1 / 30

Scenarios for the Future of Public Broadcasting

Scenarios for the Future of Public Broadcasting. What Does Public Service Mean in the Multi-Choice Digital Age? Channeling Public Interest Media: Reporting on the Public Broadcast System. Strategic investment scenarios. Sustaining investments Sustain the legacy business

bevan
Download Presentation

Scenarios for the Future of Public Broadcasting

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Scenarios for the Future of Public Broadcasting What Does Public Service Mean in the Multi-Choice Digital Age? Channeling Public Interest Media:Reporting on the Public Broadcast System

  2. Strategic investment scenarios • Sustaining investments • Sustain the legacy business • Best practices improvements • Collaborations to lower costs and gain scale

  3. Strategic investment scenarios • Repositioning investments • Often disruptive innovations (à la Clayton Christensen) • Reposition in new directions consistent with original mission

  4. Über trends in electronic media • Digitization • Personalization • Democratization

  5. Über trends: digitization • Content meets mathematics • Noiseless generations for production & distribution • Metadata – data about data • Find, manipulate and distribute content with great granularity and flexibility • Repurpose content • Extend the life and value of media assets • Search

  6. Über trends: personalization • Content meets self-organization • Tagging (‘folksonomies’) • XML syndication (RSS, Atom) • Attention (metadata that tracks to what people are paying attention)

  7. Example: Tagging at flickr Tags / norway Sample photos from the RSS feed of the tag ‘norway’ from flickr.com

  8. Example: RSS • Really Simple Syndication (better: Really Simple Subscriptions) • It’s very easy to implement. • It aggregates in one place what’s new in web content to which you subscribe. • Combined with personalization, it will provide a powerful distribution platform for pubcasters (or, a powerful competitor). • Open a Bloglines.com account and try it.

  9. Über Trends: democratization • Content freed from gatekeepers • Inexpensive but powerful production tools • Low barriers to effective distribution • Search and referral substitutes for marketing

  10. Example: Podcasting • Works with any portable media players, PCs, Macs, and most news aggregators. • Means adding an enclosure to an RSS 2.0 item (can be a link to any file: MP3, WMV, etc.). • Specialized aggregators can automatically sync your files with the player. • Implications for how we do journalism and production.

  11. The “long tail” meme • From Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson • “The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.” • Real time is hits oriented. For non-real time long-tail distribution, success can come with much smaller numbers.

  12. The “long tail” meme • Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, et al. have much larger inventories than corre-sponding brick-and-mortar stores. • The average record store has 40,000 tracks, but Rhapsody has 735,000. • “The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles...[, but] more than half of Amazon’s book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles.

  13. The “long tail” meme

  14. Broadcasters must adapt to • A multi-platform future • A multi-choice future

  15. A multi-platform future • We’re evolving from distribution over one platform to distribution over multiple platforms: • Over-the-air transmitters • Internet and broadband • Cable and satellite • Physical media • Mobile and portable devices From Dave MacCarn, WGBH

  16. A multi-choice future • The number of “channels” through which users will be able to access our content will continue to grow. • Increasingly, users want control over when and where they use our content. • Increasingly, users want choice and personalization. • Successful public broadcasters are morphing into digital libraries. From Dave MacCarn, WGBH

  17. The new media divide • People are taking control over their media usage. • “My time” (non-real time) is the fastest growing segment of media usage. • “I want what I want, when I want it, the way I want it.” • So it’s less and less audio vs. video or print vs. electronic, it’s ... • Real-time vs. “my time.”

  18. Who does “my time” serve? • People who have already left linear programming for other reasons: • Career • Chores • Community • Family • People who can’t get enough of what they like on your stations.

  19. CPB TV primetime study • PTV viewing was small in two segments compatible with PTV: • “Innovative & Inclined” • “Distracted & Unavailable” • Together, they are 26% of viewers: • Limited free time • Frequent users of technology • Medium-to-high users of public radio

  20. CPB TV primetime study

  21. Real-time economics • For real-time broadcasting, distribution costs scale perfectly ($ for 1 = $ for 1,000,000), but time for content is dear. • Rewards AQH listening/viewing. • Programmers are tacticians. • Programming strategy is finding hits and competing with other hit-programmers.

  22. “My time” economics • For “my time” distribution, costs scale incrementally with use, but time for content is limited only by storage. • Requires a business model to cover incremental costs. • Rewards cumulative access over time. • Programmers are curators. • Make the “tail” lo-o-o-ong. • Programming strategy is to make content personalized and accessible.

  23. Public Service Publisher • A “my time,” “long tail” repositioning initiative • Public broadcasting stations and independent producers • Partnering with Open Media Network for content distribution component • To include citizen-supplied media • Broadcasters can serve as enablers for community public service content

  24. Public Service Publisher • Multi-platform content delivery from a common user interface • Internet • Free • Subscription • Pay per use • Cable VOD • DTV broadcast data caching • Physical media (DVD, CD) • Station-supplied • Amazon, Netflix, et al.

  25. Public Service Publisher • Users can access via portal or station affiliated pages • B2B services • Station program guides • Fair use recording

  26. New revenue sources • Member benefits (more content, convenient times) • New audience revenue (relationship building, underwriting) • User compensation for access to niche, premium or hard-to-find programming

  27. Assets in permanent distribution build record of community value, important for tax-based, foundation and philanthropic funding B2B revenues (rights to distribute, marketing content for derivative works) Distribution services (datacasting, load balancing, “my time” traffic) New revenue sources

  28. “Pull” urgencies • Opportunities: • “My time” use growing rapidly. • PBCore, broadband, off-the-shelf core technologies are in place. • Long-tail businesses are succeeding. • Pubcasters and partners have great and deep content assets. • There is substantial interest in use of “my time” electronic media by other public service organizations.

  29. “Push” urgencies • Threats: • Competition for pubcasters is coming from the for-profit sector. • It’s no longer a one-platform world. If we cling to one platform, we risk our mission. • XML-based syndication to portable devices is growing and presents a real “bypass” to linear programmers. • Barriers to entry are low. If we don’t do it, someone else will.

  30. Contact information Dennis L. Haarsager, Associate VP & GMEducational Telecommunications & TechnologyPO Box 642530Washington State UniversityPullman, WA 99164-22530Contact info: www.haarsager.org/contactWeblog: www.technology360.comResources: www.technology360.org

More Related