What Are the Human Implications of AI and Creativity?

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Generative AI will iron out dversity, human error and human effort, leading to a disastrous homogenization of culture that devalues the content, claimed artists including Grammy Award-winning musician Alex Ebert and digital artist Don Allen Stevenson.

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In a Fearless Media podcast hosted by Peter Csathy of Creative Media, they attacked AI for leading to a morass of artistic mediocrity and conformity.

“I’m going to be that voice [which says] it’s going to diminish the quality of our artistic output,” said Ebert. “There’s a very strange inverted relationship between democratization of taste and homogenization of output.”

He decried the idea of artists “reduced to simply a [human] being that prompts” an AI to create.

Ebert is the lead singer and songwriter for the American bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. He also scores films and won a Golden Globe Award for composing the music to 2014’s All Is Lost.

Tweaking a movie with test screenings is a long standing tactic by studios to “correct” by recutting a film before release. Generative AI could radically amp up that process — to Ebert’s horror.

“It’s suddenly like every other movie you’ve ever seen because the process of democratization actually leads to homogenization. You end up with a median [average] opinion. And I’m afraid that that is just what’s going to happen.”

Don Allen Stevenson, a multidisciplinary digital creator and crypto artist, agreed and thought that cultural homogenization would send artisanal creations onto a higher artistic and financial level.

“If everyone is able to generate so-called ‘high quality,’ AI-driven art, video or music and if the cost of those things is only represented as digital assets, it will reduce the quality. But I think simultaneously it would increase the value of physical things that are more tangible.”

This is one theme of the metaverse bible “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson. In his science-fiction there are 3D printers that can print anything on demand from a text prompt.

“So it made the cost of materials very low,” said Stevenson. “But then what people seem to value in this example was stuff that was handmade. They loved like that. The elites and the rich in this novel loved their handcrafted things because they were truly unique.”

“That’s why distortion became interesting,” said Stevenson referring to the idea that much of what we appreciate about art stemmed from a mistake.

“Constraints are how originality occurs. So where are the limitations of AI? And when we find the limitations of AI it might become interesting. The only cool things I’ve seen AI spit out so far [is when] the AI fails — where it can’t do fingers and it makes all these weird images and where ChatGPT is spitting out nonsense.

Ebert said he doesn’t use AI to produce music. “It’s honestly not that much fun. It’s quicker and more productive, but it’s not as interesting for me. I don’t reach interesting limitations. I don’t end up with an interesting sound that you could never recreate because of the reflections in the given room [or the way I’m playing a particular instrument on that day in that room]. “These constraints, these failures are important.”

So, where are the constraints and failures of AI that will be interesting enough to forge your own path apart from it?

He argued that humans still have an affinity for the idea of an object or piece of content with tangible origins.

“If we see something artisanal we’re like, ‘that was made by hand and it’s a one of a kind and it makes me feel special because it is special.’ But in order for that to happen, you have you have to have a sense of a tangible origin.”

Yet, we’re so beguiled by imitations of tangible origins? “We’ll buy the pre-ripped jeans, we will buy an experience of struggle. We’re buying the thing at Urban Outfitters that looks like it’s from Peru and made by hand but [in fact] it’s mass produced to look like it’s from Peru.”

Following on from this, the panel pondered whether proof of human craft in producing art would be required in order to validate its artisanal value in the age of AI.

Stevenson suggested an artist could document their process to “show what creative human made decisions were made, what was the intentionality, what was the heart?

“And if there were a legal structure that could look at that when judging the output, like how much human level work went into that generated thing.”

Stevenson added that he’s been encouraging people to live stream and document and record voice memos in the process of creation to act as a chain of proof.

“Have people interview you as you’re making whatever art form you’re making and then have that be a part of the art piece, have that be the story.”

He continued, “Humans are very narrative based. We love story. So, if you don’t have a story that shows that you put human level love, energy and heart into that thing, then you’re just an AI generated automation, homogenous nonsense. But if it’s like, Wow! this person put a lot of actual blood, sweat and tears into this and we can measure that, we can record that, then maybe [that might work].”

Csathy summed up, somewhat fatalistically, “I want to believe that no matter how sophisticated AI gets, there’s something about humanity that will be appreciated and that will be differentiated, so we convey the humanist aspects of it. We all just have to be very stoic about the fact that this is happening.”

