In the 60s Lord Thomson famously called the ownership of a local ITV franchise in the UK ‘a licence to print money’. Certainly, even the smallest of the broadcasters flourished as TV became a dominant, monopolistic medium.

Regulation was gradually relaxed and competition appeared, with inevitable results. In return, the local franchisee owners were allowed to merge creating what is today ITV (with three other franchise owners in the Channel Islands, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

Today’s results from ITV plc show that Thomson’s truism has long disappeared. The company was slow to move online and lacks the necessary skills to succeed. There are no major UK portals it can purchase and the valuations on successful online properties make it easier for them to acquire ITV rather than vice-versa. The lack of international presence is another issue in a global media world.

Their online TV JV, Kangaroo is a double edged sword and taking production in house with the expansion of ITV Productions would be an instinctive move for Michael Grade, which may prove to be the cleverest move of all.

So, what does ITV need to do to survive ?

First of all it needs to focus its role; media companies largely exist to deliver audiences to advertisers. But one, large amorphous audience is always going to be less valuable than highly targeted audiences. The long tail needs to be embraced and exploited.

Then, it needs to recognise that its current cost base is unrealistic for a contracting business and needs to seriously cut back.

A more imaginative approach needs to be taken to multiple income streams; premium phone lines and the loss of ITV Play were a blow to these plans, but this is no time to retrench.

Building brands and franchises; the value of TV is increasingly in its properties and ITV rarely own the formats it presents. Companies like HIT and Endemol show the way.

The company needs to set up an incubator and grow new online properties; it has been partially successful with ITV Local, but Friends Reunited shows why you can’t afford to buy an audience.

The company needs to start delivering international audiences, realising that the old geographical paradigm for audience delivery is only half the story.

However, an overseas bid for the company at its currently deflated valuation cannot be far away. Oh, for the old days…

View post:
It’s All Over Now

The old 80:20 rule really applies to software development (the last 20% takes 80% of the overall timescale of the project). The last leg seems to be the longest, and this is proving to be the case for Project V. As ever this is a combination of developers under-estimating and clients (that’s me) over-specifying (oh, and changing their minds. I really should know better..).

The trouble with software development is that the metalanguage around it suggests that it is a science. In reality, it is an art. An iterative process where craft is at a premium. At the same time, producing code is an industrial process involving different roles and responsibilities. An industry where an idea takes ten seconds and realising it takes ten months. And also an industry where your product is never complete, there are always revisions to make.

So, during our long, hot summer, things are moving slowly to their conclusion. I am sanguine about the prospects for the Project since the actual product is becoming better and smoother every day, ideas are being refined and it will not only be the most cost effective, but also potentially the best, product on the market when it is fully released.

Excerpted from:
Project V – The Last Leg

The disparity between the regulations that broadcasters in the UK, such as ITV, and Google trade under are truly ludicrous. You either regulate video content or you don’t. YouTube’s self regulation is laughable, but that’s the nature of unmoderated content. Now it seems that the legislators are waking up to this.

This is a long standing issue – are ISPs responsible for the websites on their service, or are publishers responsible for what their authors write?

Personally, I believe that there’s a simple measure for this. Any party benefiting commercially from the provision of content (not services) should be regulated. YouTube should be brought under Television Without Frontiers regulations.

And this isn’t an issue isolated to the UK; there is an increasingly long list of countries where YouTube has been banned. But there is a dark side to this. I reckon that the only reason more countries haven’t blocked YouTube is that its influence is not yet significant, but this may change and there is a danger of political censorship overtaking moral censorship.

Excerpted from:
Unlevel Playing Field

There are only three media companies that count now in the UK, they are the BBC, Google and Sky.

Small things are sometimes harbingers of a wider picture. The above conclusion was precipitated by the news that one of the presenters of one of the UK’s major TV channel’s longest running programme is resigning after reportedly having her salary cut by 90%.

This shows that UK commercial channels are having to face reality. The only place ‘stars’ will be able to find the salaries that they have grown accustomed to will be the BBC, who can liberally spend taxpayers’ money as they see fit, paying ludicrous salaries that would never be matched in the commercial sector.

So, where have the commercial channel’s stars’ salaries gone – well to largely to Google. The vagaries of TV advertising have been replaced the measurable certainty of click thru advertising.

Sky is largely immune to the advertising model, deriving much of its income from paid for TV and using sports as the leverage for this.

The media world is set to become a much poorer world, unless you tax your viewers….

Read more:
New Order

Well, hiking on a rock in the Indian Ocean, actually… This blog has gone for a much deserved holiday.

Thanks to all contributors, commentators and correspondents for their thoughts, disagreements and input online and offline. Please keep them coming.

Back soon with more thoughts, controversies, inside information and off-the-wall ideas.

Excerpted from:
Gone Fishin’