Screen Digest

Last updated

Screen Digest Ltd was a company providing business intelligence, research and analysis on the global media markets based in London, United Kingdom, that has grown out of a monthly journal of that name that was founded in 1971. It was acquired by the technology researcher iSuppli in 2010, which was in turn acquired by information services company IHS Inc. In 2019, successor company IHS Markit sold most of its Technology, Media and Telecoms division to Informa. In exchange, IHS Markit received Informa's Agriculture Intelligence unit. [1] Informa merged the business with in 2020 to form Omdia. [2]

Contents

Company history

Screen Digest was founded in 1971 by journalist and documentary film-maker John Chittock, then film and video correspondent of the Financial Times, together with his business partner and wife Joy Chittock. Initially it was a news digest containing abstracts of a range of media, including film and cinema, television and in particular the nascent video sector and with editorial emphasis on the relevance and brevity of stories.

From the first issue, [3] it has been characterised by the use of icons to identify the broad media subject area of each news story and the inclusion of contact information for companies and organisations mentioned in news items. Other features from the start were the inclusion in the subscription of a free binder and detailed annual index, based on the concept of acting as a journal of record.[ citation needed ]

In February 1972 a four-page centre section on yellow paper was introduced, initially to carry a page of reference material and articles from members of the industry. Among early contributors were Robert W Sarnoff, then chairman of RCA, film director and teacher Thorold Dickinson and the BBC director-general Charles Curran. This developed into a data-related eight-page section based on the company's recent research. Also in that month David Fisher joined as news editor and led in the shaping of the standards of the commercial publication. He became editor in July 1974 and held that position until January 2011. [4]

In the mid 1970s, Chittock and Fisher produced a daily half-hour closed-circuit radio programme for delegates at the 1976 British Industrial Film Festival in Brighton and repeated the exercise the following year's 18th International Industrial Film Festival [5] at the National Film Theatre in London.

In 1976 Screen Digest formed an alliance with Nord Media, a London-based research business owned by Ebav, an audio-visual company jointly owned by the Scandinavian enterprises Esselte and Bonnier. The partnership ended in May 1980.[ citation needed ]

Chittock sold the company in July 1996 to a management team comprising David Fisher, Allan Hardy, Ben Keen and Mark Smith. At that time the company had one full-time employee. Since then Screen Digest has expanded its consultancy and report publishing activities, as well as developing a set of continuously updated online information and data services on Advertising, Broadband Media, Cinema, Games, Mobile Media, Television, Television technology and Video. Screen Digest now counts over 50 full-time employees, with bases in New York and California in the US and Melbourne, Australia, as well as London.[ citation needed ]

In 2007, Screen Digest acquired the US video market research company Adams Media Research (AMR), [6] [7] and established Screen Digest Inc. The Global Media Intelligence (GMI) division was formed in 2007 to supply reports on media companies for corporate investors. [8]

Media conferences

In its association with Nord Media, Screen Digest staged two video conferences: Video Disc 77 [9] and Video Disc and Videogram 79. [10]

In May 1981 Screen Digest was involved in conference organisation for the International Video Week, [11] co-ordinated by The Economist and held on the South Bank, London. The event was staged again the following year. Several industry lunches were also held in London around this time at which guest speakers included Buckminster Fuller and Rosita Sarnoff, granddaughter of David Sarnoff.[ citation needed ]

In 1996 Screen Digest became responsible for arranging the conference programme for the annual European Video Perspective (PEVE) home entertainment conferences and in 2007 acquired the sole ownership of the event. [12]

Related Research Articles

The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.

David Sarnoff American pioneer of broadcasting media

David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970.

Paychex American Payment Technology Company

Paychex, Inc. is an American provider of human resource, payroll, and benefits outsourcing services for small- to medium-sized businesses. With headquarters in Rochester, New York, the company has more than 100 offices serving approximately 670,000 payroll clients in the U.S. and Europe. In 2019, Paychex ranked in position 700 on the Fortune 500 list of largest corporations by revenue, and the company's revenue for fiscal year 2020 is projected to exceed $4.1 billion.

S&P Global Inc. is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial information and analytics. It is the parent company of S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, and S&P Global Platts, CRISIL, and is the majority owner of the S&P Dow Jones Indices joint venture. "S&P" is a shortening of "Standard and Poor's".

UBM plc UK-based media company

UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its current main focus is on B2B events, but its principal operations have included live media and business-to-business communications, marketing services and data provision, and it principally serves the technology, healthcare, trade and transport, ingredients and fashion industries. UBM was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Informa in June 2018.

Jane's Information Group, now styled Janes, is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane.

Daniel Yergin American author, speaker, and economic historian

Daniel Howard Yergin is an American author, speaker, energy expert, and economic historian. Yergin is vice chairman of IHS Markit, a research and information company which absorbed his own energy research consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates in 2004. He has authored or co-authored several books on energy and world economics, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, (1991) The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World (2011), and The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations (2020). Yergin's articles and op-eds on energy, history, and the economy have been published in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times. All of Yergin's books have been drafted in long-hand. Currently a director on entities such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the United States Energy Association, he is also a trustee of the Brookings Institution and a long-term advisor to several U.S. administrations, as well as chairman of the annual CERAWeek energy conference.

