Discovery goes free to air

Discovery have secured a slot on Freeview, which will be used to screen the factual and entertainment programming which has made the network famous. I’ve not heard anything about what it’s to be called, but for me it’s a bold and very exciting move.

Discovery had previously agreed to supply factual and entertainment content for Sky’s ‘Picnic’ Freeview service. Picnic though was canned earlier in the year and Discovery have clearly decided it’s time for their content to get a wider airing.

...And bravo to them. Its a big step. Discovery’s whole model is pay TV; the business is geared to deliver large numbers of impacts – no-matter what the flavour. Moving onto Freeview presents all kinds of interesting challenges for the network.

Networks who deliver general impacts have limited commercial need in appealing to sought after audiences (clearly non core income streams are the exception here). As such the programming supported on air and ATL tends to be mass market – and doesn’t need to be terribly aspirational. As soon as a network starts chasing premium audiences all this changes.
I think there’s an interesting parallel hear to MTV and TMF.

MTV launched TMF in the wake of the ITV digital debarcle. The aim was to gain a free to air footprint to compliment the main channels. Today TMF is the larger channel and presents some interesting questions for the network going forward.

MTV had the advantage that their content is (in the main)short form – music videos, which means that they are able to show the same things on both channels without consumers feeling ripped off for having to pay for MTV when TMF is free.

So this is the question for Discovery, how do you brand a free to air channel whilst preserving the premium nature of your existing network?

It’ll also be interesting to see what becomes of their flagship shows currently re-airing on terrestrial...

All in all a bold and exciting move.

In praise of Cbeebies

I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the past talking about commercial TV stations, their various machinations, positionings and evolutions. So I thought I should expend a few minutes singing the praises of one of our license funded channels which I’ve recently begun to spend a lot of time with and which I think manages to achieve something most commercial offerings fail on.

I'm talking about Cbeebies.

I believe that TV stations (and indeed all brands) prosper when they put the needs of their consumers at the heart of their business. Weird as it may sound I’ve sat around tables with television professionals, deciding on new directions for their channels without any real insight (beyond the qualitative) into the lifestyles and needs of their target.

I’ve no idea what research/insight/genius was tapped when Cbeebies was first cooked up... but it’s great. It mirrors almost perfectly the lifestyle and needs of its consumers – the tots and their parents, not just in tone, but in programming, scheduling and well... here are some examples:
Cbeebies kicks off with some involving, primary coloured high jinks – stuff that’ll keep your tots wrapped up while you tidy up after brekkie, or whatever it is you do early on.

At 12 – the time when nearly every mum/dad times their kids main protein feed, they have a lunch hour. Preceded by the magnificent ‘In the Night Garden’ and opened by a ‘time for lunch’ song, which has my young daughter rubbing her belly and doing the baby sign for food.
The afternoon builds with big fun time, a mix of high tempo stuff and gentle entertainment – some of the programming is unmissable. I recommend ‘Nuzzle and Scratch’ (available on the iplayer should you want it), - a reworking of the classic chuckle brothers formula, with Alpacas – genius; as well as ‘Space Pirates’ – go online and check the theme tune.

The day closes with gentle programming and bedtime stories.

In short it mirrors the day perfectly. Strikes the right note, and has programming that delivers on all its promises.

It’s not necessarily something that could be repeated by a commercial player – the fact that there are no ads for example ads to the sense of trust. However there is loads that can be learnt about building a schedule that fits the needs of your viewers.

