The Design And Media Innovation Blog

Digital TV Switchover, Restacking, Digital Dividend and Niche Content Opportunities

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:49:00 GMT

Earlier this year, I attended the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture Engineering) Conference and Expo at the Sydney Darling Harbour Convention Centre along with thousands of media professionals from a wide array of specialisations. This conference is probably the biggest media technology event in Australia held annually and attracts speakers and exhibitors from all over the world, including many of Australia's leading media executives and technology geeks and gurus.

I'd like to share key industry knowledge points from the Conference and review some of the amazing new media technologies I found at the Expo. Here are some of the key subjects discussed.

The digital TV switchover.

Cinema 2.0

Inter-operable Master Format (IMF)

Cloud Computing & Cloud Broadcasting

Content Delivery Network Strategies

Multi-screen TV frameworks

3D Television

Video over IP

Live video streaming

Video on demand and Pay Per View

Virtual Studios

Wireless HD Cameras

Live Streaming

I'll start with The Digital TV Switchover to start with and I hope to write up a few more in coming months. Let me know if you spot any errors - it's a complex subject.

The Digital TV Switchover

What is Digital Switchover

Relationships & Intentions of the stakeholders

Restacking

The Digital Dividend Auction

Content Creator Opportunities

What is Digital Switchover

Digital switchover refers to the period in which broadcasters broadcast digital and analogue signals concurrently, ultimately terminating the analogue signals to leave a 100% digital transmission. The digital switchover is already underway and will complete on 31st December 2013. You can find a schedule of the the swtichover timetable here. One of the advantages of digital TV transmission are that it requires far less range of frequencies, which will result in the freeing up of a large chunk of the available spectrum. More on that below.

Relationships & Intentions of the stakeholders

Andrew King from Network Ten gave a detailed overview of the emerging complexities of the switchover by looking at the relationships and intentions of three groups; Broadcasters, Government Regulators and Viewers.

Broadcasters engage with Government regarding regulation. Broadcasters engage with viewers to determine and provide services. Government regulators engage with viewers with awareness campaigns. The intentions of the broadcasters is to retain viewers and minimise costs. For government regulators the intention is to minimise disruption and maximise the auction price of the old analogue spectrum. Viewers want to minimise effort and cost and retain programming.

It's not hard to see that this would require careful dialogue and consideration of each others agendas in order to build a harmonious outcome without competition.

Restacking

Andrew also explained the 'Restack' process, where the signals being transmitted at certain frequencies currently being used for analogue TV are being 're-stacked' into different frequency blocks, below 694MHz, for digital transmission. This frees up the frequencies currently used by analogue TV, which the government will auction off. This is known as the Digital Dividend and will be provide 126Mhz of spectrum, ranging from 694-820Mhz in the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) band.

The Digital Dividend Auction

Senator Conroy, (Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) says, "A contiguous dividend of 126 MHz will deliver substantial connectivity and productivity benefits for Australia, while ensuring that the high quality free-to-air television that Australians enjoy will continue."

I heard rumour at SMPTE that the Digital Dividend will be primarily allocated for community broadcast and communications, however I've not been able to find anything binding on this. It appears likely that the digital dividend may be used for providing high-speed internet access, broadcast and emergency services communications, but to whom and by whom is not clear yet, and how the outcome will be regulated is still emerging. For example there will likely be some restrictions on large broadcast and telecommunications companies buying up large chunks of the spectrum.

In a media release, Senator Conroy states, "It is able to carry signals over long distances, penetrate buildings and carry large amounts of data", and, "The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) indicated that Australia’s economy could be boosted by up to $10 billion…"

As Andrew King pointed out, there are some interesting intentions amongst the various digital dividend stakeholders (and non-stakeholders), so it's probably wise to be careful about investing in these frequencies and their potentials without doing the due diligence about what is really emerging.

Anyone interested in ensuring the availability and freedom of independent and community media would be wise to investigate the discussion.

It may be worth adding that discussions are going on around the world about how other nations will use their Digital Dividends. For example the EBU (European Broadcasting Union published a report on the European Digital Dividend subtitled "Long term Public Interest vs Short Term Profit".

In Australia the auction is being regulated by the ACMA, (Australian Communications and Media Authority). Details of the first public consultation, (Oct-Dec 2010), can be found here and the 'tune-up' forum results, (Nov 2010), here.

