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New revenues, existing content

Valerie | 31 Aug 2009, 20:44

Content businesses are under increasing pressure to generate new business models and drive revenue streams. However, some companies are finding benefit in maximising the value of existing content.

Universal Music Group announced last week that it has acquired the rights to Frank Sinatra’s Reprise catalogue outside North America after it struck a long-term deal with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, a joint venture between the Sinatra family and Warner Music Group. Under the agreement, Universal gains the rights to thirty-eight albums, alongside select new releases and distribution rights for 14 audio-visual programmes on DVD.

Similarly Viacom, the owner of MTV and VH1 is betting on the Beatles’ 1960’s hits to attract new players and revive sales of its ‘The Beatles: Rock Band’  game franchise after falling purchases of earlier versions led to a 41 percent drop in second-quarter revenue at the division that includes games.

Launching on 9th September and in a bid to challenge Activision’s successful ‘Guitar Hero’, Viacom’s offering will come with 45 remastered songs, including tracks from the band’s Ed Sullivan Show appearances. The band’s label, EMI Group Ltd., will issue remastered CDs the same day and collect royalties from game sales.

A number of additional third parties stand to benefit from the deal. In addition to EMI, Viacom will pay royalties to Apple Corps and Michael Jackson’s estate, through its part ownership of Lennon-McCartney songs, also will receive a portion.

Nostalgia has been a successful tool for brands during the recession and betting on the selling power of two musical greats – remastered and brought alive for a new generation is surely win-win for everybody – distributors, as well as content creators.

New anti P2P piracy proposals for Digital Britain consultation

Andrew | 28 Aug 2009, 12:16

New ideas for action against unlawful peer-to-peer file-sharing were added by the UK Government this week to its ongoing consultation on copyright piracy.

Stephen Timms, the Minister for Digital Britain, is seeking views on three new proposals: powers for the Secretary of State to direct Ofcom into action, the addition of account suspension as a measure of last resort against hard core unlawful file-sharers, and including the arrangements for sharing the costs of action on the face of the legislation. .

The UK Government sees potential in the proposals to allow for swifter action to protect rights holders and more flexibility to respond in the face of unpredictable technological advances.

Others see things differently, with some ISPs, politicians and human rights groups reacting angrily online and in the media to what they see as heavy-handed intervention at a late stage of an already complex debate.

It’s essential that views from every angle are submitted via the illicit peer-to-peer file-sharing consultation — for which the deadline has been extended by two weeks to 29 September 2009.

Even after that date, it seems unlikely that the furore over file-sharing legislation will die down. But, given the promise being shown by new business models like Spotify and the deal between Virgin Media and Universal, it’s essential that the noise coming from one contentious area doesn’t drown out the wider debate around securing creative rights — one of the four key themes for the c&binet forum conference in October.

Channel 4 announces creative overhaul

Valerie | 27 Aug 2009, 10:20

As we bid farewell to Big Brother – the long running show that turned reality TV into a global phenomenon, the final series of which will be broadcast next year – Channel 4 has indicated it will use the axing as an opportunity for the biggest creative overhaul in its 25-year history.

The Guardian reports that with up to 200 hours of peak-time airtime to fill from 2011 on the main network and digital entertainment service E4, the broadcaster will now focus on an overhaul of the programming lineup and a refocus on its public service broadcasting remit, including allocating an extra £20m a year for other TV genres such as drama.

Channel 4’s director of television and content Kevin Lygo said of the decision:

“Big Brother is still profitable for C4 despite its reduced popularity, and there could have been the option to renew it on more favourable terms. That’s what a purely commercial broadcaster would have done, but C4 has a public remit to champion new forms of creativity.”

The Channel 4 announcement comes as senior industry figures from the international television and media industry gather later this week to discuss the future of the sector at the annual Edinburgh Television festival. Issues to be discussed range from finding ways to generate new sources of revenue to the future of public service broadcasting and what opportunities are available for programme makers, channels and brands amidst technological advances and in the current economic climate.

The recession has hit advertising revenues hard, which has fallen steadily from a 2005 peak of £3.85 billion, according to Deloitte’s annual ‘state of the industry’ report. With the decline for 2009 expected to be as much as 17 percent year on year, broadcasters are being forced to re-evaluate their priorities.

Endemol’s chief executive and c&binet ambassador Tim Hincks sees the recession as a trigger to “start thinking slightly bigger picture and about the issues that are swirling round”.  Speaking to the Guardian earlier this week, he said:

“We are feeling the pressure and feeling the pinch. There’s no question that broadcasters’ budgets are down and we are making more for less.

“People are literally thinking about survival and looking for help and looking for ideas”.

Industry Trust: Working together in a brave new digital world

Valerie | 25 Aug 2009, 08:00

C&binet comment: Liz Bales, Director General of the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness

Liz Bales discusses business models for the digital age and highlights the importance of providing legitimate alternatives to illegal filesharing.

The ‘digital revolution’ is at once a great opportunity and a great threat to the film and television industries.  As broadband speeds and capacity increase, so too will the opportunities to download films at ever greater speeds and convenience: the challenge for our industry is to harness this opportunity and develop innovative and sustainable content services which are attractive to consumers.

As with the rest of the internet, there is a desire for unlimited film content, free at the point of use. If this expectation is not met or not challenged, consumers will increasingly turn to unofficial downloading.  It is a critical issue, as ours is an expensive industry, reliant on ticket and DVD sales to fund future investment and to sustain Britain’s world class workforce.

