley Highfield Simon Pitts Archives Rt Hon Dame Tessa Graeme Thompson Steve Bryant Craft & Design Awards Jowell MP Cheryl Taylor David Lynn EXECUTIVE Diversity Sir Trevor McDonald OBE Chief Executive Marcus Ryder Television Journalism Ken MacQuarrie Theresa Wise Awards Trevor Phillips OBE Early Evening Events Stewart Purvis CBE Stewart Purvis CBE Dan Brooke John Smith Programme Awards Sir Howard Stringer Education Alex Mahon Mark Thompson Graeme Thompson Student Television RTS Futures Awards Camilla Lewis Stuart Murphy

Television www.rts.org.uk September 2015 31 HAPPY VALLEY OR HOUSE OF CARDS Television in 2020 the challenges for content, creativity and business models 16-18 September

RTS CAMBRIDGE CONVENTION

Chair: Tony Hall Director-General, BBC David Abraham CEO, Channel 4 Stephen Lambert Chief Executive, Studio Lambert Katya Adler Europe Editor, BBC News Jane Lush Managing Director, Kalooki Pictures Kamal Ahmed Business Editor, BBC News Danielle Lux Managing Director, CPL Productions Sir Peter Bazalgette President, Royal Television Society Kevin Lygo Managing Director, ITV Studios Emily Bell Professor of Professional Practice and Director of Tow Jane Martinson Media Editor, The Guardian Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University Journalism School John McVay Chief Executive, Pact Hugo Blick Writer, Director and Executive Producer, Eight Rooks Tom Mockridge Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Media The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP Gina Moriarty Writer Adam Crozier CEO, ITV Stuart Murphy Director, Sky Entertainment Channels, Sky Philippe Dauman President and CEO, Viacom Stephen Nuttall Senior Director, YouTube EMEA Tim Davie CEO, BBC Worldwide and Director, Global James Purnell Director, Strategy and Digital, BBC Susanna Dinnage General Manager, Discovery Networks UK/Ireland Stewart Purvis CBE Professor of Television Journalism, Michael Edelstein President, NBCUniversal International Studios City University Bryan Elsley Writer and Executive Producer, Balloon Entertainment Peter Salmon, Director, BBC Studios Rona Fairhead Chairman, BBC Trust Josh Sapan President and CEO, AMC Networks Wayne Garvie Chief Creative Officer, Sony Pictures Television Jonathan Shalit OBE Chairman, ROAR Global Jorgen Gren European Commission Cabinet Member, Digital Nick Southgate Single Market Sir Howard Stringer Tahsin Guner Writer Jane Tranter Philip Harper Creative Director, Atlantic Productions Jane Turton Managing Director, All3Media Lorraine Heggessey Chair, Grierson Trust and Advisor, Sharon White Chief Executive, Ofcom Channel 4 Growth Fund The Rt Hon John Whittingdale OBE MP Secretary of State Tim Hincks President, Endemol Shine Group for Culture, Media and Sport Jay Hunt Chief Creative Officer, Channel 4 Patrick Younge Partner and Co-Founder, Sugar Films Spencer Kelly Presenter, BBC Click David Zaslav President and CEO, Discovery Communications

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