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TVEUROPE
WWW.TVEUROPE.WS
OCTOBER 2018
MIPCOM EDITION
OTT Platforms / Channel 4’s Alex Mahon
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CONTENTS
Days of Disruption
FEATURE 10 STREAM WARS The OTT landscape in Europe continues to evolve as local players look to take on the big global giants.
Winds of disruption are blowing through Europe, threatening the social fabric and political status quo.
Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Tong Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Nathalia Lopez Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager
Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Europe © 2018 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tveurope.ws
Populist movements are filling in the gaps created by economic inequality, distrust of institutions and the failures of established political parties. Nationalist populist parties have amassed followers across the continent. Driving these groups is a fear of immigrants and resentment at globalism—all of this reinforcing a pull backward to a perceived better and simpler past. We saw that in the 2016 vote that led to Brexit, with the U.K. pulling out of the European Union. Disruption has been wreaking havoc on the media business as well. But while voters may be harkening back toward simpler times, consumers are not longing for VCRs, VHS tapes and only a handful of free-to-air channels. No, they want more choice, more convenience, more screens, and they want content at any moment of the day and every day of the week. Consumers are drawn to the abundance of options and accessibility that streaming services offer. In this issue of TV Europe, Jay Stuart examines the different forces at play in the OTT businesses across Europe. There are those launched by broadcasters to offer their viewers the convenience of watching favorite shows either live or on demand. There are niche services that zero in on specific genres, like drama or sports. Then, of course, there are the behemoths, Netflix and Amazon, using their substantial budgets to scoop up rights and talent. And they are starting to produce originals in Europe; case in point, Netflix recently set up its first European production hub in Spain. This smorgasbord of programming begs the question—how many of these streaming services can consumers afford? For all the appeal, convenience and hours of bingeable joy offered by these OTTs, there remains a place and a role in the media market for linear broadcasters—especially those that seek unique voices and are intent on innovating. We speak to Alex Mahon, the chief executive of the U.K.’s Channel 4, a broadcaster that has a history of taking risks and experimenting. Mahon believes that in today’s media landscape that is impacted by competition from digital services and new distribution models, and in which consumers have an overabundance of choice, public-service broadcasters are more important than ever. And with the need to understand complex issues like immigration, globalization and automation, she believes delivering impartial and independent news is also of vital importance these days. —Anna Carugati
INTERVIEW
16 Channel 4’s Alex Mahon As chief executive of the British broadcaster, Alex Mahon is encouraging her programming teams to take risks, focus on innovative shows and invest more in the All 4 on-demand service. She is also establishing new creative hubs outside London.
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Audiovisual from Spain The Pier / Forever or Never / Wild Hunters The Audiovisual from Spain pavilion will host more than 30 exhibitors with hundreds of new hours of scripted series, movies, entertainment formats, animated shows, documentaries and TV services, including 4K channels. Among the titles for the market is The Pier, a Movistar+/Telefónica original in collaboration with Atresmedia Studios. The drama will have its World Premiere TV Screening in the Grand Auditorium. “Spanish fiction and drama series are really hot properties now because they have proven the undeniable talent and expertise of scriptwriters and producers” from the country, says Javier Martínez, the film and TV promotion manager at ICEX Spain Trade and Investment. The dating show Forever or Never comes from Mediapro and Phileas Productions, while Wild Stories is presenting the 4K doc series Wild Hunters.
Wild Hunters
“Buyers are convinced of Spanish content’s ability to attract audiences.”