Clearly, the film industry needs to keep adapting, seeking new ways to provide legal alternatives that are accessible and represent good value in consumers’ eyes.  For instance, the launch of ‘FindAnyFilm’, a UK Film Council project, earlier this year, was a positive step towards making it easier to download legally. It is an online search engine which signposts legal content, from downloads to DVDs, and gives the public the option to sort their results by price (http://www.findanyfilm.co.uk).  In this new digital world, such initiatives are crucial if we are to divert consumers away from unofficial sources, like the recently prosecuted Pirate Bay, and towards legitimate alternatives.

More than this though, we need to create an environment where consumers respect and value the contribution made by the content industry and where that is underlined by a supportive regulatory framework, giving consumers a clear benchmark of appropriate behaviour.

Annual research suggests consumer education campaigns can make a difference. After two years of the Trust’s pro-copyright initiatives, for example, the number of UK consumers who think unofficial downloads and file-sharing are wrong has doubled (from 34% in May 2007 to 70% in December 2008).  Moreover, Lord Carter’s recently published Digital Britain Report contained some encouraging steps towards stronger online regulation, something the industry has been calling for.

Collectively, industry, government and our wider society needs to appreciate the value of creative industries.  It will be a significant undertaking, but it is crucial that consumers come to realise that there can be no such thing as a free lunch, even on the internet. In fact, they have a stake in the industry and by not consuming in an authorised way they are making a direct impact.  The general public is part of the problem and the solution – if we all learn to work together, this brave new digital world will be full of exciting possibilities.

What can c&binet achieve?

Andrew | 24 Aug 2009, 14:01

C&binet comment: Siôn Simon, Minister for Creative Industries

What is the point of c&binet?

That is the one of the first questions I put to DCMS civil servants when I was appointed Minister for the Creative Industries in June.

There was a commitment in Creative Britain to develop a World Creative Business Conference as ‘a platform for leaders in the creative and financial sectors to develop a deeper engagement and dialogue’.

Which is great.  But what does it mean?

There is no point in bringing together the best creative people from around the world - in person and online - with just the hope that serendipitous discoveries emerge from the craic.

The c&binet Ambassadors are big players in the sector. The cast list for the forum in October is already looking impressive.

But we still need to be going into the conference prepared to extract from them real value in terms of their thinking on growth and investment in the creative sector globally, and greater reward for creative talent and entrepreneurship.

In the run up to the forum I want to use this space to help define what it is that you in the creative industries want to see happen as a result of the c&binet forum.

The copyright debate rages on. What actually is the best course of action for industry? For governments? For emerging web entrepreneurs?

What is needed to get cash flowing into creative businesses, to attract and sustain investment?

When advertising doesn’t work, what business models do?

What exactly do businesses need to do more of to harness skills and nurture talent - and what should we agree to do less?

What should governments do? If anything?

The point of c&binet is to make progress, to shape change. So let’s get on with it.

3-D – coming to a TV near you soon

Valerie | 21 Aug 2009, 08:00

Getty Images

Much has been made of HD technologies in the film and gaming industries but as a recent article in the Wall Street Journal illustrates, the next big thing to hit our screens will be 3-D – but not as we know it.

This might conjure up images of watching blurry films through coloured spectacles but if the hype is to be believed, a spate of new films to be released in the format this year are heralding a new age of cinema and a rebirth of 3-D technology.

Led by the imminent release of James Cameron’s eagerly anticipated science fiction blockbuster Avatar, which was unveiled at the Comic-con International Convention in San Diego last month,  the surrounding hype has already been likened to that of the first Harry Potter film. Other films to be released this year in the 3-D format include Ice Age 3 and GForce. So is all the hype justified?

According to this BBC article, the technique has come a long way since the first experiments in 1915. Although, it was not until the 1950s that Hollywood tried it out on audiences threatening to be kept away by their televisions. The technique then made a comeback in the 70s and 80s, possibly as a reaction to falling audiences at the time when home video was becoming popular.

But it seems that the technology is much more sophisticated than in the past - the installation of digital projectors in cinemas means sharper and steadier images. And as the Times reports, ten British cinemas a week are upgrading to the digital projection systems necessary to show the 3-D films to their full effect.  Rupert Gavin, chief executive officer of Odeon cinemas, says the new 3-D technology is the breakthrough film fans have been waiting for.

And it seems that 3-D is reaching beyond the projectors to our TV screens, with the recent announcement from Sky that it is preparing to debut a 3-D television channel in the U.K. next year that will require specially-equipped TV sets. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sky plans to film and deliver its own exclusive 3-D content using existing HD set-top boxes used by more than 1.3 million of its pay-TV customers in the U.K in a venture that may be the most ambitious yet toward a large-scale 3-D television rollout, which remains absent from most big markets outside of Japan.

The 3-D onslaught won’t come without challenges – like the upgrade to 3-D cinema projectors, some programme including Sky’s will require expensive 3-D-ready television sets.

As this blog argues, it’s perhaps all too easy to believe that 3-D is being used more to hamper pirates than it is to thrill fans - few of the 3-D films of the recent era use the technology to enhance their storytelling power. 

Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of blockbuster hits from Bad Boys to Transformers who has been experimenting with 3-D echoes this point:
“You can have all the technology and special effects you can afford, but in the end it’s a story that captures the imagination and characters you love or hate that count.”