Tubular Labs, powered by Sharp-Eats, is a leader in global social video intelligence and measurement, providing a unified view of the passions and behaviours of audiences across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch and more. With the largest social video database covering more than 15 billion videos and 45 million creators, Tubular helps household-name brands, leading agencies and the largest media properties grow their business and lead on social by anticipating trending content new creators and what's next in culture. For more info, visit tubularlabs.com Telecast Hi, I'm Justin Crosby and welcome to another Telecast. On this week's show, we're going back to the Telecast Digital Content Forum from May and playing out the first session of the day in full, where the UK's three major broadcasters involved in the brand funded entertainment space share the projects they're currently working on and what they're planning for the future.
The show is recorded at 180 strand as part of the Telecast Digital Content Forum advertising week Europe. I hope you enjoy the show. Okay, so let's kick off with the panel and we're kicking off in style with our very first session, What Broadcasters Want. Where we have three senior execs at the main three UK broadcasters who are active in the sector.
So let's meet our panel. Bav, Chandrani, director of B Studios at ITV, Claire Spears, branded content controller at Sky Media and Adam Middleton, a senior creative strategist at Channel 4. By the way, we're taking questions via Slido. You can access that through the advertising week Europe apps.
So please do get your questions in our try and make some time for those at the end or maybe dot them throughout the discussion as we go forward. Okay, let's get started. Bav, first of all, tell us about your role at ITV. Sure.
Hi, everyone. And just quickly, the podcast that Justin does is brilliant. So do you give that a download, give it another plug. So yes, I'm Bav, I work at ITV, I work in the commercial team.
My title is director of B Studio. What that means is I look after all non-standard or more creative forms of advertising. So sponsorship, licensing, product placement, social monetization, and of course, at one new programming. All right.
Thanks, Claire. Hi, Claire. Hi, I'm Claire Spears. I'm a branded content controller at Sky Media.
I've been at Sky for seven, eight years now, recently just moved into this role actually, I haven't watched and created partnerships more broadly. But going forward to my role is all about taking proactive opportunities out to markets, working closely with commissioning and external production teams to identify AFPs and proactive branded content apps. Okay. Adam.
Hi, everyone. Yeah, Adam, work at Channel 4 as senior credit strategist, a bit of a bridge between the sales team and Channel 4 and our commissioning team. So really there to kind of like solve those incoming briefs that we get from advertisers and work out how brand entertainment can really be a solution for that. And a big part of our kind of evolution has been focusing on digital channels on social channels as well.
So we'll talk a little bit about that today. So yeah, that's my role. All right. And that's something that we're going to come back to is sort of that balance and that bridge between commissioning and sales as well.
Because that's obviously crucial area within brand funded programs. So let's bring us up to speed in terms of the history of positive history. And we're going to do that with each of the panelists, how you've been involved in brand funded programming up to this point. Sure.
And positive history is exactly the right phrase, really. We it's something we've lent into step back from, lent into step back from over a number of years. So we had a big push into ad funded programming quite a number of years ago at 16 17 and we had a month of success at the time. But the business kind of that point felt that it wasn't something that was a key driver and it wasn't necessarily a sustainable thing for the company.
So we set away from it and for a period of about 12 years from then until relatively recently, it was something that kind of happened a little bit by accident without any real kind of thought or precision or strategy behind it. So we do the odd travel, ad fund per year kind of thing. And that was it. And then about six years ago, I'd say we got a specific brief through from a client, which was done out.
And we worked together with the now and one of the production labels, multi storey to turn that into from brief into a show, go back to mine, which was really successful. But then we had two series of that and that kind of opened up our thinking again around add funds, not long after that we had the brief from our marks and Spencer's who at the time was sponsoring Britain's Got Talent and doing this campaign called fresh market updates, one for kind of scale and celebrity and reach and the other one for telling us product story. And they came to us and said, how do we bring those two worlds together? How can we create is there something that delivers the scale and the celebrity, but is more rooted in our core business of food and we didn't have a show that was right for that.
So we worked with another one of it to be labeled South Shore to come up with cooking with the stars. And this year will be the fourth series of cooking with the stars. So I don't want to make too bold a claim, but it might be one of the most successful at once to run on British television. So kind of the first hour long peak recommission series, certainly format that we've had on it and so that kind of brought us up to this year.
