It’s one of television’s biggest success stories. The Big Brother phenomenon has not only been a huge success in the UK, but has proved itself to be one of the few programmes that appeals to an international audience and works across a number of multi-media platforms. But as convergent media becomes an increasingly popular model for broadcasters, it poses new challenges for content producers.
Danny Meaney, founder and Managing Director of New Media Partners, will chair a conference tomorrow at Channel 4 headquarters in London, looking at ways different media organisations can work together to produce creative business models and using the Big Brother model as an example of creativity driving technology. According to Meaney, Big Brother is one of the most profitable television shows in history, largely because it appeals to a mass audience.
‘It’s the Holy Grail people in the television industry have been looking for,’ Meaney says.
However, the show’s popularity and economic success has not been isolated to the box, thanks to innovative uses of new technology.
This year, despite one of the most cynical series to date, the response from the viewing public was overwhelming, with audiences prepared to pay to view the fly-on-the-wall show online, while text message voting also caught on quickly.
Telecommunications sponsors of Big Brother 3, 02, revealed on July 18 it had processed 6.6 million text messages. Votes via text increased by 2% in the first week to 30% in week six. By the 8th week, the programme’s income had already surpassed last year’s total revenue of £4.4 million.
Half of the 6.6 million text messages were to cast votes, while the other half were to download ring tones, logos and receive regular Big Brother news updates.
For the first time, Channel 4 experimented with a subscription-based web service, charging internet users £10 per month to view the action on their computer screens. The experiment paid off, with the broadcaster signing up 25,000 users by the middle of the series.
The online strand of Big Brother has continued to grow, with a recent survey finding fans of the third series spent on average three-and-a-half hours a week watching the show online at home and at work.
Back in July, Channel 4’s Head of Cross-Platform Development Peter Grimsdale, commented to the Guardian that the profitability of the website would depend largely on broadband uptake, which has been relatively slow in the UK.
‘The biggest problem we have with technology and entertainment is not that the technology doesn’t exist, because it does, but people actually getting access to technology,’ Meaney explains.
‘In the UK for example, the availability of broadband is there, but uptake is poor. So I think the real potential of technology will only be seen once it’s available to a mass audience.’
Next week sees the launch of Celebrity Big Brother on November 20, sponsored this time by telecommuncations giant BT.
BT, who has vowed to sign up 5 million broadband customers by 2006, signed a six-figure deal with Channel 4 to sponsor the show, the Guardian reported last week.
Celebrity Big Brother will be streamed live on E4 20 hours a day and continuously on E4’s digital interactive service and the internet. The first eviction, on November 22, will screen for four hours on Channel 4.
In a market that includes similar reality TV models like Survivor, Pop Idol and the recent, but flagging, Fame Academy, programming with a convergent media format is becoming increasingly popular. As a result, content producers are no longer just film and television production companies, but can involve telecommunications and producers of computer games, for example. According to Meaney, awareness now needs to be raised on both sides of the commissioning fence to ensure practical content is presented and delivered.
‘Often what happens is that people develop ideas or technology in isolation,’ Meaney explains, adding that tomorrow’s conference is designed to bring together people from industries such as film and television, computer games and telecommunications, to foster communication and collaborations between the industries who are faced with broadcasters like Channel 4 requiring cross-platform content.
Although the third Big Brother was a ratings-winner for Channel 4, critics were dubious about the show’s future in light of this year’s ‘nastier’ format. Nevertheless, the model may have paved the way for a television future which is increasingly converging with other technologies.
‘I think it will be relatively simple models such as Big Brother which will continue to grow, Meaney says. ‘People start to copy it, so somebody has to move it on.’
‘If you look at the business model, it is designed for a mass audience. The other mass audience is really children’s television. I’m not sure I can imagine it being applied to something like documentary, but I think it is certainly applicable in the youth arena.
‘There is a market emerging which is about education, so really, the conference is about trying to get people out of their own traditional market and look at where convergence is genuinely opening up new markets for them,’ Meaney explains.
‘I think in the future, Big Brother will be seen as a bit of a watershed.’
The ‘Content is King (or is it?…)’ conference is at Channel 4, London, November 12. Speaker include Stuart Cosgrove, Channel 4’s Head of Programmes (Nations and Regions). For further information contact Carolyn Hill at New Media Partners, 0141 248 5360 or email carolyn@newmediapartners.co.uk