Future of Media Summit Blog

Top Australian media executives discuss the findings of the prediction markets, and offer their own insights into directions for the media industry.

Belinda Rowe (Zenith Optimedia)
- Optimist at heart
- Get tired of discussion around whether mainstream media will survive - most of the big media companies have moved into the digital space and are using this to enhance their customer relationships

Angelos Frangopoulos (Australian News Channel)
- Don't see any option other than to grow
- A case of embracing as many opportunities as you can
- Digital since 1996
- Fanastic future for mainstream media because we are all diversifying - those who don't embrace change will suffer

Wendy Hogan (CNET)
- CBS integration
- Contrary to last session, CNET employee a significant number of just for web journalists, who are allowed to blog if they like!
- Different payment models for how you recognise the contribution of people
- Inviting the audience to participate is a method people are using to bring their production costs down
- Give bloggers the opportunity to be seen by audiences

Mark Scott (ABC)
- Positive picture for ABC - recognise they are a good content creator
- Deliver content to audience at a time they want in a format they want
- Advantages for ABC: has a lot of content and don't need to execute that in a model that makes money
- Business model relies on getting a big cheque from the Commonwealth Government, by showing they deliver unique content to Australians

Australian media landscape is distinctive
- Urbanisation, distribution of population
What will make Australian media landscape distinctive in the future?
- Global boundaries that have already been strong are broken down - Aus consumer can engage with content from all around the world
- It will be harder for media companies than when there were far fewer content providers. Who will be able to financially deliver content created in local communities and delivered to local communities?
- Access to 24 hour content from countries all around the world - challenge for mainstream media is about being more and more relevant to local markets. What is unique about us compared with operator overseas?
- Australia has successfully exported content overseas (e.g Neighbours, Home & Away). Opportunity for Australia to produce more content to export, technology can pave the way - need investment in broadband for this to happen efficiently and easily
- CNET: add content with a local context to a site that already exists (e.g. Game Spot - need to tweek Grand Theft Auto for Australian players). Deliver contextually relevant ads too. It's all about putting decisions back in audience's hands regarding content and where they want to read/view it
- ABC: how to find a program that is intrinsically Australian? The real challenge for Aus program makers not that the global market is open to Aus content, but that the global market is available for audience here to see, but you still have to make your money back from the audience here as well - i.e. it's not about selling Australian content overseas.
- No doubt that online will be a big distribution mechanism - more and more people will watch traditional TV content online. How do you monetise it? No one wants to buy/watch pre-rolls? CNET says there's a big drop off from pre-roll to video content, especially for 30 sec pre-rolls

Media channels will be increasing age fragmented
- Teenage audiences using social networking to share content experiences (e.g. MySpace page for Jamie from Summer Heights High)
- Younger audiences are more personalised and selective about what content they consume, they are more content loyal rather than channel loyal (i.e. content is channel agnostic)
- Advent of data