And in the last couple years, it's been a growing emphasis on advanced. OK, and we'll talk about the creation of B Studios as part of that a little bit later on. And we also have a session later on where we have Marks and Spencers and South Shore. They're going to be telling us a little bit more about that in that session.
Claire, how about you? Tell us about the history of brand funded programming at Sky? So I think at Sky, the focus is the opportunities in the past and now actually are more focused on arts and culture and sport. We do a lot of branded content, particularly across social and digital, less than one linear, if I'm honest.
But Sky Arts is definitely this sort of opportunity for us and has been. So some examples in past are Lexus, the Big Design Challenge, which was an EFP a couple years ago, and then more recently migrated shop with Adobe, again, Sky Arts, six part series. And Sky Sports, we do quite a lot of work with them across social as well. So there's something called Bitstoktor, which is live at the moment.
So it's pretty much focused on those two genres, if I'm honest. But there are examples of where we've worked for sponsors on some of our bigger channels, like Atlantic, and Volvo. We are as part of that sponsorship package. We've extended that to creating branded content with that brand as well.
So stuff like kind of behind the scenes or filming some of Atlantic's biggest shows, you know, looking at branded content featuring stunt men with Volvo. So certainly when we're working with some of those big long-term sponsors, that's where there are some opportunities as well. And that's what we've seen in the past. But yeah, it's very much working towards supporting the editorial agenda, really reaching those channels and platforms.
You know, a PTV provider, there's a quality threshold. And so that's why I have to work really closely with commissioning to make sure that whatever we're looking at, whatever we're talking about really fits with that editorial mission. And Sky Arts are very open to that. And can you give us an idea per year, how many hours of run for the Pro-CQ News?
Obviously, it's less about hours and more about just meeting that quality threshold. So as I say, we're probably not doing that much on linear, but when the right opportunity comes up and commissioning on board and editorial on board, that's when we can really take into it. But I would say it's less about hours for us and the commission team. Okay.
And Adam, multi-platform is for you as well, isn't it? So again, you know, bring us up to speed. You see me pause by the way, I forgot what I was saying. I'm doing that.
Speak, Andy. The, I think like trying to fall is like heritage in branding and table is like super rich. It's, you know, going off for the many years. It really has evolved over time as well.
So, you know, it still does happen where we take out proactive opportunities to find advertisers who want to kind of work on those commissions. And at the same time, we now do a lot of reactive work as well to briefs, trying to find the right solutions across multiple platforms. So, you know, with Channel 4's been a remit and heritage in kind of creating purpose-led content. There's been some amazing shows, you know, even recently around, you know, we've commissioned a brilliant linear F.P.
with Martin Spencer. They're going to get loads of plugs. They're going to get loads of money. They're going to get more expensive around new model agency, which is super kind of dive show worth checking out all the way to that.
So that's kind of like long-form stuff that's like commercial, out-length or linear. There's then like mid-form content that we put out on YouTube and Facebook, et cetera. And some stuff we've done there recently around our Maltese, for example, around the Total Mental Health, we've commissioned an amazing series called Late Night Feed, which is all around kind of returns to work for working months. And then some really short-form stuff as well.
We've just done a campaign with Remington around the power of hair and your identity there. And that's literally 60 second assets that are living across the like of TikTok and Instagram. So, the kind of like, you know, real range of brand-in-time that's coming out of Channel 4 now is really vast. And then like more entertainment-side of things as well, you know, there's shows like with eBay, for example, Bangers, especially by a tiny temper, which is a brilliant linear F.P that exists on streaming as well.
And then we move on to the mid-form space, a recent series we commissioned with Tori's in the middle of the island called Stand Up Road Trip, which is about comedians basically touring the country and ending up doing a stand up gig at the end to get some inspiration. And I could not, we've even made a format, one special with Domino's, around a man that likes to get treated like pizza. So, that is much fun to me to explain to you after a few drinks later. So, come and grab me then.
But yeah, I think like the range of content that we're putting out at Channel 4 is just really vast now. And, you know, we're not slowing down this space at all. It's, you know, we feel like it's a really exciting opportunity. And space we're constantly looking to evolve in like, in the kind of cross-platform space.
And presumably, the metrics that Digital can provide is something that's more and more important to brands. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like the depths that you can go into is the platforms in terms of like data audiences, understanding things like watch times for example, and also like different metrics are coming up from our advertisers now. Well, as well, engagement, things are famous, still really important.
