Television

Sydney.
The next speaker at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress 2008 is Tiffany Hall, Technology Controller of Nations & Regions at the BBC. She's focussing on the experience of rolling out the BBC iPlayer, an on-demand TV catch-up service (similar to the ABC's iView); programmes can be streamed or downloaded, and the service is funded by UK television licence funding (which is why content at present is not available outside the UK - unless you use an anonymiser proxy with a UK IP address). The player also contains parental guidance features (as timeshifting undermines the more conventional scheduling of differently rated programmes at different times of the day). iPlayer streams at 800kbps, with sound at 250kbps, and there are further moves to maximise the picture quality. About 80% of users use Windows, about 20% Macs, and only around 1% Linux; the player is now also available on the Nintendo Wii and on the Virgin platform.

Sydney.
Here at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress, we now move on to another media industry panel, involving a number of the speakers of the day as well as Jason Paris from TV New Zealand. Some 12-18 months ago, New Zealand launched a FreeView service similar to what's soon coming to Australia, and this service has now achieved 10% penetration; TVNZ also launched an online catch-up service similar to the ABC's iView which now generates 300,000 hours of viewing per month, was the first broadcaster in Australasia to launch a YouTube channel, operated a YouTube live debate between the political leaders in the recent elections, partnered with Bebo, and offered four simultaneous live channels covering the recent Olympics online in addition to the TV channels, generating 360,000 viewing hours. It also offered a choice between ad-supported and for-pay online options, and ad-supported content won hands down (at a ratio of 70,000:1).

Sydney.
The next speaker here at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress is Gerry Gouy, Commercial Director for International Digital Media at MTV Networks. He begins by saying that today, there is no digital media any more - there is only media. Convergence is here - not for everyone, but for many.

Big media companies have been guilty of siloing media into old and new - so why the tipping point now? Gerry says that there has been a rapid shift of TV online, ubiquitous high-speed broadband (well, outside of Australia, at least...), a drop in broadcast media ad sales, and a simultaneous growth in online advertising (and here especially search and video ads).

Sydney.
We're in the next session at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress now, with Robbee Minicola from Hybrid Television Services. She begins with a story about her grandmother sharing her recipes (giving away IP) - but the question remains: can you actually follow the recipes the way she can? The same is true in the television field, and Robbee says that 'TV is the new black'.

Watching television, users are mostly in a passive, lean-back state - focussed, relaxed, and easy to intrigue. This is critical to how content and services are delivered through the TV. But is a TV a TV any more? Today, TVs can be used to play games, download content, browse the Internet - when before, TV was drama, news, and sport, today its potential is virtually unlimited. Broadcasters must stop working with a narrowcast view of TV.

Sydney.
I've travelled south for the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress, at which I'll speak tomorrow. Arriving this morning I've missed the opening keynote, but I'll try and blog as much as I can of the rest of the proceedings.

So, we start with a panel by Australia media industry leaders. Michael Anderson from Austereo begins by talking about the launch of digital radio, which he sees as an enhancement to what radio does - no longer something significantly new as it's taken so long to launch in Australia, but a useful addition nonetheless. He suggests that in the US Internet radio has not yet been a success - it is nigh anemic, and largely a failure, he says. The industry there is trying to grow through cost-cutting. The UK isn't much better, and Australia is in fact ahead of most other nations in terms of its digital radio market.

Brisbane.
The next plenary session at the CCi conference responds to Mark Deuze's talk - John-Paul Marin from SBS and Tony Walker (blogger at ABC Digital Futures and the ABC's Manager of Digital Radio) will share their own experiences of operating in the new, user-led, media environment that Mark has sketched out.

Brisbane.
We're back to keynotes here at the CCi conference now, and I'm in a session with Kim Dalton, Director of Television at the ABC. His main theme here, however, is broadband. He begins by noting the overall audiovisual policy framework in place in Australia, which arises from the perceived and real influence of the broadcasting media. A critically important goal of this policy is to achieve social and cultural outcomes - delivering diverse, quality, and engaging content. Elements of this are Australian content regulations, Australian drama productions, children's programmes, and content reflecting the nature of the Australian community. This even applies for pay-TV and advertising. Additionally, there are funding bodies for film, TV, and new media industries, and various other support structures.