News: Short and sweet – week 29/2022

Streaming: UK dropout, US switcher. DFMG: Telekom sells tower majority. Fraport: Largest 5G campus network in Europe. Student Oscar: Filmuni three times on the shortlist. Media libraries: growing.

–

company

In preparation for the merger of TV news channels planned for 4/23, 70 jobs in London, including presenters, will be cut. 20 new jobs are to be created in the USA. The BBC is being forced to shut down several radio and TV channels by the budget cuts imposed by the Conservative parliamentary majority.

The British competition authority must reconsider the rejected takeover of the platform for animated gif graphics by the meta group due to procedural errors, according to a ruling. CMA saw the 2020 $300 million deal as a threat to competition and demanded the sale of Giphy.

Broadcast

In the group phase of the European Women’s Football Championship, the German women provided excellent ratings: 8.02 million people (34.3%) tuned in to the first against Spain, 5.76 million against Finland. 5.95 million watched the win against Denmark (25.9%) on ZDF.

The ARD/ZDF broadcaster leads the TV children’s offerings among three to 13 year olds in HY1/22 with a market share of 15.8%. The online content achieves an average of 8.42 (2018: 3.7) million visits and 200 million video views per month. The YouTube channel has 880,000 (2018: 400,000) subscribers.

The UHD channel can now also be received on Astra 19.2 degrees East on transponder 97 (12,344 H, SR 30,000, FEC 2/3, DVB-S2 – 8PSK). The programs with the HDR process Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) are part of the chargeable HD+ package.

Streaming

BILD TV will still be streamed on vehicle screens in 2022 via the entertainment platform from the USA. The content will be integrated into the platform as a separate channel; Launch customer is Mercedes for EQS and S-Class.

Films, festivals, cinemas, promotions

Three works from Babelsberg are on the shortlist for the student Oscars: the stop-motion film »Laika&Nemo«, the animation »In grace« and the novel adaptation »Auf Platte«. Out of 1,796 submissions, 54 were nominated; the finalists in the experimental film, animation, documentary and feature film categories will be announced in August.

Radio

The Berlin agency will renew both the frontend and the backend of the iOS and Android apps for the niche radio station Klassikradio by the first quarter of 2023.

civil protection

With the second “warning day” on December 8, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) and other authorities want to test the effectiveness of all warning devices. The »Cell Broadcast« recently introduced by federal ordinance – the simultaneous mass sending of SMS – is particularly emphasized. On the “Warntag 2020” all warning channels – except for the radio – had failed.

5G networks

Since construction began on July 16, 2019, Vodafone says it has equipped 11,500 radio sites for 5G; 68% of households are supplied. Eight times as much data is now being transported in the 5G network. 1/3 of the smartphones are suitable.

The 5G expansion, which only began in 10/20, has reached 14,000 antennas, 6,000 of which for 3.6 GHz, 50% of the population and ahead of schedule the target for 2022. By the end of the year, 60% should be covered.

The group’s 100,000 antennas at 34,000 locations (2,000 of which use 3.6 GHz) currently supply 92% of households with 5G.

Japan’s service provider NTT is building the “largest private 5G campus network in Europe” for Frankfurt Airport. It is to be used on an area of ​​20 square kilometers for autonomous vehicles on the apron and video-supported control by drones and robots. After a test, local partners will have access from 2023, according to airport operator Fraport.

Markets, studies, statistics

With 2 million people reached and 2.37 million hours of use per day, ARD continues to report the largest reach of all streaming portals of German TV stations in the first half of the year. The most successful film was “Tatort: ​​The Devil’s Long Breath” with 1.54 million views.

The streaming service recorded an increase of 28% in 2021 with 5.9 million daily visits. The strongest month since the start was February 2022 with 7.28 million visits per day. The number of sightings increased by 42%. 3.7 million registered users use the personalization option.

According to the Kantar analysis, the rising cost of living is putting the brakes on British SVOD balance sheets. In Q2/22 alone, 488,000 out of 16.42 million households canceled 1.66 (Q1: 1.51) subscriptions. SVoD market share fell by 2.6% among the under-24s and by just 0.5% among those aged 55-64.

According to Ampere, AppleTV+ and Paramount+ each catch about 11% of households that switch providers within 60 days of purchasing a streaming subscription.

Work & Social Affairs

The basis of minimum fees for series shoots for Netflix are the collective agreement and the fee agreement between Verdi and the producer alliance. For employees with more than 5 years of professional experience, Netflix goes beyond that. For subsequent budgets of more than €1.2 or €2.5 million, the minimum fees increase by 5 or 7.5%.

Law & Law

Two lawsuits against Tesla: The use of the security cameras in public spaces violates data protection and triggers fines. Advertising statements about CO2 savings of “0 g/km” are misleading: in 2020 Tesla sold emission rights for $1.6 billion – the exhaust gases are not avoided, but shifted. The consumer center calls for cooperation between the Federal Motor Transport Authority and data protection officers.

The shipper is suing in the US to stop Facebook groups that solicit fake product reviews for money. Since 2020, more than 10,000 such groups have been reported on Facebook, one with 43,000 members. The groups are active in Germany, the USA and other European countries.

Media War Russia/Ukraine

EU Member of Parliament Klemen Groselj (Slovenia) is calling for the accession negotiations with Serbia to be frozen if an office for the Russian state broadcaster RT, which is banned in the EU, is set up there. According to Groselj, the country is also moving closer to the “Russian model” of journalism, which will strengthen opposition to the EU. RT wanted to avoid the ban in the spring with an alleged Serbian approval.

According to the British media agency Ofcom, before the ban on reports on the Ukraine war, Russia’s state broadcaster RT violated essential journalistic principles 29 times in just four days, including the requirement of neutrality and the obligation to present different points of view.

Personnel

After allegations of corruption in the appointment of consultants for the RBB media house construction project, the broadcaster stopped the project until it was clear that it was a “project that was set up without a doubt”. Wolf-Dieter Wolf is retiring from his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The RBB hired a law firm to investigate.

The association of Bavarian local broadcasters re-elected Willi Schreiner as chairman in dual leadership with Till Coenen. On the board, Christoph Rolf speaks for the TV specialist group, Mischa Salzmann for the radios.

The AV group binds Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Gunnar Wiedenfels until July 2026. The contract of Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell was also extended until July 2025.

As President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, Katherine Pope will be responsible for US series productions starting August 22. Previously as Head of Original Content for Charter Communication, she developed a number of series for Spectrum Originals.

Don’t miss any more short news and simply subscribe to the newsletter:

–