What’s The Buzz?
LIVE!
- The famous session that covers the year’s editorial trends led off with safariLIVE, the Nat Geo Wild daily feed from Kruger National Park.
- We covered safariLIVE in a panel at Wildscreen in October.
- It’s a groundbreaking brand-builder for Nat Geo Wild that also attracts new viewers on Facebook.
- The immiediacy and authenticity of safariLIVE positions NG Wild to understand and exploit sky-rocketing video usage among FB’s 1.8 Bn subs.
Blue Chip
- Of all the other clips and buzzy trends that were presented, I was most taken by the big Blue Chip wildlife sequences from Planet Earth 2.
- In an era of ‘video everywhere’, the painstaking work and expense of big budget wildlife cinematography can really stand out.
And…
- As well as LIVE!, my picks for the trends of 2016 are:
- A-list talent as keys to the ‘Bigger, Better, Fewer’ strategies of channels, led by Nat Geo;
- The resurgence of creative storytelling based on the Archive;
- And our friend Ian Cross (see our Pilot Productions Case Study) argues that a big trend is the return of the public broadcasting model in many territories as a relatively stable and well-funded platform for quality programmers.
The VR Dog!
- The bomb of the year was VR, as we wrote recently.
Stockholm Bakery
Re-Inventing TV In The Digital Age
- Barcroft Media’s Sam Barcroft was a refreshing presence at Congress.
- He captured the tremendous shift occurring in viewing habits.
- A favorite slide was this UK snapshot of the viewing habits of Age 16-24 versus All Viewers.
- Take a good look and start working on Plan B.
- In conversation, Sam wondered if the UK Cable/Satellite advertising revenue model would suddenly implode.
- He recalled that’s what happened for UK newspapers when the supermarket chains all at once pulled their advertising from Print.
- On the same panel, Little Dot Studios‘ Andy Taylor described online programming as ‘dross’.
- I agree with Andy’s Takeaway that there’s a huge opportunity right now for mid-range Internet-distributed programs.
That’s It…
- I have so many more industry Takeaways to share, but time has run out for 2016.
- Wishing you every happiness and success in the New Year!