The Box Plus Network has signaled its intention to position 4Music as the UK’s premier youth music and entertainment destination.
4Music will move to the Entertainment section of the Sky EPG (Channel 139), sitting it next to Channel 4’s digital channels.
From May 1, 4Music will be repositioned to target a mainstream 16-22 year old Gen-Z audience with a mix of comedy, cult drama, teen fantasy, reality and chart sounds.
Matt Rennie, MD at The Box Plus Network said: “We’re extremely excited to expand our offer beyond music and for the opportunity to entertain our audience in even more ways. Over the last four years we have become the stand-out leader in music television, so to build on that into entertainment is a momentous time for the network”.
The Box Plus Network is the UK’s no.1 music video network. Featuring seven unique TV channels including The Box, 4Music and Kiss, it regularly collaborates with artists, labels, brands, fans and followers to create exciting content for a monthly audience of over 16.6 million viewers. Among the many applications of Tableau within the business is the use of heatmapping to track and compare viewership across the network, based on time of day and content broadcast. The insights gained directly inform a programming schedule that is appealing to viewers. Tableau’s ability to connect directly to internal data sources has also significantly reduced internal reporting times, whilst making meaningful data analysis more accessible to all employees. As a result, the company has been able to eliminate the monthly costs it previously incurred for external business intelligence services.
The UK’s Channel 4 has acquired full ownership of The Box Plus Network, which produces and broadcasts seven UK music and entertainment channels.
Channel 4 has bought the remaining 50% stake in the network that it did not previously own from Bauer Media Group.
Since 2007, Channel 4 has owned a 50% stake in The Box Plus Network, which operates the music channels 4Music, The Box, Box Upfront, Box Hits, Kiss, Magic and Kerrang.
According to Channel 4, acquiring full ownership of the network will enable it ‘to increase value across The Box Plus Network and the wider Channel 4 portfolio’.
KISS, Magic and Kerrang!, which are Bauer Media-owned brands, will continue to be licensed to the network.
Last week I was really chuffed to be asked to chair a panel on millennials in the workplace on behalf of Bauer at Ad Week Europe. It’s a subject close to be heart, probably in part because in my heart of hearts I still aspire to be a millennial, but our whole business at Box is focussed on the demographic and so most of my waking life is spent thinking about how we can engage and entertain them. Perhaps it’s just the (business) press I read but there seems to be an obsession with millennials at the moment. I suppose in terms of spending power and attractiveness to marketeers and the ad community, it doesn’t get much better, but in quite a few articles, when talking about employing this group and bringing them into the workforce, they seem to get a rough ride.
To me, to be a millennial (and there are many definitions) you need to be born between 1982 and 1999 (or be 18 to 35 years old), which covers roughly 15.5 million people in the UK (according to ONS) or 24% of the UK population. First off, from my POV, the size of the group pretty much if immediately discounts any generalisations you’d care to lob at them. We’re talking a huge chunk of people with a diverse range of ages (life stages), backgrounds, ethnicities, geographies, social groups, talents and ideas, it’s only natural that their outlook and approach to their working, personal and social lives can vary massively. (So sorry for all the generalisations that I’m about to use myself as I try to address some of the challenges).
The common critique laid at this group is that they’re entitled, lazy, narcissistic, distracted and unable to form decent relationships as a result of over protective parents, over use of technology and addiction to social media (as Simon Sinek describes here). Whilst I can understand some of this rationale and think technology does present some problems to overcome, my experience of this group is much more positive. I believe that as humans we have demonstrated, time and time again, an amazing capability to adapt and evolve in response to external stimulus and environmental factors. Every generation has their challenges the previous generation cannot get their heads around (for me it was Gameboys and acid house) but it always seems to turn out ok!