—Javier Martínez
Imagina International Sales Side Games / Forever or Never / I ’m Alive Money, power, betrayal and sports are central to the thriller series Side Games. The drama centers on an ambitious executive of a regional soccer club who becomes entangled in a web of corruption. “Side Games is an outstanding thriller set in the world of soccer that quickly became the biggest title on DirecTV [Latin America] for both linear and nonlinear,” says Beatriz Setuain, Imagina International Sales’ director. The company is also presenting the entertainment format Forever or Never, which Setuain calls “a brilliant dating show.” The series explores what it really means to “be together forever” when it comes to choosing a partner. There’s also I’m Alive, a thriller that features supernatural elements. The story follows an inspector who, after suffering a fatal accident, is returned to Earth in another body to track down his killer. I’m Alive
Kanal D International
“Imagina International Sales will attend MIPCOM with a catalog full of quality productions from all genres that will fulfill our clients’ needs.” —Beatriz Setuain
Wounded Love
Price of Passion / Wounded Love / For My Son Love stories are the focus of the drama series Price of Passion and Wounded Love, which Kanal D International is highlighting. Price of Passion examines whether love can come about in the presence of corrupt relationships. Wounded Love, meanwhile, is a period drama that tests if love can survive in the face of enormous obstacles. “Over the years, our all-time favorites that have proven successful in the European market are Time Goes By, Forbidden Love and Fatmagül,” says Kanal D International’s executive director, Kerim Emrah Turna. “Especially after the success of Fatmagül in Spain and France, increasing our penetration in the Western European market will be the main focus. We believe that this title will open up new markets.” The company is also presenting For My Son.
“We will be focusing on strengthening our relationships in CEE countries.” —Kerim Emrah Turna
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Madd Entertainment My Little Girl / A Litre of Tears The Turkish producers Medyapim and Ay Yapim have aligned for the distribution venture Madd (Medyapim Ay Yapim Drama Distribution) Entertainment. The company heads to MIPCOM with the new drama series My Little Girl and A Litre of Tears. Kivanç Tatlituğ (Forbidden Love, Kuzey Güney, Kurt Seyit ve Şura, Brave and Beautiful) has a new as-yet-untitled project that will be part of the catalog as well. “We also have different types of Turkish dramas,” says Özlem Özsümbül, director of international sales. “We have two ‘super series,’ Persona and Phi, which feature talented casts.” There is also an adaptation of a series from a U.S. studio. In addition to selling Turkish series, Madd is looking to position itself as a direct link between production companies and content creators, according to Özsümbül.
“Madd Entertainment will be the distributor of new titles from Medyapim and Ay Yapim.” —Özlem Özsümbül
RTVE
A Different View
El Continental / A Different View / Detectives The prime-time drama El Continental features a story of love, violence and the struggle for power between rival gangs. It is set in a Madrid nightclub during the 1920s. “We’ll see the first woman leader of a gang,” says María Jesús Pérez, RTVE’s international sales director. A Different View shows Spanish society in the ’20s through the lens of teachers and students at a finishing school for young ladies. A dog that can talk is one of the central characters in Detectives. In the series, Alberto and his canine sidekick Max work together as a detective team to solve complicated cases. “Our company is engaged in the production of highend scripted TV in Spain and also has a wide range of international channels to offer high-quality content for each member of the family,” says Jesús Pérez.
“These three high-quality productions address current issues or offer entertainment for the whole family.”
—María Jesús Pérez
ZDF Enterprises
Over Water
Over Water / Kristina Ohlsson’s STHLM Requiem / History of Weapons The psychological drama Over Water is about a man whose family gives him one last opportunity to get his life back on track. ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) is presenting that title alongside Kristina Ohlsson’s STHLM Requiem, a crime show based on a trilogy of best-selling books, and History of Weapons, a documentary series that looks at how weapons have always been a part of the human existence. Other highlights include The Spying Game: Tales from the Cold War, a three-part program; The Athena, a live-action show for kids; and Zoom—The White Dolphin, which is one of the latest additions to the company’s animation catalog. Fred Burcksen, the president and CEO of ZDFE, says the company is proud of the quality of its programs, and he believes that clients recognize this quality as well.
“We work with renowned producers and popular actors—some of the greatest talents of their generation.” —Fred Burcksen
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Netflix’s The Crown.
