Update: Mandy Chang is leaving her post as legendary BBC-STORYVILLE‘s commissioning editor. Last year she recapped her STORYVILLE strategy in detail for my panel at Taiwan’s virtual CCDF-CNEX Documentary Conference. Our fellow expert panelists were: Hong Kong-based, Phoenix TV exec Haibo Huang And from Washington DC, all-knowing veteran programmer and senior consultant Dan Salerno. Read on …
BBC director general Tim Davie yesterday mounted a spirited defense of the pubcaster’s value to British audiences versus the streamers led by Netflix. His presentation and white paper BBC Value for Audiences gained wide coverage in the business media, where the initial focus was on $556 million in proposed cuts. Cut Documentaries Davie later spoke …
This week’s post covers the UK’s highest-rated documentary and unscripted programs for the year in which COVID struck. My ratings snapshot for 2020 is comprised of: The Top 50 in the combined Documentary and Lifestyle / Hobbies categories. My Takeaways. Then #51-100. The challenging landscape The wonderfully inventive UK Factual industry is enduring the triple disruptions of: COVID, …
Ellen Windemuth executive produced Craig Foster‘s beautiful film MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, a new Netflix release. (Now OSCAR-shortlisted, I’m republishing my popular September 2020 podcast with Ellen in response to the undiminished hit-level appeal of “OCTOPUS” to Netflix subscribers of all ages and territories.) She describes the years’ long journey of her friend, South African wildlife …
David Attenborough is a promotional hook for Monday’s long-awaited launch of discovery+. The 94-year old legend narrates A Perfect Planet, a blue chip series that stands out among the new streamer’s higher quality programs. I am in awe of Attenborough’s lifetime contribution to documentary filmmaking. I earned a credit on one of his hit series. …
Today’s discovery+ launch spotlights David Attenborough’s 10 years of ratings dominance Read More »
Here is a selection of the recent torrent of news coverage and social media posts that responded to Netflix‘s cross-promotion of THE CROWN and the documentary DIANA IN HER OWN WORDS. The mix, from The Guardian to TikTok adds up to an valuable Case Study of the landscape through which producers, buyers and comms teams …
‘The Crown’ & ‘Diana’ – Multi-platform examples of the social media explosion Read More »
Tom Jennings’ DIANA IN HER OWN WORDS became a social media sensation when Netflix paired his documentary with the hit drama series THE CROWN on its user interface. In our podcast, Tom describes the massive, emotional wave that swept around the world, a mood captured by singer Demi Lovato‘s post to her 93.3 million followers: …
Mandy Chang, commissioning editor BBC-STORYVILLE recently joined my panel at Taiwan’s virtual CCDF-CNEX Documentary Conference. In this post, we recap Mandy’s valuable insights into the legendary STORYVILLE stand, and the impact of COVID on the BBC’s documentary commissioning process. Our fellow expert panelists were: Hong Kong-based, Phoenix TV exec Haibo Huang And from Washington DC, veteran …