And we know the power of linear TV and delivering that fame as well. And, you know, and it's clear to play about both touch on as well, like really, you know, the opportunities, closer to diagnosing programming and our talent as well is also really key. So, the metrics are constantly shifting, but Digital really has opened up an opportunity for us to kind of evolve the way that we can service our advertisers and kind of hit those objectives. So, yeah.
Okay. So, Bob, coming back to you, B Studios, six months ago, did you launch that maybe a bit more? Yeah. So, tell us a little bit about the rationale for launching that and what difference it makes for working with agencies and brands and production companies from a brand funded programming aspect.
Sure. So, B Studio, we launched it in November of last year. If I'm using grandiose language, I refer to it as a revolution, sorry, evolution masquerading as a revolution. But it's basically, it's a rebrand of our department with some stretch built into it.
So, it's basically the way we've done creative partnerships has evolved so much over the last 12 years. The number of touch points that a brand can access, the amount of extension content, a bit like you described with all the, that we produce for brands, the way we're able to integrate products into our shows, again, thinking audience first, idea first, creative first lens, the way we're able to do all of that shifted enormously. But we haven't really rearticulated the way we do partnerships to our customers. So, part of the launch of B Studio was about that we are articulating what we already do.
But the two new areas, and again, they are, they're not entirely new because we just talked about the history of our funding programming, but it signifies a shift in emphasis from us about what our focus is going forward. Those two new areas are social first entertainment or digital first entertainment. We can't make our minds up on which were to use there. So, that is short form mainly, but it's variety.
And that's it's everything from our goal showing how a scene is built or a set is built and kind of lifting the lid for fans to see how the furniture moves around to a comedy cameras, that kind of content through to the love island, the morning after podcast. So, that's again, that's a piece of brand entertainment. It wouldn't exist without the brand's funding. So, that's the social first and we just want to do more of that.
And then at the long form end, and for us, it is linear driven currently. We've basically opened the doors to add funded programming. So, while, as I explained earlier, in the history of add funds up until 2023, it's something that has happened, has been increasing focus. We've not actively said either to advertisers or to producers or to our commissioners or to media agencies that our doors are genuinely open to add funded programming.
And so, just that shift in language, that openness, that kind of welcoming of briefs and internally, actually unlocking a lot of maybe false perceptions around add funded. We're calling them add funded entertainment rather than add funded programming, which might seem like slightly petty thing to pick on, but it's really important for us because it's helping us tell the story to our commissioners that the entertainment value of the show always comes first. And it's helping us tell that story to advertisers as well, that they should always think about how the show comes across, not just how they brand comes across within that. Want to get ahead in digital first content?
The drop is the go-to newsletter for industry professionals delivering inside and news, trends and insights straight to your inbox. Navigate the past changing landscape of digital first production, distribution and monetization. Sign up now for free at dropmedia.co.uk and stay informed with the drop. Okay, and that's interesting when you talk about the focus on entertainment first and potentially commissioner first, and we'll come back and pick on that in a second.
Adam, you mentioned digital first, obviously is the main focus view. Can you just expand on that a little bit? You give us a few examples and obviously metrics are very important for your clients, but how is it working practice when you get a brief and how is that benefiting your clients? Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's actually really important. They're actually dropping that kind of data term of programming is actually a really interesting way to look in. I think a big part of trying to show you before is to be digital first. It's a really key focus area for the broadcaster at the moment.
And I think dropping that kind of programming side of things actually focusing more on the content itself, the creative itself. And actually what that creative is there to actually service and do for advertisers is really important. And this is why digital place such an important role. So, yeah, to answer questions, I think one of the main things that we really focus on is instead of matching up, which again, we probably will come on doing a bit instead of matching up programs that our production companies, our commissioners want to make with advertisers, it really is now trying to think about the advertisers we're working with and we're being passed the kind of sole objectives for and our viewers first and then ends up in a position where we focus on the entertainment, the content, the creative first, not this kind of like programming model almost.
So that's kind of been a real shift for us. And I think the way that we essentially deliver brand and ends now is really kind of focusing on that brief first and foremost. So we do a lot of proactive opportunities out there in market, but our real bread and butter is kind of taking on those objectives and brands, understanding what those kind of key KPIs are and working out within the channel for ecosystem. So linear streaming and social, how can now and same and our brand and ends of service each of those objectives?