 

How AI Will Generate a New “Class of Generalists”

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A lot of people are afraid they’re going to lose their jobs to a machine, but we won’t. We’ll just lose our job descriptions.

“Generative AI is digitizing skillsets, making them programmable and upgradeable,” says Ian Beacraft, CEO of Signal and Cipher, in a SXSW session. “As a result, a new class of generalists will dominate the era of generative AI.”

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With expertise and experience no longer needed to perform with proficiency, those people with a breadth of experience “and passionate curiosity” will rise to the top, says Beacraft.

“With AI, individual creators can become armies of one.”

This will flip the corporate world on its head, he says.

“I believe that this is the moment of the greatest revolution of knowledge work in human history.”

He takes his lead from the Industrial Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, when many manual jobs were mechanized.

“Now we’re doing the same thing with the mind. When you extract the need for labor to be present for something, you free it to do other things like manage process, enhance the product, or even think of other ideas.”

That’s a simplistic reading of the Industrial Revolution, which enslaved hundreds of thousands of people to machines and passed newfound wealth and power into the hands of a small cadre of capitalists. Did your average factory worker suddenly enjoy the freedom to reinvent their lives and forge new ideas? No, they were too busy trying to put bread on the table to feed their families.

Anyhow, the AI revolution won’t do that, will it? Not according to Beacraft, who is an AI booster.

He thinks that hundreds or thousands of AI tools will be developed, each of them performing a specialized function so that we don’t have to. That’s why humans will become generalists in whichever industry they’re in, because our new role will be to curate, tweak and stack AIs to do particular jobs.

“This is the era of the creative generalist. We come from a space where we are all tooled to specialize from early age. When you’re specialized you build your expertise, become an expert, and become indispensable in that space,” he says.

“Well, now we’re in an era where AI can outpace any one individual very quickly in a specific domain. The idea of specializing early [in your career] can actually be a detriment. Those who have expertise and depth in several domains and interests and passionate curiosity across a broad swathe, are the people who are going to dominate the next era.”

One result will be the birth of “just in time skills,” which takes its cue from the “just in time” manufacturing process.

“If I need to for a minute put my copywriting hat on, I can do that. If my project manager’s out for a minute and I need to their job for a moment, I can use my tools to just slide in that direction. All of a sudden I have the capability to jump into a role as needed and I have the expertise I need to perform that role on demand.”

This is going to be the big change in corporate organization. “When your organization no longer expects incremental growth in a specific role, but you have teams of people working horizontally with a strong depth of expertise in a particular area. All of that new capability is net new, not incremental.”

The next step is that these AI tools will actually start to learn how to use other AI tools themselves.

“Even our relationships will change,” Beacraft insists. “In a time where our behaviors are guided by algorithms, and humans become more machine-like, machines are becoming more human. AI companions provoke emotions and elicit feelings of romance, while children are less concerned with whether their friends are real or synthetic.”

Soon most content we consume will be synthetic. It’s a mere extension from Alexa and Siri to conversing with our avatar.

“While so many of us would like to say I can’t be tricked into having feelings for an AI, there are people who would be beg to differ.

“Have you ever cried or yelled at a movie or a book and even stuffed animals as a kid? We already develop bonds with other species — dogs, horses, cats, our pets, fictional characters so why would AI be any different?”

 

Behind the Scenes: Eurovision

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Speed dates, strict monitoring bubbles, world first lighting effects and a stage that resembles a giant hug – welcome to the team embracing Eurovision from the heart of Liverpool to the soul of Ukraine. 

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Eurovision is quite simply the biggest singing competition in the world and comfortably the biggest live TV singing contest. As you can imagine, it requires a vast undertaking from a technical point of view. Presenting a new song live every four minute is a real test for the technology and the professionalism of teams back stage. With a TV audience of over 160 million and millions more listening on radio, there’s nowhere to hide.  

This is a very special and unique year to produce Eurovision.  The UK is hosting the contest on behalf of the Ukraine.  IBC365 talks to three of the principals involved with host broadcaster BBC in bringing us Eurovision 2023 live from Liverpool. 

Sound Design 

The Head of Sound for Eurovision, Robert Edwards, is responsible for the whole sound design, artistically and technically, including production of stereo mixes for radio and TV, and a 5.1 sound mix. Edwards also selects the sound team and ensures the whole operation is inclusive, efficient and productive.  

