IABM UK Members’ Council debates Cyber Security

The issue of cyber security hits on many levels – corporate, product, system and individual.  All of these are apparent within the Broadcast Industry with attitudes as well as actions to cyber security increasingly changing, driven in no small part by the rapid adoption of new cloud-based workflows and ‘direct to consumer’ strategies.  Below the UK Members’ Council have been given 30 minutes to ‘debate’ two opposing statements around cyber security and what it means for the Broadcast industry.

UK council chairman, Simon Haywood (Dell Technologies), kicked off the debate by positing two very different scenarios:

  • Most broadcasters have cyber security covered, and the threat of so-called cyber-attack is considerably over-exaggerated. All that's required is a decent firewall, and anti-virus on machines that people use. Backups aren't needed - because everything's archived. And in any case, broadcasters are not the target of any of these attacks - they're more aimed at extorting money from commercial organisations.
  •  Every touchpoint that a broadcaster has with a viewer or any other organisation is a potential attack vector - and the consequences of malicious activity go far beyond any immediate impact. Broadcasters must adopt a "zero trust" security policy - and secure their systems and workflows across all levels of their organisations.

Tim Felstead (Sony Professional Solutions Europe) cited a recent example of a tender for a public broadcaster as clear evidence that cyber security is a central consideration. The tender required full compliance at every level of the EBU’s Technology Pyramid for Media Nodes and its various cyber security recommendations. “There were two components – the company security: how do you as a company comply with all these security requirements and also how do your products comply with the security requirements?” Felstead explained. “And also, can you demonstrate test results that you comply? This gets down to really detailed levels – does this product respond to a certain action over an IP network in a certain period of time? So it’s not just about 2110 and the standards compliance of transport – it’s also down in the minute detail about tests for cyber security and responses to various kinds of attack etc. It’s very onerous.”

Martin Paskin (Techex) also had a recent similar experience with a large broadcaster specifying that they needed to clear levels 1 and 2 of OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) and a significant proportion of level 3 too. “That costs a lot of money and time to achieve but it was the only way we could get our products on their site,” he said. “And the Russian war on Ukraine has caused a lot of people to be very concerned about security, including broadcasters, some of whom have severed all remote connections to all of their systems, which has become a blocker to trying to deploy systems or even support systems now.”

Simon Haywood suggested a lot of industries could learn from Hollywood, “which has been all over content security for years; they take it much more seriously than – for example – the medical guys. But in the broadcast industry, we all know of broadcast systems from big vendors where the vendor name is both the username and password, which is the execution user for the entire system!” This comment brought smiles all round. “We can’t do that anymore.” Haywood pointed out that Dell products get used in many other verticals – enterprise and government for example – “which dealt with this stuff years ago, so maybe we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. What Tim Felstead was being asked to do has been done before in these other verticals. You could find someone from a totally different sector who might just mop it all up in an afternoon.”

Felstead responded by pointing out that, while software-centric companies may have the skills in house, “if you’re a company making say pedestals for cameras, then I bet you have a LAN, but you’ve got far more mechanical engineering resources in the company than you have IT engineers. Companies need to change their approach to accommodate the changing norms in the industry.”

Peter Blatchford (Starfish Technologies) reported that when he tried to renew his company’s public liability insurance recently, he was forced to implement “a whole bunch new things because the company said our cyber security wasn’t up to scratch. It came from nowhere – we’ve never been asked to do it or prove it in the past. It isn’t a bad thing in itself but, as Martin Paskin said, these things cost money and time, which is a really precious commodity irrespective of cost. We don’t have people to sit around and look at this stuff – we’re trying to deliver a product, so any distraction is incredibly unwelcome and it basically involves us setting aside two of our top software developers to implement.

“The implication is that insurance companies are now expecting anyone involved in any high-tech industry to implement these standards internally. We didn’t want to challenge them; they allocated a couple of people at their end who are now responsible for ensuring companies implement these standards; we had a conference call that went on for many hours with our software developers and they told us what we needed to implement. The implication is that any company that wants any form of liability insurance will have to implement these kinds of standards, including one-time passwords and two-factor authentication. We’ve had to implement these internally when we VPN into our own systems.”

“Our customers have been protecting their systems for years. For example with Sky, you obtain a token and you’re given access to the system for a very short period of time. You have to justify why you need that token and that’s totally reasonable – I have no issue with that,” Blatchford added.

