The football World Cup is one of the biggest television events globally. With 48 teams, 104 matches and 16 venues spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the tournament is the largest and most complex production challenge FIFA and Host Broadcast Services has ever faced. Every match is being produced in ultra-high definition with high dynamic range as an enhanced world feed, with up to 45 cameras at each stadium. Whether you will be able to see it in true 4K UHD depends on where and how you are watching.

The International Broadcast Centre in Dallas Texas is co-ordinating the operation. Although producers, directors, core production teams and camera crews are on site at each stadium, replay operations, graphics control, audio mixing and camera shading are all being done remotely through six dedicated galleries at the central site.

The BBC studio punditry is being hosted in Salford in the north of England, while commercial broadcaster which shares the coverage has a team on site in Brooklyn with a real view of the Manhattan skyline.

The BBC is offering coverage in ultra-high definition on the BBC iPlayer for those with a compatible television. It has claimed its biggest ever UHD event on the BBC, with over 600,000 concurrent streams in week one watching France against Senegal. That is out of a peak audience of 6.7 million and match average of 5.9 million across the United Kingdom.

The England 4-2 win against Croatia had a peak audience of 15.4 million on ITV, with an average over the game of more than 10 million.

Much higher number might be expected depending on the fortunes of the England team in the tournament.

The BBC will show 54 live matches on its broadcast channels in high definition, with online versions in UHD, with highlights also be available on demand. Viewers will need an internet connection of at least 24 megabits per second for the full 3840 pixel Ultra HD experience.

All England games in the last 32, 16, and semi-final, should they get that far, will be available on the BBC. The final, as usual, will be shown on both the BBC and ITV.

Most viewers in the United States, which is co-hosting the tournament, will see 1080p pictures upscaled to 4K, a production model that Fox uses for other major sports.

With a combined audience of 27.5 million viewers, the opening match between the United States and Paraguay in Los Angeles became the most-watched World Cup match seen in the country. More than 54 million people across the United States, Canada, and Mexico watched the opening matches of their respective nations.

www.fifa.com
www.bbc.co.uk
hbs.tv

Sky is reported to be close to announcing an agreement to acquire the media and entertainment business of ITV, the leading commercial television broadcaster in the United Kingdom. The deal is worth around £1.6 billion but includes a significant spending commitment to the remaining ITV studios business to guarantee the production of popular programmes for five years.

Sky, which is owned by the American media company Comcast, will commit £2 billion to ITV Studios for programme production over five years after the deal completes. That will underwrite the production of popular programmes, including long-running serial dramas Coronation Street and Emmerdale, which still attract loyal audiences, albeit significantly smaller than they once were.

ITV can trace its origins back to the beginning of commercial television in the United Kingdom in 1955. It came together as a single company in 2004 through the merger of Granada and Carlton, having previously operated as a loose federation of separate, independently owned regional franchises.

ITV Studios will remain a standalone production business and continue to be listed on the stock market. Its production companies make programmes not only for ITV but also for the BBC, Channel 4, and Channel 5, as well as Amazon and Netflix.

Any acquisition of ITV by Sky will attract the interest of the communications regulator Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority. Together they would have a majority share of the television advertising market in the country. However, it might be argued that is now a much smaller piece of the overall advertising market.

Such a merger would previously have been unthinkable. Sky previously attempted to buy a minority stake in ITV but was obliged to sell it off at a loss after the competition regulator ruled that it would have to reduce its shareholding to below 7.5%.

There may also be concerns about the plurality of news provision, since ITV currently has a 40% stake in ITV, which produces news for ITV, Channel 4, and 5, while Sky has its own news operation.

Buying the whole of the broadcast company is a big deal. So why would Sky want to buy what some might see as a declining broadcast business?

Clearly Comcast has its reasons, although it may have regretted overpaying for Sky, which it acquired for $39 billion in 2018.

Comcast span out some of its own media properties under Versant Media earlier this year.

As a commercial broadcaster, ITV still produces significant revenue from advertising. It also operates ITVX as an online video service.