“I am very fortunate to have already experienced the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity of working on Eurovision in 2018, where I was responsible for the world broadcast mixes for radio and television in Portugal,” Edwards tells IBC365. He has also soundmixed Britain’s Got Talent, X Factor and the world feeds for Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing. 

He explains that the EBU has a very strict rule-book which emphasises that this is a competition, and that every country should be treated equally and fairly. There are strict rules about the backing track structure, the duration of the songs, the numbers of performers on-stage in the act, and the fact that ‘Live Dubs’ are not permitted and all lead vocals must be live.  

“At its heart, it remains a song contest, with the excitement of live vocal singing. In 2018, backing vocals all had to be live, but that rule was relaxed due to Covid, so the contest now allows some help with backing vocals on track or live.” 

Each of the 37 country ‘delegations’ is encouraged to give Edwards’ team a time-coded description of their vocal sound and any vocal effects that they want to add such as delays, equalisation or reverberation. Autotune in any form for the live vocal is not permitted. The singers also are constrained in their choice of microphone, and are only permitted to choose between handmics or headmics.  

“Our radio mic system from Shure, via Brit Row, is very large, so we couldn’t allow other radio mics from other countries,” Edwards says. “After each rehearsal, the delegations are allowed to give mix notes, but they are conveyed from a special viewing room, so delegations cannot directly influence the sound mixers. Delegation monitor engineers are not permitted inside our monitoring bubble, again, to prevent undue pressure and influence.” 

Creatively, the Eurovision sound team are aiming at a “fixed target” which is the mix released on the various streaming platforms publicly released several weeks before the competition.  

“Obviously, we are dealing with a live audience and live singing, but we aim to faithfully replicate the commercial mix,” Edwards says. “Within reason, I’ve had to design a system that is principally serving the live broadcasts, but can also create a party atmosphere in the large venue. More than half of the show is dialogue, so there must be an appropriate balance between the Rock and Roll, and the Voting admin in the shape of the presenters.” 

If you like your stats then the sound tech inventory includes: 52 microphones for singing, 58 audience microphone channels, 64 playback channels, 24 IEM channels with 120 bodypacks, 16 presenters mics and over 100 additional IEM packs for drummers, dancers, and flag-bearers.  

Lawo and Studer broadcast desks are supplied by NEP and Mixbus respectively. FOH and monitor desks via Digico are provided by Brit Row. Edwards’ sound crew also includes seven students. 

“Everything is backed-up,” Edwards says. “There’s a fully operational back-up OB truck which can handle everything.” 

The radio mics are Axient ADX2FD so each mic has two diverse transmission paths, each with diversity receivers (four ways to get the same mic). The dual-engine Digico desks have redundancy between each other. The systems have UPS back-up power, each fibre loop has a diverse backup route.  

“Eurovision is a vast undertaking from a sound point of view. It is simply the biggest singing competition in the world, and the scale of the infrastructure reflects that. Presenting a new song live every four minutes or so is a huge logistic challenge, and a real test for technology. It requires supreme concentration, and unparallelled skill and professionalism from the team behind it.” 

 

Lighting Design 

Tim Routledge is both the creative lighting designer and head of the lighting department for Eurovision working for BBC Studios. His credits include Stormzy’s 2019 Glastonbury Festival set, Beyonce’s ‘Formation’ World Tour, Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony 2014). 

“I’ve done many multi act music shows for broadcast but this is on a scale like no other,” Routledge tells IBC365. “Eurovision is really known for its epic and transformational lighting that is layered, evolves and delights and my brief to myself was that we aim to deliver a world class lighting product.” 

His task ranges from designing the vast rig from scratch to managing a 24-hour team of programmers and associates to managing the creative aspirations of each delegation.  

“The show isn’t my show or any individual’s show, it’s the sum of all the creative teams for each performance and it’s my job to harness all those ideas plus my own into a visual spectacle. It’s creating workflows for handling all of the visual references, timecode tracks, concepts and ideas that come to us that makes the volume of the show harder than most.   

Routledge was brought onboard in late October when the show had shortlisted set designers down to two. His early brief was to advise on how each of the proposed sets would offer best lighting potential and any pitfalls and issues.  

“Julio [Himede’s] set stood out,” he says. “Like any set it has its challenges but it absolutely has its own character.” 

After working on concepts for the show based on Himede’s winning set design, Routledge met up with the designerat his studio to brainstorm together on finishes, LED trims and how to integrate lighting into the set design.   

