Rich Fiscus
16 Sep 2007 8:12
The advice for broadcasters from media companies around the world is to get content online and be innovators. It was delivered at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge.
"(There are) huge rewards for those who innovate, death for those who don't," said Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp.
"Right now there are more than 300 million people around the world watching video content online. It's a fundamental shift that completely democratizes our business. And democracy can be scary, especially when we've been used to living in a totalitarian state".
This mirrors consumer opinions, and not just when it comes to television. The public has been sending that message with regard to digital content for the better part of a decade.
BSkyB Chief Executive James Murdoch said "The key thing for us is about not having anxiety to change but having a real appetite for it," he said. "You (need) a bigger appetite for risk, a bigger willingness to fail."
Certainly no one knows for sure what a successful business model for digital content delivery will be. If broadcasters and othe media companies don't adapt to take advantage of new technology someone else will, and that's possibly the biggest risk of all.
Source: Reuters