The future of TV

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  • So they can watch it when they want rather than when it is scheduled. At the moment ITV will be making far more money from advertising than they are from Britbox, they won't give that up only to find that Britbox fails to gain a foothold. By that time, other broadcasters would have taken their share of the advertising market and there would be no going back.

  • Although totally in line with ITV's policy of extracting every possible penny for its content. The SD channels maximising advertising revenue, the HD channels supplementing advertising revenue with subscription revenue from the pay-tv market, with ITV Hub Plus and Britbox pulling in cash from the streamer market. They have pretty much covered all options for now.

    But the one option they haven't' covered is actual content, or decent content that is.

    With new shows on Netflix every week, the only new drama, if you can all it that, on ITV all the time is new eps of soaps.

    I know Jeremy Kyle is gone now, but the whole schedule is still filled with the lowest common dominated rubbish, so how ITV will fill their other channels in the future and Britbox, is beyond me.


    I wonder if Britbox is the last throw of the dice for the BBC

    Could be, or their saviour and their future.

  • I don't disagree that ITV3 and 4 exist to maximise income, but what I am saying is that they also take away the incentive of viewers to subscribe to Britbox. The streamers appear to be of the view that they need to make their stuff exclusive to their own streamers to maximise subscriptions (hence Disney is pulling their content from Netflix and - presumably from Sky).

    I am pretty sure that Britbox will go the same way.

    As Bryanluc pointed out, why would anyone want to subscribe when they can view their favourite programmes free?

    No ads.

    As for Disney pulling content from Sky, lets wait and see. I reckon Disney will still keep their stuff on Sky's channels for a while and also retain their own channels, such as they are, on Sky too. It's just the on demand stuff getting removed at the moment.

    We don't know that yet,

  • No ads.

    I don't see that as an inducement. Everyone I know records ITV stuff and skittles through the ads on playback. I'm surprised the boffins haven;t invented a gizmo to stop us doing that

  • But the one option they haven't' covered is actual content, or decent content that is.

    In fairness, ITV regularly churns out drama based mini series. Either one-offs or regulars such as Vera, Grantchester & Midsomer Murders.

    Maybe they will recycle the ITV Encore content for Britbox. ITV are creatures of habit.

  • They actually have, but no UK broadcaster, that I'm aware of, implements it on tv channels.

    If you look on streamers like ITV Hub or All4, they do prevent ad skipping and it's damn annoying.

    Virgin Media’s V6 does a pretty neat job of dropping you a second or two before the ads finish when you FF through them

  • In fairness, ITV regularly churns out drama based mini series. Either one-offs or regulars such as Vera, Grantchester & Midsomer Murders.

    Maybe they will recycle the ITV Encore content for Britbox. ITV are creatures of habit.

    There was very little on ITV Encore that was exclusive to that channel. We had most of the content on demand on Virgin Media.

    Since ITV Encore went the way of the dodo, those programmes that were exclusive have become more generally available. I note that 'Harlots' is now available if you look at the on demand section of the menu, for example.

  • There was very little on ITV Encore that was exclusive to that channel. We had most of the content on demand on Virgin Media.

    Since ITV Encore went the way of the dodo, those programmes that were exclusive have become more generally available. I note that 'Harlots' is now available if you look at the on demand section of the menu, for example.

    Most of the content wasn't available on VM. Although VM had alternative on demand content from ITV, Dramas such as Vera were only repeated on ITV Encore and withheld from ITV3 and other on-demand strands. There's no reason why ITV can't repeat this with Britbox. I doubt they will be thinking about making exclusive new "exclusive" content for Britbox. So far, they have announced remastered versions of the Carry On films. Not something that would encourage me to subscribe.

    Obviously, since the demise of ITV Encore, the content has returned to ITV 3 and ITV's other on demand strands. However, there is no reason why ITV can't repeat the former trend. Withhold repeats of their recent drama from the majority of their on-demand strands and make them exclusive to Britbox.

  • Interesting read here:

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201919/ld…uni/16/1602.htm

    According to the old fogeys in the House of Lords, DTT broadcasting must continue well into the future. I do wonder if these old geezers have got their finger on the button, and whether it is even the right button. While acknowledging that there is a sea-change towards viewing on demand, they cannot envisage a future without TV aerials, it seems.

