Future of Media Summit Blog

How existing broadcast and cable TV are shifting into an open landscape including user generated video, IPTV, and video conversations?

Where is the TV landscape going?
- It's a landscape getting more and more challenging - securing distribution and getting access to consumers
- Key is to figure out how to package TV and present to people in a way that is compelling and doesn't lose the editorial voice, but also to figure out how to make money of this business which is always evolving
- Innovation - bring new things to this medium
- TV is a medium which hasn't changed much in the past 40-50 years
- Time to innovate, time to bring new ways of consuming and participating in television for it to prosper

Can current TV broadcast be maintained?
- People yearn for experience and current broadcasters can still provide some of these experiences
- But some broadcasters have been complacent in regard to some of the changes going on and need to consider new ways of attracting revenue

TV broadcasters as far apart from consumers now as they've ever been. Media should be singular

Two components of what broadcasters do
1. Content (primary)
2. Distribution (secondary)

One simple solution to the problems is content. None of it matters (how/where they get the content) if the content isn't compelling. You won't get any readers or viewers if you don't produce good content
- No one cares about 'quality of presentation' they care about 'quality of content'. But you also need to produce a 'volume of content'. If you can do that you can win in any media

We all create content - broadcasters & consumers

We can now as individuals go into live broadcasting - 500 people in a crowd covering events live from their phones. Can TV win this 'live broadcasting' match?

Broadcasters can pull the user generated content together?
Content creation & editing - consumers can do this too

All of us are in an information revolution where QUALITY of content is key. If you can distribute this content then you will succeed. If you're controlling a large amount of content (editorial) you have to have regular & effective quality control. If you have this you can win in a commodity market

Rise of documentary as a form is attracting significant audiences (think An Inconvenient Truth), whereas previously a niche genre. This is just one example of changing content forms. If broadcasters are smart and adapt the new forms of content then they will succeed and have a successful future

People consuming more and more short form video
- YouTube is a fascinating example of the profiliferation of different forms of content
- YouTube is an extention of people forwarding content
- YouTube can promote broadcast content

Moving towards 'salience-based aggregation' of content (away from time-based aggregation)
- Sending content you think someone will appreciate
- If I keep sending my friend crap he will no longer open my emails! This is true for broadcasters too

TiVo launching this month
- A bit of a yawn (i.e. not the revolution it would have been a few years ago)
- People have already got used to the idea of consuming content on demand

We now can be active in searching out what we want to see ourselves - at work you'll look at your favourites (content you know you like/care about). At home you turn on the news and discover content you didn't know you cared about - key is credible, usable content you care about

What does the consumer actually care about? What are they looking for?
- People want content that is more relevant for them. They don't want a top-down media experience
- Look at the success of YouTube! YouTube is still struggling to build an economic model - if Google hadn't come along they would be a very different business today - but while you need to take economic factors into account, ultimately the most important thing is what the consumer wants

Previously all you had to worry about was distribution - Large viewership, easy money. It's much more interesting now - How do I get my audience interested in this? How do I get advertisers interested in this?

Gruen Transfer - spend a lot of time talking about the low end ads (the screaming low end ads). They only need to get a few people viewing their ads to make money. With the changing nature of content (i.e. short form video) and advertising models, why don't we have millions of little ads dropped into a certain, tangled video stream rather than placed on television (when people may just turn it off)?

You've got to produce as much as you can at a low price, but you've also got to produce some Mercedes along the way. People are beginning to make choices based on content - if you have this mix of 'base level content' and 'quality content' it's a good model for world domination!

Three ways we consume information
1. Read
2. Listen
3. Watch
These are the three ways news/content providers need to dominate. Media organisations must be able to do all three to succeed