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4G Weekly Digest July 8th, 2009 - Volume 4, Issue 34

4G Marcom Watch
By Emma Hancox, Marketing Director
Contact the author at emma@maravedis-bwa.com

Conference Focuses on Relationship Between TV and Online Viewing

A conference organized by UK ad agency DDB in London last month brought together representatives from the government, the BBC, BSkyB, ITV, Virgin Media and other broadcasters with executives from Hulu, NBC Universal, Google and other media agencies.

As reported by eMarketer, the major focus was on the relationship between TV and online viewing. Broadcasters expressed concerns about their content being posted online without permission, about people spending more time watching online video than television, and about the sharp and continuing decline of ad revenues.
However a number of presentations at the conference provided counterweights to these concerns:

The Web and other new technologies are ushering in a new “golden age of media,” in which multiple media usage is the norm.
TV is still king—across all generations. Viewer numbers and audience engagement levels are higher than ever.
Consumers expect multiplatform content—though most will not consume it on all devices.
Technical capability does not equal consumer interest. If you can’t offer simplicity and a great user experience, don’t bother.
Broadcast TV and the online channel can be best buddies. The Web does not replace traditional TV; it complements and extends it. NBC found that the more platforms viewers had, the more TV viewing of the Olympics rose.
Cross-platform ads really work, boosting brand recall and message recall in viewer samples by 40% or more.
Mobile TV viewing is coming to the mass market. But not yet. (Source: eMarketer.com)

CLICK TO ENLARGE

A new consensus is emerging among TV broadcasters and content owners: If you can’t beat them, join them. The new mantra is about monetizing content across various platforms. Broadcasters still struggle to do this, of course. But at least they are developing business models that tackle the problems head-on. Strategies include selling more online content globally, and pushin video-on-demand. According to some estimates, VOD will account for between 12% and 20% of all UK TV viewing by 2012. Marketers are looking at the opportunity to insert pre- and midroll video ads into VOD content.

Overall, at least in the UK where this conference was held, TV and online video are no longer at war, but are rather in a process of convergence that will require creative new marketing strategies in order to take advantage of new opportunities that arise.

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