This panel was focused on the new television technologies. The group focused the discussion on content distribution, in home media management, DVD-make-on-demand and the role of set top boxes/rental boxes.

Panelists
Ashwin Navin, President & Co-Founder, BitTorrent
Anton Monk, Board Member & CTO, Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA)
Jeff Siegel, SVP, Regional Sales, Direct Response & Emerging Media, ESPN
Perry Solomon, SVP, Product Mktg, Monetization Solutions, FAST Search & Transfer
Brad Auerbach, VP, Strategic Business Development, Hewlett-Packard
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, VP & Principal Analyst, Parks Associates

What’s exciting about this space?
The ability to enjoy internet content in the living room. It brings huge diversity of content and new monetization options. The ability to discover, personalize and move content around the home and across the three screens. This concept of mass personalization seems to be the exciting thing for the panel.

What ideas do you see as not ready for prime time?
Kurt the moderator suggested that we’re not ready for Facebook on TV. Ashwin says he does not get the TV rental boxes or the real value proposition for these boxes. Ashwin says the cost of moving large volumes of data is still expensive, which is where P2P distribution comes into play.

What technologies should we be watching?
Brad Auerbach observed that there are still a lot of DVD boxes out there that still need to be fed. There is still lots of opportunity for manufacturing and distribution of DVDs on demand. Brad points to three buckets of DVD on demand – kiosks, buy online make to demand, and buy online burn at home,

Ashwin points to P2P technology as a way to lower costs of distribution substantially and re-deploy capital from the network to devices that can make use of high definition content.

Kurt asks about recommendation engines and Perry responds that sophistication of technology is increasing and will help make recommendation technology more effective. Anton points to the increasing capacity of home servers and broadband within the home as an important development in improving the in home experience.

Anton makes a good point that we will not see the set top boxes go away any time soon as the cable operators have considerable rights that protect their positions and the functionality we see in other boxes (eg Xbox) is integrated into the set top box. He also points to the integration of services like showing a telephone number from an inbound phone call on screen so you don’t have to go check the phone as further evidence that the set top boxes are here to stay.

How will the television user interface change?
Kurt points to UIs like the Wii as a new way to interact the TV. Anton says that the carriers avoid changes to the UI because they are afraid of the cost of the phone calls they will get from changes in the UI. He thinks this will hold back innovation in the UI.

[tags]Future of Television, television technologies[/tags]

Everyone seems to be producing content these days and the Internet is becoming a sort of worldwide TV network for audiences seeking entertainment. With global online video services, social media networks, and place-shifting devices national borders matter less and less in the television landscape. This panel discussed the consequences for the perspective of content creators, producers and advertisers as well as distributors and consumers.

This panel consisted of a range of industry executives including:

Greg Clayman, EVP, Digital Distribution & Business Development, MTV Networks
Ben Huang, Director of Product Management, Microsoft TV
Steve Jang, CMO & Head of Business Development, imeem
Steve Mitgang, CEO, Veoh Networks
Jason Kirk, Vice President, MySpace TV
Moderator: Mike Vorhaus, Managing Director, Frank N. Magid Associates

What countries are really breaking out with online video?

Korea is really breaking out for MTV Networks. These high bandwidth markets have gone straight to longer full length shows. Veoh’s CEO does not see a significant difference in what’s being consumed.

What will P2P mean for the industry – will piracy take over?

People use these services because they are better experiences than the alternatives, not because they want to steal. It’s better to download and view than waiting for poor quality streaming. Free is also a big advantage. The key is to figure out how to compete with P2P on pricing and on ease of use.

How will global content distribution impact ad formats?

Pre-rolls perform poorly overall. Overlays are being much better received. Relevance to the audience is critical, but format and timing play a major role. 95% or more of YouTube’s revenue is the display ad next to the video. Veoh’s seeing a disproportionate impact and click through compared to experience at Yahoo. Streaming across the bottom of the page is also emerging as a popular format.

What’s blocking global distribution?

The country based silos of media companies make it difficult to coordinate the global distribution of content. This was how television grew up and programming was localized to each market. Compared to the organizational problems, the technical challenge of going global is comparatively simple. This is not only a challenge for the media companies, it’s a challenge for the brands and their agencies for the same organizational reasons.

Three years from now where will YouTube be positioned?

Jason sees YouTube as being the leader now. They will struggle with content copyright issues if they cannot overcome that problem. If YouTube’s role for Google is the avenue to tap into brand advertising, it will need to transform to something other than the video clip business. It will mean different formats and different licensing arrangements. There is still a real opportunity for someone to fill this role.

Vertical content along genres and interests seem to be accelerating and may be a powerful way of organizing social communities that provides an alternative to YouTube.

Short form content is important, but long form dominates the majority of the viewing time. YouTube will need to break into longer form video for them to stay dominant. Search will also be an important component of helping people find content they enjoy.

[tags]Future of Television, content distribution[/tags]

This is the panel that focused on what’s next for reality TV:
Andrew Cohen, SVP, Production & Programming, Bravo, NBC Universal
David Lyle, President, Fox Reality Channel
John Saade, SVP, Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night, ABC Entertainment
Ryan O’Hara, President, TV Guide Network & TV Guide Broadband
Moderator: Ken Rutkowski, Host & President, KenRadio Broadcasting

Do you start with content or advertising when you consider a reality show? Aware that advertisers may not support some show, but the greatest influence is to produce shows that breakout. They need to be self-publicizing. The focus is usually on finding content that fits with the target audience.

How important is the connection to the major network?

