IBC
Trump’s tariffs and diversity rollback hijacked the
agenda at Creative Cities Convention where creators were also prominent
article here
With the plan for U.S tariffs on filmed content revealed to
include TV shows, British producers, distributors and broadcasters have reacted
with a mix of alarm and caution.
“Keep calm and let’s not make a kneejerk reaction,” said Sarah
Rose, President of 5 and UK Regional Lead, Paramount at the Creative Cities
Convention in Bradford. “I work for a U.S owned organisation so I won’t put my
opinion out there but I don’t think my U.S colleagues would say Hollywood is
dying.”
Trump’s social media post last weekend had claimed that he
was acting because ‘The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.’
Jane Turton, CEO, All3Media who is considered a potential
future BBC Director General said, “The U.S is still a net exporter of IP so
we’re not talking about a failing Hollywood. Possibly [Trump] is talking about
tax breaks to encourage more production in the U.S. We just can’t answer
because we don’t know the details.”
While UK film and TV producers play a guessing game it is
the uncertainty in cementing productions which could already be causing damage.
“The problem is that it’s not just a tweet,” said Marcus
Ryder, CEO, Film and TV Charity. “Some of his policies don’t go away. What is
discouraging is that two people [referring to Rose and Turton] don’t know what
it means and anxiety is sky high for a lot of people.
“Even if these tariffs only last for three years, people
have to pay their mortgage this month. If they can’t, they will leave the
industry. It can have a long term effect on Britain’s talent even if it’s just
[temporary].”
Gwyneth Hughes, the screenwriter who wrote and executive
produced Mr Bates vs The Post Office, said Trump’s White House would
make for a fantastic drama.
“All we know is that tariffs hurt consumers in the U.S,” she
added. “That’s been true so far and it’s going to be true here as well. Over
the medium to long term it is a disaster economically.”
There was also concern that the rollback of
diversity, equity, and inclusion under Trump may spread
here. This month (25 May) will be the
fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd whose murder by police in
Minneapolis reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and for a while prompted
positive action on diversity in sport, media and the boardroom.
“That is now under threat,” said Ryder. “Even just the
perception [of roll back] is having serious mental health effects on the black,
brown and disabled people working in the industry. People are petrified. Anyone
you talk to working in DEI are worried.
“We need more people to say they will not roll back. We need
more people in positions of power to say what they said five years ago.”
It fell to the two people in positions of power sharing the
stage to respond. Both Rose and Turton voiced their support. “We have long
since proven that diversity is a very positive thing from a business and
societal and purely human perspective,” said Turton. “We continue and we
believe in it. It is business sense.”
Rose oversees Channel 5 and Paramount’s pay-TV brands in the
UK and was previously chief consumer and strategy officer at Channel 4. She
said Channel 4 had led on DEI but the policies she found at Paramount were even
more progressive.
“We are not doing anything different. Day to day it is
critical to maintain diversity and that is exactly what we’ve done. Diversity
is not a cost to the business.”
Ryder wasn’t satisfied. Noting that the audience in Bradford
was overwhelmingly white, he said the industry wasn’t “close to representing
our [TV] audiences. “It is heartening to hear Sarah and Jane publicly
committing to diversity. We need to get more people shouting from the
rooftops.”
With so much of UK indie production reliant on public
service broadcaster cash, the issue of the future of PSBs was high on the
agenda. Should the industry regulate to protect PSBs or let the market decide?
Ryder was in no doubt: “You cannot have a democracy unless
you’ve got a functional media sector where people can exchange ideas and
narratives. Not just news but drama and children programmes. We have to find a
way to make sure the industry thrives and we have that multitude of different
voices.”
Turton agreed adding, “The PSB ecosystem is a thing we
should preserve. All3Media’s biggest customer is Netflix and our second is the
BBC. We want them all to be strong because they offer different rights packages
and audiences. It has become a more complicated business but it allows us to
innovate both in business terms and editorially.”
She backed the renewal of the licence fee which is only
guaranteed until the end of 2027.
“PSBs need to be strong because it shows that [the UK
industry] has a long term sustainable business model. What happens post ‘27
with the licence fee is that if we see another 11 year [funding deal] it
directly impacts on jobs every day of the week because [indie producers] know
there will be work coming through.”
Hughes was struck that Adolescence, a series that
reached the national consciousness like Mr Bates, was made by Netflix
(after being developed at Amazon Prime).
“Public service is more complicated. It’s about who attracts
and keeps audiences. Even Netflix does very regional material now. Why did it
take Netflix to make that show with the impact it had?”
Rose pointed out that the creatives behind Adolescence
including writer Jack Thorne, production company Warp Films and Netflix’ VP of
content Anne Mensah, have a background working for PSBs.
“If you let the PSB ecosystem wither you will not have Adolescence,”
she said.
Prominence for PSB content on YouTube and other social media
platforms is expected to be a key recommendation in Ofcom’s upcoming review on
the topic.
“I do think we need intervention and regulation,” Rose said.
