Public Service Broadcast is DEAD!!!

Regulator presses on with plan for new digital operator

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards yesterday vowed to press ahead with plans for a "public service publisher" - a new digital operator - to compete with the BBC and Channel 4 in the online age.

The regulator first raised the idea for a new entrant with a budget of £350m a year, delivering content via broadband, in 2004 when it was roundly derided by broadcasters. But Mr Richards said yesterday that Ofcom had been proved right by subsequent events. "The kernel of the idea, I'm absolutely increasingly convinced we were right about," he told the Guardian. "Look at the speed of change. Where was MySpace when we did that? Where was Google Video?"

Ed Richards also pointed out

that public service broadcasting in its traditional sense was already dead: "I use public service broadcasting as a euphemism. I think it's gone. We toy with the idea of calling it public service content. That's what we call it here. Its meaning has changed over time. When I say public service broadcasting I mean the purposes associated with it."

Bob Garfield writing in Wired Magazine says

TV advertising is broken, putiing $67b up for grabs, which explains why google spent a billion and change on an online video startup

So don't say we didn't tell you.

In the SMLXL whitepaper, The broadcast Casino all bets are on we said, all those years ago

A television broadcaster is a casino, and it plays by house rules. Rule number one – the house wins.

We we were being ironic, but that was always the status quo

We go on to say

Bottom line – There’s a fall in audience figures and resulting drop in income across the board for broadcasters from advertising and sponsorship. This fall is a direct result of the decline in effectiveness of purchased media to deliver audiences.

What does this mean for Broadcasters?
They have to free themselves from expenditure based on the income from advertising and sponsorship revenue.

What does this mean for Creative Agencies?
They have to rethink their brand communications to get away from brand associations and reliance upon purchased distribution and into content.

What does this mean for Media planners and purchasers?
They have to create the means of distribution within content to support purchased media plans.

What does this mean for Content producers and owners?
They have to look at forms of income other than broadcasters producing at risk.

Comments

[Luey]

Ofcom recently concluded that the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five are all now all actively persuing strategies that recognise the opportunities and threats brought about by the migration to digital. But what exactly is planned in order to ensure that the BBC is fully equipped to meet the challenges of the digital multi-channel, multi-platform age?

It is fairly obvious that a flexible ‘digital’ PSB environment is required, either through the suggested PSP model or through another system, which may not be obvious until a refined marketplace evolves.

The move from analogue to digital, and consequently multichannel television, means it is no longer practical to expect commercial broadcasters to deliver significant PSB obligations. PSB provision from commercially-funded organisations is therefore under potential threat. The crux of which, suggests that it will not be realistic to expect commercial broadcasters to deliver significant PSB obligations due to their fragmenting audience base.

As the path towards a media convergent environment continues, the media and broadcasting marketplace will become even more complex. Arguably, there will be much economic ineffectiveness during this transitional period, before a more sophisticated and efficient structure is developed. And, again, arguably, in the future marketplace, It can be assumed that the key drivers within the broadcasting industry will comprise of content, distribution of content and measurement. What isn’t yet clear within the PSP proposition is how the driving technology and the innovation of new technological devices that facilitate the above key drivers, will continue to propel the broadcasting industry as well as ensuring diversification from other dwindling PSB providers outside of the BBC.

Outside of the BBC, should the remit of other UK PSB/PSP providers be to drive future technological innovations in order to ensure competition is maintained? Can the PSP model facilitate this?

[Alan moore]

Dear Luey,

Thanks for your thoughts. I wonder if we did not have the BBC, that we would still be in a technological broadcast media backwater?

Alan