6
NEWS & VIEWS
August 2016
Discomfort – a stimulus for change
❝To advance, and to engage with an audience,
by karl rossiter
The technological changes of the past 10
years have been unprecedented, even as
broadcasting continues to mutate. Linear
is being overtaken by multi-platform and
invaded by new offerings and new competitors. Newcomers to the industry have
taken advantage of new business models
and methodologies and left old baggage
and infrastructures behind. Who would
ever have thought that our broadcast
audience would migrate to the cloud
and stream services from smartphones?
Change can be cruel, but it can also
be a stimulant.
The momentum of change leaves
broadcasters little alternative but to ride
the wave, and hopefully take advantage
of it. After all, it is our audience that has
driven the thrust towards on-demand,
catch-up and high definition, as well as
the migration to mobile services and
social media interfaces.
If the role of a broadcaster is to
engage an audience, then broadcasters
have to match audience preferences and
expectations. This means distribution
of tailored content, in multiple formats,
for multiple devices. For most of us, the
smartphone has become the everyday
enabler, combining data, location and
payment into a highly tactile and amazingly visual device — the
smartphone is providing
the ears and eyes of our
new audience.
The ITU Telecommunications Development
Bureau paints an interesting global picture. Worldwide, there are already
over seven billion mobile connected
subscriber devices; yet the number of
people using the Internet is way behind
at only 3.2 billion. The uptake of mobile
technology, from zero to 7.2 billion units
in four decades, is an amazing phenomenon, and one that is not yet mature.
Broadcasters need to capitalise on the
growth in mobile, as well as the ever
expanding opportunities of the Internet.
But the Internet age is not a level
playing field. Technology has both enabled and disabled ingenuity. It has enabled those on the front foot, but perhaps
disadvantaged those short of resources.
For those innovators who could afford
to lead, new services, new audiences
and new revenues have materialised.
But if you were left behind — and that is
requires enthusiasm for change, and the upgrading
of services to provide exactly what your viewer or
listener wants.❞
where so many broadcasters are finding
themselves — playing catch-up becomes
a real challenge.
To advance, and to engage with
an audience, requires enthusiasm for
change, and the upgrading of services
to provide exactly what your viewer or
listener wants. It is also an opportunity to
select and streamline a business model
that introduces the attributes of IP into
an infrastructure.
A multi-platform approach to
broadcasting relies on the adaptability
and flexibility of IP within the production workflow, right through to playout.
It is IP that enables new service options,
and future-proofs s