I’d wager most of the people reading this in the UK can remember the launch of Channel 5 in 1997. A scarcely believable fifth UHF choice arriving in a blaze of publicity led by the Spice Girls at the height of their power. The rollout required a massive national operation with technicians visiting some 10 million homes to retune VCRs and ensure the majority could receive what would become the last new terrestrial broadcaster to receive a licence.
There are probably even some readers whose memories reach back further still. Some 15 years before 5’s appearance, Channel 4 made its debut on the screens of millions of unwieldy CRT cabinets in the corners of the nation’s living rooms. When the groundbreaking computer-generated Blocks ident appeared, accompanied by the distinctive strains of a David Dundas-composed fanfare that would soon worm its way into the collective public consciousness, it heralded the birth of a new and fresh way of doing TV, whipping up a storm of outraged editorial content on its way.
It all seems so quaint. The televisual landscape of yesteryear would be unrecognisable to anyone born this century, yet the business remains packed with people who know exactly what I’m talking about. For older generations, and very regrettably, this includes me, the realisation that we have colleagues who don’t remember 9/11, who have grown up never knowing life without the internet, an always-on culture or the chaos that seems to define every aspect of our days can be rather disconcerting. However, it is, of course, inevitable. For my generation—the ones who sneered at our elders for being unable to programme the VHS—it is time to realise we are no longer the cutting edge.
It’s 2026. A newly-qualified graduate entering the world of work for the first time is likely to have been born in 2003/4. It’s time for us oldies to welcome in the new. While we have previously featured some incredible de-aging visual effects in these very pages, there has sadly been a dearth of scientific progress in enabling this technology to transfer to the real world. Time, sadly, catches up.
Of course, there is very little more cringeworthy than oldsters trying to be down with the kids, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, as an industry, pay attention to the trends they are setting. They are, after all, the future.
Increasing democratisation of production technology is already opening opportunities for content creators that until recently would have required complex (and expensive) infrastructure and extensive teams. It’s now possible to produce content with mundane mobile devices. We’ve even seen coverage of the Olympics filmed using iPhones. The direction of travel is only going one way, and it is accelerating. Some of the developments in the broadcast space are mirroring what has already happened in the music and publishing industries. Keeping up is not only going to be nice to do, it’s going to be mission critical.
Innovation is accelerating. When Nvidia’s Jensen Huang announced his company’s AI chips were outpacing Moore’s Law, for decades considered the benchmark for the pace of technological change, it was considered controversial. But he undoubtedly had a point. The solutions, applications and devices used by today’s high school entrants will be obsolete by the time they sit their final exams.
Which is why it is so essential to ensure that as an industry we strive to encourage and nurture young talent, to bring the next generation forward, welcome them and let them find their feet.
Initiatives like the Media Talent Manifesto’s On Air are leading the way. Founded last year, On Air brought together students, educators and professionals from across the industry to produce the world’s largest student-led broadcast. Streamed on YouTube, the 24-hour production allowed young people from around the world to gain valuable insight into what makes a live broadcast in a consequence-free environment. This year’s event will be even bigger, with more participants and greater industry involvement. A multi-channel format will encompass news, sport, film, culture and children’s content. TVBEurope is very much looking forward to supporting the project.
The future is unstoppable. Let’s all learn to work with it.
This column originally appeared in the July/August issue of TVBEurope, available to download here.
