📽️ YouTube’s Culture & Trends report 2024 is here
📺 Channel 4 VOD viewing outpaces Netflix & Amazon
💰 BBC Ventures makes its first investment
🚀 Featured Startup: Talk Twenties
If you believe that no news is good news, then you’re in for a treat. Here is a snapshot from this week:
YouTube is still doing well.
TV viewing is still in decline.
Paramount is still in the toilet.
Amazon’s share price is still climbing.
England are still woefully uninspiring at football.
Donald Trump is still worryingly close to a second term.
But in amongst the ‘same old’ were some green shoots of optimism:
Channel 4 grew its VOD viewing by more than Netflix & Amazon. BBC Ventures made its first investment since being set up 2 years ago. All3Media is back in the M&A market.
So yes, this wasn’t a week for earth-shattering announcements, but some signs of life in the old UK media scene.
Vamos 👍
YouTube Culture & Trends report 2024
YouTube just released its Culture & Trends Report for 2024. The good news (for YouTube) is that apparently everyone is consuming sh*t loads of YouTube.
The big takeaway for the rest of us is that 65% of Gen Z now self-identify as ‘content creators’, up 25% on last year’s report.
Whilst this is on a pretty small sample (c.350 people out of YouTube’s 2 billion users), the trend is real and the point stands - young people today don’t just want to consume video, they want to create around it. And this derivative content leads to the finding that the majority “spend more time watching content that discusses or unpacks something than the thing itself”.
Read more here
Another bad week for Paramount…
Paramount was in the news for all the wrong reasons this week - with shareholders and customers alike taking a dim view:
Share price - dropping to $9.88, just above its all-time low of $9.61 and down 36% over the last 12 months
Increasing the price of P+ by 33% - US only right now, but inevitably these price rises will be crossing the Atlantic soon
Cutting a load of its old content - archive shows and footage on Comedy Central and MTV are being deleted on mass as part of the ongoing cost-cutting initiative
The 3 co-CEOs, facing the mountainous task (pun intended) of getting Paramount out of this hole, held a meeting in the week where they announced their plan. No surprises here: it includes cost-cutting, sell-offs and ‘optimisation’.
On the plus side, apparently talks are still progressing over a potential merger with Sony.
Read more here
Featured Startup: Talk Twenties
Founder: Gaby Mendes
Business: Digital media publisher focused on Gen Z
Talk Twenties started life as a podcast in 2020 and has since grown in to a much broader media co, with an annual event (Twenties Fest) and a YouTube original series. All with the mission of helping people to “figure your sh*t out in your twenties”.
A wide range of guests are featured on the podcast - from YouTubers to TV stars through to Entrepreneurs and Neuroscientists - and there are plans to push out more original video content.
Check them out 👍
Source: Talk Twenties
Read more here
Best of the Rest
FASHION: Zellerfeld launched the ‘YouTube of Shoes’ - a platform for creating your own trainer (sorry, ‘sneaker’) designs for 3D printing.
CONTENT: All3Media was acquired last month for £1.15Bn. A Unicorn no less. The new owner, Redbird IMI, says its going to “awaken All3Media in the M&A market”.
CREATORS: James Watts, of Brewdog fame, launched his new venture Social Tip - a platform to reward everyday individuals for promoting brands on social media.
GAMING: DAZN and WBD are broadcasting the Esports World Cup, which runs throughout July and August.
STREAMING: Another streaming service bites the dust, as sports service Caffeine announced it is closing down as it is “still not quite profitable” after 8 years and $300M in funding.
CONTENT: Cirque de Soleil has launched an Entertainment Studio, with the first production being developed in partnership with Ridley Scott
Channel 4’s strong start to 2024
Viewing data showed Channel 4 hit a record high 164 billion minutes of combined viewing across linear and streaming in the first half of 2024, up 2.5% YoY.
The other major broadcasters (BBC, ITV, C4, C5, Sky and UKTV) had an average drop of -3% YoY.
C4’s VOD viewing was even more impressive, up +32%, ahead of Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.
Read more here
BBC Ventures invests in virtual streaming
BBC Ventures was set up in 2022 to invest in tech start-ups and act as a (risky) hedge against declining licence fee revenues.
It has now made its first investment (its only taken 2 years), in virtual streaming platform Condense.
This will support the BBC’s development of content for immersive, virtual environments. Think artists performing concerts in Fortnite, Roblox, VR spaces, etc.
Source: BBC
Read more here
