WHILE last week’s media forum held in Sydney was supposed to be about the impact digital technology will have on TV networks and advertisers, very little time was spent on the subject as Seven CEO David Leckie and Foxtel CEO Kim Williams traded jibes and insults , and Optimedia managing partner Belinda Rowe was hard pressed to get a word in.
However, Rowe answered questions about how digital TV and interactivity will affect the way advertisers spend money.
“The advertisers still want to go to free-to-air for mass audiences but at the same time advertisers want to buy a quality audience as well as quantity of audience. Pay TV has some of both,” Rowe said.
Leckie conceded multi-channelling capabilities on pay TV would impact FTA TV, but emphasised its dominance in the Australian media landscape.
“We’re going to lose some eyeballs, but we’ll march on. It would be arrogant to say [the TV landscape] won’t change,” he said.
Rowe said increased interactivity would see advertisers experiment more with pay TV.
Leckie countered this claim, saying interactivity didn’t necessarily mean complicated back channel technology.
“The most interactive device we have is the mobile phone.”
Leckie dismissed pay TV success stories from other countries such as the UK, where he says the markets aren’t comparable.
Williams said multi-channelling will significantly alter TV in Australia.
“In terms of the broadcasting landscape [pay TV will be a] significant, constructive agent of change,” he said.