“My team and I created a one-minute flythrough of the lighting design to show the Exec Producers and then worked hard to rationalise and edit as the set was built up into a workable model,” he explains. “Even with one of the biggest shows in the world there will always be a budget ceiling to consider.” 

By New Year the lighting team had delivered a workable rig. Lighting vendor Neg Earth was chosen after an extensive and detailed procurement process. 

In February, Routledge held a zoom meeting to present his lighting design and creative possibilities to the delegations. Normally, the delegations are sent a document detailing parts of the rig they can use. This year they were shared the 3D lighting flythrough made by the BBC that also showed any moving elements of the set and lighting rig.   

Each country then had a month to develop their creative ideas for performance. In mid-March the BBC lighting team travelled to Liverpool to hold 20-minute ‘speed dates’ with each delegation to discover what they have in mind.  

“They present a director’s video, creative look and feel documents and request any props, lighting or video content they may want,” Routledge says. “It's my job to go away and assimilate all this information to create lighting cues and briefs for all the delegations so we can commence pre-viz.” 

Full lighting specification  

“To create depth we’ve added 190 Robe Tetra X on the rear of the video doors to deliver a spinning, kinetic pixel-driven lighting wall. Behind that we have a wall of Robe Painte and Q8 strobes to add even more depth as the doors revolve. Around the oval stage, which is effectively in the round, I wanted a way to make new architectures of floor lighting so I designed 22 lifting columns into the lighting shelf that can rise and fall the Robe Spiders on the edge.  We have new fixtures in the form of the Clay Paky Sharpy on the four large set arms that frame the whole show. 

Routledge’s other main lighting feature was designed in homage to his late father. “He got me into thinking about design as a child. He introduced me to the work of Josef Svoboda who was one of the world’s early modern scenographers and there is a light that is named after him – the Svoboda. I wanted to create a huge modern version of this that could fly in – so we have 10 Svoboda Pods, a trapezoid-shaped truss edged in Volero Wave containing nine high powered beam fixtures (Ayrton Zonda 9) that punch from it like the original Svoboda.” 

One difference from previous recent Eurovisions is that the UK has very different rules for strobing of lights and pictures on broadcast. The BBC production has to follow OFCOM rules monitoring pictures using a Harding machine. 

“Other European countries don’t have such rules and can strobe and flash lights as much as they please,” Routledge says. “As such, we have had to manage delegation’s expectations.” 

Three days of tech rehearsals were assigned to test all lighting systems from comms, white balance to timecode and midi triggers. The entire lighting control system is fully backed up with all three programmers running a spare console that tracks the main console. It’s the first time the Song Contest has run MA3 software with the German-based computer lighting control specialist MA Lighting backing it all up with tech and software support.  

“The set is stunning but presents a number of challenges for me as an LD,” Routledge says. “I love a challenge and working with complicated sets really gets you thinking. The ceiling overstage was full of automation to make the doors work and making a rig that worked when the video was fully enclosing the set is one of the biggest challenges to give it depth. By simply adding high powered LED battens integrated into all the walls and doors we can create depth and be able to underscore the music.” 

Routledge adds, “I’ve always dreamed of doing this show. It’s the ultimate show for lighting designers and I still pinch myself about being selected to deliver such a special event.” 

 

Production design 

One of the challenges when designing the set for this Eurovision was creating a landscape that clearly identifies as the Eurovision stage, explains production designer Julio Himede (64th Annual Grammy Awards, the 2018-2021 MTV Video Music Awards). 

“While the set has to transform and accommodate 37 countries each with their own creative identity, the set has to carry its own clear visual vocabulary,” he says. 

Part of his technical brief was to integrate multiple performance areas, as well as providing clear entrances and exits for large set pieces and props to travel on/off stage for each performance.  

“At Eurovision there is less than a minute for these fast changes, and it takes an army of experienced crew to make these quick turn arounds possible,” Himede says. 

“Creatively, we needed to provide a design that could transform itself over and over again, so that each artist performance has a point of difference but it doesn’t start to feel repetitive. This transformation occurs through different production values such as automation of set pieces, lighting, video content and special effects.  

“We also needed to be mindful of the unique circumstances of this year’s event – UK hosting the show in honour of Ukraine. We were tasked with designing something that celebrated both  countries and cultures, and also Europe’s support of Ukraine.  Ultimately, we devised a stage that resembled a hug embracing the Liverpool Arena from above and below and opening its arms to Ukraine as well as the show’s performers and guests from across the world.” 

