ITV

Tag: Jana Bennett

  • BBC reveals audience increases with new Live +7 figures

    BBC reveals audience increases with new Live +7 figures

    MUMBAI: BBC has published the first two months‘ figures for its new Live +7 data and has confirmed plans to publish audience appreciation information later this year.

    These new measures will combine to provide the BBC with its most accurate assessment of programme value to date.

    As revealed by former Director, BBC Vision Jana Bennett last November, Live +7 measures the total audience consuming content across all platforms, including live, recordings, narrative repeats, BBC iPlayer and HD for seven days after transmission.

    The system makes use of Barb data and collates these ratings relating to a particular programme or episode alongside BBC iPlayer stats.

    The results, to be published monthly, show that some of the BBC‘s most watched shows experience an increase of over four million viewers when measured over seven days. Crucially however, in the case of smaller shows, particularly on digital channels, the total audience for a show can increase by several hundred percent. These figures demonstrate that whilst overnight viewing figures are still extremely important, they increasingly tell only a part of the story.

    Highlights from the first set of Live +7 figures published show the following programmes increased their audience as follows:

    • Come Fly With Me (BBC One 01.01.11) up 40 per cent to 10.1 million
    • Question Of Sport (BBC One 10.01.11) up 210 per cent to 6.6 million
    • Top Gear (BBC Two 30.01.11) up 97 per cent to 10.6 million
    • Madagascar (BBC Two 16.02.11) up 79 per cent to 6.0 million
    • junior Doctors (BBC Three 22.02.11) up 190 per cent to 3.5 million
    • How To Live With Women (BBC Three 28.02.11) up 387 per cent to 1.35 million
    • The Brain – A Secret History (BBC Four 06.01.11) up 127 per cent to 983,000
    • Romancing The Stone: The Golden Ages Of British Sculpture (BBC Four 09.02.11) up 198 per cent to 502,000

    BBC Vision head of audience research David Bunker said, “The new Live +7 measure is very important to us as it helps us to see the total audience watching a show. Whilst these figures do not represent a replacement for the overnight information, it will be a very useful additional piece of data.”

    The BBC has also confirmed that it will publish quality data from later this year though the start date and for this has yet to be confirmed.
     
     

  • BBC’s Bennett, Highfield to give innovation keynote at MipTV

    BBC’s Bennett, Highfield to give innovation keynote at MipTV

    MUMBAI: BBC Vision director Jana Bennett and BBC director of future media and technology Ashley Highfield will give a joint keynote address to the television trade event MipTV. the event takes place in Cannes France from 16-20 April 2007.

    The pair will open MipTV’s Content 360 segment of the Capture Innovation Conference programme. Bennett will show how the newly-restructured BBC Vision integrates multi-platform thinking into BBC visual content creation and commissioning.

    Highfield will look at the process of innovation at the BBC, in particular, its online development over the five next years – including the proposed BBC iPlayer.

  • Unilever marketing chief Simon Clift to join BBC Worldwide board

    Unilever marketing chief Simon Clift to join BBC Worldwide board

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC’s commercial arm BBC WOrldwide has announced that Simon Clift, Unilever’s global chief marketing officer has joined its board as a non-executive director.

    His appointment is a further step in BBC Worldwide’s move to ensure both greater transparency in its governance and an even broader range of expertise at senior level.

    BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith said: “Simon’s extensive experience in marketing and in building brands around the world will provide a great resource for BBC Worldwide to draw on as it moves ahead with its current growth strategy.

    “During our strategic review in 2004/5 we identified a need to be more transparent in our governance and reporting in order to ensure clearer understanding of our remit and performance. The introduction of non-executive directors is one of the steps we have taken to achieve this.

    “In addition, these directors – Etienne de Villiers, our non executive Chairman, Jana Bennett (Director of Television, BBC), Nicholas Eldred (General Counsel, BBC), Zarin Patel (Director of Finance, BBC) – and now Simon, will make rich contributions to the development of our international expansion plans.”

  • BBC launches integrated multimedia broadcast and production group BBC Vision

    BBC launches integrated multimedia broadcast and production group BBC Vision

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has announced that BBC Vision, an integrated multimedia broadcast and production group has launched. The aim is to create high quality programmes for audiences in the rapidly changing digital world.

    BBC Vision director Jana Bennett says that in the future, more BBC programmes would need to work on many different platforms such as the web, mobile phones and interactive technologies.”Our creative purpose is to deliver great programmes and great content to all our audiences. The future will still be a place where audiences value great storytelling, elegant structure, high production values – all the traditional strengths of BBC programme makers.

    “But at the same time we need to develop fresh ways of thinking and using technology. There are incredible opportunities in this new world if we can only organise ourselves to seize those opportunities and make them work for our audiences.”

