Videoage International - 2020: A Year in Review

18 January 2021 V I D E O A G E The Non Sequitur ABC of ABC TV I t has been widely reported that ABC TV network is A) planning to do away with its pilot season, B) that the network will only order straight-to-series programs, and C) that the network has started veering toward a streaming production model. One might say that this ABC strategy of straight-to-series shows that’s being envisioned by the ABC TV Network is a good, proven system for drama series with small episode orders, but experience tells us that it doesn’t work for comedies, where the chemistry between (and among) protagonists doesn’t usually pop up from the script pages — it has to be seen onscreen. Contacted via Zoom, James Norman, co- founder and CEO of Pilotly, an Oakland, Ca- lifornia-based research company, explained that if you want to see if a pilot works, it needs to be tested. “Pilot- and episode-testing are very impor- tant,” he said, noting that this coming September Pilotly plans to hold a virtual focus group platform for pilot-testing that will replicate the way people actually interact when they meet. Up until now Pilotly has replaced test screenings in shopping malls and Las Vegas hotels with at-home panels, wherein people stream content online and provide real-time reactions. This “asynchronous” system (as Norman calls it) will be replaced with focus groups that meet in real time on Zoom. And with regard to replicating the streaming business with its year-round production schedule, some experts believe that that won’t be all that feasible because the broadcasting model relies on advertisers, while the VoD model depends on subscribers. The New York City-based Association of National Advertisers (ANA) doesn’t want the Upfronts to be scrapped. Bob Liodice, CEO of ANA, advocates a shift from a broadcast Upfront (which takes place ahead of the new season) to a calendar Upfront, which would run from January to December. Many advertisers base their fiscal years on the calendar. Buying television time for a period between this October and next September misaligns with that calendar-based fiscal timing. If the new season is moved to a calendar year, pre-selling would start at the same time as the announcement of the new schedule in October, and new series orders would be given throughout the year. Trump Ticked Off By TikTok L ately, China seems to be in the news every day, and now the use of its TikTok social media platform in the West as a tool for its propaganda, which, after Trump’s love affair with China ended, is viewed as anti-Trump. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal , TikTok users in the U.S. “Praise China to Boost Views.” The Journal (which, early in the year had had three of its journalists expelled by China) reported that hundreds of users have been uploading pro-China clips on the Beijing- based ByteDance-owned TikTok in order to build audiences that could translate into sponsorships and advertising partnerships. Conversely, users could have their posts “shadow banned,” as is said to happen to posts that, inexplicably, don’t get viewers. The Journal pointed out that, last year, the U.S. Senate launched a national security reviewof TikTok (which is called Douyin in China), which removed videos that were politically sensitive in China, including those of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. In any case, U.S. president Donald Trump said that he’ll ban TikTok in the U.S. on September 15 if Microsoft (which indicated an interest) or another company doesn’t buy it. Other companies that have shown interest in acquiring it include investment funds Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, and Twitter. The acquisition would be for TikTok assets in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Founded in 2012 by the then 29-year-old Zhang Yiming, TikTok has 800 million followers worldwide, of which 100 million are in the U.S. It is valued up to U.S.$100 billion. Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer is TikTok’s’s CEO. From RAI Fiction To Netflix Fiction A After 25 year at RAI, Italy’s state broad- caster, and eight years as head of Drama Production, Eleonora “Tinny” Andreatta, has moved to Netflix as vice president of Italian Original Series. Andreatta, who will replace Felipe Tewes, took the Rome-based post in July and reports to Kelly Luegenbiehl, vice president, Original Series, EMEA. Tewes will assume a new role, which will be announced soon. The president of RAI, Fabrizio Salini, will take on the duties of Andreatta’s former post until her replacement is found. LATAM Challenges In The Pandemic C esar Diaz of Miami, Florida-based 7A Me- dia explained that, “Latin America has become a hotspot for the COVID-19 virus. This is creating a whole new set of challenges in and around the television industry, which are impacting all areas of our business. Going back to a few weeks after NATPE Miami, many of us involved in the sale and distribution of content felt the immediacy of what was coming as broadcasters began to retract and delay commitments on shows being offered. As March settled in, agencies and advertisers were pulling out their budgets causing a chain reaction in suspension of local productions, including format acquisitions, freezes on foreign program buys, and minimizing expenditures. “The decline of advertising revenues has to be the single biggest pandemic-related factor that has changed the face of local television in each LATAM territory. I had an acquisition executive admit that his channel lost 75 percent of its advertising revenues in the span of less than three months. Many of the program strategies now revolve around squeezing all the extra available license runs from shows that are still within their license periods and are sitting in the ‘film vault.’ In addition, the powerhouse networks from LATAM that are also recognized as major content production houses (e.g., Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile) are also utilizing their own catalogs of drama productions (novelas and series) to fill programming slots and help minimize expenses. “In these critical times there’s just no option other than to be adaptable. However, that puts an added burden in recouping costs on non-Spanish content. That may even scare away the content owners as they lose interest in the region. There will also be the tail-end struggle that occurs once we fully get out of this nightmare. It’s probable that we’ll need to readjust the fees upwards next year — something that buyers will surely oppose. This will most likely lead to tug-of-war discussions. Although format sales may have also decreased, these will most likely pick up quickly as productions resume once again.” In Other News August 5: Manuela Caputi left Italy’s Mediaset Distribution. August 6: Paul Telegdy exited as chairman at NBC Entertainment. August 7: Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly exited WarnerMedia. August 7: Gerhard Zeiler was put in charge of WarnerMedia’s newly integrated international operations for Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner Networks. August 10: Jeff Schlesinger exited WB TV Worldwide Distribution. August 18: MIP Cancun canceled its live event and became a virtual market. August 21: The Argentinian government imposed a rate freeze for pay-TV services. August 2020 Review