John Sparrow (Clear-Com) concurred. “We’ve been doing this for a long time when connecting to our servers in the US. We’ve just changed to meet California laws, which say  you can’t have the same password, so the first time someone logs into the product, they are forced to change the password – so we lose the general ability to get into the system.”

Ilona Valent (Riedel Communications and Solent University) expressed her surprise at how unprepared some companies are when it comes to cyber security. “One aspect is protecting content – ‘Hollywood syndrome’ – piracy is a major concern, and the other is confidentiality and data protection – personal and employee data protection. Most of our clients are focusing on these. Recently we were trialing a new power system at one of our clients to enable them to control and monitor remotely. We were trying to remotely turn on lights in the studio and instead took down the whole gallery. It was just a test or it would have been mission-critical! Hackers these days do it just for fun – recently one of the world’s most prolific hackers was caught and he was just a 16-year-old autistic boy who just enjoyed doing it. But if a broadcaster goes down on air to a hacker – maybe carrying a major live event – that’s an incredible amount of money and reputation lost.”

Jonathan Morgan (Object Matrix) added “Broadcasters get hit by everyone – by these kinds of people having fun, by opportunists, by government-sponsored hackers. The big thing that’s happened over the last few years is that there seems to be an industry of companies that exist to hack and make money out if it. In the past, we used to think of individuals or loose collectives but now it seems like there are actually companies set up do this. It has changed dramatically.”

“Now we’re seeing people move away from direct satellite feeds or A to B telecommunications towards using IP, we’re seeing a lot more people asking for rotating keys,” Martin Paskin said.

Mark Davies (TSL Professional Products) has seen this go one stage further – or maybe that should be backwards: “We have had a customer request to do one totally IP installation where they seriously took all their outgoing lines back to SDI then IP before going out of the building.”

Micky Edwards (TAG VS) added: “As a software-only company, we regularly get asked about penetration testing. Third parties carry this out and each individual broadcaster wants to keep their results secret. But it’s the same type of test being done by these companies, and if there were a method of sharing this between them, they may be able to save themselves an absolute fortune in hiring these third parties to come out and do each individual test. That’s maybe something to think about where there are standards.”

Darren Whitehead (IABM) has seen an example of sharing at a recent BT seminar. “They deal with major threat attacks on the network through collaboration. They’ll pick up the phone to their competitors and tell them about an attack, helping to minimize its impact. It’s in everyone’s best interests to have the most secure possible network for their clients. I don’t see this happening in broadcast.”

Rounding out the discussion, Whitehead concluded: “If we don’t do something about it as an industry ourselves, then other people such as the insurance industry will force it on us.”

So it is clear the UK Members’ Council believes approaches to cyber security in the broadcast industry are getting more sophisticated and certainly more prioritized throughout the planning, purchasing and implementation stages of a project.  However, by working with other vertical industries, broadcasters may be able to learn a lot as well as save time and money!  The message from the UK Members’ Council then is for more collaboration between vendors and customers and more transparency around what works!

The Argosy family

Chris Smeeton

CEO, Argosy

Argosy was founded in 1984, originally to supply broadcasters and systems integrators with cables and connectors. Today we are known as infrastructure solutions specialist and have rapidly expanded our portfolio in recent years, with an extensive range of products and services, including racks, power management, conversion devices and KVM technology - and we serve a number of industries alongside broadcast - such as Pro-AV and IT.

But the guiding principle of the company is still the same: we aim to be very responsive to our customers by predicting their needs and having what they need in stock, so we can deliver it when they need it. To meet that goal defines the shape of our business and it’s always been the people we employ that has been key to our success.

The ‘founding fathers’ of Argosy, Ken Eckardt and Mike Purnell, wanted the company to have a family feel, to be one team all pulling in the right direction and three years after the company was acquired by IEWC, in 2018 our MBO meant that Josh Simons and I could resurrect this original work ethic.

One initiative that Ken and Mike had – and which I re-introduced when I took the business over with Josh – was the group bonus system. We do not give our sales staff commission, but everyone gets a share of the profits.

My first grown-up job was in the kitchen of a restaurant, and I remember feeling aggrieved that I never saw any of the tips. This is the same thinking: a picker in the warehouse is just as important to our success in business as someone in sales or accounts, so everyone benefits in exactly the same way.

We are a relatively small company, but we still try to do things in the right way. We are an ISO9000 accredited company and we have a comprehensive online procedures manual. Like all businesses, we are in continual improvement: we are currently introducing a new CRM system, and have pledged a number of sustainability goals.

