TORONTO – Ah, the on demand age is truly a golden age for consumers – where we can all get whatever we want, when we want it, wherever we are, on whatever device – for free or as close to free as possible.
The sense that broadcasters actually hate all that freedom was refreshing to hear spoken out loud at this week’s Canadian Digital Broadcasting Summit. The CBC’s Steve Billinger, while accepting this new paradigm is the way it is and there’s no going back, admitted broadcasters are being dragged kicking and screaming into the new reality.
“We clearly don’t like to have the flexibility and power in the hands of consumers,” said the executive director off digital programming and new business development during his session on technical change and standards. The new world order disrupts programming, its marketing and scheduling and so on and broadcasters have – and still are – resisting full on change. “We don’t walk the walk on this one,” he explained.
However, the CBC can’t stand in the way of this wave, and it is adapting, putting as much of its content in as many places as it can as quickly as it can on cbc.ca and its many, many portals, noted Billinger. In fact, it has moved much more quickly and comprehensively as any other broadcaster in Canada, and if you don’t believe us, go to www.cbc.ca and peruse the myriad sites and micro-sites to see the varied multimedia available to surfers and such.
– Greg O’Brien
