TORONTO – In a digital media world where TV viewers can choose when and where they want to be entertained, content producers and distributors are betting big on live events as a way to keep people engaged with their TV channels.
“Live events such as the Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes and BAFTAs are front-and-centre in our coverage planning,” said, Michael Dutton, global director of entertainment products for the Associated Press (AP), who participated Wednesday afternoon in a panel discussion on “The Future of Entertainment” at the Digital Media Summit in Toronto as part of Canadian Music Week 2014.
AP licenses video content such as raw fashion feeds and red-carpet interviews to media companies, Dutton explained. “One area we’ve focused on in the last five years is live streaming that out in a produced, consumer-ready fashion,” Dutton said. “We’re trying to bring together all of our media formats into single packaging solutions, whether it be a widget for online syndication or coverage in a programming plan that can be distributed across any platform and broadcast around the world.”
Jason Tafler, chief digital officer for Rogers Communications, pointed to his organization’s much-ballyhooed 12-year, $5.2-billion Canadian NHL broadcast rights deal as an indication of where Rogers is currently focusing its efforts. As more and more content consumption is on-demand and time-elapsed, we’re betting big on live events in a few categories. One is obviously sports, which is really the last great bastion of live-event viewing,” he said.
“We’re hard at work now on some really interesting cross-platform experiences that will tie into NHL hockey games, bringing fans closer to the game and the players, and getting them more deeply involved in what happens, all the various camera angles and data and intelligence that come out of a game,” he added. “You’ll see a lot more of that this fall.”
Integrating digital media and content into traditional broadcasting at Rogers has changed whole production processes, and even changed the way Rogers thinks about its radio and magazine properties. “We have ‘Hello Magazine’ in Canada as one of our assets,” Tafler said. “We’re breaking a lot of Royal events online through mobile and layering it on the magazine after.”
“That whole notion of unplanned live events, how do you actually plan for that, take advantage of it, scale that distribution, and try to monetize it, is pretty interesting.” – Jason Tafler, Rogers Communications
In the news category, with CityNews, Rogers has fully integrated the newsroom across broadcast and digital, he continued. When tweets about a mansion party in the Toronto area started to trend recently on Twitter, CityNews engaged online with teens who were at the party as part of its coverage of the story.
“That whole notion of unplanned live events, how do you actually plan for that, take advantage of it, scale that distribution, and try to monetize it, is pretty interesting,” Tafler said.
Keith Hernandez, vice-president of international accounts for Buzzfeed, said if people are all talking online about something, such as a TV show, it becomes an event – and there is usually very little a marketer or TV channel can do to anticipate that, Hernandez said. He said Buzzfeed is “obsessed with events” because the entire mentality of his organization is about understanding what people are talking about and sharing online, right now.
“When you think about the Grammys, the Oscars, the Super Bowl, a lot of it is less to do with who won, and more about who just fell down, who just had an embarrassing moment, who said the funniest thing,” Hernandez said. “We’re looking for that water cooler moment that you’re going to talk to your friends about.”
Jon Taylor, vice-president of digital products and strategy for Bell Media, said integrating social media into its CP24 newsroom allows it to open the door to viewers submitting their own news. The pitfall to avoid is trying to build your own social hub or trying to insert your organization into an existing social network with a too-heavy marketing hand. He believes there is a revolution in television and video right now where the cost of producing content is coming down, while quality is being maintained or increasing. “That is unlocking a whole lot of new creativity,” Taylor said. “The trick is to make it more great content and great stories.”
He used the industry term “TV Everywhere” to describe the evolution in distribution that is occurring at the same time. “One of the major trends you’re going to see is how easy it is to take whatever it is on the Internet and see it on the big screen or whatever screen you want… I remember CES two years ago and thinking everybody was still running in different directions, and then the next year it was slightly better. Then this year I remember thinking, okay, you don’t need to make 50 native apps (for various media devices). There are single-source tools that can get you on multiple platforms,” Taylor said.
Without wanting to plug a specific manufacturer, Taylor said customers with the same brand of smartphone and smart TV will soon be able to have video content seamlessly switch from their phone to their TV as they enter their house. “That is big. You can describe it as the cliché game-changer, but ultimately one of the major differences is going to be that the technology barrier is going away,” Taylor said.
“How do we save these companies that are providing entertainment and are building their brands on the back of entertainment properties? How do they monetize it so they stay in business? How does the content network stay in business? How does the musician stay in business? And how does the consumer get a price where they go, ‘You know what, I want to consume it for that price?’” – David Bakula, Nielsen
While technology improvements may enable easier access to content across multiple platforms, there are still some issues related to content rights.
Buzzfeed’s Hernandez recalled his recent difficulty in wanting to watch the movie Ghostbusters on demand. “I use Apple TV as a predominant source of my entertainment. I’m one of those cool kids who doesn’t have cable,” Hernandez said. After searching several video-on-demand services, such as Apple TV, Netflix and Hulu, Hernandez found the movie on Crackle.
“But it shouldn’t be that experience, right? It’s the 21st century, and it took me a half-hour to go through 10 different video-on-demand services to find where I can watch the movie. That’s kind of crazy when you think about it, that we still make it that hard,” Hernandez said.
David Bakula, senior vice-president of analytics and client relations for Nielsen Entertainment, said that is one of the dramatic differences between the music industry and video. “Music has made the decision to put everything out there. You can really go somewhere and expect to find something musically,” Bakula said. “Generally, video is dramatically different, where they’re holding that very closely… It’s really interesting to see how consumers of each have sort of diverged.”
The challenge is creating a monetization ecosystem that works for everybody. “How do we save these companies that are providing entertainment and are building their brands on the back of entertainment properties? How do they monetize it so they stay in business? How does the content network stay in business? How does the musician stay in business? And how does the consumer get a price where they go, ‘You know what, I want to consume it for that price?’ I think that’s the challenge for everybody,” Bakula said.
