English Entertainment
‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Lost’ now on mobile
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MUMBAI: Lost in the UK and Desperate in Italy. Within a few days of each other, Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) have inked deals with UK’s largest video mobile network ‘3’ and Vodafone Italia for mobile offerings. In the UK, a mobile audience of over 3.2 million will be able to watch show recaps and previews of the action from Lost, Channel 4’s top-rated series. The Lost deal was The Walt Disney Company’s first mobile video content agreement in Europe and was announced last Friday. |
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The deal with Vodafone Italia, which was announced yesterday was for mobile offerings from Desperate Housewives.  The deal with Vodafone Italia will bring previews, recaps, cast interviews, wallpapers and a ring-tone based on the show’s soundtrack to Vodafone live! subscribers. The show has been airing on Rai Due as Desperate Housewives—I Segreti di Wisteria Lane. In India, Desperate Housewives airs on Star World and Lost airs on Star Movies. |
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“Desperate Housewives has already been a phenomenal success on TV screens in Italy and across the world, and we are delighted to be bringing the series’ video content to mobile for the first time. We feel the series has great potential on mobile, and will be working closely with potential international partners to realize this,” said BVITV EMEA executive vice president and managing director Tom Toumazis. Desperate Housewives – I Segreti DI Wisteria Lane, the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning hit TV series that has enthralled audiences worldwide arrives on Vodafone live! across Italy. Available simultaneously with the TV show’s broadcast on Rai Due, Vodafone users will be able to enjoy previews, recaps, cast interviews, wallpapers and the unique soundtrack of their favorite series directly on their mobile. Following a licensing agreement between Vodafone Italia, Buena Vista International Television and Walt Disney Internet Group, Desperate Housewives fans can stay ahead and tune into exclusive previews up to a week before the episode is aired via the Vodafone live! portal. The agreement will also allow fans to catch up on any episodes the miss, as Vodafone live! users will be able to enjoy weekly recaps of the most significant moments from episodes previously aired on Rai Due. In addition, interviews with the Desperate Housewives cast talking about their experiences on the series will be available on Vodafone live! in the next few weeks. “Consumer interest in mobile content is growing at a tremendous pace, and especially more advanced content, they are seeing mobile is really a new entertainment platform. We’re pleased to be offering video and think Desperate Housewives video will be widely received,” said Walt Disney Internet Group, Europe vice president and managing director Attila Gazdag. The Vodafone live! portal will offer downloadable wallpapers of the Desperate Housewives cast including Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan and Brenda Strong. Finally, for fans that would like to personalise their mobile phone, the official Desperate Housewives ringtone, featuring the series soundtrack will also be available to download. On the other hand, the Lost deal with ‘3’ includes two-three minute recaps of every episode, available for the length of the series, so fans can catch up on the plot at any stage, plus behind the scenes interview and previews of the next episode. Each clip will cost 50 pence. Lost is the latest prime time series to be made available on 3, following Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity and X factor. 3 marketing director Graeme Oxby said, “It’s compulsive, addictive television that gets people talking – it’s exactly the sort of TV our customers will watch. Every one of our 3.2 million customers has a TV in their pocket. This new service means our customers will never be behind the plot and can keep on top of the action, wherever they are.” Toumazis, on the other hand said, “Lost is BVITV’s fastest-ever selling, most successful TV series, having been licensed by us to 183 territories worldwide on TV – now being licensed for the first time on to mobile. We are sure that its ever-growing UK fanbase will ensure its success on mobile – the addictive, action-packed nature of the show lends itself particularly well to this format, as fans need to watch carefully to unravel the many mysteries within the show.” “Mobile is rapidly emerging as a new entertainment platform and already has tremendous reach. Our strong brands have translated extremely well to this new platform and we’re pleased to be offering video, especially of such a great show, to broaden our mobile offerings,” added Gazdag. |
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.
