ANALOG TO ANYTIME: THE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA IS ENDING

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ANALOG TO ANYTIMETHE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA
IS ENDING

• David B. Liroff
• VP/CTO - WGBH Boston

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Principal Drivers of Change

• Computer processing power continues to double
  every 18 months (Moores Law) at no increase in
  price.
• The cost of digital storage drops 50 every 10
  months.
• Advances in compression facilitate squeezing
  increasing amounts of data down same-sized pipes
• In cable, analog-to-digital conversion results in
  8-fold increase in channel capacity
• In TV broadcasting, analog-to-digital conversion
  results in 4-fold increase in standard definition
  channel capacity

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Principal Drivers of Change

• In radio broadcasting, analog-to-digital
  conversion results in at least two-fold increase
  in program service capacity per station
• Satellite distribution of audio, video and data
  to end-users increases choice.
• Digital file formats facilitate delivery of
  content to various devices, ranging from large
  screen HDTVs to iPods to cell phones to portable
  videogame consoles.
• Bandwidth to homes, schools, businesses continues
  to increase.
• Shift from wired to wireless technologies leads
  to omnipresent connectivity.

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Principal Drivers of Change

• Videogames emerging as content platforms for
  education and training, as well as gateways to
  the Internet and on-line connectivity
• New media which ignore geography (e.g. Internet,
  satellite, wireless) erode traditional geographic
  market boundaries, exacerbate battles between
  wholesalers and retailers over who delivers
  services directly to consumers.
• One-way mass communications media provoke
  two-way and peer-to-peer communications,
  prompting emergence of self-selecting
  communities of interest as well as geographic
  communities.

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Principal Drivers of Change

• Increasingly sophisticated database management
  enables personalization, customization of media
  experiences
• Collaborative filtering, recommender systems,
  relationships engines assist end-users in sorting
  through ever-increasing choice (others who
  bought this book also bought . . .)
• Search engines (Google, Yahoo! et al) emerge as
  principal drivers to connect users with content
  in which they are interested, provide new
  business models for monetizing Internet traffic

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Principal Drivers of Change

• Declining cost of production equipment lowers
  threshold to entry for content creators, and
  increases number of voices in the marketplace.
• Increasing availability of devices and services
  which facilitate time-shifting TiVo/DVRs cable
  and broadband video on demand iPods and video
  iPods DVDs on-demand audio and video to cell
  phones
• Increasing choice accelerates audience
  segmentation, fragmentation.

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Principal Drivers of Change

• Accuracy, relevance of legacy audience
  measurement systems challenged by viewers and
  listeners increasingly complex media use
  behaviors, prompting need to develop better
  understanding of how media are being used, by
  whom, and for what purposes
• Sample-based measurement being challenged by
  technologies enabled by two-way connections
  between distributors and consumers (e.g. cable
  settop boxes, TiVo)

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• But who is watching out for the public interest,
  to assure that these
• technologies are employed to address the most
  critical needs of our society?

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THE DFI REPORT RECOMMENDS

• Public Broadcasting needs to reconstitute itself
  as Public Service
• Media

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• THE REPORT IDENTIFIES FOUR TRANSFORMING TRENDS
• 1. The shift from scheduled programming to my
  time viewing and listening

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• 2. Storage and distribution costs continue to
  decline, enabling extended shelf life and
  services to small, special interest audiences.

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• 3. - The role of search and informing choice
• Public Broadcasters are trusted intelligent
  agents
• Branding assumes ever-more importance in a
  cluttered marketplace of ideas
• Key role to be played by collaborative filtering,
  recommender systems

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• 4. - The Internet can leverage traditional
  program content into a
• multimedia experience.

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• Three recent illustrative examples of public
  broadcasting new media initiatives
• - Public Service Publisher
• - Podcasting
• - Forum Networks

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• THE PUBLIC SERVICE PUBLISHER INITIATIVE
• - a process through which public broadcasters and
  independent producers will provide content to a
  growing audience of listeners and viewers who are
  adopting on-demand technologies
• - aims to address the need to distribute public
  service content through a system which optimizes
  on-line search results
• - aims to develop revenue streams based on new
  media applications without undermining current
  system revenues
• - now in beta at www.OMN.org

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• PUBLIC BROADCASTING PODCASTS
• - audio and video designed to be downloaded
  automatically (RSS) and on-demand to computers
  and MP3 players (e.g. to iPods and video iPods)
• - (Tuesday, 12/13) - 16 of Apple iTunes top 100
  subscribed podcasts were from public
  broadcasting, including NPR 7AM ET News
  Summary NewsHour with Jim Lehrer NOVA
  emc2 KCRWs Morning Becomes Eclectic NOVA
  ScienceNow Washington Week Now with David
  Brancaccio NPR Science Friday
• iTunes public broadcasting category offered 84
  podcast choices

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• THE WGBH FORUM NETWORK lt www.wgbh.org/forum gt
• - on-line audio and video streaming
• - curates and serves live and on-demand lectures
  by scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy
  makers and community leaders hosted by cultural
  and educational institutions in the Greater
  Boston area.
• - 40 of users are from outside the U.S. and
  from more than 1,000 academic institutions
  worldwide
• - now being joined by public broadcasters in
  Cleveland, New York, Atlanta, and Portland (OR),
  who add lectures from their cities to the pool

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ANALOG TO ANYTIMETHE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA
IS ENDING

• David B. Liroff
• VP/CTO - WGBH Boston