Himede began the design process by researching cultural identities of the Ukraine and the UK, such as music, arts, literature, architecture and fashion.  

“This allowed us to find a dual approach between both countries. We then explored the notion of unity, community and music.  This initial phase of the process was presented with mood boards.  We then moved to hand sketches, and started translating these ideas into 3D models through Rhino software. After a couple of weeks of exploring in the model, we moved to renderings, and started talking to HoDs, such as producers and video and lighting specialists who provided advice along the way.” 

The architecture of the set is clad in video tiles, part of these video set pieces keep transforming themselves into multiple compositions. Wi Creations is supplying the complex automation system for these video pieces running Wimotion software which integrates video content, light and immersive sound.    

With LD Tim Routledge and lighting specialist Neg Earth, production is integrating “some incredible new lighting effects, never seen on broadcast before,” Himede reveals, “such as an exciting wave fixture that animates light in a unique manner.” 

Set automation was tested a month before the start of the build by Yorkshire-based Stage One Creative Services at the M&S Bank Arena. More weeks are spent testing other production elements embedded within the set, such as lighting, special effects, and sound. Three make sure every country participating gets sufficient time on the set before the semi-finals.   

 

  

Signature Post delivers Oscar®-Winning Sound for Studios Everywhere

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We sit down with Signature Post’s Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor Alexandra Fehrman to hear about her experience working remotely and delivering for everyone from Amazon Prime Video to the Daniels with ClearView Flex.

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Signature Post is a full-service post-production boutique offering premium mixing on Atmos-certified stages in a choice of two Los Angeles locations, Santa Monica and Burbank. Signature’s award-winning re-recording mixers and supervising sound editors are not just masters of their craft, they are also consummate collaborators who prioritize clients and their stories.

Among them is Re-recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor Alexandra Fehrman. She not only mixed dialogue, music, effects, backgrounds and foley for CODA, winner of the 2022 Academy Award® for Best Picture, but also mixed the many sound effects for 2023 multi-Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Signature has been Fehrman’s homebase for two years, and Everything Everywhere was the first film she worked on there. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy® in 2019 for her work on Amazon Prime Video’s superhero series The Boys.

How does it feel to have worked on two best picture Oscar winners back-to-back?

Alexandra Fehrman: It’s quite unusual that’s for sure but I’m really happy because both films definitely deserved all the love they got. They each had a wonderful messagOnce, working closely with Brent, who mixed the music and dialogue, Sound designer Andrew Twite, as well as Julie Diaz who supervised the ADR.

There was some remote connectivity before we got to that point, mainly between Son Lux and Brent, so the composers could understand the direction of the sound e of kindness, love and healing. It’s pretty incredible that I ended up working on both of these. I’m super grateful for that.

How did you end up working at Signature?

I often enjoy working at independent facilities. I love the boutique feel, and having the opportunity to work with a small group of people who have a similar approach to their mixing. Everybody who has been drawn to work at Signature has the same love for their craft. 

How did you get involved with the team on Everything Everywhere All at Once?

The sound design crew for the film was already onboard, headed by sound supervisor Brent Kiser who had booked out the stage at Signature. He took me out to coffee and let me know they were going to mix at Signature and asked if I would like to join their team to mix the effects. It was sort of serendipitous in terms of timing since I’d been wanting to work [at Signature] since they opened, and I was very excited about the film.

Did you work remotely on Everything Everywhere?

Our mix crew worked mostly with (writer-director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) and composers Son Lux who usually came in person to the stage. I was tasked with mixing the many sound effects for Everything Everywhere All at Once, working closely with Brent, who mixed the music and dialogue, Sound designer Andrew Twite, as well as Julie Diaz who supervised the ADR. 

There was some remote connectivity before we got to that point, mainly between Son Lux and Brent, so the composers could understand the direction of the sound design and we could also start to build the interrelationship between sound design and music.

That said, ClearView was integral to Everything Everywhere in that we had it open and available during the entire mix so if somebody absolutely needed to attend, they would be able to jump in.

Will you tell us about creating one aspect of Everything Everywhere such as the multiple scenes where characters are ripped from dimension to dimension?

Andrew described that as one of his favorite experiences designing for this film and it was one of mine also. The Daniels came up with a large number of ideas for all these wild connections and we worked out how best to convey where the sound is supposed to come from. Is the other multiverse calling from the corner of the screen or is that too distracting? Should we have it sneak in from the left? So, we were on stage playing with the panning and treatment of Andrews layered sounds to make it feel like the characters are really jumping between alternate worlds.