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Jay Stuart reports on the fast-developing OTT landscape across Europe. n the ongoing battle between legacy operators and digital upstarts, it seems a turning point has already been reached in the U.K. The total number of subscriptions to the three most popular online streaming services has surpassed pay-TV subs. Per Ofcom, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky’s linear online NOW TV reached a total of 15.4 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year, topping 15.1 million for pay TV. Revenue for the latter, dominated by Sky, declined for the first time last year—by 2.7 percent—to £6.4 billion. Meanwhile, online audiovisual revenues jumped 25 percent to £2.3 billion. Overall U.K. OTT customers will reach 20 million in 2022, according to research firm Ovum. Britain leads the way among the biggest markets in Europe for the growth of OTT, but the upward trend is also visible across the continent. In Germany, OTT video subs will rise from 8 million this year to 12 million in 2022. Italian OTT will grow more slowly, from 3 million to 4 million over the same period, while in France, subscriptions will increase from 4 million to 7 million.
I
SHIFTING LEGACIES So how is the traditional ecosystem responding to the rising dominance of OTT? For broadcasters, OTT used to be about offering flexibility to the consumer. Catch-up television made it possible for viewers to see what they missed the first time around. And it has become a real must-have, as the BBC saw this summer. Fremantle’s Picnic at Hanging Rock launched on BBC Two on July 11 at 9 p.m. The only problem was, much to everyone’s surprise—certainly the BBC schedulers—England was playing Croatia in the World Cup semi-finals at the same time on ITV. A few years ago, that would have been a total disaster. Now, viewers could find the show on catch-up. “If I go to catch-up and I can only see a new show I’ve heard about from episode three, I won’t be happy,” says Jamie Lynn, the executive VP, head of sales and distribution for EMEA, International, at Fremantle. “I’ll be even more unhappy if I’m
paying for a subscription and can’t see what I want. Everybody has to adapt to viewer expectations.” The change in expectations has naturally affected the way programs are sold. “It used to be that linear could launch a show and have catch-up but couldn’t stack episodes, so an SVOD partner could come in and they could coexist,” Lynn says. “That has been changing. Now the question is whether they can still coexist or if it’s winner takes all.” Lynn continues, “What’s important is the first window. Broadcasters still live for the overnights. They want the big bang. But that is changing because they can’t live on the overnights. Now it’s about live+7 ratings. So they need the catch-up.”
PLAYING CATCH-UP All of the big broadcasters in Europe have OTT offerings with their linear programming available on catch-up. Louis Matignon, multiplatform solutions manager at Eurovision, the business arm of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), says it is still early days with regard to the competitive picture. “They are not dominant in OTT, but they are catching up, and that’s because they are learning how to leverage one of the strategic pillars of their businesses—knowledge of their audiences. It’s not just about micro-data, it’s about 50 years of experience in curating content. This is a genuine competitive advantage. There are no better-placed organizations than the big broadcasters to thrive in the OTT market. The EBU members are in a very good position. They have strong commercial relationships, and they have their own powerful trusted brands as content providers.” To build scale, European broadcasters have been reaching out to each other. France Télévisions, M6 and TF1 have joined forces in an online SVOD platform called Salto. In Germany, ProSiebenSat.1 has teamed with Discovery, Inc., to launch a VOD service in 2019. The fifty-fifty partnership would be based on the existing 7TV alliance formed last year and integrate ProSieben’s maxdome SVOD offering
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Banijay Rights distributes The Restaurant, an acclaimed drama that Viaplay co-produces with SVT.
and Discovery’s Eurosport Player. The goal is to reach 10 million users two years after launch, with a free adsupported service as well as premium tiers with access to exclusive sports and films.
ORIGINAL SPIN
opportunities,” Bastin notes. “That said, most of the push to fill the drama pipeline comes from Viaplay, and you could say that the SVOD sometimes shares with the broadcast channels, rather than the other way around.” In France, Canal+ axed its CanalPlay SVOD platform and is consolidating its OTT offerings under myCanal. Sébastien Audoux, head of sports, digital, at Canal+, comments, “We want all of our customers, including traditional linear satellite subscribers, to be able to enjoy the OTT features.”
