While iTunes and the Internet are quickly changing the rules of the television programming game, Hollywood studios and traditional TV programmers are not nearly ready to give up on the dominant business models yet. That was the main message of a crew of top TV programmers at an audio conference we held at IP Media Monitor today entitled “Traditional TV Flocks to the Web: Near-Term Novelty or Radical Restructuring?”
“The ultimate goal is to create supplemental viewing,” Bruce Gersh, SVP of Business Development, ABC Entertainment, said of the company’s experimentation in delivering content over the web and via alternative platforms such as mobile devices. Everything has to work to drive viewer back to the “mothership,” meaning the main television networks.
“We don’t think the television broadcast business is going to go away. We think that it’s a monster business,” Larry Kramer, President of CBS Digital Media said.
Still, the delivery of video over the web is heating up and the traditional studios and networks are increasingly looking to the Internet as a means of content delivery. The ramp-up in this migration is due to the proliferation of not only broadband connections and improved security techniques but also new hardware devices.
“There are new hardware devices that are really part of this whole new Internet play,” Peter Levinsohn, President, Digital Media, Fox Entertainment Group said. “The Video iPod didn’t even exist a year ago.”
Nobody knows what will happen with this strategic shift in video content delivery, and the path to new business models is blocked with a lot of unknowns. “Everything is evolving. Not just our business models, not just the content but also the hardware. It’s very hard to know what to project,” said Dan Harrison, SVP, Cross-Network Strategy and Emerging Networks, NBC Universal Cable Entertainment.
Moreover, it’s not easy to get content on the web because the rights clearance issues are a thicket of negotiations and controversy. “It’s so new at this point…you may have to generate some kind of consensus,” Harrison said, referring to the producers, distributors, guilds, talent and other parties who have a stake in television programs and movies.
One solution to the clearance problem is to develop original content for web distribution so that no disputes can arise. “The web isn’t going to be based on television rerun shows but in the long run is going to be based on content developed for the web,” Kramer said.
For programs not originally developed for the web, studios and networks are building in web distribution rights as early as the development phase. “It’s happening very early on,” Gersh said.
Cynthia Brumfield at 5:35 PM|Comments(0)
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