For Sky, it offers an opportunity to provide a shop window to a mass audience to which it can promote its subscription offering.

The ambition is likely to be to create an online video business that can compete better with Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and others.
Under current regulations, certain events, like the World Cup Final, must be offered to free-to-air broadcasters. In any case, owners of sports rights generally balance rights revenue against the ability to reach large audiences.

ITV delivers daily reach that very few media companies can match. It has trusted news, sport, entertainment, soaps, and national events that remain appointment viewing. Those audiences are still valuable because they aggregate millions of people simultaneously.

An interesting question is where that leaves the future of digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom and in particular the role of the Freely platform, which is being promoted as the future of Freeview.

Freely is operated by Everyone TV, which is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5. If Sky gets a seat at the table will that strengthen Freely or scupper it?

Sky already has its own online platform with Sky Glass and Sky Stream. Arguably it does not need Freely. Yet it still needs to reach a mass market for the channels that it is acquiring.

£1.6 billion sounds like a lot of money, but in context it is a relatively small investment for Comcast, a company with revenues of over $120 billion a year.

Assuming the deal goes ahead, it will significantly change the landscape for public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, introducing a different dynamic and potentially presenting a stronger challenge for other broadcasters.

www.sky.com
www.itv.com

After years of speculation about the future of terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, the government has published a long-awaited media Green Paper. It offers something both more significant and less dramatic than many expected. There is no announcement of a date to switch off digital terrestrial television. The government considers 2034 or 2044 as future milestones for television distribution. The document opens a consultation on how public service media should evolve as audiences increasingly watch television online.

The Green Paper recognises that “people are increasingly going online for their content, as global video platforms continue to grow and traditional broadcast viewing is declining in the UK”. Among younger audiences, video sharing services have already overtaken both streaming and broadcast television.

Rather than focusing on preserving traditional broadcasting, the paper proposes supporting the BBC’s transition “from a traditional public service broadcaster, once rooted in linear television and radio channels, to a public service media entity, fit for the platform age”.

The government says it will work with the BBC and other public service media providers to develop “a strategic response to the opportunities and challenges presented by the digital world”. It wants to establish the BBC as “a trusted, public values leader in new technology”, develop “a public service platform strategy”, and “future-proof broadcast services”.

The document highlights Freely, launched in partnership by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, allowing viewers to stream live and on-demand television over broadband without an aerial or satellite dish. It describes this as an example of public service media providers adapting together as more people access content through streaming rather than digital terrestrial television.

Those looking for a timetable for turning off digital terrestrial may be disappointed. The Green Paper is exactly that: a consultation. It poses questions rather than providing firm answers and leaves significant policy decisions for the future.

The paper does outline two possible planning horizons. One reflects the current policy framework, with existing digital terrestrial television arrangements extending to 2034, while an alternative scenario considers continuing those services until 2044 to allow a more gradual transition. The consultation seeks views on these options rather than proposing a definitive switch-off date.

In doing so, the consultation keeps open the principal options advocated by different parts of the industry, inviting views rather than signalling a preferred direction.

There is little reference to particular technologies or standards, like DVB-I. The document talks extensively about platforms, connected devices, streaming services, and public service media, but remains largely technology neutral about how those services should be discovered and presented to viewers.

That may prove to be an opportunity rather than a weakness. If the future of television is defined less by transmitters and more by trusted services available across connected devices, then the challenge becomes one of discovery, navigation, and interoperability rather than simply distribution.

The era of broadcast television is not ending overnight. The Green Paper makes one thing clear: government thinking has shifted from protecting traditional channels to ensuring that public service media continues to reach audiences wherever and however they choose to watch.

Beyond the question of when, or whether, digital terrestrial television might end, the Green Paper suggests that the bigger policy challenge is discovery rather than distribution. Questions of prominence, navigation, and trusted public service media on connected platforms receive at least as much attention as transmission networks. For an industry increasingly defined by streaming, that may prove to be the more consequential debate.

Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media – green paper and public consultation is published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and is available from the government web site.

www.gov.uk