Last night saw the latest get together of all the companies involved with TV Everywhere (the company not the concept).
In addition to Peter and myself we were joined by Rights Tracker CEO, Ross Bentley, TVDATA's Oxana Selekhova, Mediaventura's Damian Ryan and others. I was particularly please to introduce Zaid al Zaidy, whose day job is as Director of Strategy at TBWA, who has joined the TV Everywhere Advisory Board.
Damian also revealed his latest book, 'The Best Digital marketing Campaigns In The World', on the back of the huge success of 'Understanding Digital Marketing'.
The themes raised were general to the whole industry and are worth recapping here:
The long tail - it seems that, in the media industry, the head is getting bigger, the tail longer and the body thinner as a few properties command premium prices and most properties diminish in value due to piracy and other issues.
Pricing - pricing for content in a complex global market is becoming more difficult, especially as residual positions from legacy contracts come into play - monetising back catalogues sometimes just isn't cost effective.
Life in the cloud - it's clear that the advent of the cloud is going to bring great changes to media industry, including the potential availability of all content to anyone - at a price.
Agencies - need to redefine their engagement with clients, and it is clear that the boundaries between creative and media agencies are blurring. The gathering couldn't agree if agencies should become content owners and producers on behalf of their clients.
Globalisation - media is still operating, and is regulated, nationally, in a global marketplace: this is bringing increasing stresses into play.
Piracy - Peter shared some fascinating data with the group based on initial findings using KlIPcorp's SnifferDog and TradeMarkTracker technologies, showing how much trademark infringement was being done by major brands due to the use of advertising exchanges. Indeed, most pirated live content seems to be paid for in this way by major brands.
But perhaps the most interesting discussion was about the two immovable forces in the market at the moment:
The under 25 year old audience who are used to getting their content for free, and whose lives will be defined by tremendous financial pressures based on education, housing and national debts and Big Media, who continue with archaic models and, despite their rhetoric, are in utter denial of the future they will face in the marketplace.
I think it was generally agreed that the toughest task facing all of us in the room was in convincing professionals in the media industry that the future hasn't just arrived, but is already seriously undermining legacy business models. Since almost everyone is involved, in one way or another, in helping media companies achieve this transition, it seems that we have a serious job on our hands.
Thanks to all who attended and contributed.