Online Video Production Blog

In the last few weeks I have been wrestling with a decision about this very topic.  I wont go into the details of the decision in this public forum just yet but needless to say the decision hinges a fair bit on what I will be blogging about in this article.

Is TV Broadcast dead? Is PayTV Broadcast dead? Is Online video/TV the future? How Long until online overtakes free-to-air broadcast as an entertainment medium?  What skills will be required in the Online future? and How will the Free-to-air Broadcaster respond to the challenge?

I know some of these questions have some fairly simple answers, others are more complex and others still are regional and as such my response here in Australia will be very different to other parts of the world.

The TV broadcast industry has gone through a decade of massive change, dwindling viewer numbers, competition from pay TV and other entertainment mediums, squeezed advertising dollars, reduced political and social influence and massive technological change have forever changed the landscape of TV as we know it. The industry seems to be in a constant state of reduction in an attempt to maintain financial results achieved in a very different climate.  The "bean counters" have taken over and the industry as a whole has seemed to be living in yesterday.  What is the way out?

In Australia, next year, the shackles come off multicasting, this could be a great thing if it is utilised and marketed well.  Essetially it will allow for each network here in Australia to have many channels, the current SD channel, a HD channel(all networks currently have this but content is largely duplicated) and additional SD or HD channels with independant content on each. Channel Ten has announced "One" which will be their HD sports channel showing sport 24/7 in HD, sport that we in Australia normally don't see outside the Pay TV networks. This is an excellent start! How about some innovative drama that maybe uses two channels or how about letting the cricket continue on Channel 9's second channel while the news starts right on time on their "main" channel.  The olympics were a massive missed oppotunity for Seven here in Australia, they could have easily utilised a second, or thrid, channel to show us whole games and sports that weren't featuring Aussies.  This is the multicasting future.

What though will that mean for the industry? Will there be more jobs? Will the networks start making new programs? Will advertising dollars just be split between 3 channels per network instead of one? The answers to these questions will be very interesting.

My assessment is that overall there wont be new employment, their maybe new positions but they will be funded by redundancies in other areas. Most of the new channels content will be repeats or prepackaged shows out of other markets, primarily America.  Networks need to get smarter, embrace the new media world, leverage their ownership of the free-to-air spectrum for functions not possible in the online space and do this for as long as possible.  Create more compelling "live" programs, but make sure copies are easily available for people who missed them. Be quick to air with new fresh content, but make it available after airing for people to watch, use the second channel as a "backup" channel showing repeats of recently aired shows to give people no reason to want to download programs. Then make the programs available for download anyway beat the pirates at their own game.  Tell your sales staff to be innovative with advertising, income doesnt have to come from 30 sec ads, sponsor shows, advertising in shows, dont disrespect the audience with "infomercials" but provide oppotunities for companies to show their wares in innovative ways.

Online on the other hand is still a child wearing nappies (diapers for the USA readers) it has learnt so much and is really quite clever compared to where it was just a short time ago.  It can walk but cant run and is exploring the world around it.  Should I continue the analogy and make a reference to pooey nappies, no I dont think so.  Anyway, online is not mature yet, we really arent sure how to fully monterise video content here, consumers are expecting free and ad-free content.  It is the future but like a small child we just dont know its full potential yet.

The online space has been good to me, I worked through the tech wreck of the early 2000's in this space. I was a "new media" producer, producing hours and hours of streaming video for the web, before YouTube, before podcasting, in fact before anyone was really watching video online for anything other than the novelty factor of it. Maybe that was part of the reason we weren't financially successful!! Not enough people were watching!!  I am glad I played in that sand pit and that time, I learnt valuable skills and found a niche I still can pretty much call my own.  I am a traditional video producer with an online focus, I understand both worlds and can converse with full time practitioners in both.

So where is it going, my Mum and her generation are still entertained by traditional TV, they spend increasing time using the web for email, a bit of surfing and occassional enertainment.  They havent, and may never, download and watch a movie etc.  Hardware devices that makes this as easy as turning on a TV will need to be invented and provide a compelling reason to switch before my Mum will make that decision.  Where does that leave advertisers wanting to capture an ageing market with disposable incomes?

So who will win the fight, I suppose it stands to reason in an internet connected world, with WiFi and other technologies becoming more "seamless" we will see the rise and rise and rise of online.  I repeat myself because I dont think there will ever be a knockout punch that will make the majority switch overnight.  I think the Online market will just keep taking bites out of the traditional broadcasters and they will keep holding on for many years yet.  I write this knowing that a majority of readers are sold on online broadcast, most readers of this blog will have already begun to minimise their TV watching for Online alternatives so I am kinda preaching to the converted in many ways.

So has this article helped me with my decision, well yes and no, I will blog some more about my particular situation some time soon as I think I have come to a conclusion on that matter.  On more general issues I suppose we will all just have to wait and see what unfolds.  As an interested observer I look forward to watching this unfold and all the many innovations that are yet to come.