Why SBS says Cranford is bad news for us
Shaun Brown opens up on Free to Air v Pay TV acquisitions and points to an emerging trend.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Yesterday SBS Managing Director Shaun Brown gave a speech on the future direction of the network to the Australian Broadcasting Summit (there’s a summit? What’s at the top, an aerial?).
Brown included lots of chest-puffing statements about how important SBS is, how it needs more ker-ching, how it has loads of visionary ideas for Australian content, diversified broadcasting -even a boost to kid’s content. Yes Virginia, migrants have kids too.
You can read all about the political stuff in newspaper articles here and here.
Frankly, I’m more interested in a few other little paragraphs buried in the middle of his speech pertaining to a growing concern over content and distributors.
Brown has a bit of a dig at the ABC by using Cranford for his example. But aside from this, check out his thoughts:
The other critical element of the free to air model is, of course, acquisition. All five networks have been heavily reliant on overseas sourced content at a fraction of the cost of locally produced. And all of the networks, with the exception of SBS, have built a high level of dependency on output or first option deals with individual studios and distributors.
For those four networks these relationships have been the foundation on which their success has been built. But the cracks are starting to appear in those foundations.
Let me take a recent example. Cranford, a five‐part BBC period drama, has just finished its run on ABC1 in the prestigious 8.30 Sunday night slot. Nothing surprising in that – this is traditional ABC fare central to the long term relationship between the ABC and BBC.
But Cranford’s first exposure to Australian audiences was on the BBC itself, through its own branded HD channel on the Foxtel platform. Its second showing was on the BBC’s as yet unbranded channel, UKTV, with a heavy run of repeats some of which were showing at the same time as the ABC’s broadcast.
What is significant about this is not that Pay TV generically obtained the first windows – there are quite a few examples of that around. No, it is the emergence of studio or distributor branded channels such as BBC HD which are in a position to control the windows.
I have two questions: if the BBC is doing it, what are the opportunities for Warner Bros, Fox and Disney offering full service channels with premiere content?
Secondly, while Pay TV is the beneficiary of that move now, what’s to stop the BBC moving to a direct relationship with Australian audiences through a subscription on‐line on‐demand service that by‐passes all transmission platforms?
I know many of you are already contemplating such scenarios. Perhaps the Cranford example has brought them a bit closer.
Brown as strategic not to use Mad Men as an example, given it airs on SBS next month, and has already aired on pay television.
Still, it’s food for thought…
5 Responses
Great article David! Maybe this is the first indication of a canary singing in the coal mine of distribution versus content.
FTA television needs to realise that distribution no longer shapes content but content shapes distribution. The sooner the Federal Government realises this the sooner we will see a more appropriate response to the National Broadband Network, Digital Broadcast rights and FTA.
I didn’t watch Cranford on the ABC. I bought the Blu-ray instead so I could watch in HD. The ABC seems to be getting less and less HD programming, and I don’t think it even rates a mention with SBS even though they have moved to 720p.
Warner did have a whole network in the US the WB but it folded, maybe PayTV or streaming over the internet is the way ahead?
LOL good point about MadMen but what about Dexter or Gossip Girl?
Overseas studios and show-producing networks are, surely, well aware of the dominant role that downloading has in this country almost above any other.
A scenario where 75% of the viewing population has no access to the latest shows?
ISPs must be excited already.
These are the shows that networks would likely banish to 10.30 and 11.30 and mess around with. The pay channels (esp Showcase) treat these shows like gold, nuture them, promote them etc in primetime. Also I like the concept of “Sharing the wealth” and not having all top foreign shows tied to the 5 networks. If a show premieres on BBCHD then moves to UKTV and finally ABC1 – I’m all for it. The idea of studios / distributers taking their shows straight to the Australian public is already existing on iTunes. ABC Studios USA sells eps of Desp Housewives and Lost – bypassing Seven altogether. Likewise Fox and Sony Studios.
Also TV1 (owned by Sony and Paramount I think) and other cable channels like Nick, MTV etc all take their product straight to the masses via their cable networks. Of course they never seem to pass on then on-selling shows to FTA like Nick shows on Ten and ABC1 or MTV shows on Ten and Nine. If this continues in the future (as say future WB content goes straight to a WB cable channel bypassing Nine, or NBCU content goes to a Universal branded cable channel bypassing Seven) we would probably see the networks rely more and more on original Australian productions to fill out their skeds. And I think that is a good thing anyway for Australia and the TV biz. Kinda like the UK, where UK content fills up the FTA nets and US fare is pretty much reserved for cable.