BBC and ITV join forces to launch streaming service in UK. The future of TV remains ad-funded. TripAdvisor launches global media review. OMD named Adweek’s global media agency of 2019. Facebook launches Facebook Showcase. Financial Times names new news editor.
BBC and ITV join forces to launch streaming service in UK
BBC and ITV are close to agreeing a deal to jointly bring their BritBox streaming service to the UK.
Packed full of British boxsets and original series, available on demand, and brand-new series commissioned solely for the platform, BritBox aims to challenge Netflix by localising content for the British market.
The service has already started running in US and Canada, and other British broadcasters are expected to join BBC and ITV for the local iteration.
Techradar has the full story, here.
Adweek names OMD global media agency of the year
Adweek has named OMD as its Global Media Agency of the Year 2019. The industry publication said the company’s impressive comeback after a nightmarish 2017 was an impressive feat. That year, the agency fell to the bottom of media analyst ratings. But in 2018, won and retained over $2.6 billion worth of business.
Florian Adamski, Global CEO of OMD.”It’s, said the company had won more than 300 pitches across all geographies last year, but at the same time more than doubled its retention rate and improved its client ratings four consecutive times throughout 2018.
“We also remained the most medaled agency at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity,” he said. “When you put all this together it is simply astonishing. But none of this would have been possible without the hard work, talent and adaptability of our people nor the trust placed in us by our clients and partners. I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved and look forward to building on this foundation in 2019 and beyond.”
For more on OMD’s turnaround, read the story on Adweek.
The future of TV remains ad-funded
Television’s scale means it continues to be an attractive option for advertisers, and while the traditional TV model may have shifted in future, advertising will remain central to this proposition in future.
That’s the view of Simon Andrews, managing director of The Media Kitchen.
He fiercely denounced claims that keep being bandied about that “television is dead”, stressing that he believes “television has never been healthier than it is now”.
WARC has more information about Andrews’ views, here.
Wavemaker US in Out in Tech develop partnership
Out in Tech, a non-profit LGBTQ+ in the US, has partnered with Wavemaker US to ” inspire the next generation of LGBTQ+ talent to pursue jobs within media and technology through greater visibility, access and education”, Campaign reported. Wavemaker is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion.
Wavemaker’s chief talent officer, Kristen Metzger (left), said the company was “committed to fostering an inclusive workplace, and have a variety of programs and partnerships to ensure that our culture is a reflection of our people’s unique differences”.
The partnership will include shadow days, events and leadership programming that will expose Out In Tech’s 20,000-plus community members to the varied jobs within a media agency.
For the full story, visit Campaign.
TripAdvisor launches global media review
American travel and restaurant website company, TripAdvisor has announced a review of its global media planning and buying business.
Currently, the brand works with All Response Media in the UK and Havas Edge in the US.
Campaign has more details, here.
Facebook launches new premium video offering, Facebook Showcase
Facebook’s plans to monetise its premium video offering has been given a boost with a new programme launch to capitalise on the platform’s most popular Watch content. This would give advertisers another way to maximise reach. It launched its new ‘Facebook Showcase‘ advertising programme this week.
“Showcase will give online video and TV ad buyers participating in the upfront selling cycle new opportunities to reach their target audiences within the highest-quality videos on Facebook,” it said this week, adding that Facebook’s video ecosystem was growing, with a diverse mix of content from original series to creator content.
Seventy-five million dedicated viewers may not be a huge success – a tiny fraction of Facebook’s more than 2.3 billion total active audience – but for comparison, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, one of the most watched US TV shows, averaged around 18m viewers per episode in 2018, it said.
For more on this, read the story on Social Media Today.
Financial Times names new news editor
Matthew Garrahan, current global media editor for the Financial Times has been appointed as the newspaper’s next news editor.
Having worked for the Financial Times for the last 20 years, in various roles, Garrahan takes over from Peter Spiegel, who has been appointed as US managing editor, from April.
PressGazette has the full story, here.