CHICAGO – Last week’s INTX provided a more diverse, smaller show than the NCTA “Cable Show” from years gone by.
Gone are the days when the major U.S. cable channels bring along major star power and generous premiums. This pared down show now has mostly office alcoves making up the majority of the programmers’ booths. But, Cartt.ca was roaming the floor at the show (the only Canadian media in attendance, we think), so what else did we see we didn’t already tell you?
Ditch the word “cable” or not? Nothing is over-the-top
NCTA president and CEO (and former FCC chair) Michael Powell started the conversation at the opening general session saying he hates the name “Cable”, noting that although it has a proud history, it needs to be retired. It does not capture all that his industry has done through broadband. “It matters what you call yourself,” he said.
In Canada, we have seen most of our companies modify their corporate names but it will take great effort to evolve to better reflect the industry with consumers to get away from being known as a cable company.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, on the other hand, spoke out about his distaste to the term Over-the-Top. “Nothing is going over anything, it going through OUR broadband,” he said. Video through the internet is empowering the industry’s present and future growth.
On advertising
Facebook and Twitter have been excellent for television program promotion, creating a buzz and building communities. With the usage of social media one lasting impression can be a few seconds or a few minutes, so we need to think outside the standard, 30 or 60 second ads going forward.
Is the FCC in or out of touch?
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler addressed Wednesday’s full house general session at INTX and gave praise to the industry for leading broadband and for the networks it has built out and their programming prowess. He noted the amazing strides made with having only a handful of channels in 1983 and annual programming revenue of $250 million to 900 channels today with $26 billion in revenue.
The second quarter last year saw internet subscribers exceed cable TV subs, agreeing with NCTA’s Powell that the industry should no longer be branded as cable companies.
The internet has very limited regulation which is a very unusual situation for a service so critically important to all Americans weather it be for school work, getting and keeping a job, relaying news and so much more. Internet will disrupt the initial core of many a business and will continue to change. The industry has done it before with CATV to cable programmers to broadband – and with it will come new issues, opportunities and obligations.
“Your challenge will be to overcome the temptation to use your predominant position in broadband to protect your traditional cable business. Those that stay on top are those that embrace change,” said Wheeler.
Trends in education
With kids having more technology available in their classroom and using phones and tablets, learning takes on a whole new exciting, engaging and interactive look and feel. Discovery Networks in the U.S., for example, has rolled out three educational interactive programs covering science, social studies and recently added math. A great example of educational interaction is the recent visit by president Barack Obama to a DC library where 650,000 students were able to participate in real time with the President.
Who is the audience of the future?
Rahsaan Harris, president & CEO of The Emma L Bowen Foundation provided some interesting and impressive hard numbers on the annual spending power of the Hispanic and Black American communities. His key take-away was to make media look more like the population. An example of this success was the blockbuster movie Fast and Furious 6 which grossed $2.4 billion with the recent Fast and Furious 7 already at $1.4 billion. The stars are multi-racial, which reflects the population and the viewers spending at the box office. If programmers want a larger segment of their money they must diversify in order to drive innovation.
Google has more searches on mobile than on desktop
Google reports there is now more searching taking place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan. Mobile queries include mobile browser-based searches and those coming from Google’s mobile search apps.
Programmers prep for all glass applications
CNBC’s Julia Boorstin moderated the general session with Showtime Networks CEO Matt Blank, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf and AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan.
Landgraf noted that broadband is such a large share of the market, now surpassing video, and it is important for programmers to reach them. We work hard to preserve our 1st window, he said. The interface by which people consume content will continue to shift over time and ownership of content turns out to be a terrific business, but streaming of content has put a strain on advertising consumption.
Sapan noted the evolution in the ad market and that more targeted marketing opportunities will improve efficiencies.
Blank offered that “Showtime has been working for two years working out the math to bring Showtime to the universe via broadband. That is something we will be talking about shortly.” Bell Media’s broadband portal Crave TV already offers a Showtime block of programming.
It seemed unanimous that these major players will get to the consumer on whatever glass consumers are viewing them on. Renewed affiliate agreement negotiations and rate cards to accommodate these change plus new packaging that is more consumer friendly, will be very challenging as business models will need to change dramatically with revenue streams being not easy to predict. Expect the strong, major players to be the ones that come out of this victorious – those who own content and can afford the high price for the first window. Hold on to your hats…the future is coming.