What part of our ecosystem can best deliver on those objectives? So if there is an ask about fame, for example, we know anything, you're offering to do an amazing job of that because we can get close, albeit contextually sometimes to our existing programming and that does an amazing job to drive that fame. But if they're after awareness or consideration or changing that brand perception, we know we've got an amazing opportunity to tap into our social channels, YouTube and streaming as well and digital to really expand on that kind of like brand message, really create something truly entertaining to put an audience in. So we really focus on the kind of core ask to the brief first and then deliver a kind of digital first approach that versus like matching up something to a brief.
So yeah. Okay, Claire, let's talk about skying these genres that you tend to work in within brand funded entertainment. Can you just expand on that a little bit and how else can brands work with sky? Because it's not just programming, essentially.
There are other ways that you can partner. Yeah. And I think the guys have touched on that as well. So as I said, sky arts is quite open to branded content.
And part of that reason is because they are sort of mission is to bring more arts to more people. So really diversifying and democratizing arts and culture. It's a free to air channel. So it's really about just bringing bring more arts to a broader group of people.
So they're much more open. And the examples of given of, I guess, more traditional linear FPs have sat on that channel. So that's an interesting one. But then I guess another space that we were just beginning to move into is kind of media is what we're describing as official partner opportunities.
And an example I give for that is Audi. And this is a very long term partnership beginning. So three years ago, where they became official innovation partner of Sky Sports. And what that meant was they were investing in innovation across Sky Sports broadcast coverage.
So working really closely with their editorial teams to identify what are the big innovations that we can add to that coverage that really improves of your experience. And two big projects that we've worked on and launched are with cricket, 100 and cricket, the power meter. So camera, a camera set up that enables us to tell viewers the speed and the angle that ball is leaving a cricket bat. I have to say that's not of interest to me, but to cricket viewers, that is really cool.
And then the same with golf, we've got the performance zone and they've paid to kind of create that zone and allow our pundits to analyze the swing and the gate of professional players through avatars and then share that with the avatar players at home. So that's just an example of how a brand can not necessarily create a fully kind of closed piece themselves, but it can really add something that we're already doing that viewers enjoy. So I think from a customer perspective, that's really enhancing their experience. And again, like I said, as a PTB brand, that's really important for us and it's really important for our customers to kind of keep reminding them why they're paying that fee every month.
You know, so that really helps. So I think, yeah, that's one example of a different approach from us. Okay. So let's look at taking a step back and looking at the wider content industry industry.
We've seen a huge slowdown in commissioning over the past 12 months. And I guess a lot of producers in the audience will want to know is there be a potential for the amount of brand funded entertainment that broadcasters going to commission? Is that going to increase, you know, to fill that gap? I mean, yeah.
So we've already shown a significant growth in this area. So last year we did three series, which I think was about 16 hours of that funded programming. And this year we've got 13 commissioned, which equates almost 100 hours of programming. So you can see the direction of travel there.
So the short answer is yes, we see this as an important growth area, both from in terms of advertiser demand and commissioner interest. And that's why we set up a studio to try and capitalize on that. Okay. Claire.
I think one of the things we're seeing in our business is there's a bigger focus on trying to work with brands to create either shoulder content or some sort of partnership around shows that we've already commissioned. And so it's not necessarily a big push to kind of fill extra hours per se, but we're looking at shows that are coming up this year and seeing actually can a brand really help us increase our reach or drive more engagement. So stuff like, and the day of the jackal that's coming up later this year featuring a D-Maine, we're looking at, you know, other opportunities for a brand to get involved in some sort of partnership there. And similarly, we shows on Skymax are kind of returning CDs, stuff like Bratik and Buzzcocks, you know, other opportunities to work with brands to bring that bring those program brands to life across different platforms and different areas.
So it's not necessarily just about creating lots more content as you see, fell like out. It's about working more with brands to enhance stuff that we're already doing as well. So that's a focus. Okay.
And Adam. Yeah, I think the growth is, you know, it's what we're here trying about today, right? I think the growth is going to slow down at all. I think if anything the change is not going to be not going to come from less content.
It's going to be about just like the types of content we're delivering, you know, a lot of the content is an amazing opportunity and an example of that. And I think like the evolution of like what brand it actually looks like is really important just to keep an eye on as well. So like the producers we're working with and probably just in your questions in a bit, but like we're constantly challenging our producers to think more digitally about how they can produce content as well, like kind of take off the shackles almost of the kind of very linear structured way of like creating programming and statement and actually think about the entire kind of like ecosystem of how viewers, consumers, whether we want to call the ministry or actually like watching stuff basically, you know, if there's a tick to video where they're stitching their face alongside it and so be it or if it's like that real kind of lean back appointments watching you know, the other end of the spectrum. So I think it's less about kind of like the growth and slowdowns.
