Is it just me, or does this sound like C4 is moving into the streamer market, when it speaks of moving away from the linear to embrace the digital market?
Just a thought...
“While getting ourselves into the right shape for the future is without doubt the right action to take, it does involve making difficult decisions. I am very sad that some of our excellent colleagues will lose their jobs because of the changes ahead. But the reality of the rapid downshift in the UK economy and advertising market demand that we must change structurally. As we shift our centre of gravity from linear to digital our proposals will focus cost reductions on legacy activity. In preparing for a new digital-first future, I hope we can make Channel 4 simpler – for staff and our suppliers – and create a more efficient, inclusive and high performing organization.”
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/channel-4-layoffs-public-service-stre...
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Honestly Geoff Hall I believe everything will convert to streaming. In the US the networks are starving. Cable/air/satellite bandwidth is slowly widening as the data/internet bandwidth is becoming overcrowded. Streaming is still growing while traditional viewing technology is frankly dying a slow, long-moaning death. I don't agree with it all, but things are as they are. In the long run I don't see this helping us, the viewers, in any fashion.
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James Hoey I have a feeling you are right, James. It may not help the viewers, but it could help us, the creators of content. We’ll see what the future brings.
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It's hard to stop progress - the industry has always shifted and advanced - who would have ever dreamt of Satellite TV when cable was taking over. I agree that more bandwidth means more opportunity, hopefully lower cost of delivery for the consumer and advertisers will figure out how to get in more and more. It's such a fascinating time.
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Sam Sokolow does 'lower cost of delivery' mean a better market for truly independent productions?
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Geoff Hall and Sam Sokolow I hope that is the case, making it better for creators. When I think of these kinds of changes I think of newspapers, and news outlets, and the terrible degradation of quality they suffered going digital or streaming. For me it is painful to try to read news these days. They replaced journalists with bloggers, or just anyone who can put fingers to a keyboard, and the quality of the news is horrendous. My brain burns trying to get around the bad grammar, misspellings, and overall lack of structure. Not sure how those kinds of things would find their way into streaming of films, but if one can suffer so can another. A lower cost of delivery makes me wonder if there will come a day for creators where they will have to choose from a "free" tier or a "paid" tier. Free being 320p, mono sound, low-priority streaming and no matter what the viewer is paying for they will only get this low-grade output. Paid being an outrageous fee to get HD stereo and unmolested streaming output, then another enormous jump to move to 4k, and so on. We're already seeing it on the consumer side, which is why I just dropped Netflix and Max. Maybe this will open up the path to something even better and more cost effective for independents. Fingers crossed.
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James Hoey Thanks. I know Sam talked about us not being able to stop progress, but I think we should be careful not to confuse movement, with progress.
In another conversation, Shadow Dragu-Mihai mentioned that in 3 years time, Netflix has to pay back a $5bn debt. That may just provide us with a watershed moment and give us a glimpse into the future of streaming, and how the streamers will treat content creators.
Sam Sokolow what do you think about this, Sam?