OPEN

If
you’re interested in the future of TV as a medium, today’s Observer’s media
section carries a wide-ranging and thought provoking essay by Peter Tony Hall, chief
exec of the Royal Opera House and former chief exec of BBC
News. You can see the whole article here.

Like
Richard Sambrook he seems to view the news coverage of the July
7th attacks in London as a tipping point, but adds:

…this revolution will change far more than news. When we
all own television iPods, we will also be able to dictate where we watch, and
demand the ability to download both current and archived material to suit the
mood of the moment.

When
talking about the changes which are beginning to sweep through the TV industry
Peter Tony Hall chimes with something Neil McIntosh of Guardian Unlimited said at the IABC / CiB event I
attended earlier this week. He talks about a "breeze blowing into dusty
corners" – that is to say, the media world will not be turned on its head
by "consumer-led TV", but the disruptive technologies and models will
shake up complacency and open up the medium to audiences who have been poorly
served.

Neil
McIntosh was saying exactly the same thing about blogs, and suggested that this
might be partly why blogs have been so successful at taking hold in the US,
where some local newspaper monopolies have not been satisfying the needs of
their readers, for instance in holding regional government properly to account
(at least that’s my recollection of what he said).

In
the rest of his essay Peter Tony Hall looks at himself as an audience – a
long-distance commuter – who has needs (killing time and catching up with
programmes that are not scheduled at times he can watch them) and at the arts (which he thinks can generate their own programming both for their existing
audience and to appeal to new audiences). Marketers will also be interested to
note his comments on the use of email and text messaging to communicate with new
customers.

Noting
that he has struck a deal with Sony to install HD cameras in the Royal Opera
House, he adds:

We are not setting out to launch The Opera House Channel, but
I do believe there is a real opportunity here for arts organisations.
Broadcasting will become like a vast bookshop into which the viewer wanders,
saying to him or herself: right now, this is what I want to watch.

The
long tail in TV – it will happen.

NB: Peter Tony Hall’s essay was taken from a book called The Next Big Thing, from UKTV. I’ve ordered a copy from the publishers, Premium Publishing, which seems to be an interesting outfit. It publishes on behalf of corporates, doing for books what customer magazine publishers do for periodicals.