There’s no doubt that our workplaces are changing. One of my early jobs involved faxing –hundreds of pages of contracts around the world to various branches of the business I worked for. It was awful and so inefficient compared to how we do business today but it must have been much faster than the typewriter and post method that went before me. Technology has untethered today’s workplace, I’m writing this on my work macbook on the train wirelessly VPN’d into our company network via my mobile phone, and remote working is becoming more and more common place. Businesses need to do more to support this new flexible approach. Employees are increasingly seeing it as key benefit and rightly expect to be able to manage work around their life rather than the other way around. I still have people asking me whether they need to use holiday to go for a dentist appointment – why would we expect them to waste valuable holiday on this? I guess, the holy grail is some kind of unlimited holiday policy like those at Netflix and LinkedIn, although this is much easier to achieve in more results oriented culture. Share options help a lot with this, however so do more employer-centric employment rights where you can jettison under-performers more easily (clearly there are downsides to this too, particularly for the employee). So, if we’re going to really enable this new work environment, we’re going to have to look at how we measure our teams and set smarter KPIs that ensure we’re all focused on achieving results rather than on the act of just being at our desks.
One other pet peeve of mine, corporate IT, needs to also do its part here. Corporate IT 2.0 needs to accept that the Internet has happened and companies like Google and Apple probably are probably producing products that are quite good. Of course security will always be an issue but if I don’t have access to any information, file or application immediately on my smartphone without having to carry Secure ID dongles, a 3 stone laptop or some ridiculous citrix’d windows 95 version of an email client, then you need to try harder!
But not only is where you work changing but the job you do might be too. 20 years ago, there were no such thing as SEO experts, 10 years ago you didn’t have social media managers. If I could tell you what was coming up next I would probably be richer than I am today. Microsoft have had a stab at looking at what future jobs might look like in this interesting piece of research. It may be pushing it to the extreme with bio-hackers and the like but these millennials will be defining these jobs on the hoof as technology opens up all sorts of opportunities we simply can’t see today.
And whilst our workplaces and jobs are changing, so too are the employees who are joining attending them. I‘ve certainly seen my share of ‘classic’ millennial characteristics; graduates expecting 6-figure salaries as a sole result of their education or unrealistic expectations of how much work really goes in to starting a business.However, I honestly find these to be isolated cases and they’re not just limited to those aged between 18 and 35. At Box, a significant majority of the team are millennials and they are generally all very hard working, conscientious, ambitious, talented and socially aware. They may not have the misplaced loyalty of older employees (my dad worked for the same business for 35 years before he was made redundant) but the relationship between employees and employers has changed for the better IMHO. I’ve always viewed my employment as a value exchange, I work hard, bring my experience and create value for your business, you give me an environment in which I can achieve job satisfaction and some money.Who cares if we’re together for just a year or two, so long as we’re both getting value then it should be a positive experience.
So we need to stop worrying about whether millennials are up to the task – of course they are. They’re not all perfect, they’re as diverse in terms of talents and outlook as any other generation before or after them. Of course they’re different than we (Gen-X) are, they’ve grown up in a different world with different stimuli, that’s how generations work! Let’s not all get hung up with some of their challenges, let’s embrace the change and look at them as opportunities to update and change the way we work and live.
As The Box Plus Network launches Box Fresh, its new music campaign for 2017, managing director Matt Rennie has stressed its importance for the music industry.
“For a platform like us with access to 15m people every month, I think labels and artists need people like us and Radio 1 and our other competitors to invest our time in helping artists cut through into the mainstream,” Rennie told Music Week.
In the interview, which can be found in this week’s edition or read online here, Rennie went on to acknowledge the difference between The Box Plus Network’s role and that of the labels.
“For them [labels] it’s not only getting an audience for new music but translating it into sales and that whole curve,” he said. “We’re kind of privileged in that we just have to find music we like and our audience will like, and there’s lots of that out there.
“There’s still lots of talent out there,” he continued. “Translating it into sales is a separate issue, but I would definitely love some of the new artists we work with to get mainstream success.”
Box Fresh is designed to put more emerging talent across the network, with the dual aim of boosting the acts and satisfying audience desire for new music. It launches officially on January 31, when a 60-minute show titled Box Fresh 2017 Spotlight will begin airing, featuring live video footage and profile pieces on Fatherson, Tom Grennan, Declan McKenna and Jerry Williams.
Pop culture sketch show, 4Music’s first comedy. Stars Harrie Hayes, Steve Bugeja, Jason Forbes, Samantha Baines, Patrick Turpin and more, takes aim at everyone in the world of pop and celebrity – from Pitbull and YouTubers, to fandoms, Pitbull, socialites, Instagrammers and… did we mention Pitbull?