We also want everyone to recognise that we are proud to be a part of the broadcast and media industry. All the staff are aware of our involvement in organisations like the IABM and RTS. For this year’s Media Production and Technology Show we registered all our internal sales and technical teams and encourage them to attend, to see what is happening in the industry and to get a chance to meet the customers.

Our staff tends to be very loyal: we average more than 10 years retention, which is great. And it is changing…we are now about 60/40 male and female.

But even with very low staff churn, growth means that we have to recruit. My feeling is that generally you can teach people about the products and the job: it is identifying those with the right attitude that is hard. We start by talking to our existing team and asking them if they know of anyone who might fit in – they know who they want to work with.

We also have close relationships with our suppliers, so we can be sure they can give us what we know our customers will want. Companies like Draka-Prysmian make cables to our specification, because we know that will do the job.

Then we need to be sure we have the right level of stock, in our main warehouse in rural Buckinghamshire, our Middle Eastern office in Dubai, and our joint venture in Kuala Lumpur. And of course we need internal sales people to take and process orders, and people on the road to keep an ear to the ground. By being close to our market means we know what is coming, which means we know the technical demands so we get our suppliers to create even more appropriate products, and so it goes around.

How does all this translate into a corporate culture and how did the pandemic change how we work as an organisation? Most obviously, we are limited in how much working from home we can do: pickers have to be in the warehouse; you cannot splice and polish fibre camera cables on your kitchen table. But sales, accounts, and other back office people – including me – can work remotely and that is what we did when we had to.

Today there is a mixed response to how we work. Some staff found it difficult to go back to being in the office. Others found that, after a couple of weeks of being back at their desks and interacting directly with colleagues, they fought back when I tried to send them home over a recent uptick in covid rates!

We have a long-established practice of a Monday morning meeting across the departments, so everybody knows what is in the diary, where the pinch points are going to be, and where we might need to all pitch in to get a job out.

During the worst of the pandemic these Monday morning meetings were on Zoom. Now we are all keen to do them face-to-face, and while we have a general rule that staff can be away from the building can work from home as they need to, we encourage everyone to be in on a Monday as a routine.

The real benefit of these weekly chats is that it eliminates the silo problem. Every department understands what is going on, how the business is performing, and where the threats lie. Everyone appreciates knowing what is going on, and it has a real positive impact on productivity and understanding.

My other big concern about working from home is that you lose sight of the people in the job. Everyone can be cheerful and positive on a weekly Zoom call, but if you are in the same office, day after day, you get to know when someone is not right, when they might be having problems or feeling unwell.

When you are together, if someone spots something it is much easier to have a friendly word. If we know there is a problem then we can find a way to ease it.

It is a bit of cliché in our industry, but I really believe that we are in a people business. We promote from within the business, and most members of our management team – including me – have come through the ranks. We have a board member who has been a customer and a supplier in the past.

Add in the partnerships with our vendors, some of which stretch back 20 years or more, and I think we must be doing something right.

BT Sport United – a co-ordinated, company-wide commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability

Jamie Hindhaugh

Head of BT Sport

BT Sport won the IABM Award for the Most Inclusive Company in December 2021. The sports broadcaster collected the award in recognition of a wide range of action across its operation to promote Diversity and Inclusion – see the judges’ summary of its achievements here. We followed up with BT Sport COO*, Jamie Hindhaugh, to uncover he story behind his inspiring BT Sport United initiative, dive deeper into the programme, discover what’s coming next – and also talk about BT Sport’s sustainability push, which is delivering astonishing results.

What’s the genesis of BT Sport United?

I launched BT Sport United as an initiative on 1st August 2020 - just as we went deep into the pandemic. It was driven by our aspiration for the BT Sport community to have a purpose. And when I say the community, I mean all the people we work with. We've done many initiatives in the past around working with local communities, focusing on inclusion and looking at sustainability. But it was all very piecemeal. What I wanted to do was to bring a programme together which drove engagement and gave opportunity to people working in BT Sport around the three pillars of diversity/inclusion, community and sustainability.

My absolute belief is that, whoever you work for, it isn't just about how much you get paid, and what the brand is, it's what brand stands for that matters - the principles within that organization. Especially amongst the younger people coming through, it is clear that they want to work for a company that has a purpose, that cares, and that uses its voice for good.

So initially the job was to pull those programmes together, putting it all into one brand - BT Sport United - and then take that onto our screens. So it's not only an internal engagement mechanism, it’s also an editorial strand that now sits across our channels. It means we're not preaching, but we're talking to our audiences about the things that matter to us and we think matter to them. And using that voice also to showcase the internal projects and opportunities that we get involved with, demonstrating an absolute commitment to making our industry and our network a better place - whether it's around inclusion, whether it's around sustainability, or whether it's how we integrate and connect with our community.


