ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY ANNUAL REPORT 2011 AGM 24 May 2012 at 6:00pm at the RTS Kildare House, 3 Dorset Rise, London EC4Y 8EN Patrons Principal Patrons RTS Patrons BBC APTN BSkyB Autocue Channel 4 Television Avid Technology Europe ITV Bloomberg Channel Television International Patrons Digital Television Group Granada Television NBC Universal HIT Entertainment RTL Group Ikegami Electronics UK Viacom International Media Networks ITV Anglia Walt Disney Company ITV London ITV Meridian ITV Tyne Tees Major Patrons ITV West ITV Yorkshire Channel 5 Panasonic Broadcast Europe Deloitte PricewaterhouseCoopers Enders Analysis Quantel FremantleMedia Raidió Teilifís Éireann IMG Media House Reuters Television ITN University College, Falmouth Jonathan Shalit/ROAR Global UTV Television KPMG Vinten Broadcast S4C UKTV 2 R OYAL T ELEVISION S OCIETY REPORT 2011 Contents Patrons 2 Board of Trustees report to members 4 1 Achievements and performance 4 National events 2011 4 Centres report 2011 24 2 Structure, governance and management 34 3 Objectives and activities 34 4 Financial review 35 5 Plans for future periods 35 6 Administrative details 36 Independent auditors’ report 38 Financial statements 39 Notes to the financial statements 42 Notice of AGM 2012 49 Agenda of AGM 2012 50 Form of proxy 51 Minutes of AGM 2011 52 Who’s who at the RTS 54 Picture credits 56 The Board of Trustees (who are also the directors of the Royal Television Society for the purposes of company law) presents its report and consolidated accounts for the year ended 31 December 2011. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities (March 2005). R OYAL T ELEVISION S OCIETY REPORT 2011 3 RTS Board of Trustees Report 1 Achievements and Performance 1 Throughout this report, the Trustees have sought to highlight “Every year or two, [we take] the bottom 10% or 20% and the ways in which the Society’s activities have provided real move them out, giving others more responsibility. A lot of benefit to the public at large, whether by extending the reach these people really should be somewhere else, where they’d of its publications and web-based initiatives or by engaging be more successful.” with the public in ways that are easier and more affordable, One of the highlights of the convention was a demon- and targeting particular audiences that might in the past not stration of smart TV sets and their implications for existing have been involved in the debate, discussion and learning broadcasters. The session was chaired by a highly entertain- opportunities that the Society offers. ing and incisive David Mitchell. During the year the RTS maintained its unique and influ- He first interrogated analyst Alex Street of Redshift Strat- ential role in furthering public understanding of the huge egy, who conducted an eye-opening demonstration of a changes sweeping through British television and the wider series of connected-TV devices. Street revealed how Google media landscape. TV could be controlled via an Android smartphone – poten- tially generating a huge amount of information about view- RTS Cambridge Convention ers’ likes and dislikes that they might have assumed were The RTS Cambridge Convention Advisory Committee was totally confidential. RTS Cambridge chaired by Adam Crozier. The Convention took place in Sep- More worrying for the broadcasters in the audience, the US Convention speakers: tember and was opened by the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, sec- version of Google TV provided a fast track to Amazon and 1 ‘Beyond the retary of state for culture, media, Olympics and sport. Netflix, but the main TV networks such as ABC, NBC and CBS Bridge’ session In a bravura performance without notes, Hunt encouraged were all conspicuous by their absence. “The broadcaster is panel; 2 Discovery the UK’s creative industries to think big, and outlined the key out of the loop,” stressed Mitchell. Communications role that the once-threatened regulator, Ofcom, would play One of the panellists, RTL Group CEO Gerhard Zeiler, argued president and CEO in “turbo-charging” growth and maintaining plurality. He also that the US networks’ absence was understandable. “They are David Zaslav (right) fleshed out his proposals for building a vibrant local-TV market. not stupid,” he said. Pressing the same theme as Discovery’s with Pat Younge, BBC The international keynote speaker was David Zaslav, pres- Zaslav, Zeiler claimed his company would never agree to Vision Productions; ident and CEO of Discovery Communications. He empha- separating its shows from its channel brands – nor would it 3 Secretary of state, sised that television has a great future, provided broadcasters let other video platforms sell airtime around