Category Archives: Television

US: Nielsen notes continued TV time shrinkage

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Digital viewing on the rise but still small

Though consumption of the boob tube is declining as viewing on new platforms
increases, Nielsen isn’t giving digital options all the credit.

The measurement service’s quarterly cross-platform report issued Thursday noted a
drop of one half of one percent in total traditional TV time in the fourth quarter of
2011 versus the same period a year ago. That accounts for a loss of 46 minutes per
month, which Nielsen chalks up to a range of reasons beyond just growing
alternatives to TV.

“This maybe the result of leveling off after a period of sustained growth, weather and
economic factors or of other viewing options,” wrote Nielsen exec Dounia Turrill. “As
more homes adopt DVRs and transition to timeshifted viewing, timeshifted TV
growth has offset the bulk of live TV declines.”

Though viewing on DVR, game consoles and wireless devices registered small
increases across the board, they are lumped into “other potential factors” by Nielsen,
which emphasizes that TV time still dwarfs viewing on digital platforms.

But in a separate reseach note also issued Thursday, Nielsen reported that the total
number of TV households in the U.S. will register a small decline for the second
consecutive year after decades of consistent growth. The projected drop will take
Nielsen’s TV “universe” from 114.7 million next year to 114.1 million in 2013.

While the number of viewers watching traditional TV dipped 1.7% to 284.4 million in
the fourth quarter versus year ago, timeshifted-TV viewers increased 4.9% to 143.9
million and Internet video watchers rose 4.2% to 147.4 million. The number of
mobile subscribers watching video on their phones is comparatively tiny–33.5
million–but up tremendously, by 35.7%.

Perhaps the most marked improvement is coming in video viewing on gaming
consoles. Q4 console usage soared 30%, which may reflect increased gaming activity
as well. Consoles including XBox, Wii and Playstations are now in 45% of TV homes.

By ANDREW WALLENSTEIN – Variety – Thu., May. 3, 2012

The future is now for TV over the internet

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The topic at issue was nothing less than the future of TV, and the powerful TV
executive had a tale to tell about his teenage daughter and the impact of the
phenomenon known as IPTV. Dad had suggested Downton Abbey that Seven
screened last year to much acclaim and even higher ratings. The forthcoming season
two, due on Seven soon, is eagerly anticipated. But his daughter was unexpectedly
enthusiastic: “Dad, season one was great but season two is even better!”

That she was able to watch the program at all, before it hit Australian screens, was
due to IPTV. It stands for internet protocol television, and means watching TV over
the internet. Some say it is about to change everything. Certainly, there’s a
bewildering array of brands to choose from, including Apple TV, FetchTV, Foxtel,
GoogleTV, Quickflicks and ABC iView.

But for young people, IPTV is not over the horizon, it is here. “They are doing it
already and doing it in droves,” says David Castran, chief executive of research
analyst Audience Development Australia. “The research indicates that for people 25
to 54 in Sydney and Melbourne, 30 per cent of their TV viewing is that, but it is DIY:
do it yourself.”

And DIY, for the most part, still means illegally. While legal IPTV is a nascent
industry, illegal piracy has taken off. And what they want, by and large, is US drama.

Stephen Brook is media editor of The Australian – May 05, 2012

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Google: The future is now for television viewing over the internet

Australia: land of thieves and hoarders

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WE ARE the army of the night, but not necessarily the same night. We want
everything and we want it … when convenient. We are nine million strong, and
growing.

The commercial TV networks hate us because they say we “steal” their programs
without doing our consumerist duty of watching the ads. But they don’t mind
boasting about us when it suits them to say a show that looks like a flop is actually a
hit.

We are the timeshifters. And some of us, maybe most of us, are also cultural
hoarders.

The ratings measurement agency OzTAM estimates that 44 per cent of Australian
households now have the ability to record programs for later viewing (fast-
forwarding through the commercials). OzTAM has added technology to the people-
meter boxes attached to TV sets in a sample of 3,100 capital city homes so that it can
now measure what people record and watch within seven days of the original
broadcast.

That gives us a new insight into the way Australians manipulate their favourite
medium. A nation of multitaskers, in the habit of getting everything it wants, has
comfortably added timeshifting to its array of skills.

When The Voice started on Channel Nine a couple of weeks ago, observers thought it
had wiped Australia’s favourite drama, Revenge, off the ratings map. The mainland
capitals audience for Revenge dropped from nearly 2 million to just over 1 million.