Practically speaking, how did you bring it all together?

Two factors drove the genesis of BT Sport United. The first was that we were already doing so much good stuff, but even some of our own teams weren't aware of it. So we tried to think of a vehicle - how can we raise awareness that drives engagement? And how do we celebrate the great stuff we do? So that was the key part of BT Sport United. My first step was to create a BT United team talk. We do a live TV show that goes out every two weeks to all of our teams, where we interview people, focus on the projects we're involved in, and we also talk about our output. This was critical during Covid, because we were all dispersed all over the place. And what I'm really proud of is the sense of community at BT Sport is stronger coming out of Covid than it was before, even though the community became more virtual.

But the other thing driving this, and this is a very personal aspect, was that I'm in one of the best jobs there is in broadcast.

Has your personal background played any role in this?

Yes – but perhaps not how you’d expect. I left home at 16. I didn't go to university, I had various different jobs. I joined the BBC in 1994, on the lowest grade booking cabs in a call centre. I left the BBC 18 years later, as the head of production for the London 2012 Olympics across TV, radio and online. I joined BT and set up BT Sport, built this infrastructure. I'm responsible for the day-to-day running and creation of the BT Sport team. And we've built a brilliant team.

And I'm not qualified for any of that. But what I do know is that I'm a hard worker, and I've learned on relationships, but I'm also very conscious of the privilege I've had, because of who I am, my background, etc. Now, I don't come from a posh family or anything like that, but it was very clear to me that the opportunities I got in the BBC were because the networks I was allowed to move in. So it's always been a passion of mine. And especially since having kids, and when I look at our industry as a whole, I think a lot about how we can become more open and attractive to bring people in who, with the right aptitude, support mechanism, and care, can be brilliant.

Our industry is one of those industries that can do that, but it has suffered in the past from lack of inclusion in particular - especially around ethnicity and gender - as being not open for business. So all the initiatives we do - whether it's apprenticeship schemes in the local boroughs, whether it's takeover days, being open, helping people understand what our industry is, and the opportunity that's there – are aimed at opening it all up if you want to be part of it.

When we set up BT Sport, we based ourselves here in Stratford in the poorest borough in London, which has a really diverse community. But I did not want to create an organisation where everyone passed through the community to come to work; that's not good enough for me. For us to truly be successful, we need to be part of the community, we need to feel part of the community. And the beauty of that is our community then gets into our DNA. If you don't have a diverse team, if you don't have that right approach, it is very hard to get that across on air and therefore talk with those communities in a way that they understand. So that's quite a long-winded answer, but in short, Stratford is now the home of exclusive Champions League broadcasting coming from this neighbourhood.

And the worst scenario would be for us to be in our ivory towers and not reflecting the neighbourhood we're in. So with things like Takeover, we are engaged in supporting our local community. Some of the people who’ve been on Takeover are moving into employment in the industry, some of the people just got their confidence, and some just enjoyed it. And that's what it should be about - work should be fun. People should feel part of something, and people should feel wanted and that for me is the ethos that we've created. The thing I'm most proud of in BT Sport is not the fantastic coverage we do, it's not our fantastic leadership and innovation, it's in here, because the people inside the building are BT Sport; BT Sport is not Stratford studios, BT Sport is the community within. And that's the thing I'm most proud of, and things like BT Sport United helped galvanise that, and help hold us to account to make sure that what we preach, we do.

What's coming next?

Well, a lot of it is building on what we already do. So now we're back in the workplace, we’re doing some more mentoring and work experience opportunities through structured programmes with local colleges and schools. And working with Rise Up of which we are a founding member and key sponsor, which is around targeting kids of school age, who are looking at their pathways. We need more equality around gender within broadcasting, but especially within sport broadcasting, and Rise Up helps us with that.

But it's about people seeing what engineering really is, because broadcasting is engineering. Enabling them to create a studio, to work as a team, and to see the output of what they're created is really powerful. And it's something I'm really proud of. And it's about opportunities because, when it comes down to it, it's all about how you work, and how you integrate into a team. I'm not solely responsible for the success of BT Sport - I'm just one of the wheels on the car. And without people around me, I would fail. And that's what we want people to understand. We want them to get an insight that actually broadcast it isn't just about standing in front of the camera or holding the camera. Every single business skill is somewhere in the chain within a broadcast operation, and it's getting people to understand that and feel like it could be a career for them.