How do you like to work with ClearView Flex?

In some fashion, I’ve used ClearView on every project that I’ve been working on since the pandemic. Without it, the work would not have been possible. We used it on Coda to playback scenes with one of our producers in France. I used it on The Boys and on upcoming AppleTV+ drama Lessons in Chemistry.

The principal reason for usage is when key talent is remote and can’t get to the stage. It’s great to use this tool on days when the director or exec producer, or anybody who just doesn’t have enough time to drive to the facility still wants to virtually attend the stage mix. I typically mix dialogue and music with Rich Weingart on fx, and we have both found ClearView to be an immeasurable communication tool for those who can’t be in the room with us. 

For instance, on Chevalier (the new biographical drama feature from Searchlight Pictures based on the life of a French-Caribbean musician) the music editor was based in Scotland. He would go to England for record sessions and was able to remotely join us for the mix with ClearView. It was amazing to let him hear what we were doing in real time, for him to give notes and for us to immediately adjust. I was able to work very closely with him and that would not have been possible without ClearView.

There’s another thing I love about it too, which people don’t talk about a lot.

I think it’s wonderful to have people listening in multiple formats from the beginning. We don’t listen to all the formats at the same time on the stage. Before versioning, we mix in the largest format Atmos, 7.1 or 5.1 so it’s great to get immediate feedback from anyone listening on various headphones to the two track because this gives us ideas about how many people will eventually experience the show.

 

How has the recent experience of remote working changed typical workflow patterns?

Remote technology and the impact of the pandemic on work patterns has made so much possible that was unimaginable before 2019. In the future, I could even imagine myself not living in LA, which has never been an option before. For me and so many others, in post and in music mixing, it means there are many more places we could live and work. We don’t have to be attached to certain cities when clients aren’t attending the physical stage. It’s opened up a way for people to mix remotely. 

Just before the pandemic, I did build a one-person dub stage in my back yard to facilitate working from home. It’s designed to not only sound but look great on the interior which is what an exec dialing into the live stream will see using ClearView. 

It is really hard to organize a group of studio execs, a director, the showrunner and a picture editor to all meet at the same time in the same place. They all have incredibly busy schedules but ClearView means we can be productive covering a lot of ground in a mix, and stay on schedule by having the ability to share that mix remotely instead of waiting until each person can attend. 

What first attracted you to work in sound for film and TV?

I’ve always loved music and as a teenager, I was taking guitar lessons. I had a wonderful teacher who was also a very technical player. One day, I was a little frustrated at feeling that my skillset had plateaued and I remember leaving that session and wandering down the hall to find an open door of a recording studio. All I can say is that it was love at first sight. The control room was being rewired with cables and connectors everywhere in this beautiful room. I still remember the smell of the wood. I was just so enthralled by this sight that I knew then and there that I wanted to mix. A few years later after seeing some films that really impacted me sonically, I decided to transition into mixing for film and television.

What drives you creatively each day?

I don’t always have the luxury of getting scripts when a film or a show is still shooting, but when I do, that does excite me. It gives me space to imagine the texture and overall feel of what music and sound will be. I love to collect ideas constantly even when I’m not on the stage and think about the environment I am in and how I can use that down the line to propel a story. What I love about sound is it’s an invisible way to enhance a story. It’s such a powerful storytelling tool and feeling that I have an opportunity to support and enhance a story is my favorite part of my job.

 

SVOD Scale and the Curse of the Serial Churner

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SVODs are experiencing tremendous volatility and we should expect more targeted acquisition strategies from the major streamers, an increased focus on pricing and packaging, and numerous moves to mitigate churn.

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According to market data platform Antenna in its latest report, “The State of Subscriptions,” last year represented a turning point for premium SVODs. While total subscriptions grew substantially at 14.1% over the prior year, that rate of growth was significantly slower than 2021’s 28.9%. Worryingly, Antenna observed 117 million cancels across Premium SVODs in 2022, up 49% from the prior year.

NBCU, Paramount, and WBD were especially successful at growing their subs in 2022 taking share from Netflix and Disney although the latter two still lead the pack.

“With an increased focus on profitable growth, SVODs are becoming more aggressive in their efforts to maximize revenue, even at the expense of some topline subscriber growth,” Antenna reports.

