The global television industry executive is by nature, larger than life, but it takes an Australian broadcast executive to turn on a sense of dramatic occasion. With a record number of inclusions wins across the international broadcasting industry’s various competitive awards, Australian cross-platform entertainment company, The Feds, landed the MipFormats International Pitch prize for its project Zombie Boot Camp, while the ABC and Ludo studios produced digital crowd sourced series, #7DaysLater, secured the Fiction category prize at the International Digital Emmy Awards.
Cresting the wave of accolades was the recognition of Seven Network CEO, Tim Worner, as one of the four MIPTV Medaille d’honneur (Medal of Honor) recipients alongside Germany’s Tele Munchen chairman-owner Herbert Kloiber, Channel One Russia CEO, Konstantin Ernst and Twentieth Century Fox’s President for International TV, Marion Edwards.
Australian TV a blood sport
Describing the Australian television industry as a “blood sport,” Worner disarmed the C-suite gala dinner crowd with a distinctly antipodean rant, including the quip that when he heard he was getting a medal he had hoped he could “turn into a belt buckle”.
In a media career that has included attending MipTV and MIPCOM for twenty years, Worner revealed that his first trip to the television market was after a rigorous cancer treatment which he credits the restorative powers of “three big nights at La Chunga (note: notorious late night den) as a certified cure for cancer.”
Worner emphasised the importance of storytelling to the development of content across all platforms and the reason behind Seven’s resilience.
“At Seven we see television as a sport. It’s a contest of ideas and the game is to identify them, develop them, execute them and market them better than anyone else.”
He added that while broadcast TV was still the biggest game in town and would continue to be, audience’s increasing cross platform consumption means that Seven is making its content available “anywhere, anytime.”
He said that while the network has made progress on that front, there will be more to come. The launch of production houses in London, 7Wonder, and Los Angeles, 7Beyond will also facilitate that content development across geographic boundaries, he added.
The Holy Grail and the new creators
The centrality of TV as the presiding holy grail for content delivery was a persistent MipTV theme. From the realm of the new online content overlords, a core notion was evolving that in which online video and TV are reaching an end to the cold war or viewer attrition.
The founding entity bridging the détente is demographic driven, chiefly capturing the millennials.
Maker Studio’s international president René Rechtman, declared that networks like Maker are now becoming more important than traditional cable players. In March the Walt Disney Company confirmed a US$500 million to acquire Maker Studios, a YouTube-based video supplier.
“According to Nielsen if you want to reach the millennials, you have to come to us, or other players like us,” he said. Rechtman said that of Maker’s 380 million subscribers on YouTube, 80% are aged 13-34, with 40% watching on mobile devices. "Fans, hobbyists, creators are the new publishers, and they are the new distribution," he said.
Vice founder Shane Smith chimed in claiming, that Vice was not going to be the next CNN, ESPN or MTV. “I'm going to be 10 times CNN, I'm going to be 10 times ESPN and 10 times MTV, because the number of video views are now in the billions."
Do it for the fans
According to YouTube’s global head of entertainment, Alex Carloss, his platform’s power is less about audiences and more about fans.
"An audience tunes in when they're told to, a fanbase chooses when and what to watch. An audience changes the channel when their show is over. A fanbase shares, it comments, it curates, it creates," he said. Which is where advertisers and broadcasters are now picking up the narrative, particularly as these online fanbases comprise teens and twentysomethings. TV producers and advertiser or more particularly brands are following the migration of the millennials to online video.
"Every year it gets harder to launch a successful show that attracts a younger demographic, so we have to find them elsewhere. Looking to digital content is crucial," said Freemantle Media’s head of digital and branded entertainment Keith Hindle.
The potential for online platforms and traditional TV companies to align on content creation was an emerging driver for the future of screen entertainment.
In line with this new path, Vice Media and Fremantle launched a food-focused online video channel called Munchies at MIPTV, geared towards he gen Y set. Vice already makes a news programme for HBO, for example, and wants to take more of its online output to TV.
Multiformat or bust
The Feds head of content, Lisa Gray, said that the opportunities for multiplatform content has well and truly arrived. “You can’t just come up with a TV format that’s going to be on one screen today. Interactivity needs to be at the core of an idea,” she said.
As broadcasters demand that engagement tactics such as social, gaming or other interactive elements are part of the DNA of a format or scripted show, multiplatform engagement is finally becoming part of the mainstream conversation. Gray added that the industry was moving to a point where second screen may no longer present a distinction, “you don’t have to choose from one screen or another – we are now seeing fully integrated experiences.”
She also sad that as brands become more involved in TV, “ both brands and networks need to work together on creating a new funding models that genuinely works for both parties,” and said it was one of the most critical debates needed for the brand partnered industry to grow in Australia”.
For Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy, one of the biggest challenges he faced was to retain audience attention through to the point that attitudes could be changed about brands. “That can be through interactivity, which we see as the Holy Grail.”
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