Events
Moving beyond television
MUMBAI: The online space for content is growing, not just in terms of online production houses coming up but also in terms of innovation. But how much of this affects the distributors and operators in India? Well! that was the talking point of a discussion titled ‘Beyond the Television Screen –Distributors and Operators’ at the afaqs! TV.NXT 2014 summit.
Joining the panel were BARC India chief executive officer Partho Dasgupta, PwC India Entertainment and Media leader Smita Jha, SureWaves Media chief operating officer Mandar Patwardhan, BBC Global News (Indian operations ) chief operating officer Naveen Jhunjhunwala and Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari who also anchored the discussion.
Dasgupta began by saying that while today a lot of new and innovative content was available on multiple platforms, the popularity depended on the quality of content being produced. When asked if the rating agency would be taking steps to monitor any online content, Dasgupta said, “We will set up a system that is platform agnostic and even monitor digital content.”
Enlightening the session with interesting facts, he said that while starsports.com received 2.8 million hits during the last IPL season, NDTV received 13 billion hits for its coverage of the Lok Sabha elections.
Talking about BBC’s digital strategy, Jhunjhunwala emphasised on how a specialised in-house team has been setup that specifically caters to producing online content for its Indian website. “The India page has a lot of content that is localised. The challenge for us is to have Indian local content that has an international perspective,” he said.
Jha, commenting on global trends, revealed that worldwide TV advertisements were growing at five per cent while internet advertising was growing at 10 per cent. But the size of the internet advertising market is still evolving. “Advertising agencies today have specific teams to produce online content. It is essential for brands today to come up with one to two commercials every 15 days,” she said.
On the other hand, Patwardhan said that while traditional mediums have already begun to adapt to the digital environment, the reverse could also take place wherein online content producers would switch to the linear television format and a crossover would take place.
Wanvari at this point interjected saying that broadcasters today solely wanted to own the IP and producers had very little time, since they are busy with their shooting schedules, to put forward their point for joint ownership of an IP.
Jha in her parting words said that the IP should rest with the producer and not the broadcaster so that innovation could be introduced in multiple formats for audiences.
MUMBAI: Disney Star India is in the running for this year’s IBC2024 Innovation Awards which are to be held on 15 September at 18 hours. The category for which it has been shortlisted is the social impact award for its work with India Signing Hands through which it brought the IPL 2024 coverage to almost 67 million hard of hearing and 34 million visually impaired fans on Star Sports.
Late last month, the IBC announced the finalists for the IBC Innovation Awards which celebrate and honour collaborative initiatives leading to ground-breaking solutions that address real-world media, entertainment and technology industry challenges. This year’s awards bring together under one roof IBC’s innovation and social impact awards to create a unified celebration of industry advances, with five categories now being judged: content creation, content distribution, content everywhere, social Impact, and environment & sustainability.
“This year’s entries once again showcased the global reach and appeal of the IBC Innovation Awards with projects of the highest quality received from six continents,” said chair of the 2024 IBC Innovation Awards jury Fergal Ringrose. “Meanwhile, constantly evolving delivery methods and audience consumption patterns demand that content producers around the globe must innovate dynamically in order to stay relevant and competitive in the modern media and entertainment technology ecosystem. I would like to sincerely thank our panel of judges for their diligence and ability to adapt, as we brought our three content categories together with environment and sustainability and social impact this year for our new-look IBC Innovation Awards.”
Former news anchor Sasha Qadri is set to host the awards in the auditorium complex at the RAI on Sunday.
This year’s finalists in the Content Creation category include:
* The National Football League (US), ESPN, Disney/Pixar and Beyond Sports for creating the first fully animated, real-time NFL alternative broadcast set in the Toy Story universe.
* Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners for live broadcast production with more than 200 smartphones contributing video for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille.
* Aspire for working with Vislink and FocalPoint VR to develop a virtual reality over RF wireless solution for the inaugural season of Aspire’s Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).
The organisations named as finalists in Content Distribution are:
* Claro for creating a new approach to pay TV in Brazil, integrating streaming channels and applications, delivering entertainment to consumers with a complete pay TV offer.
* NBCUniversal Operations and Technology for its pioneering project to transform the way its TV channels are delivered to consumers worldwide.
* The National Hockey League (Canada and US) in partnership with Verizon, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt and Evertz, for producing a 5G and Edge compute framework for assembly, control and delivery of live broadcast.
The Content Everywhere finalists are:
* LaLiga for working with Play Anywhere and Ease Live to enable true fan interactivity for itself and its worldwide broadcast and streaming partners.
*Red Bull Media House for bringing together real-time GPS tracking, data management and advanced visualisation to transform viewing experience across live broadcast, web widgets and AR mobile app.
* Franceinfo (France Télévisions) for working with PimpMyCompany to aggregate text/audio/video/photo messages from various platforms and broadcasting them live on air.
Apart from Disney Star, the Social Impact finalists are:
* CultureQ for a new technology platform developed by indigenous-owned tech company Kiwa Digital that enables indigenous peoples globally to revitalise their language and culture at scale, while retaining sovereignty
* Sesame Workshop for its Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub which allows government agencies and aid organisations to preview and request videos for children in crisis settings.
The Environment & Sustainability finalists are:
* France Télévisions for reducing CO2 emissions by 300 tons via a pioneering 100% glass-to-glass cloud production and private 5G network.
* GreeningofStreaming for addressing growing industry concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector, with international reach and over 30 member organisations.
* Anton/Bauer for Salt-E Dog which harnesses the power of sodium chemistry to enable sustainable television production practices.
The Innovation Awards ceremony will also feature the presentation of the IBC International Honour for Excellence, which goes to an individual or organisation that has made an outstanding impact in the industry, and the best technical paper, with all papers being presented at the 2024 IBC Conference that runs 13-15 September in the auditorium complex of the RAI.
