TORONTO – The future of the TV business is near impossible to predict, no matter how many studies are done and consultants are paid to help guide media companies as they march into that future. That was a piece of the message delivered Tuesday at the Broadcast Executives Society luncheon by its featured speaker, Kirstine Stewart, the CBC’s executive vice-president of English services.
We all want to be able to predict the future, to accurately see where the media business is headed in the short and long term. “Consultants trade on their ability to tell us where we’re going next, and they make lots and lots of money – we’re willing to pay people dearly for their talents in 'forecasting' in our industry – but the question really is ? do we actually have the guts to do what it takes to lead, and not just follow?” she asked.
In any given week, we can read about how television is dying – or how all this new media is spawning a new, even more popular age for TV, making it stronger than ever. “One article will point to viewership in television being higher than ever 'record hours tuned' – and an article directly opposite is announcing the end of television as we know it. Someone will say ‘over the top’ is a huge threat to Canadian sovereignty, then headlines say Netflix shares are down 37% after dwindling subscribership. No wonder there’s confusion out there,” she said.
The one thing most can agree on is that the power has shifted far more towards the consumer. Technology has made it so that the viewer has so much choice in what to watch – and through various social media they can wield an enormous megaphone with which to pan or praise what they see – further influencing others when it comes to making or breaking a hit show.
But even with the many ways we can now watch TV and the certainty many have that the new, whenever-you-want-it viewing window on new devices leads to higher levels of engagement and many more viewers, it can’t yet be monetized, in part because we can’t properly count all the eyeballs, Stewart (left) told the predominantly ad-sales side audience. “My own sister has ‘unplugged’ and watches no television off of cable except when she travels in hotel rooms. She is, like so many, watching all the shows, but circumventing traditional distribution. We are absolutely marching towards a digital world,” explained Stewart.
“But up til now, we haven’t been that good at putting a value on that space. In fact even still we can’t seem to agree how to ‘count the numbers’ in order to make them count. And yet some of that technology, being so close to the consumer, can give us a really clear picture of who is watching what and where. But we can't see our way yet to figuring out how to count it. And when we do, we aren’t good about telling the story of how the sum equals all the parts.
“Take the call I got recently asking that some 25?-54 overnight numbers were down on CBC,” she continued. “Did they know, that shows like Being Erica have about a 30% PVR rate? That The National isn't just on CBC at 10 but on CBC News Network? That our news app is one of the fastest growing apps in Canada? And what about those 25-?54's? The kids watching Heartland don't count? Nor the boomers quickly marching past 55? There's so much more to the story than a panic over your 25-?54 numbers. And it's a good story that many broadcasters can also tell.”
And if we can’t figure out the business model and making sure to profit from this data and the ability to target sales with it, we’re in trouble. “It's our fellow Canadians who 'want it when they want it' and they couldn't give a damn if we haven't figured out the business model to give it to them,” said Stewart. “(If) CBS or BBC or someone else outside of Canada has, so they'll just go there online thank you very much.
“When 37% of Canadians say that at least once a day they check into news on mobile, and that it is for them their first and primary source of news information, we cannot, as content creators, let the old world and traditional media hold us back. Traditional media isn't dead but it is actually reborn and reformed,” she added. “Right now it works really well together with the formats we've been used to. TV and radio aren't dead but they are instead rejuvenated by their new neighbour digital. Like newspapers and magazines who had their deadly fates prematurely sealed, audio and visual media has a new life in digital. And the challenge to reinvent to suit the public's needs gives us the chance to create better content that ever before. And to deliver it in different ways.”
– Greg O’Brien
