Transcript ANALOG TO ANYTIME: THE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA IS ENDING David B. Liroff VP/CTO - WGBH Boston.

ANALOG TO ANYTIME:
THE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA IS ENDING
David B. Liroff
VP/CTO - WGBH Boston
Principal Drivers of Change
• Computer processing power continues to double every 18 months
(Moore’s 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
Principal Drivers of Change
• In radio broadcasting, analog-to-digital conversion results in at least twofold 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.
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.
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
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 timeshifting: 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.
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)
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?
THE DFI REPORT RECOMMENDS:
Public Broadcasting needs to reconstitute itself as “Public Service
Media”
THE REPORT IDENTIFIES FOUR “TRANSFORMING TRENDS”
1. The shift from scheduled programming to “my time” viewing and listening
•
2. Storage and distribution costs continue to decline, enabling extended
shelf life and services to small, special interest audiences.
• 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
•
• 4. - The Internet can leverage traditional program content into a
• multimedia experience.
Three recent illustrative examples of public broadcasting new media
initiatives:
- Public Service Publisher
- Podcasting
- Forum Networks
• 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
• PUBLIC BROADCASTING PODCASTS
• - audio and video designed to be downloaded automatically (RSS) and ondemand 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 e=mc2”; KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic”; “NOVA
ScienceNow”; “Washington Week”; “Now” with David Brancaccio; NPR
“Science Friday”
• iTunes’ “public broadcasting” category offered 84 podcast choices
• THE WGBH FORUM NETWORK < www.wgbh.org/forum >
• - 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
ANALOG TO ANYTIME:
THE TRADITIONAL BROADCAST ERA IS ENDING
David B. Liroff
VP/CTO - WGBH Boston