Bazalgette calls for more investment in Tv

Britain's investment in original television content is plummeting writes Peter Bazalgette in the FT today.

Does this matter?

New figures from analysts Oliver & Ohlbaum show the total spend on content (at 2008 prices) has fallen from £3.4bn in 2004 to £2.8bn this year. The decline this year alone has been 10 per cent. The trend is that this will hit £2.5bn by 2012

and the answer is yes

Britain used to spend more per capita on television content than any country in the world. News and current affairs are an essential part of our democracy. Drama and documentaries contribute to the nation's cultural conversation. And the programmes' producers are a cornerstone of the creative economy. As exporters of intellectual property, they have captured more than half of the world's sales of formats.

Give is television internet access

With Channel 4's decision earlier in the week to put all of its UK output on its on demand service for free,the lines between your Pc and your television are blurring.

It is nor surprising that this survey from Entertainment Media Research concludes that a significant proportion of consumers want to have web access on their televisions

Digital Spy reports that

According to a survey of 1,512 people aged between 15 to 54 conducted by the firm, 75% of respondents indicated a desire to view internet content on their television screens.

Internet Tv to replace the traditional form by 2010

Over at Cross the Breeze they are predicting that Internet based Television will soon be overtaking the traditional form of TV as early as 2010 across Europe.

You can read a PDF of their full report but essentially the change is due to the explosion in broadband and wi fi access

Broadband has changed everything. And it’s not speed of access that has made the biggest impact, its having a direct connection that is always on. This has changed the internet experience dramatically. It’s no longer a disruptive experience where people have their PC in the backroom of the house and where they use a dial-up connection a couple times a day to do some specific tasks. Now, the PC has moved to centre stage in the kitchen or living room where it does not interfere in the family conversation or TV viewing but is integrated into everything we do.”

In 10 years all Tv will be on the net

The name Barbara Walters may not be known to many on this side of the Atlantic but she anchored the Evening News programme on ABC as well as various news magazines and the breakfast show.

Her views on the future of television should be listened to so that when she says that the only progammes left on the mainstream channels will be the morning shows,maybe we should take notice.

Of the other changes in this media age,Walters says that

Everyone is now press-savvy, Interview subjects now ask how many minutes they'll get on air and other questions that used to be left unsaid.

But back to the future of Tv.All other programmes

you can TiVo or see on the Internet."

Thoughts anyone and is she correct

Source Reuters

Changing TV habits

Richard Sambrook provides us with,if we didn't know already,evidence of the speed of change in the media.

Hosting a talk given last night by the CEO of TV New Zealand,Rik Ellis,he picked up the following statistic

more people now watch programmes time shifted through broadband than watch through their TV. The online on-demand service was only launched 18 months ago but has already overtaken conventional TV viewing with 30,000 hours a month consumed over broadband

Tv's I-Pod moment

“Eighty-five per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time, You’re still going to need live television for certain things — like news, sporting events, and emergencies—but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."

Were the comments made by Web supremo Vinton Cerf at the Edinburgh TV festival

We have had a Sky + box in the house for nearly 18 months and apart from Sport and Live News very rarely do we simply sit down and watch the box.

Our viewing is basically selecting interesting programmes watching them at a convenient time for us and then deleting the programme.We skip over advertisements and programme trailers.

If there is something that I have still missed,the chances are that I can download it on the internet although this takes an inordinate amount of time,or I can watch snippets somewhere on the internet.

Whether we are at TV's defining moment,have already passed it or are still to get there,I am not sure.Whether this is the death knell of TV,I am also not sure.Paxman at the same festival accused Television of pandering to the technology at the expense of the content.

He may be correct.How we choose to watch programmes is almost irrelevant,what will determine whether we watch, is the quality.

And yes,the youngsters are not watching TV,but as with the internet itself,there is a growing band of the older generation who will adapt to the new technology and demand quality and segmentation of their viewing