Advanced Television

Original concepts boost TV and web production

January 15, 2016

More than 8,500 new TV and SVoD programme concepts were launched in 2015 in the 44 countries monitored by NOTA, Eurodata TV Worldwide’s unique tracking service. More than half of these new programmes are original and local creations. Series spearhead the new programming figures (40 per cent ) followed by factual programmes – magazines, documentaries (37 per cent), and entertainment programmes (23 per cent).

The share of original creations increased in 2015. India, China, Nigeria, Russia, Egypt and Turkey developed more and more local series and new entertainment concepts have flourished in Japan, South Korea and the USs.

In an effort to innovate and enrich their programmes, TV channels are adopting a more creative programming strategy to increase their audiences and reach out to new and younger ones. The number one Spanish channel, Telecinco, has  seen its share of young prime-time audiences (15 to 25) jump by 34 per cent in the last three years. To obtain these results Telecinco invested in local content with “The Voice Kids” (La Voz Kids) and doubled its younger audience. In the Netherlands, the entertainment-based TV station SBS6 has opted for new productions. A strategy which has generated a 10 per cent audience increase for them over the last three years.

Sahar Baghery, Head of Global Research and Content Strategy at Eurodata TV and Estelle Chandèze, International Research Manager, noted that “in the situation where ‘hyper choice’ of content, platforms and international creativity is available to the viewers, the competition gets stiffer. This in turn drives TV channels to innovate, stand out from their competitors and look for inspiration from the web.”

Geek culture, individual identity and personal lives, History revisited, and subjectivity are sources for  new content

Creativity is at the heart of the current editorial trends. The strong trends in entertainment programming of 2015 include magic shows, talent searches and dating. Also game shows based on geek culture such as The Great Emoji Challenge (where the participants can win up to 1 million dollars for decoding messages written in emojis) will soon be broadcast in the United States.

Fiction and factual trends revolve around the theme of identity.

Leading themes such as affirmation and self-acceptance against a system where social rules restrict, ( ex: Matsuko Roid from Japan which features a transgender celebrity ) and the building of the collective and cultural identity are developing.  The series Rebellion, portraying the Irish revolution against the British power in 1916,  received excellent audience ratings for its premiere earlier this month.

Other subjects include revisiting historical situations from a new perspective. On Hulu, the series 11/22/63 – an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel – tells the story of a man who must prevent Kennedy’s assassination in order to change the future.

New narrative formats explore subjectivity, through a character’s thoughts and feelings. The Danish series Anton 90 (DR3) is entirely filmed from Anton’s point of view but the viewer never sees his face.

YouTube innovates and inspires television

Creativity roams free on the internet, particularly on YouTube, where striking personalities are emerging in every country.

In Brazil, the YouTube channel 5incoMinutos, has amassed almost 7 million subscribers, achieving the greatest growth this season thanks to the monologues of vlogger Kéfera Buchmann.

Television is drawing inspiration for new shows from YouTube thanks to the wealth of internet content and creativity. Since October, the Finnish television channel YLE2 has been broadcasting Folk, a show that invites viewers to publish their own videos. On TBS channel in  Japan, Upumura is a light entertainment format where some 30 actors film themselves on YouTube and the presenter and the on set guests vote for the video they prefer.

Finally, YouTube is opening up new possibilities for writing and producing: popularisation of science (for example the German channel In a Nutshell), the “hijacking”  of animation, and quirky tutorials like the channel Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time in Sweden which presents cooking recipes with, let’s say … a very  original tone and rhythm.

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