
A View from the Front Line: How Coronavirus Impacts the Media Industry By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 - 11:41 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
IABM and the DPP collaborated to host an international webcast on Thursday, March 26, responding to the thirst for experience and knowledge regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the media industry.
The event began with IABM CEO Peter White analysing results from its new Coronavirus Impact Tracker. Summarising the early research, White noted that, from a supply chain perspective the area for growth is in connectivity, not surprisingly, with a high demand for bandwidth and connectivity as people move to remote working and remote production.
That which is growing: virtualisation, remote production and the use of AI and machine learning. These are the three areas with key investment in the transition from SDI to IP, said White.
All of these will help the new paradigm shift we're seeing, an irreversible tech move that is going to be accelerated by this [coronavirus] event. The pandemic will have the impact of accelerating these changes.
The cancellation of live events is putting pressure on the sports industry, and a major source of advertising revenue of course in what was a quadrennial year. We're seeing a shift towards solutions that enhance fan engagement as a result.
The cancellation of productions is putting pressure on the post side of the industry and may spur creative innovation and new programming ideas. And obviously there's a hunger for live news currently, even more so than normal, leading to a higher demand for collaborative new solutions such as the use of consumer video technology in the news.
Finally, the surge in demand for on-demand streaming consumption due to our lockdown measures is leading to a pressure on connectivity resources and to Netflix and others cutting streaming quality. Obviously these solutions are good for those providing compression products, noted White.
DPP managing director Mark Harrison
DPP managing director Mark Harrison hosted a discussion among companies in the television and video production space, and wondered what lessons we can start to learn about the impact of coronavirus on the way we work and the nature of work.
Nutopia chief operating officer Helena Tait said, I've long been an advocate of people having the flexibility to work. I dislike presenteeism' intensely.
I also think that with budgets getting tighter and advertising shrinking, especially after this crisis, broadcasters are going to be looking for us to cut our overheads. And we're going to have find sensible ways of working.
We need flexibility in terms of ways of working. It helps somewhat in terms of transport if over the next months we can put into place that we not only work remotely within the same city, for example, but that we can start remote shooting and getting that data back.
Luckily the backbone of our business is pretty much based in the cloud, said Nemorin chief executive officer Pete Ferguson, so we did have contingency plans and do use a lot of online software. But at the same time we did see some productions cancelled. We were right on the brink of shooting in Europe, Mexico and Los Angeles, all back to back for a big client but unfortunately that got pulled.
Some shoots have been postponed, unfortunately, but post production is very much happening, using a mixture of online services and hard drives that are being collected from the office. We sent an email around to our staff about a week before [UK] lockdown, asking them just to be ready to keep working in the event that London was shut down. I remember thinking at the time, gosh that's a scary scenario', but of course it's the new normal now.
Yes we have gone through a real feeling of panic - but also there's a certain feeling of excitement about the future, said Ferguson. I think there's a real spirit of collaboration now.
Obviously we're going to see a sharp dip to the economy in general, but I think once everyone starts to feel healthy again it's going to go the other way very quickly and money will be made available. But people are shocked by this - it has scarred the industry, I believe.
Keith Scholey, co-CEO of Silverback Films said, I think we saw this thing coming in the middle of January. We did make some contingency plans in terms of our shoots and people working from home - but the speed of this thing has been shocking.
I remember the moment when Donald Trump said that Europeans can't go to America. That was the point I thought ah ok, this is all going to happen a lot faster'.
We had crews in Indonesia, Uganda, Hawaii, Australia - all over the place. We had plans to try to keep them going, especially in places where it seemed relatively safe. But it quite quickly became clear that we needed to bring everyone back - and we got them all back in time.
Now the question is: how long does this go on? When does the world open up again? Obviously Donald Trump is promising to open up by Easter - let's watch that one! When can we get back to business and when can we start travelling again?
