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Peter Hamilton Consultants, Inc

Science Congress Takeaway #3. LIVE! Leads ‘What’s the Buzz!’ Cab/Sat Model Looks Fragile

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:
  • 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.

cake2

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.

viewing-habits

  • 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!