Recurring fragments
We’re all set for the big event tomorrow. Having seen most of the presentations and new research I’m confident it’s going to be great.
One topic recurs in many contributions, and that’s fragmentation. In the past, lower individual ratings for programmes were associated with off-peak content and restricted coverage. But, as a couple of speakers will point out, that’s just not the case any more. Here’s why.
Firstly, multi-channel offerings have added thematic or ‘passion’ channels to TV’s range. Whether you’re nuts about sport, natural history, arthouse film, news or food you can find them on TV at any time these days. The viewing to those programmes is as engaged and rewarding as any other appointment-to-view TV. They also offer highly targeted audiences to advertisers that in any other medium would be highly valued.
Secondly, the TV companies are actively investing in new platforms that are likely to ‘fragment’ the audience further and they are doing this to enhance the viewing experience. The ability watch your favourite TV on a +1 channel, from a digital TV recorder, via IPTV or from a web service is making TV more pleasurable for viewers but it is encouraging the total audience to access TV at different times, and that is often portrayed as a regrettable thing. However, programmes are seen by just as many people – more in many instances – as in the past. Channel 4 have many examples where a programme, Shameless for example, now reaches many more people in a short space of time via all its broadcast channels and on-demand platforms than it ever did just from one primary broadcast. So there’s no cultural fragmentation going on; the fragmentation is purely about access.
All on-demand TV is ‘appointment-to-view’ by definition. Convincing advertisers and agencies that this sort of ‘fragmentation’ is actually making their TV advertising more powerful is top of our to-do list and worthy of some thoughtful debate tomorrow.
So, thank God, we’re nearly there! Tomorrow we will congregate in a former church and, unlike church, we’ll debate rather than just listen. One final thought is this piece in the Observer last weekend which sets the event nicely in context. Yes, media are enduring a pretty shit time, but an apocalypse it is not. More to the point for us, TV has a very positive future; one that we’re looking forward to exploring tomorrow.
This is your last chance to raise any more issues you’d like us to cover. Fire away.
Tags: Channel 4, DTR, IPTV, multi-channel, Observer, on-demand, Shameless, television, Televisionaries, TV