UKTV rebrandarama

I am a simple man, and frequently in marketing it pays to be simple. It means the more complicated things go sailing happily by whilst I can still enjoy the less highbrow side of life. Recently though I’ve been getting a bit confused. You see, UKTV are at it again, rebranding channels left right and centre, in line with their – ‘give it a new name and a sense of direction’ strategy which worked so well for Dave.
Where are we so far... Dave a channel for blokes like me (pretty good but wearing a little thin on material now).
Watch... some things that are great to Watch apparently. Hmmmm ok. It’s snappy and does what it says on the tin.
Eden... some inspirational programmes about Earth.
I like this. It’s all good concise stuff and UKTV surely needs to do something before we all switch over to digital and switch off to the networks message. My interest in all this is to do with babies and bathwater... which is to say; surely the network added something to consumer understanding.
I mean fine we’ll still have on air navigation which should help a bit, but as a consumer getting messages for Eden on Dave or Watch on Dave or Eden or whatever, doesn’t I think present a coherent family of channels.
I think that in a digital age it is of vital importance that a network exhibits strong network behaviour, and that this behaviour is reflective of what the group of channels stands for. It allows for a much bigger conversation.
The real problem for UKTV wasn’t a lack of direction for their channels; it was that their network had no sense of purpose. Rebranding the stations is a neat trick, and will work in the short term (at least until fresh, desirable programming dries up), But to my mind it is a job half done.
Oh and I still can’t hear watch without seeing lumps of plastacine whirling around to flute music.

UKTV have announced the new name for Gold +1... 'Watch'. And after the success of the Dave rebrand last year, the announcement of 'Watch' has come in for some stick - and I think with good reason.

Before I go into my own thoughts, lets dwell on UKTV's other announced rebrand - Alibi for a second. This is a strong identity and in a sector (documentary channels) which has been undergoing massive upheavels it should prosper. Older, downmarket female audeinces love Crime, and the old model of getting your fix on Five and Discovery is shifting... The Crime Channel has come in to take a bite of Disco's pie, and Five's serving of Crime docs (and drama) is just popularising more specialised digital offerings.
Its fairly clear what you get on Alibi, so its not open to criticism on that count. The only weakness for me is the lack of a clear link to the parent brand - this isn't necessarily a massive problem though, and is in fact reflective of UKTVs strategy - on air trails will link navigation around thier family of channels.

So back to Watch.

I don't like it.
Industry commentators have largely pointed to the fact that the name doesn't reflect the content, and I agree that this is a problem for smaller channels (note that different channels on differing platorms need to behaive in different ways). Every brand - including TV brands need to put the needs of their consumers first and for a TV brand, one of the biggest consumer needs is knowing what to expect from your channel. I'd go further than most buyers though and argue that as well as overlooking their viewing consumer, UKTV have also overlooked thier media audeince.

TV brands aren't just selling to consumers, they're selling to agencies too.
I don't see how Watch would ever become integral to a media or coms strategy. I can see how Dave might... 'the home of witty banter' fits well with trends in lads lives... 'a place to watch... things' does not.

Broadly speaking there are two types of TV channel from a planning point of view: Ones which must be on your plan (because they fit the strategy) and make weights, ones which get on the schedule purely becasue they happen to be there. For me UKTV Gold +1's rebrand was a chance to move away from the big bucket of impacts that so many also ran channels supply and give planners and buyers a reason to put it on the plan for its own merits. Calling it Watch doesn't do that and as such is a mistake.


To me, Watch was a late 70's history show for kids with a natty dancing plasticine intro. Younger readers will have no idea what I'm talking about - check out TV Cream if you want some heady nostalgia.

To thousands of UKTV viewers as well as the media industry... well I'm not to sure what it will mean.

Google and Family Guy's creator reinvent... some stuff

‘We have reinvented the mass media!’ - really? Well not really, but Google and Family Guy co-creator Seth Macfarlane are having a pretty good crack at it.

Yesterday it was announced that Seth, was entering into a partnership with Google to distribute his new project ‘Cavalcade of Comedy’ through their adnetwork Adsense.
The big switch being that now an ad-network becomes a mass broadcast media…

Lost Remote have nice topline piece on it.

…and here’s me thinking that it always has been.