“We can’t sit and ask for it passively. We are all moving into streaming but
[PSB] is too precious to leave to Korean Connected TV manufacturers.”
Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes said in parliament
this week: “That problem [is] can audiences actually find public service
content, given the number of platforms that we all engage with? The Media Act
does something about that for smart and connected TVs, but it does not
tackle prominence on, for example, YouTube, which is increasingly where viewing
hours are spent in the home, particularly among younger audiences. It also does
not deal with social media. There will be no silver bullet, but the Government
are keen for us to do that work.”
The review, which is set to be published before parliament’s
summer recess, will also recommend greater transparency around the algorithms
used by online platforms, as well as what people are watching online.
Lomax called YouTube an open platform, “but that doesn’t
mean anything goes. We have very robust community guidelines which act as a
guiderail for our partners. We have been using AI since 2018 to flag content
and we have 20,000 people globally to flag content. We also work with NGOs and
independent advisors so that any content that violates [our policies] are
removed.”
In Q4 2024 0.08 percent of content on the platform violated
its policies, she said. “There is a perception that compliance is all run by
machines. Machines are actually phenomenal but it’s also important to have
people reviewing content.”
Creators take control on legacy media terms
Creative Cities Convention is a UK TV industry event
co-founded in 2018 by Pact chief executive John McVay as a networking event for
regional indies to meet commissioning executives. This year, with YouTube
dominating media consumption, creators loomed large in the conversation.
Alison Lomax, who runs YouTube in the UK and Ireland, said,
“We are a technology and distribution platform. We do not make content.”
Some people in legacy media might feel that YouTube is for
kids but it is intergenerational, she said, citing YouTube’s reach over 90 per
cent of all age groups.
YouTube’s partner programme, which launched in 2007, enables
creators to monetise their content “once they get to a certain level” of
followers. This is primarily through advertising (of which creators get the
major share) and also via channel membership in which exclusive content is put
behind paywall, or super chats and stickers which are especially popular in
Asia.
YouTube has paid out $70 billion globally to creators over
the last three years, Lomax said.
Broadcasters and production companies who reach a certain
threshold are able to sell their own YouTube inventory. “We sell it to them for
rate card. They can mark it up, bundle it with other inventory, sell it to
media agencies.”
Eleanor Neale, a YouTuber with 2.8 million subscribers who
makes primarily true crime podcasts, said she would she be tempted to work with
broadcasters provided she had creative control. That wasn’t the case when she
was approached a few years ago.
“They wanted my numbers [followers] but not me,” she said.
“They had a fully fleshed out idea, sometimes even a script. I just felt like
an actor. What creators need is to be involved from ideation to execution and
for the connection be a lot more collaborative.”
Neale has just rebranded her business to OUTLORE to reflect
that she has a team working for her (including researchers, an editor and a MD)
and to expand her remit outside of true crime. She had advice for producers
wanting to engage audiences with social content.
“I went through a phase of getting quite theatrical with my
performance and scripting material,” she said. It was bit too polished so I
decided to go back to my roots and read from notes in front of me. You can see
there is a real person there. It’s almost like Facetime. That authenticity is
what I am trying to bring back into it now.”
She also said that injecting “happy emotions” such as
promotions to charities and “shouting out protests” was a better means of
engaging audiences than “rage baiting.”
Channel 4 has around 30 YouTube channels including digital-first
brand, Channel 4.0 targeting 13–24-year-olds with UK creators like Harry
Pinero, Nella Rose and Specs.
“Success comes when you hire commissioners who understand
this content and who collaborate with creators,” said Matt Risley, Managing
Director, 4Studios. “It is not about broadcasters telling creators what works.
Legacy media need to be open about thinking differently, about working with the
creator and leveraging data and insight to build an audience.”
Lomax encouraged producers to distribute their archive
content on YouTube, including long form drama and documentaries. “The living
room TV is the most popular device for watching YouTube in America with more
opportunities for producers to monetize, such as midrolls ads.”
Over 85% of watchtime for UK creators comes from outside the
UK, Lomax said. “That global opportunity is massive.”
Channel 4 is already putting full length docs and episodic
on the platform a factor which helped it achieve one billion minutes of UK
watch time in the first quarter this year alone.
David Smyth, Commissioner, Entertainment ITV said, “We tend
not to break new talent. We go with established talent that means something to
our viewers already. If you pluck someone from YouTube and shove them on TV it
won’t work but that doesn’t mean we should shut ourselves off for social media
creators. It’s about working out the right vehicle.”
For instance, ITV sent podcaster and TikTok star GK Barry
into I’m A Celebrity last winter, alongside other celebs more familiar
to the TV audience. “Now we can use somebody like her in more mainstream
hosting roles [because] she’s not been plucked straight from YouTube into
primetime.”
UKTV Head of Factual and Fact Ent Commissioning, Helen Nightingale did something similar by pairing young comedian and Instagram star Jake Lambert with Jack Dee on an episode of Dave series World’s Most Dangerous Roads. “We were able to bring in a large number of younger demographics,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment