Future of Media Summit Blog

Notes from the group discussion...

Consumer
Generational difference
"Consumer" is a dead word (implies passive) > changed to participants, but not every participant is active
Does the same content player work for all audiences?
Participants drive: content, format, delivery
- Differences for different cultures
- Participants drive the creation of niches
Segmentation: Not age but levels of interaction/media usage; how much time do they have
Progression of people - how does it change the formats people are looking for
- demanding short attention spans
- media literacy/simplification of interfaces
- unleash untapped potential in audiences
- transferred knowledge
Segment by need vs product segment

Content
what you want, when you want it, how you want it, how you will make it
- production quality vs. relevance quality
As quality goes up, peoples standards go up
Production quality not important @ 2x2 screen. Therefore, free/grass roots content acceptable
Need content - what is it people really want?
- information vs. experience
- peer recognition
Variable content by device
- Quality of the idea
- People are not necessarily looking for production quality but time, relevance, immediacy (e.g. happy to view grainy footage of the Gulf War that has basically been filmed on a mobile phone)

Funding models
Selling product vs trading traffic
Traditional model - aggregate eyeballs
- BUT very little mass appeal content (hard to create content that appeals to everybody)
How do you fund content?
Community supported content models (e.g. Wikipedia) - make value judgement about what's important then voluntarily contribute to support it
Reality is we can't make all the good stuff free (Australian film industry) > public sponsorship
- Implications for creating a "user choice" model
Wider distribution channels
- audience distribution/greater reach
- leverage this idea to divide content up and sell it in different ways
What is the measure of success and how can success be monetised/the value recognised
- Multiple forms

Technology
MID - Mobile Internet Device
Cheaper - increases penetration, fundamental in changing internet demographics (i.e. currently the most people on the internet are English-speaking Westerners, but predictions are that this will change)