Anyone want to guess what the most viewed programme is in UK TV broadcast history? It wasn’t a wedding or a funeral if that helps. If I tell you that Geoff Hurst was the lead character in this 1966 drama, that’s probably enough to tell you that England’s World Cup win remains the UK’s most watched TV broadcast. 32 million people is an awful lot of people, especially as there were only a handful watching in Scotland. The US’s top 10 highest ever viewing figures are all for Superbowls, with the highest ever at 127 million.
Yesterday over a billion hours of content were consumed on YouTube. Yes, that’s a billion with a “B”. Today was probably higher, and tomorrow higher still. For under 35’s it’s by far the most popular content delivery service, ahead of Netflix and TikTok.
These messages should resonate loud and clear for anyone not adapting. As leading business guru Brad Pitt succinctly put it in F1, hope is not a strategy. And to plagiarise and paraphrase another of my favourite film lines, get busy adapting, or get busy dying.
From what I can see, Channel 4 seem to be among the first to realise that if you’re relying on advertising revenue to pay the bills, fishing where the fish are seems a sensible approach. Their Youtube audience has grown considerably as they focus on this new strategy.
For me, these were the key helicopter-view messages coming out of the IBC 2025 seminars and need to be listened to, thanks to Adrian Pennington and Evan Shapiro for their excellent IBC output. As Friends character Ross Geller so aptly put it, when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, PIVOT!!
Official attendance numbers for IBC are reported at around 43,000, 3% down on last year, but it certainly felt like a bigger reduction than that. I’ve never seen space in the main bag drop off area before, it’s usually overflowing by 11am. Anyone else notice that? Numbers are well down on the 57,000 that attended the last pre-Covid IBC in 2019, and IBC is dwarfed by the 86,000 that attend Barcelona’s ISE.
Of course it’s the quality of the attendees rather than the quantity that the people who pay for it all (the exhibitors) care about, and reports from exhibiting friends seem positive about the discussions being had. Let’s see if these promising conversations convert to sales, or if the sales people just had happy ears. My current pet peeve is sure to irk me in the post-IBC call around to all of the people who were definitely going to need my services. Since when was “ghosting” OK? This isn’t Tinder. If we had a proper conversation about a proper thing, and we agreed that we’d speak when we’re both back in Blighty, then isn’t not returning emails and calls just rude? Note to self – get a thicker skin for next year.
I really want to be positive. And indeed there were reasons to be cheerful and inspired on the show floor with some standout new kit and software developments. Some highlights as follows;
The Canon Novel Look lens gives ubiquitous 2/3” camera channels the ability to switch between standard mode and shallow depth of field cinematic-look mode that is so desired in sports production now. This is really clever and is bound to be popular with Outside Broadcast businesses across the globe.
RED introduced their latest camera, the V-Raptor XE, featuring an 8K sensor and global shutter. RED continues to be one of the industry’s great disruptors and innovators, despite it being acquired by Nikon last year. They also built a fantastic set and with the probe lens mounted it looked impressive on camera, which I guess is the point. It was also noticeable that they’ve stopped their cheapest camera just as Nikon brought out their own budget video camera. No point competing against themselves! It’s also interesting to see how the link up between RED, Nikon and Mark Roberts Motion Control is going, seemingly with RED and MRMC continuing to innovate and not be restricted by the new owner. A good lesson for any potential acquisitors.
And I did like the Highfield AI demonstration which uses AI technology to create lower third on-screen templates, generating the text from the spoken words of the presenters into coherent headlines. This currently manual role is a time-consuming and boring task for a creative, and this solution completes the task quicker than a human can, freeing up expensive personnel to do something more challenging and revenue-generating. It’s sure to be of interest to news outlets.
What was your show highlight?
Noticeable by their absence were the top end digital cinematography manufacturers who once were so dominant in the acquisition halls. Arri, Cooke and Zeiss were not exhibiting, which is hardly surprising given the plight of this sector generally.
The resellers and hire companies with top-end £60K camera kits and £150k lens sets as their core products have had a difficult last 2 years, as anyone who had anything to do with Shift 4, Pixi-Pixel or Video Europe will attest. But at least there is the opportunity to pivot. If the only thing you make is £60K cameras and £150K lens sets, then you really do have an issue, and the news that Arri may be up for sale is both seismic and sadly unsurprising. I have friends there and I wish them well. They have actually recruited to support their excellent live production camera solution, and we at Adamantean have just funded a number of their new Alexa35 Extreme cameras, so there may be cause for optimism.
There was a time when Gareth, Sam and I would all have attended IBC for the full 4 days, or 5 if I include the excellent SVG Summit. This year it was just me, and just for the weekend. And I think we got it about right. Whilst the Broadcast and digital cinematography sector is the one we know best, what we mainly do is provide financial help to those looking to invest in new assets, and in this particular space, spending on new kit has not been a priority for most. We’ve been funding LED screens, sports OB kit, vans, and even some robotic arms. Yes, we’ve been busy pivoting too.
Curious to hear from others on what they thought this year. Other than the usual Schiphol roulette and the delays to actually get in to the Show, both of which I won at this year, did you consider it a success? On the whole, I think I do. But I am an optimist.