Last week Nielsen released The Gauge, a very useful pie chart that captures the total time Americans spent watching cable TV, broadcast TV and streaming services. Digging deeper reveals the seismic shift that our industry is experiencing. The Gauge: Here it is… Let’s dig into the findings: Cable + Broadcast: 64% Cable (39%) & Broadcast …
Today’s announcement of the production wrap of the superb OSPREY (w/t) special is particular thrill. I’m honored to have joined director Jacob Steinberg on much of his long journey from concept to distribution with industry-leading partners Nature, Love Nature and Blue Ant International. And thankful to everyone on the editorial and commercial teams who helped …
Story of the Month: Investors Target Unscripted Production. There’s a frenzy of investment in unscripted production // Wall Street Journal. New SVOD’s fail to understand that success depends on streaming addiction // Lightshed Partners. Netflix Australia: Revenues surge but avoids taxes and local production // The Age + Documentary Business. Audiences want more documentaries in streaming libraries …
Courteney Munro, National Geographic President Content yesterday released Nat Geo’s Content Inclusion Standards. The standards apply to feature docs, specials, series and scripted programs. The Nature category is broken out for detailed coverage. Our mission is to inspire, support, and elevate diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our daily work, storytelling, and content and product offerings, …
Two articles on the state of the industry caught my attention this week: A brilliant analysis of a key success factor for streamers from Lightshed Partners. And a ho-hum Wall Street Journal story that nonetheless captures the current investment frenzy for Unscripted productions. Nat Geo also shared an updated INCLUSION STANDARDS. Scroll down for the …
Howard Swartz is the Senior Vice President Docs and Specials, Factual Networks & Streaming, for Discovery. For Sunny Side of the Doc‘s Meet the Executive session, he joined Peter Hamilton to share Discovery’s documentary strategy and key buckets. Following are session highlights, including clips of several projects that reveal Howard’s priorities. MISSION & STRATEGY What …
The rise of the streamers has an overall negative impact on global spending on television production. Why? Channels greenlight 200-600 hours / year to populate their linear, 7-day schedules with original programs. Streamers buy enough new programs to attract and retain subscribers. The following Australian example is revealing… if you accept my back-of-envelope calculations and …
A Perfect Crime is a four-part documentary series for Netflix that analyzes the murder in 1991 of powerful politician Detlev Rohwedder. This German-produced True Crime series reveals the dark side of German reunification. The assassination shook Germany’s recently reunified people. The crime remains unsolved, and resonates even today. Christian Beetz is co-head of Gebrueder Beetz …