Free to air television has copped a bit of slack lately, but now the tech experts have swooped in to tell us all that TV isn’t going anywhere, despite needing a bit of a shakeup.
“If TV is being redefined then so is the landscape,” AOL Australia senior director of programmatic TV Yasmin Sanders said.
“There’s no longer one business model that dominates the ecosystem anymore.”
“Whilst FTA broadcasters have traditionally chased the amount of eyeballs that can be sold to an advertiser transmitted linearly to mass audiences, there are now new entrants with business models that are based on their brand and number of individual subscribers who access their service on internet enabled platforms, for example, Netflix.”
But it’s the combination of new technology and the surge of SVOD platforms that are forcing much of the change.
“The proliferation of SVOD players will have the effect of speeding up viewer adoption of on demand internet delivered TV as the norm,” Tremor Video vice president Peter Ostick predicted.
The SVOD platforms in market today are the first iteration of what FTA will increasingly look like. The pace of change is not going to go slower it will continue to accelerate.
“Viewers will take more and more control of the content they watch and will be in charge of the curation with the help of algorithmic suggestions.
“It’s hard to imagine in an always on media ecosystem that allows for binging of media, that it will be acceptable to go backwards in viewing what and when based on fixed programme schedule. The remote control which was designed for an analogue world will be replaced by voice searchable EPG’s.”
Innovid country manager ANZ Adam Natiq claims that with the younger generation stepping up into more senior positions in the TV world, it will push the direction it’s moving in slightly off centre.
“Young Marketers who are natives to the digital age will see the world very differently,” he said. “Are they themselves watching FTA or Youtube/Netflix/Desktop or snackable content on mobile devices?”
“The numbers will continue to grow in favour of digital video platforms, with each platform having its own unique identity, measurement piece and creative opportunities, with all of them offering the data dream.
“For a user, it doesn’t really matter if content is delivered on TV, desktop, mobile, tablet, PlayStation, Xbox, Roku or next screen (perhaps no screen at all?). It’s still all Television.
FTA by definition is missing the point, delivery has changed but consumers will always value free, ad supported and relevant content.
“TV needs to join em’ rather than try to beat em’ which is not easy to do, but if they’re willing to creating an open and technology driven medium, then they will be able to stay competitive.”
National investments director for SMG Andy Taylor went even further and predicted technology won’t stop at programmatic.
“Addressable and mood-receptive media solutions will be the single biggest shift to the screen, not just television, industry,” he said.
“To be able to create a brand story via multiple creative executions, multiple screens at different consumer mood points throughout the day will be game changing. Programmatic almost seems so 2015! It’s no longer about serving six versions of the same advertisement in one AVOD catch up TV session.”
