What is the Future of Television?

What is the future of TV? That question was hotly debated at the recent and NYME conference in New York City. Arguably the most impactful change in TV is, as Ned Sherman, Counsel/Director, Manatt Digital and Founder, Digital Media Wire, described is the "major shifts in video consumption." Overall video consumption is rising but how viewers are accessing this content is now impacting the business model.

Cord cutting, once dismissed by industry experts, appears to be accelerating. Emarketer reported that in 2017 they were 22.2 million US adults cutting the cord, "up +33% in this year alone," Sherman reported. On an even more ominous note, the percentage of cord-nevers also rose (+5.8%) to 34.4 million. Will these cord-nevers eventually succumb to the siren call of traditionally accessed TV? It remains to be seen but the trends point to no taking into account behavioral trends on Generation Z and Millennials. In the meantime, the business of TV must respond to the current landscape as it evolves.

Here are some predictions for the future of TV:

Facilitating Content Across Platforms Will Have to Become Pro-Forma

As viewership moves across platforms, the ability to easily offer content cross platform becomes vital to satisfying consumer demands. Tom Shelburne, Director of Operations, Vizrt, stated that, TV is at a crossroads and needs a reboot.” His company enables content to be published anywhere on multiple platforms at the same time.

Generation Z focused companies such as Awesomesness TV have designed their business model on the TV shift, according to Rebecca Glashow, Head of Worldwide Distribution, AwesomenessTV. While legacy networks might be handcuffed by contractual obligations that limit cross platform content rights, her company has established a business model appropriate for their target audience that is multi-platform at its core.

Some traditional companies such as Disney have initiative a direct to consumer initiative. Peter Phillips, Former EVP/GM Interactive & Distribution, Marvel Entertainment, explained, “The challenges are that the MVPD business will change. Cord shavers and cord nevers will greatly impact the business and the options for consumers are confusing. We are a long way from making it easy for consumers.” Making it easy will separate the successful companies from the failures.

Quality and Unique Content is Table Stakes

No matter how easy you make the distribution of content, if that content fails to engage the audience, your efforts will be for naught. Floris Bauer, Co-Founder and President, Gunpowder and Sky, advised, “TV needs to innovate, decline or die.” But there is a certain amount of self-censorship according to Paul Potenzone, SVP/Content Director at Digitas Studios, DigitasLBi. “You need conflict in content to make it interesting,” he posited, “and big companies are too careful with shareholders.” Creating compelling content is not only expensive, often involving trial and error, time consuming -it can take years to develop a winning program - it is also like caching lightning in a bottle - rare and sometimes surprising. But the risk of not focusing on the development of unique content is greater than spending time, money and creative capital on it and risking failure. As Mike Vorhaus President, Magid Advisors, concluded, “Unique content is table stakes.”

Small is Nimble and Yet, Bigger May Be Better

There are three challenges that place stress on smaller networks - increased competition, the cost of doing business and the fight for distribution. While the fight for distribution may be ameliorated with the vastness of the IP that enables nimble smaller networks to expand their distribution, the first two challenges may see the demise of many smaller niche networks, according to some. Glashow noted that “The cable bundle has only ten brands that mean something. The rest was born to fill in” the channel offerings. She sees the death of smaller networks because there is not enough investment in them.

There is no absolute path for television network success in the coming years. But the best advice of the day was from Phillips who concluded, “Experiment and be willing to fail.”

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com