Searchlight Autumn/Winter Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the autumn & winter edition of the Searchlight Newsletter.

With the seasonal weather upon us, it only made sense that the TV industry would descend upon the balmy heat of Cannes for this year’s MIPCOM.

The annual event that took place on the 8th – 11th October, once again offered an exciting glimpse into what will be coming to a small screen near you and as always, reminded us that the broadcast sector is continuing to push on with an ever evolving range of content.

So have a read over some of our highlights of this year’s event and our opinions on how we think our future viewing habits may be affected by these exciting changes.

Cathy Alford
Managing Director

MIPCOM 2012

As the year’s most anticipated global market for entertainment content, MIPCOM is always a great opportunity to get a feel for what the industry has in store for us in the coming year.

2012 was no different, and with the landscape of TV continually growing into a bigger and more complex machine for in-depth dramas, the amount of heavy hitting names and faces seemed to increase this year.

A lot of recognised film thespians, directors and writers appear to be delving back into the world of TV. Two of the most talked about projects to come out of this year’s conference were Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake and David Fincher’s House of Cards, while others such as The Americans, Ripper Street and The Bible also gathered attention.

A global appetite for period dramas seems to have emerged, with Downton Abbey being held up as the main culprit for this trend. One programme that made a particular stir selling to a series of territories was Mr Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven. Following the creation of London’s Selfridges store and the life of the man himself, it will no doubt be filled with enough costumed dramatics to shake a bonnet at.

The Streaming Future of TV

Judging from this year’s MIPCOM, it is an exciting time for TV as more programmes appear to be taking a different approach to their broadcasting.

One of the main talking points this year was the investment made by YouTube, with the video platform giving independents the opportunity to own their own channels, offering broadcast quality and full channel control.

With the investment estimated at around £10million, YouTube hope it will encourage the launching of new channels with innovative content that would not necessarily get the chance to be broadcast on standard TV channels.

Further news came from Netflix and their commissioning of the David Fincher directed project, House of Cards. Rather than a standard week by week broadcasting, it was revealed the entire first series run will be ready to stream from Netflix without week long waits between episodes. The cult comedy series Arrested Development also made a similar announcement earlier in the year regarding its eagerly anticipated fourth series which will be available for immediate Netflix streaming.

With YouTube and Netflix offering such a reliable and convenient service for in demand TV shows, it could mean TV programmes may continue to pursue this streaming route especially with the Hollywood Reporter hailing it as “the future of television.”

With word of mouth already spreading, the success of these shows is hardly going to be a mystery, and with viewers always looking for the quickest fix for the next episode, this early streaming via video platforms could be the future of TV viewing. And better yet, it could mean a more successful way to solve the piracy issue of people illegally downloading future episodes off the internet.