So we're always looking at how we can attract people in, but also how we can then support them to build their careers. I’m really proud of our BT Sport apprenticeship programmes. We’ve done two, and we targeted the six boroughs impacted by the Olympics, because that's where we are. So it's very targeted; every single person on the programmes ended up in full time jobs. Two of them now work for other broadcasters, one of them has just left and is now a presenter, and all of these people came in and just got involved, learnt and have made a brilliant career for themselves. And that's really fulfilling.

Sustainability – the third pillar

We are always looking at sustainability. We're part of the albert BAFTA, and again we work cross-industry there to share best practice to look at how we can become greener and more efficient. We spent a lot of time navel gazing and a lot of time thinking if you live in glass houses, you can't throw stones. But then there was a realisation within our organisation when they that we're doing a lot of good and while we're not perfect, we could still talk about this with our audiences and drive more engagement. There’s not much good come out of Covid, but forcing us to move to remote production and completely change how we work reduced our carbon footprint by about 50% because we're not sending people all over. Changing from normal fossil fuel to green fuel has a massive impact, and the fact that our studio is already the biggest LED-lit facility in the world, which use less energy and need less cooling, is another example.

So what we've started to say is we're doing some really good stuff here, so let's celebrate that. And even little things like taking beef off the menu, all of those little things have an impact when you add them all together. And it's something that people are really passionate about. When you look at the scare stories out there around the impact on the world, and especially for us who have kids, we want them to inherit something that's almost like what we have as regards ways of life, etc. So that's what we’re committed to.

And remote production also is a massive enabler around inclusion and diversity as well. All of our galleries, for instance, at Stratford that support remote production are also accessible. With the best will in the world in the old days of giant OB trucks, it's very hard to get a wheelchair in. And now we’re looking at transitioning our remote production that one step further to cloud production, which also improves sustainability, but also means people can work anywhere, but still be part of a gallery team. What that means is you're no longer selecting people to work for you just on their geographical place of being; you can be more open and more people can get involved.

When we went completely remote here at Stratford, we were able to carry out our main control room operations remotely. People at home are able to bring the feeds into the building, divert them, route them all, etc, which you'd never have thought would be possible. And that means you can start looking at people who have caring responsibilities, or people who are part time. Because the big challenge, as we all know, around that sort of area is around travel and being away. So all of those things are what we're looking at that not only drive our inclusivity agenda, but also absolutely drive down our footprint as regards carbon emissions. And we're talking about this much, much more on air.

And the impact is huge – internally we have about halved our carbon footprint on average. And where we do have to create emissions, we look at how we can offset to get ourselves to net neutrality as soon as we can. But our primary objective is about changing how you behave to reduce emissions, rather than just offsetting.

*Jamie Hindhaugh was promoted to Head of BT Sport shortly after this interview took place in March

Delivering Wider Reach for Women’s Sport

Vicky Callister

Head of Global Business Development, Cerberus Tech

Women’s sport has enjoyed a great start to 2022, with the Women's Super League (WSL), Six Nations, and Women's Cricket World Cup, proving key to record UK television audiences. The Women's Sport Trust found that “UK women’s sport viewership increased 140% from 1st January to 15th May” and Sports Pro Media recently highlighted that WSL broadcast consumption was up 285% in the first year of the Sky-BBC rights deal, based on data from the same study.

However, to build on this momentum, the broadcast industry needs to do more to maximise growth in all tiers of women’s live sport. In recent years, media content delivery has become more diverse from a technical perspective. Sports broadcast organisations can capitalise on this to become more diverse in their approach to content creation. By exploring different content formats they can expand reach and take a wide variety of sports to new audiences.

The Next Generation of Fans

Before the pandemic, Nielsen Sports noted some key challenges with Gen Z’s engagement with live sports. “They have higher expectations for entertainment experiences than their elders, and new ways to discover and consume content.” The data from the Nielsen Fan Insights study across eight different markets (China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US) revealed that 16–24-year-olds prefer “shorter, ‘snackable’ content and, from a sporting standpoint, are less inclined to watch entire games.”

Some commentators have dismissed the generational shift away from traditional consumption habits, as an issue with the Gen Z attention span. Many in the industry have implied that Gen Z are simply too distracted and demanding, to sit through a full sporting event at an allotted time. But as Nielsen highlighted, “if the content is sufficiently engaging and provides regular opportunities to interact, they (Gen Z) are still prepared to invest meaningful time”. Fans of watching online video gaming in the US provide a case in point – 29% under the age of 25 state that they watch continuously for one to two hours, whilst 14% watch for three to four hours at a time.”