But when OzTAM’s timeshifting figures appeared a week later, we realised
the Revenge fans were not fickle at all – they had simply postponed their pleasure in
order to be among the early adopters of The Voice. On that night, 294,000 people in
the mainland capitals set their recorders to capture Revenge, while they were
watching The Voice.

It joined an elite group of record breakers that included an episode of Homeland in
February (309,000 timshifters), an episode of Angry Boys in May last year
(280,000) and an episode of Underbelly Razor in February (280,000).

In a normal week, our bonus viewing looks more like this …

The most recorded regular shows: 1 Private Practice(audience boosted 65 per
cent by timeshifts); 2 The Amazing Race (audience boosted 54 per cent);
3 Alcatraz (boosted 49 per cent); 4 The Good Wife (up 34 per cent); 5 Desperate
Housewives (up 33 per cent).

Those titles might lead you to suspect that most timeshifters are women, and you’d
be right. Of the 294,000 people who set their recorders to capture
Revenge against The Voice, 230,000 were women. Could this be because Dad insists
on controlling the remote on the night? Mum programs the recorder, but she learned
long ago it’s good to let Dad think he’s in charge of something.

But there’s a group beyond the timeshifters that OzTAM does not measure – people
who record shows and watch them more than seven days later. They are engaged in
what we might call cultural hoarding.
OPINION” DAVID DALE – SMH – May 6, 2012

New media rules get harsh review from networks

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A proposal by the federal government’s Convergence Review to create a new
regulatory watchdog has received a harsh welcome from media companies who say
such a move would create excessive regulation and compliance costs for the media
industry, according to a report by The Australian Financial Review.

The review’s final report introduced additional regulation intended to force more
media groups to produce local video content.

The report, released Monday, also abolished existing ownership rules and
recommends a “public interest test” for big media mergers and acquisitions. “Foxtel
is concerned that overall the review recommends needless new regulation that will
stifle competition and innovation and does not recognise market reality,” Foxtel chief
executive Richard Freudenstein said, according to the AFR. “In particular, a new
public interest test would be broad and subjective, and by the review’s own
admission, it may increase regulatory burden.”

Ten Network Holdings chief James Warburton reportedly said there was “no
justification” for the proposed changes when free-to-air broadcasters “invest more
than $1.2 billion in local productions.”

The changes would define all major media companies as Content Service Enterprises
required to increase Australian video production, although digital companies such as

Google, Facebook and Apple would not be included in the definition.

The review committee’s head, Glen Boreham, defended the idea of a new watchdog.
“It’s not a super regulator,” he said, according to The Australian. “The new body may
be smaller than the existing one.”

Published 5:06 AM, 1 May 2012 – Business Spectator

Convergence Review strongly supports Australian content

Film, Latest News, Television

The final report of the Convergence Review strongly supports the social and cultural
value of Australian content and makes it very clear that, without intervention, it will
drop to unacceptable levels. It is proposed that the current rules applying to free-to-
air and subscription television be repealed but that a new technology-neutral regime
be uniformly applied to all players, including the networks’ digital multichannels,
internet-delivered channels with television-like content and on-demand services.

To be one of the “content service enterprises” subject to the new regime, a service
must be screening or offering professional television-like drama, documentary

and/or children’s programs, and meet not-yet-determined minimum revenue and
audience thresholds. This means that platforms that predominantly run user-
generated material and social media sites escape the recommendations. If a service
falls into this category it will be required to invest a percentage of its revenue into
Australian drama, documentary and children’s programs, or into a “converged
content production fund” with a very broad remit.

Having a transitional period is recommended on the Australian content front, during
which subquotas on the main commercial free-to-air are increased by 50 per cent —
to make up for how little local content is on the multichannels – and the 10 percent
minimum expenditure requirement on eligible drama subscription channels is
extended to children’s and documentary programming.

The review committee states that there is a continuing case for government support
for Australian production – again, it is drama, documentary and children’s
programming that needs intervention – and it has stuck by its guns in
recommending that the value of the producer offset should go up from 20 to 40 per
cent for “premium” television content, putting it on the same footing as features.

