Telstra Media's group managing director Rick Ellis has said commercial companies should be allowed to partner with institutions such as the ABC.
Speaking at the Australian Broadcast Summit in Sydney this morning, Ellis said that there was room for such a model. He said that “a good example existed in New Zealand” for Australia to follow.
Ellis helped create TVNZ's Igloo joint venture, a 'pay-lite' product with Sky, before leaving the broadcaster to head up Telstra's media operation.
James Greet, Mindshare CEO, had earlier suggested that commercial partners should be allowed to collaborate with institutions such as the ABC in order to drive innovation.
Television could remain ad free, Greet suggested, with “brands building property off air”. Ellis said he “supported that view”.
Former ABC TV director, Kim Dalton, had acknowledged that only public broadcasters had the luxury of being able to take innovation risks. “The cost side of the equation tends to win out on risk management”, therefore commercial TV saw “limited innovation”.
He said while public broadcaster had a role to innovate, take the risks and share the learning, some kind of structure was needed “to enable commercial broadcasters to take risks”.
Ellis said Telstra would continue to forge other commercial partnerships as it looks to take on the likes of Youtube as a distribution platforms for brands and media.
“Our focus is about partnerships. There are no rivers of gold at the end of the digital rainbow. Ad revenues are under stress, we are looking to build new subscription models,” said Ellis, citing Telstra's NRL partnership. “We will pilot and test [innovative offerings]... and respond quickly when it works.”
The conference was organised by Association and Communications Events.
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