It’s also important to remember that the Nielsen figures were shared prior to the pandemic. Since then, social watching and online interaction has expanded exponentially. Many consumers have integrated second-screening and virtual connection into their viewing habits. Statista data revealed that the share of people using other devices while watching TV in the UK was 69% in 2021. It’s important that content owners think creatively to optimise evolving viewer behaviour. If a fan’s attention is split, then it provides opportunities to consolidate the viewing and engagement experience across different platforms.

There is an increasing demand for new types of content to consume, which touches all areas of media, as well as new ways to engage with it. At the same time, audiences expect to feel closer to clubs than ever and connect directly with players, as barriers are brought down through social media. Women’s sport must already contend with fewer opportunities for coverage and less lucrative sponsorship deals. So, by responding to an evolving landscape, clubs and federations are in the best position to maximise future growth potential.


Every Moment Makes Content

In the age of interactive media, everything is content. The commentary and speculation, behind the scenes footage, and supplementary stories can often be as engaging as the main event. These content formats can help build a compelling new narrative for sports rights owners and engage new audiences. Women’s sports clubs and federations can explore the potential of additional content to deliver wider reach and expand revenue opportunities. The rights for extra content could be sold to additional takers and broadcast outlets, delivering one main world feed supported by multiple supplementary feeds. Content could also be used to increase awareness around women’s sport and build links with audiences in new regions.

To ensure a benchmark of video quality for women’s sport, the broadcaster still needs to receive supplementary content at as high a quality and bitrate as possible, if the assets are to be leveraged effectively. Additional content has an appeal, but unlike a main feed, the diversity of this content means potential revenue generation is divided across a large number of media assets. From an investment perspective, satellite isn’t the right method for this content model, but this is where broadcast-grade IP is the perfect fit. A sports content owner does not need to allocate satellite capacity to multiple supplementary feeds; content can simply be made available in the cloud so that takers can access it in accordance with demand.


Maintaining Momentum

This agile, cloud-based model of content delivery will give audiences a chance to set the viewing agenda. There is clearly an interest in women’s sports content when it’s made available to view. A recent prediction suggests that the “value of women’s sport could treble by 2030” and that “broadcasters and brands have a significant role to play in helping the sector achieve its £1bn goal”. To facilitate this, content owners need to think beyond a traditional ‘main feed as the only feed’ approach and a linear, fixed schedule consumption strategy. In addition, an over reliance on traditional satellite infrastructure, as the sole delivery method, means missing out on a host of on-demand content opportunities.

As with other sectors of content production, audiences will soon start to define the supplementary viewing formats of sports coverage. The future of women’s sport is closely tied to grassroots engagement and getting the next generation of female fans invested in watching and playing it. The opportunities that cloud-based content delivery offers, as well as the accessibility that next-generation technologies provide, will help level the playing field for those fans.

The tools are in place for some exciting few years ahead but the industry needs to see the potential and act. Gen Z are changing long established patterns of video consumption. So, it’s important that women’s sport moves in a direction that supports emerging trends, rather than being restricted. With an innovative outlook, content owners can expand the event footage available and move women’s sport into exciting new areas.

Bringing the Power of Video Entertainment to Creators and Fans, Globally and Into The Metaverse

IN.LIVE is the industry’s leading Web2+Web3 ticketing and video distribution solution featuring advanced access control (including NFT ticket gating), HD streaming, and NFT + metaverse integrations. The IN.LIVE platform enables creators to market, distribute and monetize their content directly to their fans and partners, while maintaining control of their art, brand, and user data. The rising momentum of crypto and NFTs has opened new doors to creators of all types to raise funds, build communities, and design immersive Metaverse experiences. Whether you are an A-list celebrity, content production house, or independent filmmaker or musician, IN.LIVE delivers the power of today’s latest technologies to help creators control their artistic destiny. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and IN.LIVE executives will be on hand to discuss how the IN.LIVE platform seamlessly integrates live content segments (such as live performances, live intros, Q&As, and more) with any kind of formally created media. OCI is the trusted partner for IN.LIVE’s most demanding workloads, delivering infrastructure on demand and at scale with predictable performance. Oracle’s Gen2 cloud with flexible compute shapes, high performance storage and dedicated network bandwidth combine to deliver optimized custom configurations at the best price for IN.LIVE.

