Are you ready for digital exploitation? Peter Byard outlines the latest developments for the arts in TV and the new media, and urges performance companies to get in on the act.
No one will have failed to notice the developments in the television and new media industries. Where we once had four main channels, we now have seventy or so digital channels delivered either by direct broadcasting, satellite or cable. We are also promised broadband and enhanced Internet services ?sometime soon?. With the proliferation of channels, television is no longer a mass market product.Whilst we do expect some growth in the overall number of people watching television, most cable channels will consider they are doing very well if their ratings top 100,000 - and most expect average ratings a lot less than that.
Broadcasting using digital technology now has more in common with publishing a web site than with traditional analogue transmission. This offers new opportunities, but requires a different approach to production. What we show is now called ?content? which is formatted to serve terrestrial television, satellite/cable and the web, all at the same time. Content production within the media industry has changed radically. The focus now is to identify a community of interest, such as arts enthusiasts, and to devise a package of content - or even an entire channel ? targeted for that community.
Targeted television
Digital, cable and satellite platform providers are particularly interested in developing arts viewing. The release of digital platforms was seen as an opportunity to reposition cable and satellite as premium services targeted at the A, B and C1 sectors, and market research indicates that these groups are interested in films, premium drama, education, documentaries and the arts. This explains the mass of documentary channels currently available on digital - and why we are now presented with three arts channels. Here are short profiles of those three channels.
? Performance is cable only, and the oldest arts channel on UK television. It runs a repeat carousel of all bought-in programming and focuses on opera, ballet, film, theatre and music. Its flagship programme is ?Inside the Actor's Studio? and it also has strong jazz programming. One of very few profit-making channels, it is rumoured to be planning a significant relaunch in the next six months or so.
? Artsworld (see page 6) is currently available on satellite only, as a premium channel, but it may well be seen on cable soon. It commissions around 35% of its content and is prepared to pay reasonable rates for it. It covers a wide range of content areas, adding architecture and the visual arts to the normal culture mix. Currently, it broadcasts from 2pm until 7pm with the same content then being repeated from 7pm to midnight.
? BBC Knowledge started as an education channel, but has changed to offer ?culture and ideas?. It tends to have high production values but draws heavily on BBC core expertise, which is causing friction with its competitors who see this commercial venture being subsidised by licence payers. The BBC is proposing, subject to approval by Department for Culture, Media and Sport, that the channel becomes BBC4 - a television hybrid of Radios 3 and 4. Example content may well include live Proms concerts every night.
In addition to these, broadband promises the delivery of rich media (moving pictures with sound) over a telephone or other direct connection to the home. It can be thought of as a cross between cable television and the Internet and largely uses net technology.To date, implementation has been terrible in the UK, with fingers mostly being pointed at BT and its disastrous rollout of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). However, broadband may well take off when available from cable providers using cable modems - an option that should be available in the next couple of months or so.Arts content is ideally suited to broadband delivery, especially when you take into account the ability of a theatre or concert venue to build a community around its work, centred on muchenhanced (possibly subscription) websites. Such sites can be created now, and full broadband content may well be worth the effort by the end of the year.
Commercial opportunities
Where we once had a very few hours of arts programming per week we now have three whole channels - and they have lots of time to fill but little cash to pay for it. So we will see all kinds of approaches being tried by producers to get quality content at the right price - and they may well contact you to try to get it.
Richard Melman, Channel Director at Artsworld, is quite clear that he would like to investigate relationships with producing venues, and that he is quite prepared to be flexible in negotiating these relationships. There will be a modest fee for shooting the show in the first place, as well as a share of third-party sales income. But don't think anyone will make much money from this - covering costs is much more like it. Arts organisations should always retain sell-through video rights, as well as the ability to use footage in marketing and on your website. However, in most cases other than opera, if net income exceeds £10,000 in total I would be surprised.
So in transferring the arts to digital media, I think motives have to come from areas other than money. For the broadcasters it's about the long-term, building their subscriber base. For the arts industry each venue must find its own motivation. If a show is taped, the theatre or concert venue benefits from the fact that the show has been documented, that there will be some financial income from fees and rights and that you will have the future right to exploit the content for your own purposes. Most importantly, we will be able to further build local and national communities of interest in the arts. Digital media will allow arts marketers to steer the arts closer to the centre of the mainstream of popular culture. It won't build huge new audiences but it might slow the decline.
Key to it all though is the cost of production - and key to this are performers? rights. It is my belief that in the long run the arts will benefit from allowing its work to be documented and distributed via digital media, although in the short-term the justification is a difficult one. Tim Gale at Equity is very clear that he does not want to see Equity members subsidising independent television production companies by working for low fees, but each venue must take its own view.
If we are to take advantage fully of the long-term incremental benefits that digital media can offer, then having the option to tape any show for potential digital exploitation would seem to make sense. It would also seem logical to build ?digital exploitation rights? into all house agreements so that artists fully understand house policies on taping shows before signing contracts. Exciting possibilities In future we may well see a situation where live performance is the top of a pyramid of media activity surrounding a venue, with the whole serving the community of interest of that venue. If you are, as I am, excited by the possibilities this presents, then now is the time to lay the contractual foundations to allow this to happen.
Peter Byard is a consultant specialising in the arts and new media. He has recently produced the website for the Performance Channel (http://www.performance-channel.com). t: 01273 884916, e: peterbyard@mistral.co.uk