In the Nordic region, entertainment provider Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) is driving its SVOD service Viaplay with its own exclusive original content. “I don’t see us going head-to-head with Netflix because what they offer is usually coming from the U.S., while our focus is very strongly on local Nordic content, especially local drama,” says Alexander Bastin, the senior VP at NENT Group and the head of Viaplay and Viafree. The group is ramping up its originals push. The plan is to reach 50 originals by 2020. New series Rig 45 made its exclusive Viaplay debut in June, with Conspiracy of Silence slated for September and Four Hands Menu and The Restaurant also scheduled for the autumn. The average Viaplay customer watches 32 hours of the service per month. Sometimes, the OTT operation collaborates with the free-TV channels in the group as additional windows, or with public broadcasters if there’s a better fit. NENT Group is basically the broadcast, streaming and production sister to MTG, which split its business in two earlier this year. Viaplay can tap into a big portfolio of production companies as well as produce with others. “We work in tight collaboration with the rest of the group to maximize Walter Presents recently landed the rights to Red Arrow’s Scandi drama Farang. 152 WORLD SCREEN 10/18
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Apple TV has already become the main device for Canal+ subscriptions. The group is also upgrading its own set-top box for existing linear subscribers, to enable them to access OTT seamlessly. “We used to have many different platforms and apps and websites for different digital packages,” Audoux says. “Now it’s all going to be myCanal, and it will be available on all devices. You can start watching a match or a program on the TV at home and continue seamlessly on your mobile or wherever you want to watch.” In Eastern Europe, meanwhile, OTT is lagging. “The take-up in our markets is ongoing, but generally the level of subscribers is comparatively lower than Western Europe and more developed markets,” says Hendrik von der Linden, COO of PRO TV and coordinator of digital initiatives at CME. “This can be attributed to many factors, including broadband penetration, payment mechanisms and cost of a VOD subscription relative to that of the average pay-TV package. We also see higher rates of piracy in our markets.” CME launched its OTT service Voyo in 2011, and it has been operating as an SVOD platform in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. A subscription generally includes on-demand viewing of each country’s local library and select foreign titles where CME has rights, as well as streaming of the linear channels. “We think that the success of an OTT product in our markets will depend on the availability of local content,” von der Linden says. “Given that our markets are smaller and consumers are price sensitive, it is difficult for an OTT platform itself to support the production of high-quality, local entertainment programming for one single market as viewers are accustomed to seeing on TV, but Voyo does provide an alternative way to consume TV content. We have produced some limited titles exclusively for VOD platforms, including spin-offs of popular TV shows. We also provide extended coverage and behind-the-scenes footage on Voyo related to our popular TV shows.” CME also has AVOD platforms, which it plans to relaunch to offer a state-of-the-art user experience that combines livestreaming with catch-up content and online exclusives.
GLOBAL GIANTS While local incumbents expand their OTT services, the global giants are continuing to make big plays in the region. Netflix in particular has been aggressively expanding across Europe, aligning with Liberty Global and spending heavily on local content. Originals are being produced in Germany, Scandinavia and other markets. Its first European production hub is being established in Madrid to serve as a central facility for the platform’s growing slate of Spanish-language original content in the coming years. “Netflix and Amazon have the financial firepower to produce that blows everyone else away,” says Ed Barton, chief analyst of the entertainment practice at Ovum. And yet, despite the dominance of global giants, new services are emerging, especially for niche audiences.
