OB Company Arena Television ceases trading.

[thegeek]

Thanks for the clarification, valley.

I've heard that Telegenic/CTV have picked up Arena's 11 OBs for this weekend. Must be a busy time in the planning office in High Wycombe!

[Markymark]

For them to cease trading rather than go into administration suggests it might not be sold as a going concern and it'll basically be asset stripped instead.

Although a company my wife worked for suddenly ceased trading (rather like this) because the directors had sold the company as a going concern, and the staff were eventually tuped across. It was all a messy shambles

[Robertclark125]

Could itv buy the assets and do it themselves

[commseng]

Could itv buy the assets and do it themselves

Not at all likely. Arena had contracts with lots of differen broadcasters.
ITV used to have their own OB facilities many years ago, but they (like the BBC) stopped having in house facilities, and sold them off.

[aaron_scotland]

Didn't see a generic thread for this so started one!

Just heard Arena OB has ceased trading as of today... Huge blow to the OB market in the UK I'm sure. I also cannot access their Arena Aviation website, so if that has followed too... No more Skycopter or BBC News copter?

[aaron_scotland]

Apologies, not a thread I read so didn't notice, yes I agree it may be best here as it is a more general issue.

[Markymark]

Could itv buy the assets and do it themselves

Not at all likely. Arena had contracts with lots of differen broadcasters.
ITV used to have their own OB facilities many years ago, but they (like the BBC) stopped having in house facilities, and sold them off.

In fact Arena started life as LWT's OB dept

[Brekkie]

I suspect many of our most successful independent TV production and facilities companies effectively started out as units of our biggest broadcasters, either being spun off or the key talent leaving to go it alone.

[Rob]

Sorry for the delay in splitting the topic, just finished a 13 hour day at work.

As you were...

[Robertclark125]

Their website is currently showing just this: https://www.arena-uhd.com/

But, like everyone else, I hope the staff find new jobs quickly. Perhaps those taking on Arena's work will also take on the staff as well, and so there's little interruption to the work.

[commseng]

Of course the workload across the UK (and beyond) hasn't changed, and it has been a very busy time in the OB world as a lot of events came rushing back when the pandemic restrictions eased.
There will remain a need for Arena's contracts to be fulfilled by someone, whether existing suppliers, or a new company.
The trucks, equipment and staff will not simply disappear, but will be needed to do this.
As anyone who has ever worked in OBs know, it is a surprisingly small number of people, and we all do share a lot of common ground.
To see the largest UK owned firm fail is bad news, as the obvious buyers for the firm or assets are not based here.

The COVID lockdown caused all sorts of problems, and I can imagine that a big investment in the latest technology just beforehand, and then no income from it for a year must have been an impossible situation.

[aaron_scotland]

I wonder if they were undercut or over pricing themselves for some jobs.

A few years ago for example Springwatch on the BBC you would see multiple OB and VT trucks from Arena do the job, but now adays (even before Covid) they do it with a single Cloudbass OB truck. One can only assume this is due to the BBC wanting to reduce costs.

London NYE fireworks is another one, this used to be a common Arena OB but then Cloudbass took it over.

[commseng]

Springwatch had been an Arena show for some time, but the contract was up and the tender was won by a firm who were significantly cheaper. In recent years the budget and the way it is covered has changed too.

Arena as well as sport and Springwatch did Glastonbury, and there must have been other shows too.
I last worked alongside them at Windsor in April.

The London NYE fireworks contract changes fairly regularly, last time it was Timeline TV who covered it.

[Markymark]

Their website is currently showing just this: https://www.arena-uhd.com/

But, like everyone else, I hope the staff find new jobs quickly. Perhaps those taking on Arena's work will also take on the staff as well, and so there's little interruption to the work.

The interesting one to watch, is what Sky and the BBC will do about the news helicopters.
In the short term, possibly nothing ?

I know the BBC own and operate the Rx sites for the choppers themselves, same for Sky ?

[commseng]

Their website is currently showing just this: https://www.arena-uhd.com/

But, like everyone else, I hope the staff find new jobs quickly. Perhaps those taking on Arena's work will also take on the staff as well, and so there's little interruption to the work.

The interesting one to watch, is what Sky and the BBC will do about the news helicopters.
In the short term, possibly nothing ?

I know the BBC own and operate the Rx sites for the choppers themselves, same for Sky ?

I can't see why Sky would have Arena contracted to operate any receive sites, Sky have the ability to install receivers as and where required, and would also receive them into satellite trucks on the ground at any major news story too.