The BBC has reported that since the UK’s national lockdown was announced on the 23rd of March, BBC iPlayer has seen 927 million requests (including Sky catch-up viewing) – 61% higher than the same seven-week period last year.
The BBC also said that:
ITV has reported strong growth in its OTT services in Q1 2020. Compared to the same period last year, long form online viewing hours were up 75% to 169.4 million, simulcast viewing was up 112% and reach up 40% on the company’s AVOD product, ITV Hub. ITV is also seeing “good growth for BritBox free trial starts and subscriptions”. Broadcast revenue was up 2% at £500m (2019: £489m) with ITV total advertising up 2% and
ThinkAnalytics™ today revealed that revenues increased 30% year-on-year for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2019, particularly driven by strong demand in the US for the ThinkAnalytics personalized content discovery platform and ThinkInsight, its real time dashboard and big data analytics solution. Reflecting the firm’s substantial investments in the US and the expansion of its Los Angeles office, the company has added names including HBO and DirecTV to its client roster.
Looking ahead,
Netflix has posted its latest round of quarterly financial figures with the headline number of a net 16 million increase in global paying subscribers. The SVOD giant now has just short of 183m paid memberships. In its letter to shareholders, Netflix said:
“During the first two months of Q1, our membership growth was similar to the prior two years, including in UCAN. Then, with lockdown orders in many countries starting in March, many more
All 4 has achieved its highest number of quarterly views ever across Q1 of this year, driven by titles including Friday Night Dinner, Gogglebox, The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer, Hollyoaks, Celebs Go Dating and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
This record breaking period includes All 4’s biggest ever month, week and day of viewing in March. Views during the nation’s first two weeks of lockdown increased by a
ITV has announced that its OTT service, ITV Hub, has achieved a significant uplift in both reach and consumption hours during the first quarter of 2020.
Year on year consumption hours have increased by 82%, while monthly reach on the platform has risen by 40%. ITV Hub plus, ITV’s ad-free service, has also grown 80% since the same period last year.
Figures also released for March 2020 reveal how the Hub has witnessed a 49%
Are people watching more TV? Will audiences run out of new content to watch? What’s happening with freelancers? The cascading effects of the pandemic. And will all broadcasters survive? Here are some TV / OTT talking points for Q2 2020.
The UK’s public service broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, S4C – have today come together to ask the Government to work with them to support freelancers working in the broadcasting industry during this unprecedented period.
In a joint letter to the Chancellor signed by all the PSBs, the broadcasters highlight the value of freelancers to the success of the UK’s Creative Industries and urge the Government “to provide a package
Disney+ has launched today in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. The service will launch in France on April 7th. In light of concerns regarding the current ability of certain broadband infrastructure to handle the anticipated consumer demand for Disney+, the service will now feature a lower overall bandwidth utilisation by at least 25%.
With over 500 films, 26 exclusive original movies and series and thousands of television episodes from
ITV has announced business continuity plans to address the continuing coronavirus pandemic. The broadcaster assures viewers that news and popular TV shows like Coronation Street and Emmerdale will remain on air. Daytime linear TV viewing, as well as OTT consumption on ITV Hub, has increased.
Carolyn McCall, ITV’s CEO, today gave an overview of ITV’s response to the coronavirus crisis:
“This week has seen an escalation in the impact of the coronavirus with the