Take, for example, the success of Walter Presents, which specializes in non-English-language scripted content. The service was created by London-based Global Series Network and is a joint venture with the U.K.’s Channel 4. In the U.K., it is offered through the ad-supported All 4 platform. International expansion is underway. In the U.S., it’s up and running as an SVOD service. Walter Presents is launching in Italy as a block on cable channels Nove and Giallo. Walter Iuzzolino, co-founder and curator of Walter Presents, says that Channel 4 understood the concept right away. “They saw that it was a clear niche proposition that was not big enough for linear. But they understood the power of linear to drive OTT and their All 4 on-demand platform. They also saw the value of AVOD. We originally envisioned being behind a paywall.” According to Iuzzolino, the real differentiator for the Walter Presents brand is curation. There is so much content in the market that viewers have trouble finding something they want to watch. The proposition is about finding what viewers want for them. Walter Presents premieres the first episodes of new series on linear Channel 4 in a branded window. Then the whole series is available to binge-watch online. The broadcaster connection is critical. “Broadcast television has the marketing real estate,” Iuzzolino says. “You can be in millions of homes 24/7. That is a massive advantage.”
GAME DAY Another niche offering that is becoming increasingly important in the OTT space is sports, so much so that even global players like Amazon are getting involved. The platform bought a share of the U.K. rights to the English Premier League, the most valuable content in the British market, for Prime Video in the U.K. Leading sports-specialist digital agency Seven League, which advises many top rights owners including the likes of FC Barcelona, the Bundesliga, UFC and the NBA, has built a model that values this package at approximately £80 million. Sports rights are tricky because they come up for renewal with new bidding, and the appetite for sports can be very different based on the territory. But that can be a
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puhuTV is an OTT platform in Turkey that has begun commissioning originals such as Phi.
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Gaumont’s Nox premiered on Canal+ and then was made available on a catch-up basis on myCanal.
good thing because it enables Amazon to test how much various rights move the needle. They can experiment. If something works, they might want more, or if not, they can leave it. They can do the analysis directly from the data and correlate the rights cost to the value. So they can see precisely how, for example, The Man in the High Castle compares with the Premier League. In contrast, Netflix has said they are not interested in sports rights, and there is no indication that the policy is about to change. Amazon may also be dipping into sports as a differentiator from Netflix. DAZN, which is part of U.K.-based Perform Group, has raced to make itself the preeminent global OTT player in sports, with high-profile deals such as buying live Italian Serie A this season for Italy. Ex-ESPN chief John Skipper recently became executive chairman of Perform Group, which is controlled by Len Blavatnik, purportedly the wealthiest man in the U.K. “The model of a Netflix of sports is achievable,” says David Dellea, director and head of the sports business advisory at PwC. “If you have very broad reach and you pick up the rights, it may be possible for one player to achieve critical mass and move the needle in terms of the whole future of the market.”
SPORTS WARS A leading sports market consultant and insider at Perform who asked not be named says, “There is going to be a Netflix of sports that isn’t Netflix. The American view is that it’s all about content, and the center of the world for content is Hollywood. That may be true for movies and TV drama, but it’s not true for sports. The center of the world for sports is Europe and European football. A big difference between movies and TV drama is that there is a finite amount of sports available. The TV market for these rights is softening, and the rights owners of these sports are fed up with three-year deals. They want to see a longer-term commitment to their sports.” PwC’s Dellea reports that DAZN is buying “global non-exclusive rights, and it can geoblock where it has to. It’s not unlike buying movies. If you can buy highlights rights for everywhere and the rights are relatively
cheap, you can establish a product that gives consumers a decent level of access to content no matter where they are. You can then build from there. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel in sports. We have to watch the broader trends. Geographical exclusivity is the basis of the sports market and it is very difficult to break up exclusivity. That said, exclusivity is mainly about live rights. You have to make the transition to a global market with highlights.” With so many services available across Europe, the question of market saturation is an important one to answer. “We are in a period of unbundling,” says Charlie Beall, a senior consultant at Seven League. “When it comes to consumer tolerance to pay for entertainment, there is an upper limit. People may be willing to pay for two or three OTT services, and that would leave room for both Amazon and Netflix. It’s hard to see them paying for six or seven. So there is only a bit of space for niche products to squeeze in.” “There is quite a small tail in OTT,” adds Ovum’s Barton. “Selling yourself as a standalone subscriber service is extremely difficult. Many standalone services have horrible numbers, and it’s hard to see how they will survive. A lot of them could use an aggregation platform to climb onto.” In the view of Eurovision’s Matignon, smaller content owners can play in the OTT game. “Why not? There is no reason why, say, Studio 100 or Talpa couldn’t create a platform with their own content available on-demand.”