Ovum Ltd.

Ovum, now part of Omdia, was an independent analyst and consultancy firm headquartered in London, specializing in global coverage of Telecommunications, Media and Technology.

Fairplay was a weekly news magazine devoted to the international merchant shipping industry, delivering “content tailored for its core audience of ship owners, managers, operators and charterers.“ It was founded by Thomas Hope Robinson in 1883 and remained in continual publication until 2018. Since 2011, Fairplay's publishing company IHS Fairplay is a division of IHS Markit.

Electronics industry Industry

The electronics industry emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries. Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices built in automated or semi-automated factories operated by the industry. Products are primarily assembled from metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors and integrated circuits, the latter principally by photolithography and often on printed circuit boards.

Sarnoff Corporation

Sarnoff Corporation was a research and development company specializing in vision, video and semiconductor technology. It was named for David Sarnoff, the longtime leader of RCA and NBC, and had headquarters in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, though with a Princeton address.

Informa UK-based publishing and conference company

Informa PLC is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group. Headquartered in London, it is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Penton was an information services and marketing company. The company's three largest revenue streams came from events, digital and marketing services. Although Penton had a long history as a trade publisher, in 2015 it reported that 35 percent of its EBITDA derived from digital products, 54 percent from events, and 11 percent from print. The main industry segments served by Penton include agriculture, transportation, natural products/food, infrastructure, and design and manufacturing.

UBM Technology Group was a business-to-business multimedia company that provided information and integrated marketing services to technology professionals worldwide. It offered marketers and advertisers services such as print, newsletters, custom Web sites, and events. Its products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, education and training, trade shows and conferences, direct marketing services and custom publishing.

Markit Ltd. was a British financial information and services company with over 4,000 employees, founded in 2003 as an independent source of credit derivative pricing. The company provides independent data, trade processing of derivatives, foreign exchange and loans, customised technology platforms and managed services. The company aims to enhance transparency, reduce financial risk and improve operational efficiency. Its client base includes institutional participants in the financial marketplace. On 12 July 2016, Markit and IHS Inc. merged in an all-stock merger of equals to form IHS Markit.

IHS Markit Ltd is a British information provider based in London. It was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd.

JOC Group Inc., is a provider of global intelligence for trade, transportation and logistics professionals. It is founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. Owned by IHS Inc., its brands include The Journal of Commerce, PIERS: The Port Import/Export Reporting Service, and a number of directory databases covering the international trade, railroad, and trucking markets. The JOC Group also stages about 11 conferences and exhibitions serving international trade and maritime markets.

Datamonitor is an international company providing market intelligence, data analysis, and opinion via a worldwide network of in-house analysts. The company tracks Automotive, Consumer Markets, Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Logistics & Express, Pharmaceutical & Healthcare, Retail, Technology, Sourcing and Telecommunications markets. Its website claims to have over 6,000 clients, which it helps make strategic and operational decisions. Datamonitor was acquired in 2007 by Informa for £513 million in cash.

CERAWeek

CERAWeek is an annual energy conference organized by the information and insights company IHS Markit in Houston, Texas. The conference provides a platform for discussion on a range of energy-related topics; CERAWeek 2019 featured sessions on the world economic outlook, geopolitics, energy policy and regulation, climate change and technological innovation, among other topics. The conference features prominent speakers from energy, policy, technology, and financial industries, and is chaired by Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman, IHS Markit and Jamey Rosenfield, vice chair, CERAWeek, senior vice president, IHS Markit. Both are co-founders of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

BOE Technology Chinese electronics company

BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd., or Jingdongfang, is a Chinese electronic components producer founded in April 1993. Its core businesses are interface devices, smart IoT systems and smart medicine and engineering integration. BOE is one of the world's largest manufacturers of LCD, OLEDs and flexible displays.

References

  1. "IHS Markit swaps group that researches optical communications for Informa's agribusiness unit". Lightwave. 2019-05-24. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  2. . Data Centre Knowledge. 12 February 2020 https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/uncategorized/informa-tech-combines-research-houses-under-omdia-moniker.Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Screen Digest, October 1971. London: Screen Digest, 1971, 12pp
  4. Update by FIsher
  5. BFI | Film & TV Database | International Industrial Film Festival
  6. Adams Media Research, Inc.: Private Company Information – BusinessWeek
  7. Adams Media Research :: Press Releases
  8. Merrill Lynch Agrees to Exclusive Distribution Agreement With Global Media Intelligence, a Producer of Independent Research in the Media Sector
  9. David Fisher (compiler): Video Disc 77. London: Nord Media, November 1977, 40pp.
  10. David Fisher (compiler): Video Disc and Videogram 79. London: Nord Media, February 1979, 40pp.
  11. BFI | Film & TV Database |
  12. Screen Digest PEVE Digital Entertainment conference