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The K7 Media Blog

Why Channel 4 Recommissioned The Bank Job
Written by K7 Team Member keri
On Thursday, 26 January, 2012 - 16:07
The Bank Job Image

Were you surprised when Endemol’s THE BANK JOB was recommissioned by Channel 4 so quickly?

In case you missed it earlier this month, THE BANK JOB is a live game show in which four contestants compete inside a bank vault to win a case of money. They must correctly answer questions and judge when to leave the vault or risk being eliminated from the game.

The game aired as a week-long event in early January and although the overnight ratings were fine, it was not exactly a smash hit in the conventional sense. So why is Channel 4 rushing it back on screen in February?

Quite simply, in the world of convergent formats, it is no longer possible for overnight TV ratings to tell the full story (and BARB needs to hurry up with delivering its new multi-platform measurement data). Everyone agrees THE BANK JOB was a multi-platform hit.

In advance of the game show airing on Channel 4, the broadcaster launched a companion web game, developed by Glasgow-based Chunk Games which was a massive success with the online game community and casual players alike. In the first week, over half a million head-to-head tournament games were played at www.thebankjob.tv/
Not only was the online game addictive, but it was the only way to apply for the TV show. Once a player won two games, they could unlock the application form.
One of Channel 4’s key strategies this year is to ‘engage directly with individual viewers’ rather than broadcast to anonymous audiences.

As soon as you sign up to play THE BANK JOB online, Channel 4 knows your name and email address and, if you are happy to tell them, your gender and where you live. Previously, it was left to Amazon, Google and Apple to create complicated algorithms from our personal data. But advertisers now expect TV broadcasters to have a far closer relationship with their audiences than ever before and offer more integrated ad opportunities across several platforms.

As Channel 4’s Multiplatform Commissioning Lead, Louise Brown says, ‘Every commission should teach us more about our audience through data tracking and collection and actively improve our relationship with viewers’.

Series two will air in February, but this time, players will have to win three tournaments, rather than two, in order to unlock the application form.
As Louise Brown adds ‘In terms of entertainment potential you’ve only just seen the start of The Bank Job’.

Norwegian Delegation to Explore MediaCityUK Success
Written by K7 Team Member helen
On Friday, 6 January, 2012 - 13:41
Monica Maeland - Norwegian Delegation to Explore MediaCityUK Success

K7 Media is bringing a high-level Norwegian delegation to Salford next week (11-12 January). TV2, Norway’s largest commercial TV enterprise, is looking to create a media cluster similar to that at Salford, in Bergen on Norway’s west coast.

The team of 30 delegates includes Monica Maeland, Chief Commissioner and Head of the City Government of Bergen, Alf Hildrum, Managing Director and Editor in Chief, TV2 and Grethe Gynnild-Johnsen, Director of Regions NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) as well as a senior team of three from the University of Bergen led by Deputy Director General, Tore Tungodden. Broadcaster TV2 has drafted in K7 Media to facilitate and manage the fact-finding trip.

The delegation will meet with senior representatives from Peel Media, the Manchester Digital Development Agency and the BBC. Andy Waters, Head of Studios, MediaCityUK will show the visitors the new studio complex which incorporates the largest high definition facilities in Europe.

The team from Norway will look to gain insight into the relationship between the developer, occupiers and public sector bodies. They will also look at how the BBC has managed its relocation.

For further information contact helen.cooper@k7media.co.uk

The Cowell Factor
Written by K7 Team Member sophie
On Tuesday, 13 December, 2011 - 15:03
Simon Cowell Image

The X Factor. I hear those words and I feel a little buzz inside. Ever since talent shows surfaced in the UK with the likes of Popstars and Pop Idol I associate the all-singing extravaganzas with warm nostalgia. Girly nights in with wine and fondu, campaign badge making in physics lessons (with the teacher's permission of course) and tantrums after heated debate on our favourite acts. Watching these shows has always been an event. I still get a phone call from my mum every Monday to discuss our thoughts on the weekend's results. However conversations are increasingly resembling "Weren't the acts awful? What was she wearing? Why do we still watch it?!" Like one of thousands, I've vowed on Twitter to boycott on several occasions. 

Arguably this year's X Factor has had the most controversy in its seven year history. The show is now affectionately known as "The Fix Factor", judge feuds are still dominating celebrity tabloids and eliminated acts just keep clawing their way back into the competition thanks to misbehavers. This series has also come under huge scrutiny for its supposed ratings slump. Audience figures were down by 3.5 million on last year's final, but isn't the media industry now saying ratings aren't important? We now rely so much on catch-up services and online viewing that live viewing is no longer a sole measurement of success. 

Similar concerns have previously been raised over Cowell's other global creation, Got Talent. Next year the mogul will be returning to the revamped UK judging panel having previously sacrificed his chair for commitments in the US. His return will inevitably satisfy the British public, but is the success of shows like The X Factor and Got Talent completely dependent on his televised presence? When The X Factor was taken stateside we took part in months of speculation over the UK and US judging panel before either show had even launched. Perhaps Cowell is cunning enough to stimulate world discussion, or maybe the strength of the format has combined with the tremendous power of Twitter to create ongoing hype.

