[ecrea] Adapting to Social Media: Commerce, Creativity and Competition in UK Television Production

Colleagues may be interested to read the report ‘*Adapting to Social 
Media: Commerce, Creativity and Competition in UK Television 
Production*’ by James Bennett and Niki Strange (published May 2018). 
Free to download at 
www.adapttvhistory.org.uk/social-media-project/report2018 
<http://www.adapttvhistory.org.uk/social-media-project/report2018>

The report explores the impact social media is having on UK Television 
production and distribution.  Whilst there has been significant concern 
with how social media is changing audience habits, this research focuses 
on the role it is increasingly playing as a production technology within 
the TV industry.

Based on 57 one to one interviews with industry figures, along with 2 
surveys of trade body Pact members in 2016 and 2017 and ethnographic 
observations of digital teams on /The Voice,/ /X Factor/ and /Sunday 
Brunch, /the report sets out how financial, organisational and business 
imperatives intersect with the sector’s production cultures, working 
practices and skills base to make social media a major concern for the 
industry’s future. 44% of our 2017 Pact member survey respondents regard 
social media as the most significant strategic, technical and creative 
innovation challenge for television producers, ahead of virtual (26%) 
and augmented reality (12%).

There are already a range of companies innovating in this space, 
creating both compelling experiences and viable business models. At the 
micro level, new job roles and expertise – such as the ‘Preditor’ and 
the Social Media Manager – have emerged that are making particular skill 
sets a valuable commodity in the sector’s economy.

But it is also clear that the industry needs to move rapidly as new 
players are ready to step in and exploit the social television market. 
Broadcasters find themselves competing with social platform operators 
who are increasingly acting like channels, adapting to learn the lessons 
of television’s past to secure their future.

Television production companies find they must now compete or 
collaborate with digital agencies able to reach audiences ‘where they 
live’ on social platforms and in formats that speak to different viewing 
and consuming sensibilities. We provide new insights into the way 
television is produced that will illuminate both current industry 
practice and scholarship to understand the challenges and barriers for 
those seeking to address the social television opportunity gap.

To download this report 
<http://www.adapttvhistory.org.uk/social-media-project/report2018>, and 
read more about both the Social Media project, and the broader 5 year 
ERC-funded ADAPT research project, led by Prof. John Ellis, of which 
this was a part, please visit www.adapttvhistory.org.uk 
<http://www.adapttvhistory.org.uk>


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