The line that divided cinema from TV disappeared, diversity of voices in content creation; innovation, adaptation, and inclusion, were some of the conclusions the panelists of the talk COVID Re-set For ’21 reached in the context of the second day of NATPE Miami Virtual.
Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future, was the moderator of the panel integrated by Sylvia Bugg, Executive Programming Director at PBS; Sean Cohan, Chief Growth Officer and international president at Nielsen, and Marcos Santana, president at Telemundo Global Studios.
Santana was emphatic when pointing out that the effects of the pandemic on entertainment will last at least two years. “The way to produce changed forever and has consequences on budgets and on personnel, among other things. It is difficult, but not impossible. We will return to production with different technologies. Comcast and NBCUniversal have understood how important this is,” he expressed.
Before the panel, Cole spoke about some lessons covid has left. “We learned that broadband is essential, that 90% of people do not want to return to the office every day of the week, whereas 30% doesn’t want to go back to an office ever again,” and he detailed that streaming grew 44%, cable, and open TV 46%, whereas local TV increased by 40%.
He highlighted that in the US, people on average have 2.5 SVODs and one of them is Netflix; that the second and a half place is fought for among the remaining platforms. “I think Netflix is the most solid entertainment company that has ever existed,” he added.