It helps, but it’s really about knowing the audience, the fit with the channel. The programming is the driver.

As your making the shows – how soon do advertisers get involved?

Typically, can’t wait for advertisers because they don’t really want to be involved until the show is proven. That’s why the start is the show. You have to triangulate between the producers, sales and advertising agency and the client. In that group, anyone can block the deal which makes it tricky.

When a show fits well with advertisers it can lend itself well and drive to higher ratings. A fashion related show might pull in higher CPMs for the same audience than a less advertiser attractive program.

How does new media fit in?

As long as it can be supported by advertising, the online media sites like Hulu will play an important role. It’s almost like a virtual Comcast. Media companies are seeing that the they should be putting their content everywhere. It provides way to expand the audience and keep people up to date.

New media is also an important part of the consideration about how to develop the show. Mobile is important in this process as well. How the monetization for online and mobile will develop is still up in the air.

Live web shows, webisodes, games are all part of the package for the audience.

What will it take to get mobile more integrated into shows?

Big Brother is a great example of this. America’s super model is also using it as voting mechanism. Voting is key mechanism for using

How important is Social Networking?

MySpace was used to promote a show called “Look a like”. They did a partnership with MySpace who do you look like? Turned it into a viral explosion of promotion. They then took a contestant and brought them onto the show. She was dressed up like Angelina Jolie and it was a great success.

Bravo has worked a lot with MySpace and at BravoTV.com and sees them as a key part of the programming.

What’s happening with to the cost of reality TV?

Cheapest reality $50,000 per hour. $200k-300k per hour of reality for focused reality shows and $1 million per hour for broadcast television, with occasional peaks of $1.5 million. The panel seemed to think that costs are continuing to drop.

What’s the next year look like?

Reality could be quite strong given the shortage of scripted TV episodes and the number of reality shows that have been produced.

[tags]Future of Television, reality tv[/tags]

This panel at the Future of Television featured:

Brett Bouttier, SVP, Digital, Warner Bros. Television Group
Marc DeBevoise, SVP, Business Development & Strategy, Starz Media LLC
Matthew Glotzer, SVP, Digital Media, Fox Entertainment Group
Joe Patrick, EVP, North American Television Distribution, MGM
Moderator: Andrew Wallenstein, Deputy Editor, The Hollywood Reporter

Anything surprising about adoption of content on these new digital channels?

Response to ad supported streaming of premium content has been wildly successful. However, the ad supported model cannot keep up economically with sell through or even rental. So the challenge becomes how to do both and not cannibalize the sell through business where someone will pay you $1.99 for a download.

Long tail content has proven to be surprisingly successful. For example, Airwolf has turned out to be one of the most downloaded programs on Hulu.

How can film play a role on Hulu?

Joe Patrick said “I can’t get someone to pay the long tail content, but they might watch it on Hulu when its ad supported.” They might not pay $2.99 for this kind of content, but they might watch it for free. They are working on how to get sampling increased to help drive consumption.

What about Vongo?

Vongo licensed content from Starz. It just goes to show that consumers will use subscription models for premium content. Perhaps the key is to make it feel like free, or close to it. Subscription starts to approach this as demonstrated by cable subscriptions and Vongo.

What about iTunes – how important is it?

Starz will be releasing on iTunes tonight according to Marc DeBevoise, SVP, Business Development & Strategy, Starz Media. NewTeeVee did a video interview with him.

iTunes is clearly the leader in sell through. In this segment, they are the 850 pound gorilla in this segment. In other segments, there is still more competition and variety of players.

itunes has been very successful. All of us are in the business of trying to get distribution. iTunes will be one of these key channels, but there are lots of other channels like the Xbox that will be important. We want the content to be available everywhere at the right times.

Is digital content seen as a threat to mainstream broadcasting?
So far, the evidence has been the opposite. By streaming content shortly after on air play, it can actually help increase audience.

What about FCC regulations – do you see them applying to the internet?
We need to be responsible and self-regulate to some degree. More importantly, the sponsors will require certain levels of content standards so that will likely drive content strategies to a large degree.

Are these alternative channels a threat to contracts with talent?

The sense was that it is potential threat, but the ability for talent to move from one studio to another has always been there when contracts expire. The key will be to leverage core capabilities of distribution, marketing etc and let the creative do what they do best.

[tags]Future of Television[/tags]

Digital Media Wire is holding its Future of Television conference on March 25-26 in Los Angeles. It looks to be a great show with lots of interesting speakers and topics. Digital Podcast will be at the event and interviewing as many people as we can to get a pulse on how organizations are responding to the changes in the television industry.

We will be asking precisely two questions:

• What are your organization’s top three priorities over the next year?
• What trends will have the most impact on the industry over the next three years?

We plan on turning the entire interview series in an interesting podcast collection. If you’re going to attend let us know and we will set up time to get your perspective on the industries priorities and most important trends.

Panel topics at this years event include

• The Top Five Digital Media Trends to Watch
• The Outlook for the Television Industry & Digital Media
• Reality Television 2.0: What’s Next?
• Global TV & the Emergence of Worldwide Content Distribution Networks
• Direct to Internet: Producing Content Specifically for Web and Mobile
• New Television Technologies You Need to Know
• The Future of Television Advertising
• User-Generated Content: Show Me the Money!
• Mobile TV: Hit or Miss?
• Who’Â’s Watching (and are they buying anything)?
• The Evolution of Metrics and Analytics for Television 2.0
• Digital Television (DTV) is Coming!

[tags]Future of Television[/tags]