Regional Trends – Asia Pacific (APAC)

This report provides IABM members with insight into the latest broadcast and media industry developments for the APAC region. Over the course of each year, these reports build into a full overview of all the major regional markets around the world.

Report Contents and Structure
The report includes the latest news and research findings within the following structure:

  • The Broadcast & Media Ecosystem
  • Market Trends
  • Market Horizon: Top 3 Things to Observe

View the interactive report below, or click here to access the PDF version.

Recruitment evolution and the skills gap

Dermot Casey

Managing Director at EMS Broadcast

Dermot Casey, Managing Director at EMS Broadcast, specialist recruitment agency for the technical, operational and creative areas of the media and broadcast industry, shares his thoughts on how 2022 is shaping up and his vision for the future.

Fundamentally there is a shortage of quality candidates and, post Covid, people are re-evaluating what makes a “good” job. They’re looking for, and selecting from, roles with the best salaries/rates, location, corporate sustainability and more importantly than ever, the best lifestyle options for them and their families, in a way not seen before.

Market forces and inflation rates mean rates are needing to rise to be competitive - especially as the competition from other big players, looking for candidates with those same specific skills, is increasing not only from within the industry but from other industries with the same base line of requirements.

Essentially quality candidates do often need to come at a premium, but the total package is key!

Elements such as location, job title, salary and opportunities for progression still do play a major part in the decision-making process for candidates, but we have found more and more are prioritising other factors too. For example, ‘how will this role fit in with the lifestyle I lead?’, ‘is it flexible enough to work around childcare and other commitments?’, ‘can I work remotely as and when I want to?’ and ‘what are this company’s ESG credentials?’.

The best candidates are asking these questions and doing this research before committing to a role, knowing that - if they hear the answers they’re looking for - it’s a role that’s worth investing their time and effort in. And the most forward-thinking companies are accommodating this.

But the result is a candidate-led, very cautious and competitive recruitment landscape.

This is especially the case when the number of people looking for candidates with those same specific skills is increasing - not only from within the media and broadcast industry, but from other industries with the same base line of requirements as well, such as gaming, aeronautics, manufacturing, and IT.

We are particularly seeing a high demand in Broadcast for talented and multi-skilled/agile candidates, especially in fields within the industry relating to Technology, IT, Production and Creative. The effects of this demand that myself and my team are already seeing include:

Good candidates feeling more empowered to choose exactly where and how they want to work, as well as who they want to work for, and are often making the call on taking roles after pushing multiple other opportunities to the final stages

Clients are offering more incentives to attract the best talent, including flexible working, childcare options, bonuses, and much more - and those who do not embrace these new post-pandemic ways of working will lose out

Salaries and contract/freelance rates have increased, as quality candidates do often need to come at a premium!

We can only see this demand increasing over the rest of this year, made even more certain by the UK’s recent investment in content - especially via reasonably new entrants to the market, like Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, Netflix, Warner Bros/Discovery and more.

For example, Amazon recently revealed that it has invested more than £1 billion on TV, movie, and live sport content in the UK in recent years, with plans to increase spending even further and make it a must-have streaming service for all households.

The big question then is; where do we find this new talent and how can we attract them to our industry and plug the widening talent gap?

This is a dilemma, one which the whole industry needs to give serious thought to. But it isn’t just the companies themselves that can make impactful changes.

Yes, broadcasters will need to be open to attracting talent from other sectors, such as banking, pure I.T. the M.O.D., aviation, and more, as well as being willing to help support them through this career transition and equip them with all the tools and training they need to thrive.

But it is also the responsibility of our government which needs to make it easier for us to attract talented people from other countries, through supporting the right to work, making the sponsorship process simpler and reviewing the impact of IR35 legislation changes.

And finally, it’s down to our parental and cultural influences. Schools, universities, and training schemes can all play a vital role in getting young people excited about a career in broadcasting - but it often isn’t talked about enough day-to-day, so it’s easy for young people to have an outdated idea of what it is or get confused by all the different areas of it that they could get involved in.

These issues are being addressed through the setting up of organisations like RISE, which EMS Broadcast is proud to be a 2022/23 sponsor of.

RISE is an extraordinary membership group that supports gender diversity across the media technology sector and also runs Rise Up Academy - an outreach programme delivering broadcast engineering and technical workshops to primary and secondary school children aged 9 through to 18 years old.

But support and guidance at all levels is crucial to see more companies looking to not only take on more graduates but trainees, apprentices and entry level people and offer them training and support to create the talent base.

