CAMBRIDGE (Reuters) - After decades of dictating what British viewers watch, broadcasters must adapt to the democratic values of the Internet or die, leading media executives said on Friday.
Gathering for the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, heads of some of the world’s largest media companies including News Corp, the BBC and ITV urged the industry to see the potential in the new media platforms.
And not to be afraid to fail.
“(There are) huge rewards for those who innovate, death for those who don’t,” said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp.
“Right now there are more than 300 million people around the world watching video content online. It’s a fundamental shift that completely democratizes our business. And democracy can be scary, especially when we’ve been used to living in a totalitarian state”.
British broadcasting has undergone huge upheaval in recent years, with the country engaged in the rapid switchover to digital TV that has eaten into the once mass audiences of the traditional channels.
On top of that, a range of new players have come to the market, such as telecoms giant BT Group and Internet provider Tiscali offering broadband-based TV, while video content has exploded on the Internet.
In response, broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 and BBC have responded by launching more digital channels and Web sites to provide programs over the Internet.
But many executives on Friday said the biggest broadcasters should focus on making fewer but better programs which would stand out amongst the noise.
“The fact that we’ve got to this point reasonably well with a set of methodologies doesn’t mean you can take it for granted that it’s going to go on,” BBC Director General Mark Thompson told the convention.
“The level of disruption and change is so great.”
At a recent television conference in Edinburgh, one of the pioneers of the Internet Vint Cerf, said television was facing its “iPod moment” when only a few genres such as sports and news would remain live, while the rest would go on-demand.
Mary Turner, the head of Internet provider Tiscali UK, told Reuters in a recent interview she expected this change and the subsequent demise of the TV schedule to happen in five years.
BSkyB Chief Executive James Murdoch said the key to surviving such upheaval was spotting new trends early, such as Sky’s decision to offer broadband to increase customer loyalty -- a move that has been welcomed by analysts as a success.
“The key thing for us is about not having anxiety to change but having a real appetite for it,” he said. “You (need) a bigger appetite for risk, a bigger willingness to fail.”
The BBC’s Thompson and Channel 4 Chief Executive Andy Duncan said broadcasters needed to tap into other industries and countries such as Korea that is so Internet savvy to learn while ITV Executive Chairman Michael Grade said they needed to build a new, intimate relationship with the viewer.
“(We need) to be utterly responsive,” he said.
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