http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/

TV and the Web: Two Tribes Go To War

By Nick Lockey on Mar 5, 08 10:20 PM in Creative industries

A few months ago, I attended a briefing for a broadcaster's new commissioning round. Representing a particularly progressive department in a notoriously forward-thinking channel, the commissioners were adamant that they were going to hammer the multiplatform message home and decided to invite an equal number of traditional TV indies and new media production companies to come along and explore how they could combine their efforts.

I think they were hoping to usher in a shining new era where telly luvvies and the new geek army would fall hopelessly in love with each other and skip off merrily into a brave new world of hybrid media together.

What they got instead was more akin to the Sharks and the Jets from West Side Story.

Throughout the increasingly awkward Q&A session that followed, many of the die-hard TV traditionalists argued that they neither understood or particularly cared about online content and seemed extremely concerned that a broadcaster would even think about diverting so much of their budget away from TV.

The new media crowd, for their part, protested that they couldn't figure out the TV commissioning system, and admitted they were struggling to get their heads round the "broadcast sensibilities" that the commissioners desperately wanted to instil in their projects.

I sat at the back watching the widening rift and couldn't help thinking both sides were missing the point.

What we have here is an opportunity to try out something completely new. It's not about us playing by their rules or either party having to shoe-horn their values into a new way of working. It's about each side bringing their strengths and experience to the table and creating something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Instead of fearing change and hoping that this whole multiplatform thing is a fad that will quietly go away, the broadcasting sector needs to open its eyes and see the digital age for what it is: an unprecedented opportunity to move our art form forward.

Television is a powerful medium for telling stories and, for most of us working in the industry, the desire to craft and share narratives is the very thing that keeps us hooked. Whether it's a BBC costume drama, a fly-on-the-wall documentary, a reality series or a game show, the heroic struggle of triumph over adversity forms the kernel of what we try and convey. And on the whole, I think we do a damn good job of it.

For new media companies looking for interesting, lucrative and creatively challenging avenues to explore, the broadcasting sector represents a massive opportunity to break new ground. By collaborating with experienced TV production teams, they can channel their own creativity and technical expertise into an industry, and more importantly a talent base, that is well versed in the business of telling great narratives and hungry for new ways of doing so.

Therefore the rise of blogging, IPTV, video sharing, social networks, alternate reality gaming, wikis, podcasts and all the other trappings of the digital age shouldn't be seen as a threat to "traditional" media producers, but rather a gift. Suddenly we have a whole new toolbox to play with and a hundred new ways to tell our stories, reach new audiences and to collaborate with our viewers like never before.

I genuinely feel that the broadcasting and new media industries have a great deal to learn from each other and that by working together we can achieve things that it would be impossible to do apart. Indeed, TV must evolve to embrace these new platforms or risk being left on the shelf as our lives move increasingly online.

After all, there's no more benefit in displaying stubborn mastery over a medium that losing ground than there is in creating a new medium that fails to learn from what has gone before. After all, you could be the best hieroglyph carver in the world but if you don't get the hang of papyrus sooner or later then no-ones going to be paying attention any more.

If the medium is the message then the message to the broadcasting industry is clear: embrace new platforms or get left behind.

What do you think - do TV and the web really need to join forces or are they better off sticking to what they know?

0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: TV and the Web: Two Tribes Go To War.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.birminghampost.net/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-tb.cgi/456

3 Comments

Nick Booth said:

They are both platforms for sharing media. The web is superior to traditional analogue (and non web based digital) TV because it is superiors at collaboration and superior at niche.

When you say TV risks being left on the shelf I think most wise TV execs know that if they maintain their old ways they are dead. What they still need appreciate about the new ways is that the users are not simply there to generate content - they are there looking to relate to people and ideas in a way the remoteness of old style tv cannot embrace.

Nick Lockey said:

I totally agree Nick, over-reliance on user-generated content in not only lazy but also a gamble from the producer's perspective in terms of the quality and quantity of the posts submitted (not to mention a whole host of legal and compliance issues if you are a publishing medium). This will be something I'll definitely be covering in a bit more depth in a later post based on my experiences of developing online projects that incorporate UGC for UK broadcasters.

Stef said:

What I find interesting is that within a short time even the term 'UGC' will be outmoded. Who's the 'user' when everyone can generate content?

Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Business authors

David Harte

David Harted - Digital Central project manager at Birmingham City University
My postings | David Harte's RSS feed My feed

Mohammed M-Hasan

Muhammad M-Hasan - Managing consultant
My postings | Mohammed Hasan's RSS feed My feed

Ruth Ward

Ruth Ward - Independent PR Consultant and Director of Creative Republic
My postings | Ruth Ward's RSS feed My feed

Mik Barton

Mik Barton - Head of PR company Actuality Media
My postings | Mik Barton's RSS feed My feed

David Bailey

David Bailey - Professor of Economic Policy and International Business, University of Birmingham
My postings | David Bailey's RSS feed My feed

Nick Lockey

Nick Lockey - New Media Producer, Maverick Television
My postings | Nick Lockey's RSS feed My feed

Sam Smith

Sam Smith - Head of content development for Freestyle Interactive
My postings | Sam Smith's RSS feed My feed

Stuart Pemble

Stuart Pemble - Construction Lawyer, Mills & Reeve
My postings | Stuart Pemble's RSS feed My feed

John Cranage

John Cranage - The Birmingham Post's automotive correspondent
My postings | John Cranage's RSS feed My feed

John Newbold

John Newbold - Co-owner of Birmingham creative company 383 Project
My postings | John Newbold's RSS feed My feed

Latest Birmingham Post News blog

Latest Birmingham Post Lifestyle blog

Lifestyle Blog

Birmingham Post staff and guest bloggers from the midlands give you the lowdown on what's happening in your region and some musings on culture in the UK and beyond.

Latest Birmingham Post Sport blog

News Blog

Birmingham Post staff and guest bloggers from Birmingham and the midlands inform and entertain on all sporting matters.

Keep up to date

Sponsored Links