TV IS DEAD?

PROGRAMME 2: WINNING BACK THE TEENS

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Interviewees

• Peter Bazalgette Chief Creative Officer, Endemol
• Ashley Highfield, Director of Future Media and Technology, BBC
• Willlian Higham, Founder, The Next Big Thing
• Quinn Stainfield-Bruce, Founding Partner, Youth Conspiracy
• Jeff Conrad, Head of Design, Red Bee Media
• Russell Kane, Comedian
• Kieran Clifton, Head of Strategy, Five
• Richard Maryniak, Founding Partner, Youth Conspiracy
• Mike Cunningham, Media Equity Research, Credit Suisse
• John Ducker, Creative Consultant, Decipher Media

Social networking

Young people prefer interactive media and social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, which are hugely popular. They visit these sites to enjoy themselves, communicate and share experiences with each other. New sites spring up regularly, and young people can rapidly change their allegiance from one site to another. Social networking sites are becoming the battleground for the heart of the internet. They represent the convergence of all the key trends in technology and media – personalisation, aggregation (combining multiple functions within one piece of equipment), media-sharing, communities and targeted advertising – and so are subject to intense curiosity.

Young people form a vital but hard-to-reach category for advertisers. Media groups and marketers have struggled to convert the popularity of social networking sites into revenue, as members have proved reluctant to accept advertising. Sites vie with one another to bring out new features, tools and partnerships.

Research methods

Most broadcasters and production companies have in-house research and development sections that explore possible trends and come up with ideas for future programming. Broadcasters keep a close eye on how well their programmes are doing, taking account of viewers' comments and press coverage, as well as subscribing to BARB (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board). BARB is responsible for providing estimates of the number of people watching television, including which channels and programmes are being watched, and the type of people who are watching. BARB provides television audience data on a minute-by-minute basis for channels received within the UK. The data is available at a regional level for ITV and BBC, otherwise nationally, and it covers all analogue and digital platforms.

The way young people manipulate technology and consume entertainment is driving change, and increasingly broadcasters employ external research groups such as Youth Conspiracy, which uses young people to carry out research.