Online content is only a threat if we stick our heads in the ground: Millar

It's one thing to decide to deliver content over new platforms, but knowing what content works best with each medium, which channels to deliver it through and how to monetize it will strengthen the business proposition. Panellists at Monday and Tuesday sessions at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' convention discussed these issues and delivered some valuable insight into operating in the consumer-controlled world. Get your content online was the key takeaway from Monday's Open Questions About Open Platforms: The Shifting Value Chain. A fairly obvious statement, but panellist Cal Millar, VP and GM of Channel Zero Inc., proved to be the ideal spokesman for how proactive a broadcaster can be in that pursuit. In addition to streaming content over its own website, Channel Zero distributes content from its short film channel Movieola on online broadcasters Joost and Hulu. Ottawa Citizen columnist and session moderator Vito Pilieci asked Millar why, like other broadcasters, he doesn't view unregulated platforms like Joost as a threat? "We have to look at how to get broad distribution," said Millar. "We assess all kinds of platforms and we see putting our content online as the exact same business as we're already in." Channel Zero also doesn't have to view online distributors as a threat to its own website because it's careful about where it places what content. While the broadcaster will move shows from one platform to another, it tries not to have the same program on more than one platform at any given time. And when asked about the potential impact of peer-to-peer file sharing, Millar gave an equally proactive response. "Peer-to-peer is only a threat if we stick our heads in the ground," he said. "It's just consumers telling us they like watching television on different screens." However, Richard Guttman, VP and general counsel for Score Media Inc., said that sports broadcaster The Score learned through trial and error that audiences, at least in the sports genre, aren't looking for repurposed TV content on the Internet. "When they're online, they want a different experience," he said, adding that as much as complementary online content is a subset of what's on TV, mobile content becomes a subset of the Internet, with clips becoming progressively shorter in length. But Guttman's employer faces an even bigger challenge, as professional sports leagues are extremely savvy about keeping their online rights. The answer of course is to identify the type of ancillary content viewers want and create it yourself, bypassing rights payments. Once the content is online though, broadcasters have to monetize it. At Tuesday's The Ratings Revolution session, an advertising-minded panel discussed the currency of content delivery: ratings. "We need to know more about the people we measure," said Brad Kubota, VP of local sales for CanWest MediaWorks. "It's one thing to know what people are watching, but we need to know more about them and what products they use." Indeed, as audiences become more spread out over multiple platforms, it becomes more crucial to those selling to advertisers to know about who is watching what, and when. But as audience measurement bureau BBM Canada is rolling out its personal people meters to increase the granularity of television and radio ratings, ratings for online content are still a bit of a guessing game. "Right now the industry measurement for Internet is far from a gold standard," said Theresa Treutler, president and CEO of the Television Bureau of Canada. She pointed to ComScore Inc. as one provider of online data, but said advertising agencies are taking Internet data from multiple sources. So can a company like BBM, which is responsible for calculating ratings in Canada, eventually measure viewing on all platforms, including online and video on demand? "The new technology needs to be able to," said BBM CEO Jim MacLeod, but added that right now the relative nascence of platforms like VOD present sample size issues. However, with spending on online advertising in Canada now topping $1 billion a year, it seems that advertisers are confident allocating budgets there even without a standard ratings measure. Of course, part of this is that page visits, searches and click-through rates already give positive feedback. And social networking initiatives let advertisers feel they have specific knowledge about the audience. Bud Breheney, senior VP of sales and affiliate relations for TNS Media Research, acknowledged the fact that the Internet is inherently ahead of television in some respects. "Where television is going and what the Internet already has is granularity," he said.

Online content is only a threat if we stick our heads in the ground: Millar

News | 11/08/2007 1:38 pm EST

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us