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As the might of the internet challenges traditional TV networks, they need to evolve to meet the challenge, writes Geoff Shearer – as printed in the Courier Mail on the 14th of August, 2010.
With the media landscape continuing to fragment, we posed a multiple-choice question to some of the broadcast networks’ big hitters, to gauge their take on the threat (or otherwise) posed by internet TV. Amid the light-hearted approach and the interesting replies, some Darwinian thoughts on survival emerged.
Q: If the internet TV network model is an asteroid hurtling toward Earth and traditional broadcast TV networks are dinosaurs, what is most likely to happen?
A: It will burn up on entry.
B: The dinosaurs will try to catch the falling star and worship it.
C: The dinosaurs will evolve, log on, hit delete and redirect any traffic in the comet’s tail with shinier, brighter stars.
D: Kerblam! Lights out. Goodnight mumma. We’re re-deploying staff to open a nice little bistro, nothing fancy, in West End once the dust has settled.
E: None of the above (and how dare you call us dinosaurs?).
Nine Network CEO David Gyngell
Answer: E
“The asteroid will make it to Earth, and have a bit of an impact. But the broadcast TV networks (who aren’t dinosaurs) will have more. The networks will keep giving people the content they love, delivered in lots of different ways. Broadcasters have the best content and they know how to use the internet.”
Seven Network director of programming Tim Worner
Answer: E
“Television continues to thrive. It has had a great ability to adapt to changing consumer demands over the past five decades and that ability to adapt continues today. Free-to-air television will continue to thrive as long as it produces content that matters to Australians. Content needs to be available across an array of platforms…we’re investing in time-shifting and content devices such as TiVo and exploring opportunities for content delivery through VividWireless.”
Network Ten chief programmer David Mott
Answer: C
“The dinosaurs will definitely evolve into a whole new species – hopefully one capable of interplanetary space travel. Who knows, this new super species could end up colonising previously uninhabitable planets capable of supporting whole new communities. Given there’s not much to do In the far reaches of the outer solar system, these colonies are probably gonna be hanging out for the next series of MasterChef.”
Up until the ’50′s a radio sat in the living room – a big brown thing with knobs – and Dad would sit there next to it. Dad and Mum controlled the radio. They listened to the serials and the quiz shows and the news. ”Then along came the portable record player and the 7-inch EP with one song on each side. The kids took that to their bedrooms. They spent a fortune buying these little cheap records with Rock Around The Clock on one side. Immediately an industry sprang up around that, to feed that market.
“And now we’ve got kids in their bedrooms with the computer, watching TV online, and there, there, is the new industry.”
Ian McFadyen is close to channelling his early comedic TV days as he animatedly details how the “great precedent” for internet TV is, remarkably, rock ‘n’ roll. The actor, comedian , lecturer and writer is the poster boy for Brisbane-based company Triptych Concepts, which last month launched one of Australia’s first internet TV channels VideoZoo.tv – and is producing and delivering original content alongside established programs Let The Blood Run Free and Paranormal Mysteries. McFadyen also hopes to bring online material from the show that launched his television career, The Comedy Company.
“Rock ‘n’ roll spread in an underground manner. The kids discovered it,” he continues. “Now we’ve got a generation of teenagers who discover most of their entertainment off the internet. They will watch back issues of TV shows – a generation of young people who are hunters and gatherers.” Online TV channels vary from traditional broadcast TV by offering programs on demand. They also don ‘t operate under a hefty government broadcast licence fee and can be subscription-based, advertiser supported or both.
Triptych managing director Adam Ben Lomsargis says Australia’s online video industry is still in its infancy but is expected to explode over the next 12 months, driven by the heavy promotion of web-ready TV sets. McFadyen says the picture quality of internet HD TV played back on large-screen TVs is already better than terrestrial analogue broadcasts.
The US is where the action is with several sites established over the past three years with decent audiences and unique content. WebSerials.com launched the successful online series Project X, Cataclysmo and The Black Dawn, while My Damn Channel has a runaway hit on its hands with You Suck at Photoshop, a “mockutorial” series that has been viewed more than 20 million times. Catching up to it is the channel’s sitcom Easy To Assemble, set in an Ikea store and starring Hollywood actor IlIeana Douglas. Ikea sponsors the series, which now has more than 9 million downloads going into a third season, but has no creative control, only asking it represents the brand in a positive light. Easy To Assemble has already attracted Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Ricki Lake, Jane Lynch and Ed Begley Jr as guest stars. “I see this as a different way to make entertainment,” Douglas told Variety online. “I knew there was a huge fan base out there that wasn’t watching television.”
Triptych is banking on statistics that suggest online video will comprise 90 per cent of the world’s internet traffic by 2013. “You can only watch so many video clips on YouTube before the novelty factor wears off and you search for better quality entertainment,” Lomsargis says.
VideoZoo.tv will offer a diverse mix of classic TV sitcoms, he says, along with “some of the freshest new original web shows”. It’s debut web comedy serial, The Verge produced entirely in Brisbane, follows a group of 20-somethings living in a share house. It is aimed at the online buyer demographic of 18 to 35-year-olds.
But while internet TV has been establishing itself parallel to technological advances, broadcasters Nine, Seven and Ten have not been ignoring the platform. They were quick to adopt it’s benefits for promoting their shows and providing interactive and “value-added” expansions. In terms of broadcasting on the net, they only use it for “catch-up” TV, offering a fairly quickly expanding selection of already broadcast programs for download. ABC TV was the first to go proactive with a broadcast of a Doctor Who episode in April on ABC iView two days before it went out on ABC1. In June, ABC iView offered more than 250 programs and for the month recorded 581,000 visitors – a build on its 2010 monthly average of 506,000 visitors.
Actor John Jarratt, who is working on The Verge, says network TV would be mad to ignore internet TV. “To me it is just another medium I can work in and I was very excited to be in on the ground floor, basically,” the Wolf Creek star says. He doesn ‘t believe it marks the beginning of the end of network TV. “Nah, whenever there’s something new that comes into the market people talk about it taking over. Like when television came in, that was going to be the end of radio; when pay TV came in that was going to be the end of the network television. I think there is a place for everything.”
McFadyen believes pay-TV provider Foxtel logically will be the first network to adopt internet TV. “Foxtel is still running on an imitation of a broadcast network you have shows running at specific times and if you want to watch something that’s on at 3.30 you’ve got to switch your set on at 3.30 or set your iQ recorder,” he says. ”Whereas with internet-based, you decide to watch TV, then go and find the show you want. I say within two years Foxtel will virtually give up programmed entertainment and that Foxtel cable will be a fast broadband connection into a HTML based system.” In terms of content, McFadyen believes online television will be shorter, sharper and more daring. And it will be more profitable for the producer who cuts out the need for a network middle man to derive advertising revenue. Traditional networks eyeing what’s being made for online as potential programs for their channels might just be in for a shock. “Up until even a year ago, people did web shows in the hope of being discovered by network te levision,” McFadyen says. “And now for the first time they are going ‘Well, we won’t ever need network television if we can get our advertising model or subscription model working’.
“Are they going to let themselves be seduced to the dark side and put their show on network TV? My view would be to say no, if people want to see our show they’ve got to come to our website.”
It’s only rock ‘n’ roll, his smile says, and he hopes they like it.