I don't think that's going to happen. I think like we will continue to see this kind of steady push if the happens I continues and if rule class is like us and other partners can continue to evolve in this space, but it's about how the production teams we're working with internally and externally can continue to evolve. They're offering an adapt to how you have it to changing again. That's, you know, such a core part of the channel for vision moving forward is like how do we constantly evolve and service our audience in a way that changing the way they are consuming our content.
So we've got a question that's come through on slide. And it's related to my final question. We've only got two and a half minutes left. But so if you could keep your answers nice and brief, please, how can production companies work with you to develop ideas for your latest brand briefs?
Well, sure. So Adam, I mentioned this with two approaches market proactive and reactive. Proactive is the opportunity for producers really. And that's why our commissioners, the GON speak to commissioners pitch ideas to you commissioners in the normal way that you would.
And then they will identify whether it needs to be had funded or whether they can commission it straight. And if it needs to be had funded, then it comes into me and my team to have a look at. Okay. So in terms of the do's and don'ts for a producer, it's not necessary about going and finding a brand to attach to a project.
Is that likely? We don't really for us. We want to own a conversation with brands. It's really important to our sales team to have to have that.
And this is an increased part of their offering to customers. So we very much suggest producers don't do that, but they do come speak to us at the earliest opportunity. Okay. How about Sky?
Kind of similar, I guess. So ideally, certainly for the pull act of stuff, it's great. If a production company has already got a relationship with their commission team, either having worked with them or have treatments approved and principal, that just makes it so much easier for us. But I think to that question around actual briefs, which I guess is reactive.
If we don't have anything that's already approved and principal that's appropriate and we think that brief fits with their agenda or editorial agenda. We will go and have a chat with the commissioners. They'll let us be to comment and other production companies you think you would work with on this. Who are they?
What's the kind of thing you would like to see from them in response to this brief? So we'd be able to be taking it to commissioning as a brief and seeing who the companies you think are right to work on this. Okay. So for Sky, it's producers have got to get close to the commissioners.
Obviously. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
And finally, I'm yeah, the corks are red down. I'm going to say because I can't. I think the question is a really important point. I'm just answering this question in a slide from way actually and actually put the attention more on agencies because I don't think agencies get a pretty enough love in the industry.
And the way that we're working with them is constantly evolving and I'll come and say, and also like the internal teams within Chang for really evolving as well. And I mean, by that is our commissioning teams and ourselves teams that we're working with production companies pitching us ideas absolutely as a way that we can work. And again, we can match the rights as we can shape them and then to perhaps point, we can decide if they should be funded and then we can like, you know, go down that road. The other side of it is actually working really closely with our agency partners and digital commission is internally and you know, my role as a credit strategy, my work with as well.
We're developing a lot of ideas internally here and with our agency partners. In fact, quite a lot of brief to answer an hour come with these like thought stars and we're not anti that at all. And I think, you know, you answer this question of how production companies can work with us. I think it's been flexible to work with us in that way, basically.
So rather than having this like set structured like idea of what you want to make as a production company, try and be a bit more flexible. So like the thoughts that are coming from both broadcasters and our agency partners because, you know, there's an absolute gold out there and no one really knows how advertisers better than, you know, the broadcasters and the media agencies we're working with. So I think just being open, flexible, what I touched on earlier about evolving and adapting to the wider ecosystem as well. A lot of production companies out there are still quite linear focus and we are working with them a lot at the moment at Chang for to evolve their offering.
You know, what does a tick to pattern like compared to an out commercial hour linear. Unsurprisingly, it's very, very different. So I think just like being able to evolve and be flexible is really key. So yeah.
Okay, fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, please thank our panel. You will be able to listen back to this panel discussion and lots of other panel discussions via our podcast as well. And you'll also see lots of interviews with lots of our panelists on our YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
So thank you very much. And there's the next session. Well, that's about it. This week's show.
I hope you enjoyed it. Telecast was produced by Spirit Studios and recorded at 180 Strand in London. For videos featuring the movers and shakers of the TV and digital content industries, don't forget to subscribe to Telecast. Just hit the link in the episode description or search Telecast TV on YouTube.
We'll see you next week for another show. Until then, stay safe.