Imagination: Broadcasters' only Limit

At the invitation of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), I was in Abuja mid-November 2005 to explain, on behalf of proprietors of advertising agencies, to it and distinguished media owners in attendance why advertising agencies should boldly owe the latter a whopping ‘eight billion’ naira!

However, as a national marketing communication columnist with a soft heart for interactive media advertising, a particular item on the agenda was of more importance to me- “digitization of Cable Television.” While I pondered the “restriction” to Cable, copies of an invitation by the House of Representatives to public hearing/submission of memoranda on the operation of digital satellite television in Nigeria, were being circulated among media owners.

Ironically, four days after my return to Lagos, my organization, which was directly served a copy of the same invitation by the House Committee on Information, asked me to articulate a position on its behalf for express dispatch to Abuja. Despite these developments, I was still not convinced that broadcasting across the board should not be digital.

As digitization came to be discussed on the agenda, with the NBC appealing to stakeholders to brace up for the transition (from the current analogue format), there was an understandable panic among media owners because they usually have trouble understanding technology, and really do not want to see change on their watch. It was a shame that ‘advertising’ became the ‘scapegoat’ as media owners held agencies responsible for their licence renewal indebtedness to the NBC.

If it is true that the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) will introduce what is known as the Communication Universal Licence next month (‘Funke Oyekanmi 2006), then our media owners should develop a big enough imagination to play in the field because the empowerment combines wireless mobile technology with data transmission capabilities, as well as fixed wireless telephone services. The implication of this is that telecom companies launching video delivery systems and Internet portals proving to be powerful broadband video distributors will compete with broadcast media.

One interesting aspect of the licence is that it will usher in advanced endeavours such as mobile advertising, mobile Internet, mobile banking and the likes. The sweeping changes should therefore push media away from their traditional method of broadcasting shows for free and selling advertisements to make money. TV broadcasters and cable companies can change the fundamental nature of the TV content distribution business by coming up with video-on-demand (VOD) and online initiatives; this is possible by moving top prime time programmes to VOD paid services that allow consumers to time-shift their viewing.

Alternatively they could maintain free access, also to on-demand content, but new effective forms of sponsorship and advertising within such would be sold (Robin Good 2005). Remarkably Cable TV’s traditional telephone pipes can be converted to deliver video, film, and television content on-demand, at anytime and to any user who is connected to their networks. CBS and NBC, America’s TV networks, are putting more of their TV news content available via broadband Web access, while their counterpart, ABC, is making its entire nightly news programme available online (AdAge Dec.01, 2005). Warner Bros. is not left out as it makes thousands of full-length TV episodes from its archives available online courtesy of AOL. Meanwhile NBC Universal is gearing up to offer movies on an Internet peer-to-peer file sharing service.

Our broadcast media and telecom gurus could collaborate to ensure that video file sharing enables users to download prime time programming, sometimes from the previous day. Local stations can also become money-making machines if they understand their strengths and how they can best integrate with the new emerging ones.

Recognising that the Internet is one of the biggest threats facing broadcasters (because it enables viewers to watch television without an intermediary), Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate recently went on an Internet acquisition spree. News Corp. earlier in 2005 had spent $1.3 billion to buy MySpace.com owner of Intermix Media, gaming Web network IGN Entertainment, and online sports company Scout Media (Adam Pasick 2005). The intention is to develop a hybrid broadband delivery platform.

When Apple Computer Inc. introduced the iPod more than four years ago, most critics noticed that as an MP3 player, it looked over-equipped (high-resolution display and complex operating system). Today the iPod, originally produced as a music-only device, can play video too. ABC News affiliates have already begun adding video content to the video podcasting section of Apple’s iTunes music store (Gavin O’malley 2005).

Podcasting is a new medium that combines the audio format of radio with the download and global distribution capabilities of the Internet and iPod/MP3 players (Kris Oser 2005). Daimler Chrysler AG’s jeep is also featuring ads on MobiTV, which provides programming from MSNBC, ESPN and Fox Sports to Sprint and Cingular Wireless cell phone subscribers in the U.S (B. Steinberg and S. Vranica 2006); On December 01, 2005, Vodacom launched the first mobile TV entertainment service in South Africa, enabling customers with Vodafone live! 3G cell phones to watch live television (bizcommunity December 11, 2005).

The South African experience may have been spurred by the advent of the digital video recorder (DVR) in the country toward the end of last year. The device, pioneered by a tiny Alviso, California-based company, TiVo, blends a hard drive and software such that it is easy to capture and watch shows on one’s own schedule and to pause a TV show while it is on (David Lieberman 2004).

In the UK, Nokia in partnership with network provider O2 and broadcast company Arqiva, have been administering tests on some TV “trialists” who have the choice of 16 channels, including BBC channels, ITV, channels 4 and 5 which they can watch on the Nokia 7710 widescreen multimedia smart phone (Jane Wakefield 2005). By June this year Nokia will introduce its first Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) enabled handset, the N 92, which doubles as a phone and portable TV.

While our broadcasting commission gives media owners till 2015 to convert to “digital,” America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), not satisfied with the pace at which TV is going digital, recently voted that television manufacturers include digital tuners on all new sets by July next year (Associated Press 2005). Congress actually requires most broadcasters to transit by 2006 from the current analogue technology.

At the Abuja meeting our media owners failed gallantly to realize that advertising could change from being a straightforward mass-media buy to a cottage purchase of thematic audiences and niche-groups across the Web, cell phones, and podcasting-enabled audiences. It will be recalled that Accenture had predicted that ad skipping and on-demand viewing would cost the American TV industry $27 billion in lost revenue between 2005 and 2010 (Claire Atkinson 2005).

The impact of DVRs, video and on-demand and interactive TV should put our broadcasters in a permanent state of discomfort. Advertisers (marketers) should look for new ways to reach consumers, from sponsored video-on-demand programming to podcasts. They should become entertainment producers, funding and creating films, documentaries, concerts, video games and cell phone entertainment tailored to specific consumers (Mellanie Wells 2006).

According to Peter Sealey, former chief marketing officer at the Coca-Cola Co. and, later, Columbia Pictures, the end of “ad-supported TV” is here! Our media owners fear “disintermediation” which digitization will likely pose; disintermediation is another way of saying that you are no longer relevant to your customers (John Battelle 2005). We do not have to watch or listen to scheduled programmes as presented by our traditional media- why can’t I control what I watch or listen to? That is what DVRs, the Internet, cell phones, iPods, etc. are all about!

As I sat there listening to our media owners (some are even better off being pugilists!), one fact was so nakedly obvious - most lacked imagination!