Stuart MacDonald (of Mesh Conference fame) has a posting on his blog at http://stuart.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/7/2480838.html in which he makes some observations about a panel I moderated two weeks ago.
The panel was at the Interactive To The Max Big Day! conference and was entitled Broadcast Businesses in a Digital Age. Stuart's blog posting is interesting. He says "listening to [the broadcast company execs] sit there and say that nothing seemed likely to change etc... [when] the fact is that in very short order the world of video is going to be turned upside down, the surrounding economic conventional wisdom is going to be seriously challenged and the "shotgun" ad model is going to be under enormous pressure."
I agree with Stuart about the impending impact to the broadcasting industry. I hope that he is wrong, though, when he says "those broadcast kids seems violently ill prepared". Here's the comment I wrote with respect to Stuart's blog entry, explaining why:
Hi Stuart,
I moderated the panel you discuss here.
I think it's important to note a couple of things. None of the panelists were actually the heads of any networks. They were all heads of the interactive arm of their networks or, in the case of Ron Suter, head of the Canadian distribution arm of a U.S. network. This is important only with respect to my next point.
I tried to get some frank conversation going by, for example, throwing the 800-pound video-on-demand gorilla onto the stage (and by VOD, I mean VOD in all its forms (including broadband and broadcast) and by questioning whether Rogers had disintermediatd Global in their direct-to-CBS on-demand deal for Survivor. Not surprisingly, no one really took the bait. There are at least two possible reasons for this, and for the overall "Holy snappin' are those kids out of touch" feeling you came away with. The first, obviously, is that these execs could really be missing what's happening. But, personally, I don't think that's the case (and I certainly hope that's not the case). I think it has a lot to do with the fact that this was a public forum, with press in attendance. Had any of these folks come out and said anything along the lines of "the days of broadcast television are numbered" or "the role of broadcasters in the entertainment value chain is endangered", their careers at their respective companies would have been over the moment those comments hit the street. The big broadcasters are all publicly-traded companies and none of them are likely willing to publicly acknowledge the true battles the industry is facing. So, I think, while the interactive folks have their marching orders, which may include "save the company!", they probably are also somewhat muzzled, whether by command from on high or by self-preservation instincts.
I hope I'm right about this, but, of course, you never know what others are really thinking (or not thinking, as the case may be).
Alan Sawyer
The panel was at the Interactive To The Max Big Day! conference and was entitled Broadcast Businesses in a Digital Age. Stuart's blog posting is interesting. He says "listening to [the broadcast company execs] sit there and say that nothing seemed likely to change etc... [when] the fact is that in very short order the world of video is going to be turned upside down, the surrounding economic conventional wisdom is going to be seriously challenged and the "shotgun" ad model is going to be under enormous pressure."
I agree with Stuart about the impending impact to the broadcasting industry. I hope that he is wrong, though, when he says "those broadcast kids seems violently ill prepared". Here's the comment I wrote with respect to Stuart's blog entry, explaining why:
Hi Stuart,
I moderated the panel you discuss here.
I think it's important to note a couple of things. None of the panelists were actually the heads of any networks. They were all heads of the interactive arm of their networks or, in the case of Ron Suter, head of the Canadian distribution arm of a U.S. network. This is important only with respect to my next point.
I tried to get some frank conversation going by, for example, throwing the 800-pound video-on-demand gorilla onto the stage (and by VOD, I mean VOD in all its forms (including broadband and broadcast) and by questioning whether Rogers had disintermediatd Global in their direct-to-CBS on-demand deal for Survivor. Not surprisingly, no one really took the bait. There are at least two possible reasons for this, and for the overall "Holy snappin' are those kids out of touch" feeling you came away with. The first, obviously, is that these execs could really be missing what's happening. But, personally, I don't think that's the case (and I certainly hope that's not the case). I think it has a lot to do with the fact that this was a public forum, with press in attendance. Had any of these folks come out and said anything along the lines of "the days of broadcast television are numbered" or "the role of broadcasters in the entertainment value chain is endangered", their careers at their respective companies would have been over the moment those comments hit the street. The big broadcasters are all publicly-traded companies and none of them are likely willing to publicly acknowledge the true battles the industry is facing. So, I think, while the interactive folks have their marching orders, which may include "save the company!", they probably are also somewhat muzzled, whether by command from on high or by self-preservation instincts.
I hope I'm right about this, but, of course, you never know what others are really thinking (or not thinking, as the case may be).
Alan Sawyer
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