MIPCOM was held this week, bringing together some of the leaders in the industry for conferences, meetings and screenings. Exploring MIPCOM’s 2016 theme, “The New Television”, many of the conferences over the four days covered the exciting increase in non-linear viewing and evolving content for online and mobile platforms.
Leading the first conference Joachim Stephan, senior partner and MD of The Boston Consulting Group, discussed the value of content amid this trend toward new digital distribution channels. Stephan highlighted that the emerging online and mobile space “triggers and drives – new watching behaviour of consumers, especially in the area of nonlinear viewing,” he stresses, “these players do not have to rely on infrastructure players, or operate a physical infrastructure, [or] a physical network.”
Time-shifted viewing and catch-up TV reimagine the linear schedule but true video on-demand breaks away from the linear schedule. The Boston Consulting group presented figures at the conference showing that non-linear content is set to rise to 50% by 2019.
The end of linear TV?
According to the Online Video Forecasts, a report by ZenithOptimedia, projected that the average amount of time spent each day consuming video online increased by 23.3% in 2015 and is set to increase by a further 19.8% this year.
Subscription Video-on-demand (S-VOD) users are causing the real revolution with the rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. And with the news that, Charlie Brookers latest Black Mirror is no longer to be broadcast on Channel 4 but limited to members of Netflix, it demonstrates how content is continually being relocated online and watched on viewer’s time. Brooker claims “Streaming platforms are ideal home for anthology shows, because it is like a film festival, or an album, or a book of short stories: there is one place and you can eat at your leisure.”
What does this mean for production companies?
Indeed, while permitting viewing flexibility, online content can also allow producers more creative freedom from scheduling and broadcasting restrictions.
Rogan Productions is currently producing a 3-part series for BBC Three called Refugee Diaries, following Thaer, a young man escaping conflict in Syria and seeking refuge in Britain. There was uproar when BBC Three moved online in February this year, but since has delivered diverse and riveting user-led content. Damian Kavanagh, controller of BBC Three stressed, “It’s the same award-winning programmes freed from the constraints of linear TV, and because we’re freed from the schedule we can use whatever format and platform is most appropriate.”
Online content is extremely versatile and can be shown on multiple platforms. Increasingly, brands are using this social marketing strategy, such as Balvenie commissioning the online series The Craftsmen’s Dinner. Read more about branded content here.
It is clear television is now multi-platform, watching on-demand is soaring and more millennials are preferring their mobile screen to the TV screen. Linear television still remains key but as the conferences at MIPCOM have highlighted, we need to acknowledge this trend and adapt content accordingly in the shifting landscape.
This year three of our films were at MIPCOM including Waiting for invasion, The Confession and The Gun Shop.
This article was written by Lottie Rose Webb.
