Welcome to November’s edition of Showreel in which you will find some of the more interesting stories buzzing around the wold of programme content.
As always we would love to hear from you with any feedback so do drop us a line and, if you are so inclined, you can also follow on twitter (@harrykrane)
Enjoy.
Programming:
Channel 4’s success in broadcasting the London Paralympics this year has whetted their appetite and as such the channel is preparing a bid to show the 2016 Rio Paralympics. The BBC are also
rumoured to be looking at bidding however for my money I hope C4 are rewarded for their bold decision to show it from London and retain the rights.
While still pulling in impressive numbers, Simon Cowell and ITV will be a little concerned that the X Factor is not quite producing to the degree it was last year. Having said that it will still be the biggest thing on the menu come the feast on Christmas TV in December.
Fox is set to remake Gavin and Stacey for the US market. While a huge hit here in the UK, judging by the attempts of Fawlty Towers, The Inbetweeners and Red Dwarf to cross the Pond, I suspect it
may have disaster written all over it.
On the topic of U.S. remakes, CBS has greenlit a version of BBC’s cakeathon The Great British Bake Off, which was a huge hit for the BBC, pulling in a peak audience of 7.2m for the final. Perhaps
they could decide the election on cooking ability.
Technology:
If you are a Sky+ customer Tuesday was a truly momentous day as the BBC iPlayer became available on your main TV. Alongside catch-up TV from ITV, Channel 5 and Sky, and with 4OD being
added in January, there really is more TV on there than you can shake a stick at.
Voice controlled TV’s are so last year, we will soon be changing the channels simply by staring at the screen. How lazy can we get?
Women watch more TV than men, fact. However connected games consoles such as Xbox and the PS3 are changing that – gender equality is almost upon us.
The UK finally completed its TV digital switchover journey as the analogue signal was turned off a week ago in the last remaining area, Northern Ireland. Digital has improved our experience of TV dramatically allowing better quality, greater interactivity as well as allowing us never having to miss our favourite show and with Sky’s plans for household targeting on TV, digital switchover will present many new exciting ad opportunities.
Other interesting stuff:
Our friends over at Thinkbox hosted ‘Getting Closer To Content’ last month where they shared with us the latest examples of brands going beyond the 30” spot through the use of branded content, competitions, on-demand TV and product placement in an attempt to associate closer with programmes. Some great examples on there from brands such as Xbox and Paddypower .
Looking a little further forward, what will the world of TV and video advertising look like in 2020? On average we already watch 4 hours of TV per day, can we really watch more TV? Our view would certainly not disagree with Mr Morgan.
Mark