English Entertainment
BBC Studios’ Stanley Fernandes on his inspiration and future plans
MUMBAI: BBC Studios South Asia distribution VP Stanley Fernandes is currently working across affiliate sales, digital sales, and content sales, in an integrated and geographically focused approach to grow distribution business in these territories. Previously, Stanley led content sales for south and southeast Asia. He now oversees new revenue opportunities for the distribution business in a more holistic offering to the client in south Asia.
Stanley who initially started off as a journalist has over 24 years of experience in the content business. He has produced content for UTV, he has also played an important role in Disney’s distribution team. In a candid conversation with indiantelevision.com Stanley Fernandes spoke at length about his interests, plans going forward for BBC studios and much more.
Edited Excerpts:
What are you reading or listening to right now?
I am currently reading two books, ‘How Not to Diet,’ by Michael Greger, MD which is an evidence-based study on nutrition and ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,’ by Maya Angelou which is an autobiography (first in a series of seven books) illustrating her narrative in overcoming racism and trauma.
When are you most inspired?
There are moments when you suddenly become mindful of either the simplicity or the complexity of the mind and you learn to separate the cause and effect; new and inspiring thoughts can emerge during this time. It’s about allowing your mind to be at ease. It could happen when you're sipping your morning coffee, reading, driving or meditating.
You have done a diploma in nutrition and dietetics, how are you utilising this expertise in your day to day life?
During pandemic, the importance of building immunity and what we eat is of utmost importance. Understanding food and how it interacts with our body is something we know so little of. Everything we eat is a chemical and wrongly balanced food can lead to its ill effects, while a well-balanced nutritional plan can be curative. My understanding of this science aids me in making the right food choices, and eating right is all about balance and moderation.
You also have a great interest in painting and sketching, in today's busy world do you get time to follow your passion?
It is important to always make time for hobbies and set your priorities right. Creative thinking comes many-a-times from not thinking about issues at hand, and hobbies provide you with that shift in mindset and perspective. We all need a break from our daily momentum and trying to make the best of being indoors.
What is the best thing that has ever happened to you professionally?
I have had great mentors in my career; ones who have been confident leaders and who were not afraid to be their own. A bigger part of growing is learning by example and I have been fortunate to be surrounded by professionals who have been magnanimous in encouraging me to constantly strive to be a better person and professional. Leaders and mentors have a bigger role than just the job at hand and it’s the things they don’t say and do that set an example.
Have you taken your time to reflect what all you have accomplished in the past years and what goals you'll be setting for the coming years?
We have had a great run over the years, from launching branded blocks such as BBC First, showcasing the best of our British drama on Zee Café, or the CBeebies block on Zee Q, to launching branded shows such as Doctor Who on StarFX, HotStar and Amazon. Top Gear and Great British Bake Off across the Sony and Viacom English GECs. Our presence can be seen on digital platforms from Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar, Hungama, Tata Sky and soon to launch Discovery Plus. Going forward, our emphasis is definitely going to be on employee welfare, adapting to the new work-from-home goals and being customer-focused, adapting to the dynamic changes in the market.
Any exciting things lined up for BBC Studios in the next year?
We are always looking for opportunities and ways to grow our brands. There is a lot happening in the pipeline and it’s a space to watch out for. We recently re-launched CBeebies – a channel dedicated to pre-schoolers with its emphasis on learning through play, which is currently present in over 30 million homes (and counting), in the country. Sony BBC Earth, our joint venture with Sony continues to showcase the best of our factual entertainment and natural history content, and of course our content can be seen across all leading digital SVOD platforms too.
What is your number one priority for the business right now?
Our focus is on supporting our customers right now. The pandemic has left companies and industries looking at creative ways to reinvent their businesses and we want to be there for them. We have relooked at our sales policies and adapted them to current market realities in alignment with our brands. We are in the creative business and we also want our approach to be creative with our partners and support them in the best way we can.
Describe the BBC Studios culture? What makes it unique?
It’s a creative place that respects individuality and puts its people first. Emotional intelligence and employee wellbeing is of utmost importance as we believe it drives productivity. BBC Studios is very much focused on promoting a diverse and varied workforce, and a workplace that empowers you to be creative in your approach towards work. It also focuses on being impartial and honest at all times, a key attribute that the BBC Group is well known for.
What's the best and worst career advice you have been given?
My best career advice would be, “Don’t be afraid to make a call. Nothing has ever been achieved by being paralysed with indecisiveness. Be honest to yourself and have integrity. People will always see you for who you are and who you are is also a representation of the company you work for.” The worst advice would be “fake it until you make it.”
You can have a dinner party with any four people in the world. Who’s on your invite list?
Vincent Van Gogh – to understand his art and life that’s shrouded by mystery.
Steve Job – for his simplicity in coding.
Michelle Obama – for being a role model and advocate to so many issues that matter.
J. R. D Tata – for modernising India during its formative years and setting the standards till today.
Can you tell me about a tough day you had at work and how you pushed through?
It’s all a matter of perspective; the glass can be half full or half empty. It’s important to be decisive, fair and true to the moment. Create possibilities out of any given situation and the end will take care of itself. Learn to ‘believe!’.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