AGGREGATION OPPORTUNITY He agrees that aggregation is the likely direction of the market. “If you think about it, it’s what the cable and satellite players already do by offering bouquets. The key issue of OTT is going to be knowing which platform you can watch things on. If content owners are building their own OTT services, how can you find things? Netflix tried to be that facilitator or aggregator of content, then they started producing and owning content and got into another kind of competition.” Both Amazon and Netflix will have to soon allocate more funds to European content; the European Commission has mandated that at least 30 percent of operators’ slates must be from the region. That is very good news for European producers and distributors.
The Central and Eastern European OTT operator Pickbox has acquired content such as Kew Media’s British drama Line of Duty.
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When Alex Mahon was appointed chief executive of Channel 4 in 2017, she brought years of experience managing talent in the media and technology sectors. She had been CEO of Foundry, a special-effects software developer. Before that, she was at the helm of the Shine Group with business partner Elisabeth Murdoch. Recognizing the challenges broadcasters face today, including increasing competition from streaming services and digital companies, Mahon is encouraging the Channel 4 programming teams to take risks, focus on innovative shows and invest more in the All 4 on-demand service. She is also establishing a new headquarters and creative hubs outside London, to better reflect the entire population of the U.K. in front of, and behind, the camera. TV EUROPE: What is Channel 4’s mission in today’s media landscape and what does it offer that viewers can’t get anywhere else? MAHON: Channel 4 is unique in the media landscape. We’re the youngest public-service broadcaster in the world, an editorially independent creative business that operates at scale and exists to take creative risks with high-quality trusted, innovative and popular content. In an increasingly crowded landscape, we’re here to give viewers something that they won’t find elsewhere. To take more risks than others, to have a point of view on society and a place in society, to back new talent and new ideas and to represent all communities. At its best, Channel 4 can drive the national conversation. TV EUROPE: What balance do you and your programming teams aim for between drama, entertainment and factual programming? MAHON: We always want to have a blended mix of all genres, but of course with a clear and unique Channel 4 tone of voice and approach. Increasingly we’re blending the genres themselves. When you look at some of our most successful formats recently, such as The Island with Bear Grylls, SAS: Who Dares Wins and Hunted, they’re blurring the boundaries between factual and popular entertainment in new and exciting ways to huge global success. Scripted genres are, and will continue to be, an important part of our offer, too. We’ve made a new commitment to investing even more in comedy and drama. We’re continuing to look at how audiences want to watch, whether that’s across multiple platforms, in the way we released The End of the F***ing World on Channel 4 and All 4, or the phenomenal way the shorter-run four-part Kiri punched through earlier this year. TV EUROPE: What types of shows should Channel 4 be commissioning?