Adding streams from platforms such as YouTube into the charts could set a worrying precedent for the industry, The Box Plus Network managing director Matt Rennie tells Music Week.
For some time now, YouTube has faced the ire of an angry music industry that feels that artists and labels are not sufficiently compensated by the video streaming platform.
In some quarters of the industry there have been calls for YouTube streams to be added to the charts, while others have suggested that YouTube is putting the future of music in jeopardy. Just last month a letter signed by over 1,000 international pop stars was submitted to EU president Jean-Claude Juncker demanding changes to YouTube’s practices.
Someone said to me yesterday that they’re 60% or 70% in. And whilst that’s good, and means another vote to remain, I couldn’t help but think “I’m so much more than that, possibly even 100%”. I don’t think think the EU is perfect, far from it. It needs lots of work but I believe the effort is worth it and there are a few basic reasons for why.
I believe democracy is flawed. I don’t necessarily have a better system (proportional representation possibly?) and I definitely agree that EU politicians are out of touch, but so are ours! Having multiple checks and balances through multiple layers of voted, or not (House of Lords anyone?) representatives seems a fairly sensible structure to me. It may add some bureaucracy, and we should do more to reduce this, but if it avoids crazy decisions being made by partisan leaders of various political parties then I’m ok with that. The current alternative would give me a choice of two, either David Cameron or Jeremy Corbyn and tbh that feels like a pretty shitty choice to me. Ok, once in a while (generation?) you get an Obama, but we didn’t get him and I’m struggling to think of a single elected UK political leader I would hold in the same regard, or even trust to look after my kids!
I find territorial borders fairly absurd. These are basically lines drawn on a map by some dude (probably some army general or king) based on the last armed conflict between some dynasty, empire or kingdom. I don’t feel any more affinity with someone who lives 500 or 600 miles away in the north of England or Scotland than I do with someone from Brussels, Berlin or Bucharest just because there’s a line on a map. I base my opinions on whether you’re a dick or not and unfortunately, there are just as many here as there are in any other country. Something this referendum campaign has demonstrated in spades.
As such, I fail to be concerned about immigration. The statistics show that they make a positive contribution to our economy (put more in than they take out) and I believe that having such a dynamic workforce able to adapt to the ever changing world has been a big lever in why our economy has been so strong over the last 20 or 30 years. In fact, I would argue that it’s precisely the openness, tolerant and inclusive nature of our society and culture that makes our country great. Of course integration should be encouraged, though let’s be frank, this is not something us brits are renowned for as we travel around the world so let’s not preach too loudly. What I do find disturbing however, is how confused people seem to be between immigration and the current refugee crisis which is a human tragedy and nothing at all to do with our position in the EU.
The economy. It stuns me that so many people seem willing to ignore not only an overwhelming tsunami of expert opinion but also basic logic. Of course, staying in Europe is positive. Trade deals don’t come without conditions, businesses want to operate in bigger markets and it’s not simply a ‘big business’ or elite problem. I have no doubt that if we leave, less money and investment will come into the country. Multi-national corporations will look to place their European headquarters elsewhere and there will be less cash to work its way through all the supporting infrastructure and services upon which a whole economy is built. Btw, the business I run, which is based on the advertising market, is predicting revenues to nose-dive should the worst happen tomorrow.
So that’s it, I want to be part of the club. I want Britain to take a leading role at the head of the EU and continue to work collaboratively with our allies and partners making a positive contribution and improving the EU for all its citizens. I want our economy to continue to grow and for my kids to have the same opportunities that I’ve had. I just really really hope that enough people agree with me.
The Box Plus Network, a joint venture between Channel 4 and Bauer Media, has launched two new linear TV channels – Box Hits and Box Upfront.
The UK music video network has also introduced a new social-first digital channel, called BeBox.
Box Plus Network said that the launches are designed address the “changing dynamic in youth media consumption,” consolidating its linear TV proposition and tapping new audiences with the BeBox digital offer.
Box Hits will feature “the most popular hits of the last few years” while Box Upfront will showcase new and emerging artist talent alongside new music from established artists.
BeBox will target the company’s core audience of “mainstream 16–24 year olds” with music and pop culture content across multiple digital platforms, led by social media.
