In The Frame - July '19

In The Frame - July ’19

Every month, Frame 25 brings you the latest from the world of broadcast, TV and film.

Streaming / Online / Tech

The BBC and ITV have announced plans for the UK launch of BritBox, the broadcasters’ SVOD service that’s been put together to take on the might of Netflix, Amazon Prime et al. BritBox will be available in the UK in the last quarter of 2019, with subscriptions priced at £5.99 per month, having launched in the US and Canada last year. The service will be a repository for UK TV content as well as new and original shows solely for subscribers.

Vodafone launched its 5G service this month, saying that it’ll be “10 times faster than 4G, reduce latency to less than 10 milliseconds and dramatically enhance live VR and online gaming experiences”, while Netflix is to refocus its licensing strategy on smaller international territories, including the Netherlands, Argentina and Columbia.

BBC News

The BBC’s annual report was published this month, as well as the BBC Gender Pay Gap report, TV Licensing Annual Review and BBC Television Licence Fee Trust Statement. The past 12 months have been, say the BBC, “a year of creative success, transformation and efficiency”.

As gripping sporting clashes unfolded at Lord’s and Wimbledon, the battle for viewers of the Cricket World Cup and men’s singles finals was also being played out. A combined peak audience of 8.3 million (4.8 million of those watching on Channel, the rest on Sky) saw England’s win over New Zealand in the cricket, while a peak audience of 9.6 million watched the BBC’s coverage of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in action.

Staying with sport and viewing figures, the BBC has secured the rights to show every game of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 tournament, which is being held in England. The BBC’s coverage of the Women’s World Cup in France included England’s semi-final against the USA, which was watched by a peak TV audience in the UK of 11.7 million – the highest of 2019 so far.

And finally…

• Ofcom’s annual report on news consumption in the UK is out. TV remains the most-used platform among UK adults for news, while use of social media has gone up, with nearly half (49%) of all adults saying they use it for news (vs. 44% last year).
• Ofcom is proposing new rules to ensure people who taking part in TV and radio shows are properly looked after by broadcasters, who’ll be explicitly required to protect the “welfare, wellbeing and dignity” of individuals.
• A major TV and film studio complex is to be created in Leeds, five minutes from Channel 4’s new headquarters.
• Sports streaming service DAZN is to offer Eurosport channels on its OTT platform. Subscribers in Spain and Italy will be able to access Eurosport 1 HD and Eurosport 2 HD, while those in Germany and Austria will also be able to watch 45 live Bundesliga games per season.
• One year before the Tokyo Olympics, Eurosport’s owner, Discovery, says that its sports brand aims to be “the only place to watch every minute of every sport and every athlete”, and “offer personalised, tailor-made content for fans, featuring their favourite sports, athletes and experts”
• HBO plans to increase its output of original programming in 2020 to about 160-165 hours, up from 150 this year.
• Freeview’s mobile app has been released in a new version for Android.

From the latest news to the latest positions – click here to see Frame 25’s most recent additions to its list of available TV jobs