Analysis

Public service media is being challenged by a crisis in trust and the rise of new digital platforms, and the EBU has identified four ‘future drivers’ to ensure it thrives. They include maintaining distinctiveness, like producing a higher standard of news and avoiding clickbait stories or topics. Public service media owners should also focus on impact and not just audience numbers.

The Connies results have been announced and here you can read about each shortlisted entry in the international categories. Spanning winter Olympics coverage and a new category of content aggregator to next-generation user experiences and multi-cloud file distribution, there is lots of innovation and best practice on display. See if you agree with the decisions our judges made.

Amazon Channels has been acknowledged for helping to create a new category of content aggregator. Com Hem won for its pioneering work using Android TV Operator Tier to provide a seamless blend of streaming services and broadcast TV. Channel 4 was acclaimed for making life better for viewers and advertising clients. Tech champions include IBM Aspera for enabling file exchange in a hybrid cloud environment and Synamedia for a solution that counters video service password sharing.

CFlight is billed as the first unified advertising metric that captures all live, on-demand and time-shifted commercial impressions on any screen. Developed by NBCU in the US, it makes it easier to plan, manage and prove the outcome of all-screen campaigns against premium brand-safe inventory. Sky’s adoption gives CFlight global scale. Viacom in the US is the first non-Comcast owned property to adopt it, too. Suggestions it could become a global standard should be taken seriously.

The Nordic region content owner and distributor is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to gain a deeper understanding of its content and users. Programmes are analysed using face recognition, scene detection, subtitle analysis, text and audio recognition and other techniques. The broadcast group knows if a programme contains lots of kissing scenes, for example. Programme clusters can be created.

The U.S. cable industry, led by Charter Communications, is using an Intrapreneurship Academy to develop innovation leaders and keep hold of early-career talent. There is a determination to prove that people with entrepreneurial spirit can spread their wings in a cable setting. The HR department at Charter judges success on promotions and talent churn – and both are encouraging.

Broadband and video services provider, Altice USA, has agreed to buy digital-first news network Cheddar for US$200 million. Altice said that Cheddar’s strong news team...

Netflix will roughly double its subscriber base in Eastern Europe by 2024, according to Digital TV Research. The report estimates that Netflix will account for roughly 30% of the region’s total SVOD numbers in 2024 and that Poland will remain its biggest market there.

Virgin Media has launched a new line-up of bundles that bring together flexible TV options with broadband, mobile and landline products. Virgin’s new ‘Personal Picks’ TV options let viewers add up to four entertainment packs to their Player bundle, which they can change every month to build a personalised service.

NAGRA Insights is a comprehensive analytics solution for TV providers that harnesses AI and machine learning. The company estimates that if you use analytics well, across all parts of a Pay TV organisation (including for churn-busting, catalogue optimisation and upselling), then execute well, learn and optimise, you can improve the bottom line by a mind-blowing 30%.