While the above outlines the main causes and some potential solutions, it really only scratches the surface of what is a crucially important issue within the industry and one that we all need to put action and energy into solving sooner rather than later as the skills gap continues to widen.

We’re so pleased to announce that EMS Broadcast will be exhibiting in Hall 1 B09 at IBC 2022 in Amsterdam later this year, in what will be our twenty-fifth year exhibiting at this prestigious industry event.

So do please drop by or get in touch if you would like to discuss this topic in more detail or to go through your specific broadcast recruitment requirements with us.

I will be there with my colleagues, please find our email addresses below:

About EMS:

EMS Broadcast is a leading specialist recruitment agency for the technical, operational and creative areas of the media and broadcast industry – but it’s also so much more, each of its recruitment specialists has experienced a career in the media, broadcasting and production industry before moving into recruitment, so know the processes and the skill sets that are needed to take any operation to the next level.

Working with the most progressive broadcasting companies of all sizes to help them find the best talent for their departments and working with candidates to help them build exciting careers.

EMS also prides itself on providing a completely end-to-end recruitment journey – taking care of everything from sourcing and interview preparation to compliance and payroll.

The company headquarters are in West London, we work with clients and candidates across all areas of the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East.

Streaming as a force for diversity and inclusion

Joe Foster

CEO, Easel TV

Not unexpectedly, if you lock everyone up in their houses for a while you get some noticeably accelerated expansion of the streaming market, and, if we let everyone out again, a drop.

In fact, it’s been far from a corresponding drop but more recent discussion, triggered by Netflix results amongst other factors, has brought a focus as to whether the streaming market might be slowing or saturating.

Whilst it has certainly become harder for most of the big mainstream subscription streaming providers (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu) to add more users (each added minimal or no share in 2021 according to BCG), there was growth with the introduction of another tier of general-entertainment SVOD services (such as HBO Max, Apple TV+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Discovery+).

That too, may have its consequences, as consumers will reach a limit of what they are willing to pay for traditional mainstream TV and film type content.

So at a time when strategies need to change and new approaches perhaps need to be considered, can we learn anything from the period of Covid-enforced virtual entertainment?

Living in a virtual world

The pandemic created a period where we were all forced to live remotely for a while. And it also forced many businesses offering entertainment events (theatre, shows, events, concerts, festivals, exhibitions…) to rapidly adapt and innovate. For those businesses streaming quickly became a valuable tool.

Besides introducing new players, new business, new thinking, new requirements and new opportunity - which in itself is great for the industry, this turn of events also led to something positive, because there have always been multiple communities who were excluded from these entertainment events: aging population, people with disabilities or health issues, intimidation, affordability, distance etc.

The streaming of virtual events democratises this; it levels the playing field for these communities, providing a positive outcome for inclusion across a wide spectrum of people and communities.

Responding to the market

In March 2020, during the first pandemic lockdown, Soho Theatre published Fleabag Live on its streaming video service. Run on Easel TV’s streaming Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), available globally, the show was organised to help fund Covid-19 charities and proved a great success.

As a result, Easel TV were contacted by theatres, event organisers and performing artists looking for a similar way to adopt streaming activities. We knew we could help; we operate our PaaS across web, mobile and multiple TV devices for the likes of NBCUniversal and Sky, among others. However, the challenge for many performing arts entities and event organisers, who were losing their core business revenue during lockdown, was how to introduce a non-core service to their business with no money coming in.

Our response was to create a common or shared streaming service, in this case one centred on live and recorded arts events: a Netflix for the performing arts. We teamed up with PlayerPlus (a managed operator to administer the service) to provide a service that is supported on all device types including big screen TV devices. Consumers can simply buy a ticket and start watching on a multitude of devices. There are no complicated set-up activities, payment is included not just for debit and credit cards, but also via in-app purchases on Amazon and Apple and, for those event providers who use a Spektrix ticketing system, it includes the option to buy tickets to virtual/digital events as an integral part of their business-as-usual product sales – just with a new ‘digital’ line of business.

The future direction

This sort of positive response leads to innovation and progress; this is now all part of our PaaS service. Besides providing a virtual/digital alternative for many industries, this has become a lifeline for the multiple communities who were once excluded from these entertainment events: aging population, health, intimidation, affordability, distance etc.

Yet this may be just the start of even more compelling benefits, as virtual entertainment is almost certainly going to have to help in playing a big part in many of these event industries, and others, in addressing their carbon footprint responsibilities over the coming months and years.

Necessity is the mother of invention, or so they say; it is also good see that in this case it can also potentially be a force for good.