It was the Digital Content Forum in London this week and the message was clear for conventional TV producers – you both embrace social and digital platforms or face lean instances.
There had been some key takeaways. UK-based ITV Studios shared the way it has generated enormous views for a George Clooney clip from its archive, providing hope to IP homeowners. Delegates additionally heard a slowdown in commissioning within the UK has created alternative for digital-first prodcos. And the likes of TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and Twitch broke down their content material methods.
The temper was upbeat as digital producers, commissioners, platforms and creators gathered within the British Film Institute’s dwelling on London’s South Bank for the occasion. The gathering is billed as Europe’s main occasion for the digital-first video business and is organized by the group behind the TellyCast business podcast. The digital crowd sensed alternative as the normal TV enterprise continues to faces powerful instances.
“TV is in a pickle,” mentioned Matt Campion, founding father of UK indie Spirit Studios. Spirit produces for a spread of platforms in addition to conventional broadcasters and Campion added: “Every time I speak to another indie at [TV industry confabs] MIP or Edinburgh TV Festival, it’s doom and gloom. This room is different, it feels exciting. You can see that shift now and where we’re going with content… it is probably scary if you haven’t got your foot in this door.”
TikTok & Snapchat
TikTok’s UK Head of Publisher Partnerships and Operations, Ed Lindeman, mentioned the platform will assist creators who need to get into mainstream TV.
“We really want to support them with that transition,” he mentioned. “For us as a platform it then tells the story that if you start out as a creator on TikTok, you can be the next Amelia Dimoldenberg and become the next presenter of the Oscars red carpet.” Dimoldenberg is the creator of hit digital sequence Chicken Shop Dates and was the official pink carpet correspondent at this 12 months’s Oscars.
Lindeman added that movie and TV corporations ought to be “knitting creators into their marketing strategies,” and added: “We’re seeing the IP owners – and particularly we’ve noticed major film studios in the U.S. – really leaning into that process, especially around those red carpet moments, which are becoming incredibly viral on social platforms.”
Snap’s Head of UK Partnerships, Lucy Luke, mentioned views of content material from its verified creators – referred to as Snap Stars – was up 55% this 12 months. She inspired TV manufacturers to glean classes from this cohort, who sometimes publish continuously and share their lives on Snapchat.
“The episodic content that a lot of our [TV] publishers are still doing is reaching great audiences, but I’d encourage our broadcasters to also lean into that public story format as well, that kind of daily behind the scenes content.” She gave the instance of Alison Hammond, a presenter on ITV daytime present This Morning, who’s a Snap Star and posts from the set of the favored broadcast present.
A Trip to the Zoo With George Clooney
ITV Studios Ruth Berry and Graham Haigh had been on the town to speak in regards to the firm’s newly minted digital label Zoo 55. The latter gave an instance of how IP-owners can mine their archives to seek out success on digital. He singled out a clip of George Clooney speaking about pranking Brad Pitt on Graham Norton’s BBC talkshow nearly a decade in the past.
“That was a clip that was posted originally nine years ago,” he mentioned. “We put it in vertical format, put it onto Facebook, and it has delivered nearly 13 million views in the last few weeks.”
For a clip from the So Television-produced talkshow that’s not a file breaker – many others have double-digit tens of millions of views on YouTube – however racking up 13 million views in such a brief area of time is what made the Clooney clip noteworthy for Haigh.
Commissioning Slowdown creates alternative
Sam Barcroft, in the meantime, was sometimes forthright in a session about documentaries with digital-first prodcos Zandland, Quintus Studios, Seen.TV and The B1M.
He established Barcroft Media, which majored in viral shortfom video for its personal YouTube channels and was bought to Future for $30 million in 2019. Barcroft mentioned a slowdown within the commissioning of factual programming opens the door to the digital specialists promoting content material to conventional gamers.
“I heard something at MIP I have been predicting for over a decade; there’s not much content for people to buy,” Barcroft mentioned. “There is a gulf because no TV commissioners are commissioning any more. There’s this big opportunity with channels saying: ‘Oh my god, I’ve got f**k all to put on my channel on Sunday at 9 o’clock, please can someone sell me something to fill that.’”