them. Provided DCMS, the Rt Hon can offer attractive content (with preferably global appeal) these two conditions were met, he was happy to negotiate Jeremy Hunt MP; together with strong consumer brands. with online content aggregators and have RTL programmes 4 ‘Data, data But he warned that if broadcasters ever become just “a list on their platforms – around which RTL could sell ads. everywhere’ session, of shows, we’re going to become commoditised”. They must The other panellists were Skype director Linda Summers, from left: Richard therefore jealously protect channel brands and maintain a YouView CEO Richard Halton and Virgin Media COO Andrew Marks, Kantar Media close relationship with audiences. Barron. Audiences; Matt Zaslav also underscored a significant cultural difference The next session confronted the ethical and commercial Brittin, Google; and between US and UK television companies when he turned issues presented by the approaching avalanche of viewer David Abraham, to Discovery’s approach to staffing. “We took out a tonne of data that internet-connected TVs will bring. Channel 4 core staff and it really liberated the organisation,” he said. The world had moved on from quarter-hourly paper8 4 R OYAL T ELEVISION S OCIETY REPORT 2011 2 4 3 R OYAL T ELEVISION S OCIETY REPORT 2011 5 2 3 4 5 1 RTS Cambridge 8diaries maintained by television viewer panels in the Convention session 1950s, pointed out chair Dawn Airey, to – potentially – real- ‘Smart thinking – time reports about individual viewers. “At what point does the opportunities this innocent act of measuring become spying?” she asked. of converged TV’: 1 “Data, data everywhere”, brought together Channel 4 CEO chair David Mitchell David Abraham, Google’s Matt Brittin, BigChampagne Media (left) and presenter founder Eric Garland, Kantar Media Audiences’ Richard Alex Street, Red Shift Marks and Colin Petrie Norris of Specific Media. Strategy; speakers Petrie Norris came the closest to answering Airey’s ques- 2 Linda Summers, tion. “Handle this with care,” he said. “It can blow up in your Skype; 3 Richard 6 face – there are risks around privacy. We have to be very Halton, YouView; careful and respectful.” 4 Andrew Barron, The sixth session turned to “Breaking windows”. Not liter- Virgin Media; and 5 ally, but to the once orderly – and profitable – system whereby Gerhard Zeiler, RTL content progressed through a series of windows on succes- Group. 6 ‘Breaking sive media, such as cinemas, DVDs, pay-TV and terrestrial windows’ session TV. This system is breaking down as platforms multiply and speakers (from left): fears of piracy grow. Josh Berger, Warner “Things are about to become disorderly, more crowded, Bros; Michael Comish, confused and less controlled,” warned Oliver and Ohlbaum Blinkbox.com; Mike Associates CEO Mark Oliver. Funding for films and TV pro- Darcey, BSkyB; and grammes will, in turn, be less secure. Fru Hazlitt, ITV. 7 ‘The The panellists, Josh Berger (Warner Bros Entertainment smart money’ session UK), Michael Comish (Blinkbox), Mike Darcey (BSkyB) and with Sir Martin Fru Hazlitt (ITV), sparred on behalf of their respective links Sorrell and Laura in the licensing chain. But they agreed that – at least for UK Kuenssberg, ITN drama producers and those involved in big live events and sports – it was not yet time to panic. The next session asked whether the UK’s spectacular suc- cess in exporting TV programme formats can continue. The panellists – Alex Mahon, president of Shine; Tony Cohen, CEO of FremantleMedia; and John Smith, CEO of BBC Worldwide – gave a qualified yes, but warned that a combi- nation of domestic changes could spoil their party. Mahon and Cohen concentrated on mooted changes to the terms of 7 trade between UK broadcasters and independent producers. 6 R OYAL T ELEVISION S OCIETY REPORT 2011 2 3 4 1 5 The session also featured a fascinating, fact-packed pres- RTS Cambridge entation by Mathew Horsman of Mediatique that put TV Convention speakers: exports in context: they are worth some £520m a year, but 1 Lord Patten, BBC only represent 0.12% of total exports. Trust (right) with Sir The eighth session saw Sir Peter Bazalgette quiz Lord Pat- Peter Bazalgette. ten on the challenges of his first four months as chair of the ‘The Bill and beyond’ BBC Trust. Inevitably, the corporation’s financial constraints session speakers: 2 dominated the discussion. Despite the difficult decisions Lord Burns, Channel 4; involved, Patten said: “If you can’t run a damn good broad- 3 Dido Harding, caster of television, radio and online on three and a half bil- TalkTalk; 4 Steve lion a year, then God help you.” Morrison, All3Media; Next in the hot seat was Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP. He and