VANCOUVER – The last time the CAB convention was in Vancouver was 2002 – just four years ago.
Video streaming over the web was a pain in the rear, Apple had just begun its huge gamble on this new-fangled music device, the iPod, and when broadcasters complained about audience fragmentation, the audience was really escaping mostly to their own specialty services.
In 2006, things have changed, "big-time" Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell told the Vancouver Board of Trade on Thursday.
It’s a confusing time in the media space these days. Multi-billion dollar companies are experimenting with all sorts of new things. Interactive, niche-driven, personalized media is on the rise. So, what does this mean for the economy? The consumer. For business?
"The short answer is: we’re not absolutely sure," said O’Farrell.
New media outlets are running on business models that have yet to be proven over the long term. While O’Farrell didn’t name YouTube specifically, he said such new businesses "offer the individual consumer the advantage (of much choice) but also the burden of disaggregated programming choices without turn-key solutions."
To paraphrase: there may be millions of videos on YouTube and elsewhere, meaning great choice, but try finding the one you want without already knowing where it is.
"Digital technology and the web effectively disaggregates the media experience. Almost anything is accessible on-line, but you have to search to find it or know where it is. No longer is control just in the hands of the creators of programs, or the broadcasters who bring them to mass audiences, or the advertisers who choose to seek out audiences to create awareness of their products and services," explained O’Farrell.
As he’s said before, he calls it: "me-media".
"Some people have gone so far as to suggest the emergence of ‘me media’ presages the end of ‘mass media’. Well, I don’t buy that… there will always be a mass media," he said, pointing to the human desire for compelling, original content and shared experiences. "Canada’s private broadcasters are and will continue to be a mass reach vehicle without equal – the sheer magnitude of the aggregate audiences private broadcasters reach, every day and every week will not dissolve with the click of a mouse."
But all this me-media is completely unregulated, added O’Farrell, which presents particular challenges to the heavily regulated Canadian broadcast sector.
After pointing out the local value of numerous local TV and radio stations mentioning fundraisers and the like, the ability to do that on a local level is under a bit of threat. "’Me media’ is challenging the business model of many media companies as well as many of the underlying assumptions that have sustained them for decades," he said.
Thus, the theme of this week’s CAB convention: New Realities, New Rules.
"We are a regulated industry – with responsibilities and obligations that were based on assumptions that have been fundamentally and irreversibly altered," he said, previewing what broadcasters are going to hammer home later this month when the TV Policy Review hearings begin.
"We know that the rule-makers and regulators in Ottawa are aware of the changing realities. Stacks of facts and figures have been submitted in regulatory proceedings that are yet to be concluded. The question yet to be answered can be stated in relatively simple terms: will the new rules recognize that broadcasters are now competing for eyeballs and advertisers with a parallel universe that lives on the Internet?" asked O’Farrell.
"Imagine this: One morning you suddenly have to run your business against a growing field of new competitors who have fixed costs that are 30% to 50% less than yours because your competitors are not required to comply with government regulation? No, this is not some exaggerated fantasy – these are the New Realities facing broadcasters today. And quite clearly, the asymmetry is unsustainable," he explained.
That isn’t to say broadcasters have given up. Indeed, all Canadian media companies are experimenting with myriad new technologies, attempting to meet their customers on whatever level, whatever platform, they can.
"We are going to compete on every platform, on every device invented or yet to be invented," O’Farrell said.
Surf on over to Cartt.ca this week for frequent reports from the 2006 CAB Convention. We have four reporters on site contributing to our "Show Daily" so subscribers won’t miss a thing.
– Greg O’Brien
