For my Sunny Side of the Doc Meet the Executive interview, the BBC‘s Commissioning Editor for History Simon Young, shared his vision, priorities and three notable examples. Pipeline BBC History: 70-80 hours. Specialist Factual: 400 hours. History’s broad remit: Ancient to Early 21st century. The BBC’s Documentary unit also commissions recent History programs. Simon Young …
In a series of posts, I’ll share the UK’s highest-rated documentary and unscripted programs for the half-year in which Covid struck. My ratings snapshot for 1H 2020 is comprised of: The Top 50 in the combined Documentary and Lifestyle / Hobbies category. My Takeaways. Then #51-100. Going deeper In future posts, I’ll share the Top 25 History and Wildlife …
Veteran media industry consultant Ed Hersh returns to my podcast platform to explore the multiple seismic changes shaking the Documentary / Unscripted sector and what producers need to know. We discuss how the term ‘Perfect Storm‘ captures the confluence of: Covid impacts, The shift by viewers from channels to direct-to-consumer (DTC) platforms like Netflix and …
The U.S. Pay TV distribution footprint is forecast to shrink by a record 2.5 million subscribers in Q2 2020. This follows a previous record drop of 2 million subscribers in Q1 2020. In the past 12 months, 6.5+ million customers have cut the cord. The forecast loss for Full Year 2020 is 8-9 million subscribers. …
Dr John Morse likens the consumer’s COVID experience to living thru an episode of “The Twilight Zone”. He analyzes U.S. lifestyle and media usage trends during the pandemic in a PACT (UK Producers) webinar/podcast hosted by Dawn McCarthy-Simpson. John takes us on a deep dive into the data, highlighting the Big Trends: Viewing has become …
I’m reading in The New York Times about the complex system of COVID-testing and armband ID’s used by the director Baltasar Kormakur to get his Sci-Fi series back into production. According to Mr Kormakur, as well as a rigorous protocol for testing, temperature-taking and masking, “those wearing yellow armbands could be near the camera; the …
Footage.net is dedicated to making the world’s best stock, news and archival footage searchable from a single site, and to giving footage users the tools they need to discover and license the most relevant footage for their particular needs. David Seevers, Chief Marketing Officer and footage industry veteran shared his company’s vision and operations in …
Here is the audio / podcast of the webinar moderated by PACT‘s Dawn McCarthy-Simpson with veterans — programming exec Dan Salerno and prolific producer Michael Hoff. We explored the COVID-disrupted condition of the production and programming pipeline for U.S. Factual networks. The big question: Are we heading into a “Content Desert?” Listen to the May …