MAHON: We should be looking at new, fresh, innovative and exciting ideas—raising the bar creatively and taking some big risks. That’s what we’re here for. Take The Last Leg. Who else would have made a returnable, popular satirical entertainment show out of an idea for a latenight segment in coverage of the Paralympics? Who else would put a grime MC [rapper Big Narstie] in charge of a brand-new talk show, as we’ve done recently with The Big Narstie Show? Or give a YouTube critic his own review show on the main channel, as we’ve done with Elijah Quashie in Peng Life? Our shows should also have something to say about the world. In scripted this autumn, with The Bisexual and Pure— written by the fantastic Desiree Akhavan and Kirstie Swain, respectively—we’re tackling big issues like sexuality and mental illness in provocative, irreverent and sometimes shocking ways. TV EUROPE: What can linear channels do to remain relevant? How much innovation and risk-taking are required in programming? MAHON: Risk-taking, experimentation and innovation are all intrinsic to Channel 4, but in a world where there are almost infinite choices for viewers, it’s even more important that we have a clear editorial proposition—and that people know they can come to Channel 4 for something they won’t find in the same blend elsewhere. There’s something special about the immediacy of concurrent viewing that linear channels offer that just isn’t achievable behind a subscription VOD paywall. We’re also able to offer a combination of human editorial curation of fresh ideas on broadcast TV alongside algorithmic recommendation on digital All 4, and they both feed each other. That combination is something that you don’t get on streaming services or social media, and that layer of creative expertise [needed] to curate an experience for our viewers is incredibly important as we seek to bring viewers new ideas. TV EUROPE: What is the role of acquired programming in the Channel 4, E4 and More4 schedules? MAHON: Channel 4 and E4 have always been about a blended mix of high-quality, U.K.-produced originations and the very best from the rest of the world. The Handmaid’s Tale, for example, has something powerful to say about the world. And this summer [we partnered] with Showtime to bring a talent we originally launched on Channel 4, Sacha Baron Cohen, back to the channel with his provocative and mischievous Who Is America? TV EUROPE: How are you evolving the All 4 service? MAHON: We’re investing a lot more in All 4 to build the scale of the offer for viewers and improve the experience for them when they’re using the service.
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By Anna Carugati
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First launched to run alongside the 2012 Summer Paralympics, The Last Leg is now in its 14th season on Channel 4.
When we commission content now, we’re also looking carefully at how it’s going to be consumed across all our platforms and how we can experiment more with windowing and box sets, and even better reflect the different ways people are watching. We’ve also been looking at innovative partnerships to build the scale of the service, and in the last couple of months, we announced a major new deal with VICE to bring more than 900 hours of programming, including 200 hours of new content, to All 4 in a new youth-focused branded hub. TV EUROPE: Tell us about Channel 4’s plans for a new headquarters outside London. MAHON: This is about representation and how Channel 4 can better reflect all the U.K. After the EU referendum, there was a clear sense of disenfranchisement across many areas of the U.K., outside of the southeast particularly, and it became clear to us that as a publicly owned broadcaster, we needed to think about how we respond to that. At the heart of what we’ve committed to is a move to spend 50 percent of our production investment in the nations and regions [encompassing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland], which is an extra £250 million over the next five years, and I hope this will be transformative in terms of the regional creative economy, but also in regional representation in front of, and behind, the camera. The second part is about making sure we have the right infrastructure in place to support that increase in spending, so we’re establishing a new national headquarters and two new creative hubs across the U.K. They’ll contain both
commissioners and staff from across many areas of our business. And [we’re] moving our programming, including co-anchoring Channel 4 News from the nations and regions [bureaux] and launching a new daily program there. I’ve visited regions across the U.K. as part of the process over the last few months, and I’ve been phenomenally impressed with the caliber of talent outside London and the impact we could make. Despite being a relatively small organization, you see what a totemic cultural and creative value Channel 4 has and what huge impact we could create. TV EUROPE: What is the advertising climate in the U.K.? MAHON: The television ad market has been incredibly resilient despite the political uncertainty over the last two years. After a dip in late 2016 and early 2017, we’ve seen growth at the end of last year and in the first half of 2018. We’re optimistic about the rest of the year. TV EUROPE: What prospects for growth do you see for the Channel 4 group in the next 12 to 24 months? MAHON: In an era of digital competition and new distribution models, where consumers have an oversupply of content, I think our role and the role of U.K. public-service broadcasters is more important than ever. We can deliver trusted, high-quality, independent and impartial news at scale—you only have to look at the impact that Channel 4 News had with its Cambridge Analytica investigation to see how valuable that can be and how that can cut through in an era of echo chambers, social media and fake news. I think that sense of British democratic values is perhaps more important now than it has been at any time in Channel 4’s history.
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