September 15th, 2009 by argillander

Hello and welcome to my report on this year’s IBC, the leading European broadcasting industry event, held in Amsterdam.

Here comes what I found the most interesting at the event:

Internet video to be business as usual, but still a headache for many broadcasters

• There is a clear consumer demand for internet video, but the broadcasting companies haven’t clearly figured out how to monetise it.
• “Advertising revenues earned on Internet video will settle on a lower level than what has been the case with broadcast TV advertising, broadcasters need to accept and adapt to this fact”, says IBM’s Saul Berman. “If you don’t cannibalise your own business [with internet video] others will do it, as has happened in music industry.”
• Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland notes, that when launching a new delivery channel in any business, 50 % of the revenue of the new channel may be incremental. This is because people have (often non-rational) channel preferences and they don’t automatically convert to new channel. Instead, new channels can attract to a large extent new customers. In broadcasting this means that majority of viewers are likely to continue to watch linear broadcast TV even if online video were more convenient or provided better value.

IPlayer success continues, BBC considers opening the platform for others

• BBC’s iPlayer, the catch-up service on the Internet continues to show success.

• • - BBC plans to provide iPlayer platform for other broadcasters worldwide as well; the proposal is still subject to approval of BBC Trust
  • - iPlayer video game console adaptations have also proven to be popular, at its best PS3 platform has represented 10 % of all iPlayer viewing
  • - iPlayer is available also on Virgin Media cable network – that is on a non-IP service

• UK company IP Vision has launched hybrid service “Fetch TV” that combines broadcast and broadband TV.

• • - Fetch TV device comprises of two free-to-air terrestrial receivers and internet connectivity
  • - Supports free-to-air terrestrial transmissions, BBC’s iPlayer catch-up-service and video-on-demand pay TV offering
  • - Can be configured to show other web video content as well
  • - Consumer price is around 200 GBP, there is no subscription fee

• Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” is a new initiative backed by French and German broadcasters that aims at providing an open solution for joining broadcast and online video content on TV screens (see www.hbbtv.org).

London 2012 a rising sun for the industry

• London 2012 Olympics are building momentum – and hype – for broadcasting industry. By 2012 the recession should be over and businesswise ever-important Olympic games are anticipated to boost digital technologies. Everything will of course be shot in HD; Super-HD and 3D will be piloted.
  • - BBC’s Director of London 2012, Roger Mosey was asked how much the event will cost for the pubcaster. The answer: hasn’t been decided yet and when decided, it will not be disclosed…
• Sports continue to be among the major drivers for media business. Eurosport’s Arnaud Simon comments on future trends:
  • - Many youngsters get acquainted with sports and sports idols through video games first and afterwards start to follow live or televised sports.
  • - Society’s trend towards shorter span of attention and superstar culture will have an impact on what sports will be televised and thus what sports will enjoy most spectators – and sponsorship income. Tennis will be in trouble, also Olympics will struggle whether to stick with its traditional values or to change towards headline- and controversy-generating direction.

Social media takes some small steps

• There was not much social media hype at IBC, some interesting solutions though:

• - Internet recommendation network Trusted Opinion launched a solution for IPTV providers to bring TV and VOD content reviews and ratings for their viewers. The service takes the benefit of Trusted Opinion’s 1 million user base on the Internet.

• - Broadcasting technology vendor Harris launched their own virtual world environment based on Second Life platform to provide support and training for their customers. Yes, avatars are included.

3D and mobile TV don’t fit on agenda in recession

• 3D TV with or without glasses can be seen in horizon, but nobody promised any large-scale roll-outs in the near future.
• Mobile TV was in practice non-existent at the show.

author:

Timo Argillander

Digital Media Finland Oy

www.digitalmedia.fi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 2:17 am and is filed under IBC, broadcasting, internet video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.