‘…The partnership with Mr. MacFarlane represents a bold step into the distribution business, one that, if successful, will surely send shock waves through the entertainment business.’ – Kim Malone Scott, Director of sales and Operations for Adsense.

The idea is that Cavalcade of comedy will run across a network of male orientated sites, carrying pre and post-roll advertising, which Seth will (at least in part), play a role in creating.

Well yes this is new news. And yes it is a reinvention of the use of an adnetwork. But is it the future?

Faris in TIGs thinks its pretty ground-breaking:

It turns the broadcast advertising model upside and inside out. The content doesn't create the audience to sell it to advertisers - it goes out and finds its audience, via the advertising, using other people's content, that already has an audience.
Or something.

A kind of marketing cuckoo.

I think its pretty cool. I also think its getting a lot of hype at the moment as it’s Google, and because it’s digital (and digital and televisual entertainment are on a collision course).
It’s certainly not the first example of content as a hook for advertising.
It’s also not the first time this type of thing has been embedded in ad units in other sites.
It is however Google. And that is impressive – because of their size, as well as their willingness to experiment.

I’m not so sure that this is the future of entertainment though … Although I think it could potentially be one way an entertainment brand could distribute its identity online.

Ultimately, for me it doesn’t tally with the way consumers enjoy televisual media at the moment. But could serve to draw them in to a more rich experience… who’s to say they won’t all change in the future though.

Either way I’m looking forward to seeing it.

The New Model for TV Advertising

I’ve been saying for a while that we need a new model for advertising TV programmes, and that in today’s massively competitive TV marketplace the old ‘stick a load of posters up and they will come’ model simply no longer works.

Why?
Because we’re asking too much of the viewer.
In the old days a simple ‘oh its on ITV’ reaction was all that was needed and a potential viewer would find there way to the one in three (later four, then loads of...) channels that they needed to get to.

Today viewers need to know when it's on, what channel it's on, what platform it can be found on, which number within that platform it's on… and then, if they can remember all of that stuff (and aren't halfway down the road), they merely have to get past their EPG (not to mention their spouse) without getting distracted, in order to get where they want to be. There's just too much for them to do.

Once more digital has made life more complicated, and ordinary people are still trying to work out how to navigate their way to the same kind of thing they always wanted.

A new model is needed.
And its not that complex.

Consumers need to be warmed to a new concept before ATL communications kick in.
This can be achieved through PR, online, experiential, promotions... whatever really (and is close to the film model). The crucial thing is that by the time your ATL communications kick in, the viewer needs to want to remember the info you’re giving him.

This sounds obvious, but it entails a shift in the way TV companies produce and supply content to thier marketing departments.

Channel Four have been very good at this with Skins, but others are also employing similar tactics… ITV2 did a neat job with the secret diary of a call girl.

This morning I stumbled across a blog talking about a survey by Yahoo/Deep focus (based on American viewers) which seems to put a little science behind these fairly obvious points of view. hopefully confirming some of what I’ve been banging on about.

Given Yahoo's involvement a lot of the results point to the effectiveness of online in supporting TV shows, but there are also one or two other interesting points being made:

• You need to get consumers interested earlier (phew!).


• If you engage consumers online with returning series, you are much more likely to get them to convert to viewing (which we all kind of knew)


• and... if you convince a consumer to engage prior to launch, they are likely to persuade 5.1 friends to watch it too.

Why do I mention all this?

Because it’s an American survey and may well be overlooked in the UK and so my fellow TV planning chums can access it quickly and easily through this link.

But primaily I'm interested in the way businesses need to change processes in order to capitalise on the digital shift that's happened over the last few years.

The implication for broadcasters are mnumerous, the most important being:

Embrace the web – in all its expressions.
Use your own space but learn to exist in others – particularly if you’re making your own content.
Plan early - Build these considerations into your commissioning, filming and planning process to ensure you get the assets you need to engage consumers in the new digital world we find ourselves in.

There you go. Not rocket science, but worth a scan if you're in the market.