Price increases are the most obvious example of this: Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, and Hulu all raised fees in 2022, and HBO Max did so this January. Paramount and NBCU also announced pricing moves in the opening months of 2023.

Intra-company bundles are another strategy to drive increased Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

Antenna estimates that the Disney Bundle now accounts for 22% of subscriptions for Disney+, 18% for Hulu, and 60% for ESPN+. The Apple One bundle accounts for 31% of Apple TV+ subscriptions, and subscribers to the Paramount+ and Showtime bundle grew 251% in 2022.

The role of advertising continues to grow in importance to premium SVODs, as a part of their profitable growth strategies. In 2020, only one in five new sign-ups were to ad-supported plans; last year, it was nearly one in three.

The four services that have had ad-supported plans since their inception — Peacock, Hulu, Paramount+, and Discovery+ — each have at least 43% of Subscribers on the ad-supported option.

And ads are gaining ground. The proportion of 2022 Gross Adds (i.e., new customers) who selected the ad-supported option is higher than the existing subscriber base for six of the seven premium SVODs.

Owning the Customer Relationship

An increasingly important battle is the competition for the customer relationship. 53% of Gross Adds that Antenna observed in 2022 came through a distribution platform — Apple, Amazon, Roku or Google — not directly with the services themselves.

“D2C models are great for brands because they do not share margin with retailers or wholesalers, and they fully control the customer relationship. When an SVOD service wins a customer through a distribution partner, they typically share the economics, and the distribution partner controls portions of the customer data and communication (sometimes, a lot of it).”

These distribution arrangements can potentially deliver substantial incremental customers. And in environments like Amazon channels which load the services’ programming directly into their app, SVODs can save product development and upkeep costs because they do not have to operate their own proprietary app.

Antenna says, “Balancing the benefits and challenges of distributing in third-party environments is a key issue that Services will consider as they manage to profitable growth in the coming years.”

The final theme is one that Antenna think will be a defining topic for subscription marketers for years to come: customer segmentation.

There are many different approaches for segmenting consumers, but two which it believe are especially important for subscription marketers are re-subscribers and serial churners.

Re-subscribers are consumers who sign up for a service after previously cancelling it and made up 23% of all gross additions in 2022.

“Netflix has a high re-subscriber number simply because so many Americans have already subscribed to the service at some point in the past. Put another way, Netflix is running out of Americans who have never tried Netflix!“

On the other end of the spectrum, Peacock had almost no re-subscribers in 2020 because it launched in April of that year, but already by 2022, 20% of their Gross Adds were observed by Antenna to be re-subscribers.

Serial churners are those individuals frequently moving in and out of services — often to chase hit shows they want to watch at that moment.

Antenna measures them as individuals who have at least three cancels in the past two years among the 10 premium SVOD services it measures.

So by that definition, one in five Americans is a serial churner and accounted for 29% of sign-ups in 2022, up from 15% in 2020.

Netflix is seeing a particularly pronounced growth, with serial churners making up 32% of sign-ups in 2022, versus 13% in 2020.

Per Antenna, “It is crucial that services segment out these serial churners. For one thing, their survival curves are much steeper than the rest of subscribers, resulting in lower customer lifetime values. If a service is not distinguishing between these two segments, then their analysis of cost of acquisition will be misleading.”

While changing macroeconomic conditions have played a factor in all these changes, the adjustment is also suitable in the context of a more mature market and a more fickle – or more sophisticated — consumer.

 

How Connected TV Can/Should Enable Content Discovery

NAB

Viewers take almost six minutes on average to select a piece of content to watch after turning on the TV, according to new research.

article here

The results show that, even when viewers do know what they want to watch, 40% are still confused about where to find it because of the number of different streaming TV options available.

The new findings are from LG Ad Solutions, based on a survey of more than 750 US consumers in March 2023, seeking to determine consumer perceptions and behavior related to CTV.

Being a CTV ad sales company, LG Ad Solutions turns this into an opportunity. With an average 5.7 minutes spent between turning on the TV and watching content this represents a chance for service providers to advertise new programming in a contextually relevant environment, the company says.

Tony Marlow, CMO of LG Ad Solutions, commented, “Our data indicates that 39% of viewers have used recommendations from their TV’s homepage when they’re looking for something new to watch — and we anticipate that number to increase as Smart TV adoption continues to climb. The home screen is the new center of the CTV experience where consumers can search for specific content, and find recommendations when they aren’t sure what they want to watch.”