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By Sandy George – INSIDEFILM – [Mon 30/04/2012]

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab telemovie

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Filming has today started on a new 19th century mystery tele-movie for the ABC in
Melbourne.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is produced by Burberry Entertainment by producer
Margot McDonald with direction from Underbelly director Shawn Seet. It has been
adapted from the Fergus Hume novel of the same name by Glen Dolman, who wrote
the screenplay of Bob Hawke biopic Hawke.

Cast includes Offspring’s John Waters, Beaconsfield‘s Shane Jacobson, Underbelly
Razor‘s Chelsie Preston Crayford and Anna McGahan as well as Helen Morse of The
Eye of the Storm and Oliver Ackland of The Slap.

Ewan Burnett, CEO of Burberry Entertainment said: “We are thrilled to be making
this stunning period piece, which exquisitely depicts Melbourne in the midst of a
19th century population and economic boom.”

Carole Sklan, head of ABC TV Fiction said: “We’re delighted to be bringing this
compelling Australian murder mystery to ABC TV. It is a true classic, the story keeps
surprising, and the creative team at Burberry have brought together a wonderful
cast.”

April 30th, 2012 – mUmBRELLA

Content quotas will cost, say free-to-air networks

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A ROW has erupted over the size of the production windfall the Australian TV
industry can expect to receive if quotas on drama, documentaries and children’s
programs are imposed on free-to-air TV networks. Under proposals before the
Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, the TV networks will have to increase
the number of hours they devote to those genres by 50 per cent a year.

They already exceed their quotas in documentaries – airing 90 hours between them
each year – and face an extra $40 million to $60 million in programming costs to
make up for the shortfall in children’s and adult drama. The production funding body
Screen Australia estimates an additional $10 million is needed to reach their quota of
144 hours of children’s programming a year, and an extra $30 million to reach the
new target of 540 hours of adult drama.

One hour of Australian drama can cost between $350,000 and $1.4 million to
produce – roughly three-and-a-half times as much as an hour of imported American
TV, Screen Australia says. But the commercial TV networks say they already spend
$1.2 billion a year on the production of Australian content – about a third of their
revenues – while their profits are falling.

”As far as I am aware we are the only country where quotas are being increased on
broadcasters,” said Julie Flynn, the chief executive of TV lobbying group FreeTV
Australia. She said Screen Australia’s analysis was ”simplistic” because it ignored

increasing production costs, yet her body does not have figures of its own to support
its argument.

The body representing the production industry, Screen Producers Association of
Australia, predicts the content quotas will be one of the first recommendations from
the Convergence Review that Senator Conroy will implement.

The SPAA executive director, Geoff Brown, estimates it will cost the networks an
extra $60 million a year which, he said, is negligible given that at some point in the
future the networks will be relieved of the $280 million licence fee. ”They are
whingeing but they’ve had a lot of upside in all this,” he said. ”This is the economics
of television. They are getting released from hundreds of millions of dollars in licence
fees so this is an obligation on content.”

The Screen Australia chief operating officer, Fiona Cameron, stood by her figures and
said: ”This is sensible progressive regulation that has an eye on the reality of the
market – that is who is watching now and who are the most influential players.”

Julian Lee – SMH – May 2, 2012

Convergence Review: At a glance

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The Convergence Review is 177 pages and covers a wide range of issues facing the media.

Here is a short summary of some of the report’s main recommendations:

-Recommendation for establishment of two separate regulatory bodies: one a statutory body and the other self regulated.

-The Statutory Regulator is to replace the Australian Communications and Media Authority; incorporate Classification Board and make rules on Australian content.

-The industry led body will cover TV, radio, online and print and will review news and commentary standards.  It will replace the existing Australian Press Council.

– ABC and SBS are not required to participate in the industry-led  body but must develop their own codes that take into account the new body’s standards

–  ABC and SBS Charters to be updated with a requirement that 55 per cent quota apply to Australian content on the  ABC and half that for SBS

– Rejects Finkelstein report recommendation for outlets which distributes more than 3000 copies of print per issue or a news site with a minimum of 15 000 hits per year on the grounds that it is “far too low” and very “resource-intensive”

– The licensing of broadcasting services to cease Commercial free-to-air broadcasters licence fees, calculated as a percentage of revenues, would be abolished in favour of a market-based approach to pricing broadcasting spectrum.

– Regulation of media ownership, media content standards and Australian and local content to continue

– Major media outlets to be classified ‘content service enterprises’ (CSE) and regulated based on their size and scope, rather than how they deliver their content

– A CSE is defined by: the professional content they deliver; large number of Australian users of that content; high level of revenue

– All CSEs contribute to a “uniform content scheme” for the production of Australian content.