No matter what the subject, the public are always scrutinising and Twitter now acts as a far greater voice of scrutiny than any other medium. As soon as a story has broken it's trending. As soon as it's trending it's headline news. The fact is, everyone is still talking about it and everyone's got an opinion. Good or bad, it's still publicity. If the public really had given up on the show would it still attract so much attention? I know I'll criticise, I know I'll embrace the media circus, but I also know that next year I will watch it. And I imagine the rest of the British public just might do the same. Well we do need something to talk about...

EUROVISION TV LAB - A LIFELINE FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTERS?
Written by K7 Team Member keri
On Thursday, 3 November, 2011 - 09:24

In the past, if you wanted to express your love or loathing for a TV show, you had to write a letter to the programme makers, remember to post it and wait six weeks for a reply, if you were lucky.

It’s a bit easier now.  Many TV programmes encourage their viewers to join a Facebook page or share their opinions on Twitter.  Part of the fun of watching a show is now seeing what other viewers are saying about it in real time.  As a programme maker, if you are brave enough, you can see what people think of your show as it goes out.

But isn’t it a bit late once the show is on air? Wouldn’t it be better if we asked the audience directly what they think of a show before it’s commissioned?

This is the bold thinking behind the Dutch ‘TV Lab’ experiment to air a season of cutting-edge pilots and ask a viewing panel to help decide which should be picked up for a series.

The concept was dreamed up by Nederland 3’s Roek Lips, who launched the project in 2009 and has now, with the help of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), started to roll out the idea across Europe.

He describes the project as the “future way of interacting with the audience, providing them with the programmes they want”.

Members of the EBU who wish to shake up their schedules are asked to contribute at least one pilot for the pool.  So far, ZDF Neo, VRT and RTV Slovenia are all on board.

The Dutch public broadcaster has created a tool called ‘TV Lab Buzz’ which analyses audience reactions to the different pilots by gathering information from Twitter, Facebook likes, website hits and online visits.

Bettina Brinkmann, Head of EBU Arts, Entertainment & Fiction comments “This is only the beginning – especially for younger audiences who want their views to be heard. We can obtain an increasingly clear picture of what people want to see on TV.”

Budgets for public broadcasters are under pressure across Europe.  The BBC has just been forced by the UK government to slash its spending by 20% and 2000 jobs are to go.

With less money available, it is essential for public broadcasters to commission wisely and provide the programming that its young viewers actually want to watch.  By creating a TV Lab event, broadcasters can engage directly with their audience, attract huge publicity to the channel and help generate an exciting stream of contemporary formats.

So come on Channel Managers – don’t phone your friends or take a chance on 50:50 – it’s time to ask the audience!

For further information about the Eurovision TV Lab Bettina Brinkmann, Head of EBU Entertainment, Fiction & Arts: brinkmann@ebu.ch

NRK MAKES WAVES WITH HURTIGRUTEN
Written by K7 Team Member keri
On Wednesday, 2 November, 2011 - 10:44
HURTIGRUTEN

I love Event TV. I enjoy knowing that a show is being shared around the world in real time whether it’s the World Cup Final or the Eurovision Song Contest.

That’s why I’m so impressed with NRK2’s recent ratings hit Hurtigruten Minute by Minute which saw the broadcast of an entire five day boat trip along the Norwegian coast in what is known as ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Sea Voyage’.

There were no penalty shoot-outs, no evictions and no record contracts, just miles and miles of rolling sea, breathtaking fjords and midnight sun.   It was a serene experience for viewers and the perfect antidote to noisy editing.

The 134 hour transmission delivered an all-time ratings high for NRK2 with up to 41% market share on a channel that normally sees a share of just 5%. Nearly three million Norwegians watched some of the broadcast and around 190,000 viewers followed the whole journey.

Meanwhile, the voyage turned into a TV roadshow as huge crowds and brass bands turned up along the route to wave flags and welcome the ship as it stopped at each harbour.  Even Queen Sonja turned up in The Royal Yacht just before the final stop at Kirkenes.

Well that’s fine for the Norwegians you are thinking, but what about the rest of us?

I first heard about #hurtigruten on Twitter and discovered that NRK was streaming the trip live on the web so that viewers around the world could take part in the cruise.

Through NRK’s Flash site, virtual seafarers were able to chat to fellow passengers on Twitter and Facebook, navigate maps, use real time data about the ship’s position and even follow the trip in 3D through the Google Earth plug-in.

If you have a spare five days, you can still see the entire journey here.

The free spirit of the voyage can be seen as a metaphor for the openness of NRK in sharing their beautiful content with the world and their forward-thinking approach to Digital Rights Management.

Instead of locking up their content, they are already making some of their series available DRM-free through BitTorrent in the belief that the best way to control material is to be the best provider of it.

‘If people want it on BitTorrent then you should provide that. If you do it right people will come to your official publish point and you’ll end up with more control’ states the broadcaster.

The voyage may be over but NRK wants the Hurtigruten project to live on through the international community. If you are feeling creative, take a look at the NRKbeta blog here because the most imaginative mash-up from the virtual boat trip wins a genuine trip to Norway!