Local content, interactivity, and multi-platforms key to maintaining competitive edge against big broadcasters

Competition from big media companies with vast resources and consolidated markets can prevent Canada’s small market broadcasters from creating niche markets, but an effective embrace of innovative web technology will help them counter the challenge, delegates attending the Canadian Association of Broadcasters conference heard yesterday. The panellists, all top leaders of small companies that are effectively using the web to reach niche markets, shared their experiences on the innovative tools they have adopted to maintain a competitive edge. The first step is to apply the old and tested method of correctly identifying the needs of your niche market and giving customers what they want, says Lyndon Friesen, president, Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. Friesen, whose company owns a community radio service of 28 AM and FM radio stations in small- and medium-sized communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, says the main challenge facing small broadcasters is figuring out how to monetize their station websites. “It was a struggle when we first got into it,” he told Tech Media Reports. To tap into this new revenue source, Friesen says a separate new media division was created. Offering a reason on why it became successful, he explained that the division repurposed what was on air to online with a focus on local content. “The aim was to make the portal a landing spot for our customers on their way through the web,” he says, emphasizing that local content was a key attraction and advantage the company had. The goal was to create a small shopping mall where users can find local information on almost everything -- garage and sales of bales of grass have been a particular big hit. Steinbackonline.com now gets 1.2 million hits per month, which is an aggregate total from nine portals. While focusing on local content to get an edge on competitors is one way of doing it, tapping into local talent among the 18-34 age group is another strategy, says Jeffrey Elliot, founder and co-CEO of GlassBox Television Inc., an entertainment digital specialty TV channel based in Mississauga, ON. Elliot manages GlassBox’s multiplatform online channel BiteTV, a lifestyle network for youth. All the content on BiteTV is produced by young people. “What we did was take talented people out of their parent’s basements and offered them a chance,” he says. About 800 videos boasting talk shows, comedy and other entertainment are uploaded on the site every month. Elliot says the young people who upload videos produce content that is competitive and at reasonable prices. His message for small broadcasters is that they have to understand that the 18-34 age group does not consume television the way their parents did and that interactivity offered on a variety of platforms on sites is key to success. Another way for small broadcasters to properly target their niche markets using the web is through PC and mobile applications, says Taylor Emerson, VP and general manager, interactive services division, Pelmorex Media Inc., which owns the Weather Network and its French market counterpart MétéoMédia. “As long as broadcasters embrace the web from a multiplatform perspective, audiences will respond and opportunities for making money exist,” he says. Pelmorex has launched a number of applications that deliver weather and traffic information to PCs and mobile platforms like iPhones and Blackberrys. For instance, 65,000 users access this information on Blackberrys per month and Emerson says the number is growing. Small broadcasters should not worry about how advertisers will react to new technology because most are willing to agree to sell advertising on these sites as long as they are convinced of the viability of reaching customers, says Emerson. While going local, harnessing interactivity on the web and expanding to multi platforms are important to progress, small broadcasters should always be on the lookout for new opportunities and be ready to experiment with them to be competitive, adds Emerson. The Internet, he says, is part of the future and a new avenue for revenue for small broadcasters – a view echoed by Friesen. “If your target is to serve small communities or your niche market, you can’t afford to not be on the Internet,” says Friesen.

Local content, interactivity, and multi-platforms key to maintaining competitive edge against big broadcasters

News | 11/05/2008 9:14 pm EST

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