– Review recommends threshold levels for CSE initially should be around $50 million a year of Australian-sourced content service revenue and audience/users of 500 000 per month, thus potentially excluding Google, Apple and Telstra

– Major international online and media enterprises, such as potentially YouTube, would be required to contribute to producing local content

– A ‘minimum number of owners’ rule and a ‘public interest test ‘ replace the current ‘75 per cent audience reach’ rule, the ‘2 out of 3’ rule, the ‘two-to-a-market’ rule and the ‘one-to-a-market’ rules of media ownership.

– Convergence Review findings to be implemented three stages.

 From: The Australian   April 30, 2012

 

Netflix Rewrites Rules of TV

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How the Return of Netflix’s Arrested Development Will
Rewrite the New Rules of TV Watching

The landscape of television is changing, and for proof, you have to look no further
than the revival of Arrested Development on Netflix, where creator Mitch Hurwitz
has reunited the original cast to produce a parcel of new episodes coming next year.

Suddenly, a show that was incredibly low-rated on Fox is being touted as a game-
changer for an upstart streaming-video company. It’s a move that will surely have a
ripple effect on TV development, but the audience at home is going to find their
viewing habits tested, too, since Netflix head Ted Sarandos announced yesterday that
the ten new episodes of Arrested Development will all premiere on a single day. How

will recap culture cope? Here are four of the open questions raised by the
announcement.

Should you watch all the episodes in one sitting?

Arrested Development’s most avid superfans have been waiting for this day since the
show was canceled in 2006, but now they’ll be consuming an entire new season of
Arrested Development the way a johnny-come-lately would: all at once, like a person
stumbling upon the DVDs years after the show went off the air. Still, while a newbie
might take his time with Arrested Development, many longtime fans of the series will
feel pressure to rip through all the episodes in a single day, and is the show best
served by watching it that way? And what if the new Arrested episodes bow on a
weekday, God forbid? Would an entire demographic leave work for lunch and never
return?

How do you talk about it on Twitter?

The rise in DVRs and time-shifting have changed the way people watch TV, but savvy
fans know to avoid Twitter if they haven’t yet caught, say, the new episode of Mad
Men: The social-networking service explodes every Sunday night with viewers live-
tweeting, quoting, and discussing Don Draper or Fat Betty in depth. (Pity viewers on
the West Coast and abroad, who are in constant danger of being spoiled until they
can catch up.) If the new episodes of Arrested Development were debuting in weekly
installments on a network, Twitter users could assume some base level of communal
viewing and tweet freely, but with the new episodes bowing at the same time, how
can you be sure who’s watched what? Can you already start discussing episode ten
when your friends may be on episode seven, or even episode one?

Will this nip buzz in the bud?

We won’t shed many tears over Twitter users unable to spoil their favorite shows in
real time, but it’s worth noting that the plugged-in Twitter audience comprises
Arrested Development’s main demographic. To be sure, those fans will be hyping the
new AD episodes for weeks and months before the premiere (in fact, they already
are), but we wonder whether the thwarted tweeting may take a toll when the episodes
all debut at once. Which would Netflix prefer: ten weeks of fans obsessively
dissecting each episode and speculating about the next, or a jumbled few days when

the most ardent viewers speed-watch the whole season, then quickly move on to
discussing the week’s shocking new episode of Breaking Bad?

How will it affect the recapping craze?

The Wire creator David Simon recently groused about the explosive trend of online
episode recapping, suggesting that critics should evaluate the series as a whole and
not in weekly installments. Looks like he got his wish! It’s not going to be easy to
provide overnight reviews of each new Arrested Development episode when all ten
premiere on the same day, and TV viewers who’ve gotten used to watching an
episode and then reading a variety of online reactions to it will have to adjust: They’ll
now be able to burn through an entire season without weekly consultations of an
online echo chamber. When Fox canceled Arrested Development, they gave it what
was considered an ignominious end: burning through the last four episodes on a
single night (opposite the Olympics, no less) instead of letting fans savor the last few
weeks. Years later, that all-at-once strategy will be the show’s new normal. As GOB
might ponder: Are they making a huge mistake?

By Kyle Buchanan – 18 April 2012 – nymag.com