    Their conclusions appear to fly in the face of the reality right in front of their eyes. Have they committed the same mistake here that the Competition Commission made a decade ago when they told the terrestrial channels to abandon Project Kangaroo?

    What do you think?

  • Weren't we supposed to be getting ITV Encore content via VOD after the linear channel closed? I'm not sure if this was meant to be in the form of an ITV Encore branded service or amalgamated with general ITV VOD content:

    https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand…on-demand-only/

    Did this ever happen?

    Well, Harlots is on there and The Americans has been shown on ITV4, so yes, I think we have had the content.

  • Weren't we supposed to be getting ITV Encore content via VOD after the linear channel closed? I'm not sure if this was meant to be in the form of an ITV Encore branded service or amalgamated with general ITV VOD content:

    https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand…on-demand-only/

    Did this ever happen?

    Episodes of Vera etc started to reappear on on-demand / ITV Hub and the linear channels. ITV Encore was never really a must have channel, it just made me more likely to record and store ITV drama as I knew it wouldn't be around on catch up for very long. I haven't really checked if Sky still has more ITV content than VM but I don't really see that it would. Perhaps Britbox will repeat the trend but there's no obvious signs of that happening yet.

  • Interesting read here:

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201919/ld…uni/16/1602.htm

    According to the old fogeys in the House of Lords, DTT broadcasting must continue well into the future. I do wonder if these old geezers have got their finger on the button, and whether it is even the right button. While acknowledging that there is a sea-change towards viewing on demand, they cannot envisage a future without TV aerials, it seems.

    Their conclusions appear to fly in the face of the reality right in front of their eyes. Have they committed the same mistake here that the Competition Commission made a decade ago when they told the terrestrial channels to abandon Project Kangaroo?

    What do you think?

    This is depends how much more valuable the DTT capacity becomes if 5G gets overloaded. If the mobile cos want the space in the future and are prepared to pay significant sums for it, that may be the end of DTT, especially if by then everyone has internet access.

  • This is depends how much more valuable the DTT capacity becomes if 5G gets overloaded. If the mobile cos want the space in the future and are prepared to pay significant sums for it, that may be the end of DTT, especially if by then everyone has internet access.

    Yes, my view is that the days of DTT are numbered. Demand for the spectrum and the government's apparent determination to end the licence fee in favour of subscriptions when the licence is next up for review are two good reasons why I hold that opinion.

    I was quite surprised, therefore, that the House of Lords Select Committee came up with these views. They must be more out of touch with public opinion and ths needs of the industry than I thought.

  • OLD BOY This CNBC article may be of interest to you:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/15/nbc…=twitter%7Cmain

    We get news today of Peacock and I will post in that thread later once the news comes through on it.

    That article is pretty much nail on head, in my opinion, Horizon. The most thought provoking paragraph was this one for me.

    That means new NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell stands to lose $7 to $9 per month for a given household that cuts the cord on cable. Simply swapping cable TV for Peacock, a product that’s either free, $5 or $10, is probably going to be a money-losing proposition. Burke said last year he was targeting getting about $5 per month for every Peacock subscriber in advertising revenue. That’s a great new revenue stream. It’s not a great replacement revenue stream.

    I have been contemplating the transitional period between now and when the traditional TV channels go into major decline for some time now. Clearly, it is going to take time to wean those wedded to the status quo from their inefficient way of using TV - it will be a gradual process over 10 to 15 years, but we will get there in the end. It is only then that the streamers will be able to get maximum revenue from this method of broadcasting. However, this period of time, when the streamers are trying to entice new subscribers with additional content, will be a very expensive one.

    To speed up the process, they will have to starve the scheduled TV channels of content while continually improving theirs (even though there is money to be made through non-exclusive rights to content from the streamers), but also, the streamers need to fill the content voids in the range of content they currently offer, such as news, weather, etc so that viewers can get all the programming they need through subscriptions to only two or three streamers.

    I am looking forward to reading more about the Peacock service as it is made available later today, although I suspect the content may leave something to be desired - I hope I am wrong about that.

    Thank you for promising to add more information on this when it is available. I'll just go and get the popcorn.... :)

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