    BBC Vision – so called because it makes BBC content that people watch – brings together several former BBC divisions: Drama, Entertainment and Children’s (DEC); Factual and Learning; Television; and Network Production in the Nations.

    This follows a restructure plan announced by BBC DG Mark Thompson earlier this year. The BBC Groups coming together are Audio and Music, Journalism and Future Media and Technology. Bennett said there were two big ideas behind the creation of Vision:

    A “one-stop shop” for multi-platform commissioning where creative ideas – whether in-house or independent – could be looked at in the round and assessed for their full creative potential across all appropriate platforms;

    A content powerhouse, Vision Studios, which positions itself as the biggest multi-platform production house of its kind in the world, bringing together about 4,000 programme makers in 17 “studios”. Jana Bennett has appointed Peter Salmon as Chief Creative Officer to run Vision Studios.

    £10 million has been set aside for multi-platform landmark projects. There will be opportunities for thousands of programme makers to gain new multi-media skills and experience of different areas of programming. There will also be an in-house guarantee and window of creative competition initiative. Bennett adds, “Vision commissioning would be a meritocracy to make sure that BBC audiences get the best content, wherever the ideas originate – inside or outside the BBC.”

    Within BBC Vision, commissioning stays separate from production. The BBC draws at least 25 per cent of its programming from independent production companies by statutory quota, and another 25 per cent makes up the Window of Creative Competition open to competition between independents and in-house producers. The remaining 50 per cent goes to the BBC’s in-house programme makers under the In-House Guarantee.

  • BBC looks to enhance content diversity in the UK with new appointment

    BBC looks to enhance content diversity in the UK with new appointment

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC’s director of television, Jana Bennett, has announced that Mary FitzPatrick is the editorial executive of diversity to oversee the way BBC channels represent the audiences they serve.

    Bennett said, “The creation of this important new role reflects our commitment to putting audiences at the heart of what we do at the BBC. To deliver the ambition of Creative Future and meet audiences’ expectations in a changing world, we need our programmes to reflect fully and accurately the diversity of the UK population.”

    FitzPatrick used to be a BBC programme maker. She was most recently Channel 4’s editorial manager of cultural diversity.

    FitzPatrick will work closely with channel controllers, commissioners, in-house and independent production companies to improve on-screen portrayal and diversity on BBC Television, including offering valuable advice to programme makers during the course of the development and production of programmes. She will take overall responsibility for reviewing and tracking on-screen content including the portrayal of black and minority ethnic and disabled people.

    Part of her role will be to ensure that programmes are culturally authentic and accurate, but also challenging and authoritative. She will aim to set up the industry’s definitive database for locating diverse on and off-screen talent for use by in-house production and Indies.

    Bennett adds “Mary FitzPatrick has a formidable track record in marrying outstanding diverse talent with a range of genres and great productions. This, combined with her fantastic relationship with internal and external producers and PACT, makes her the perfect person to drive this new role. I look forward to welcoming her back to the BBC.”

    FitzPatrick said, “I see my role as enhancing the BBC’s programming by opening it up to diverse talents and voices in a way that will deepen its relationship with all its audiences. The emphasis will not be on quotas or box-ticking, but on focusing minds on the fact that television audiences are hugely diverse and they rightly expect to see themselves and their life experiences reflected on TV.”

  • BBC, Pact agree on new media rights

    BBC, Pact agree on new media rights

    MUMBAI: The BBC and the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact) which represents independent producers in the UK have finalised amendments to their existing terms of trade agreement. This gives BBC audiences enhanced opportunities to view their favourite programmes across all platforms and allowing independent production companies greater freedom to exploit new media rights.

    The new deal is the first to be struck on new media rights by Pact and a major UK broadcaster and has been achieved within the 31 May deadline for agreement set by Ofcom as part of its TV Production Sector Review.

    The key changes to the existing Terms of Trade provide for:

    Enhanced opportunities to catch up on BBC programming via the public service window.Viewers will be able to catch up on any episodes of a series they have missed on-demand while the series is still going out. Viewers will also be able to download and store programmes locally to view later. Once accessed, they have seven days to view them. Commercial video-on-demand rights will be available to exploit in the UK for the first time. Independents will also have greater freedom to exploit other new media rights and enjoy an improved share of revenue from commercial exploitation in the UK.

    In addition, the BBC will simplify and streamline its procedures in relation to its holdback policy – making the use of independent programmes in the UK much easier and more straightforward. 

    BBC Television COO Bal Samra said, “There have been some tough negotiations but there is agreement on both sides that these amendments strike a great deal for both the independent production sector and the licence fee payer.”

    BBC director of television Jana Bennett said, “This deal has improved what was a fairly narrow public service new media window to view programmes. It creates the possibility – subject to the necessary approvals – for audiences to catch up with their favourite BBC programmes at their convenience. It’s great news for viewer choice and for anyone who wants flexibility as to when and how they watch our output.”