The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? - Keith Scholey
I think the interesting thing about this whole disease is it seems a lot of people can go through without being affected but some are terribly badly affected. What we're going to get into is a process where lots of people have had it, and the lockdowns are going to open up - but you're still going to get it. The reality is, we're probably all going to have to get it at some point. How do we manage that long tail of this disease, and the duty of care? he
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
27/08/2026
ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...
27/08/2026
Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...
27/08/2026
NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...
27/08/2026
Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...
27/08/2026
BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...
27/08/2026
TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...
27/08/2026
MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...
27/08/2026
Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...
27/08/2026
Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...
27/08/2026
Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...
27/08/2026
Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...
27/08/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...
27/08/2026
The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...
27/08/2026
FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...
27/08/2026
Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...
27/08/2026
MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...
27/08/2026
The Joint Task Force on the Dynamic Media Facility (JT-DMF), an initiative of AMWA and the EBU, will host a series of informal Ask Me Anything sessions during...
27/08/2026
Homestream, a mobile app that automatically syncs a team's local radio broad...
27/08/2026
A packager for TNT Sports, Kwokman Productions is on hand for the unique event w...
27/08/2026
After more than 3,000 games, five members of YES Network's original staff re...
27/08/2026
Physical modelling orchestral instrument announced
Following their recent cryptic hints, Dreamtonics have officially revealed the latest addition to their s...
27/08/2026
M5 Ultra-equipped Studio most powerful Mac to date
Apple have just announced a design refresh which they say makes the Mac mini fiercer and more versatil...
27/08/2026
Sampler receivers major upgrades
Bitwig's latest DAW update brings some major changes to the Sampler device, kitting it out with new slicing options, tw...
27/08/2026
Designed specifically for hard-hitting modern bass
Designed specifically for bass-heavy electronic music, the latest plug-in from Arturia aims to offer an a...
27/08/2026
Advertisers gain granular CTV targeting and turnkey reporting across eligible in...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Profuz Digital makes a mark by launching a powerful upgrade to its Profuz LAPIS digital media management platform this IBC in Amsterdam at Stand 8.A88. The late...
27/08/2026
DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the launch venue for what it defines as one of the most radical advances in the companys 30 year history.
Every broadcast trad...
27/08/2026
Direct connectivity between planning, production and graphics for creativity and streamlined workflows...
27/08/2026
New Photoshop innovations bring you more choice and control at every stage of yo...
27/08/2026
First Two Seasons of Vertical Series Vultures Shot on Blackmagic Design Cameras
Brie Clayton August 27, 2026
0 Comments
Director and DoP of Vultures ...
27/08/2026
For years, the media and entertainment industry has hesitated to use AI-voiced dubbing due to concern for audience experience. New data from 3Play Media, a glob...
27/08/2026
Starfish Technologies has announced the forthcoming V9 release of its Advantage AD workstation, adding support for voice synthesis services and giving Audio Des...
27/08/2026
Lightware's UBEX is a powerful AV-over-IP product well suited for rental and staging workflows where systems must be fast to deploy, easy to repurpose, and ...
27/08/2026
Lightware has expanded the scalability of its 10G TPN AV-over-IP platform with the introduction of the new TPN-MMU-X100 Matrix Management Unit, enabling systems...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/08/2026
PlayBox Neo Stand 7.C29 IBC2026 - 11 14 September
Well-established global specialists in media playout, automation, and streaming solutions, PlayBox Neo ...
27/08/2026
Rise Academy, the broadcast and media skills charity dedicated to delivering practical media technology learning experiences, careers resources and work experie...
27/08/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase the latest evolution of its ...
27/08/2026
Screen Australia opens applications for Global Fellowships Program 27 August 2026
Applications are now open for the Screen Australia Global Fellowships progra...
27/08/2026
Thursday 27 August 2026
Sir Grayson Perry and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Est...
27/08/2026
Wuppertal August 27, 2026
Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market OrganizationRiedel Communications is strengthening its leadership and global go-to...
27/08/2026
More Sasquatch, more fun: Today, the sneakiest crossover of the summer lands exc...