Being a CTV solutions company, the report naturally underlines the drift from linear TV and subscription streamers towards free and ad-supported on-demand content.

Per the survey, a fifth of viewers say they are watching less linear cable and satellite TV than 12 months ago. The reasons being: exclusive content only available on streaming; ability to watch major network shows on demand; alternative free ad-supported channels with curated content focused on specific genres; and major sports events like the Super Bowl and March Madness now available via streaming.

With 46% of respondents (extrapolated to approximately half of the US TV viewing audience) reporting they had cancelled a streaming service citing economic concerns, more and more are turning to free streaming services.

What’s more those free services are overwhelmingly likely to be watched on the main Connected TV. LG states that 93% of US internet users are reachable by CTV. “Any advertising plan that doesn’t include CTV is missing out on valuable opportunities to connect with consumers,” it says.

After rapid adoption of streaming content on CTV, fueled in-part by stay-at-home guidance at the onset of the pandemic, a second “big shift” is now underway.

“Consumers are drifting away from some of their CTV subscriptions and increasingly preferring free content that is supported by ads,” Marlow said.

The survey reinforces several trends from other recent studies. This includes SVOD starting to offer free and reduced subscription options as a way to entice viewers to stay on the platform and viewer confusion about where to find content given the multiplicity of choice (nearly half of US TV viewers feel overwhelmed by the amount of content choices available to them). The survey repeats the suggestion that viewers share a stronger affinity towards specific content rather than the streaming platform itself.

 

Live from Aintree: Grand National rerun offers detailed new perspective for viewers in minute

SVG Europe

A unique part of the Grand National, which tales place on Saturday 15 April, is the ‘rerun’, where immediately after the live race finishes, a detailed analysis, led by Ruby Walsh alongside Oli Bell, is played back, fence by fence, showing how the race unfolded.

article here

It’s become such a high-profile fixture of the live programme – and it is aired just 30 minutes after the main race finish – that it warrants its own production team and gallery. Rather than being a straightforward retransmission of the live coverage, the rerun uses different angles not included in the live coverage to enrich the story of the race. This is rehearsed on the Thursday and Friday for the Saturday and the build proper begins while the National is being cut in the main production gallery.

“The complexity of the rerun is such that you need a team dedicated to it,” explains Jon Harris, technical projects manager at NEP. “Logistically you are dealing with a number of replays, with fences that may have been filmed out of sequence. Depending on where the camera pointed and whether there were fallers or a horse pulled up you can get quite disorientated within the rerun.”

Walking the course

For example, a camera used in the main race sequence might then swing back to capture a reverse perspective and offer an alternative angle of a jockey being unseated, perhaps, or of the jockey getting up.

“Understanding the geography of the course and placement of the cameras is key for the rerun. I’ve often driven production staff around the course to give them landmarks to help their orientation so when they see a camera shot they can look in the background and identify landmarks which help identify the camera position,” he adds.

The rerun examines each fence in turn maximising every angle or replay available for that fence. Coverage relates to how many incidents there were at the fence. If all 40 runners clear it then there’s no need to dwell.

An internal graphics system is manually populated by stats as the race runs. This includes information such as who fell at which fence and which horse pulled up.

“This acts as the key information editorially as to how to plan the rerun,” says Harris. “At a glance you can see if there’s more information at one fence then you are likely to want to show more replays of that.”

The five EVS ops assigned to the rerun are constantly having to cross reference to ensure the shot that they are offering is the right fence. They have a map of the course and will log timecodes for each fence.

“Every recording we have has a timecode associated with it as a means of cross-checking that the angles they are offering up is of that particular fence,” he explains.

The three race commentators can also contribute over talkback into the truck to help analyse what happened. They can review replays of incidents that happened near them to clear up any confusion.

Walsh is able to remote control a Piero graphics system from an iPad to help him illustrate his analysis and works together with an experienced EVS op to identify suitable shots and angles that give a very different perspective to that of most viewers.

“His insight into racing is eye-opening,” says Rob Oldham, tech producer, ITV Sport. “What’s more, Ruby can spot something so quickly that no-one else will have noticed. It may be the way a horse is leading with a certain leg or the way a jockey is holding the crop or positioning after a fence. He really goes into the minutiae and he will explain it in a way that’s not technical and that makes sense to the audience.”