Another complexity broadcasters face is the challenge to transmission. The picture quality of DTV (Digital TV) can remain stable in low interference, unlike analogue TV which ghosts. However DTV experiences a sudden complete quality degradation in times of medium interference compared to analogues gradual degradation. Mobile phones have also been known to interfere with certain digital spectrum frequencies.

Content Creator Opportunities

Andrew King also suggested that aside from the new opportunities to potential spectrum buyers, we would see a new trend in content emerging that could be an opportunity for some. The trends he forecasts are a rise in are;

short-form 'gap-filler' content

self help content

niche content broadcast

I agree with Andrew and am pleased to hear him share the same thoughts as I've been having. My understanding of this is that viewers are increasingly valuing the 'usefulness' of the media they receive. Of course that's not to say that useful content can't be creative and entertaining, just that the intention behind useful media has a focus other than keeping the attention fixed on the box. The added intention of providing, 'tangible benefit'. Of course, what's useful to one may be useless to another, and visa versa, which may support an increasing market for an niche content.

With all this happening right under our noses, our media world is being transformed. And this is just the tip of the ice-berg. There's much more… I've not touched on Video over IP (internet), the NBN and Cloud computing yet!!! I hope you found this educating and will stay tuned for the next one… :)

Enjoy.
Adrian

Content Marketing - Towards 'Agenda-Free' as a measure of value.

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:45:00 GMT

A good deal of the media I'm asked to create at Redboat is intended for marketing purposes, and in the past 15 years I've watched the strategies of marketing experts evolve radically. One of the brightest contestants on the marketing stage is 'Content marketing', and I like it. Here's why.

Advertising gets a bad rap at the best of times, mainly for the often offensive intrusion that irrelevant information creates in the most intimate space we have - our personal consciousness. The ultimate goal of marketing communications is to sell something, whether that be a product, a service or an idea. That holds truth in commerce, politics and religion. And lets face it... do we really need more stuff, more services, and more information? With the global consciousness turning to sustainable futures, the real value of the stuff, services and information being pumped around the world today is coming under increasing scrutiny.

So how is content marketing different? And why are marketers excited by it? Firstly, it works. Secondly, it adds value. Did you notice I answered those questions in reverse order? One of the premises of content marketing is 'giving'. Is this a sign that a spiritual maturity is developing in business marketing? Maybe. More on that below. The bottom line for business is that it generates leads, builds brand awareness, and leads convert to sales.

Here's a snapshot from the B2B 2011 Content Marketing Survey.
(Click that link to read the entire 18 page PDF - for free!)

Content marketing is growing dramatically in popularity with over 71 percent of respondents doing more of it than a year ago (in contrast, only 2 percent are doing less).

The biggest motivator for content marketing is its ability to drive awareness, leads, and engagement with prospects, to compensate where where traditional tactics are falling short.

The most popular content formats are case studies, presentations at live events, white papers, online articles and videos.

The biggest challenge: producing truly engaging content.

The most popular channels to deliver content are website, live events, email.

The top performance metric for content marketer is leads.

Corporate marketing owns content marketing in most organizations and spends an average of 20 percent of budget on content marketing.

What content formats are most effective?
Leading the ranking are case studies, live presentations, ... white papers, online articles, and videos - these formats are considered most effective in engaging prospects and delivering message.

The survey was put together by Holger Schulze and The B2B Technology Marketing Community. The links:
1. Holger's 'Everything Technology Marketing' blog,
2. 'B2B Technology Marketing Community' LinkedIn Group).

The Wikipedia stub defines content marketing as subscribing, "to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action." I think Holger's report above shows that it's more than a 'notion'.

So what's the bottom line for the audience? Audience? Yes, lets drop the old term 'consumers', and give our patronage more respect. Being described as a 'consumer' never really floated my boat. You?

The emergence of video on demand, time-shifting TV, pay per view, and the internet with user generated content sites like Youtube and Facebook, has changed the way we all relate with advertising. We have more choice are less tolerant of irrelevant adverts. For now we're still having the advertisements thrust into our conscious awareness, but at least digitally targeted advertising means we see less of the utterly irrelevant ads. But content marketing is not about making advertising relevant.

Content marketing presents a strategy for businesses to generate leads based on genuine audience interest. Instead of relying on the audience being forced to watch digest a message, which in a world of increasing intolerance to irrelevant information consumption, advertisers have found that they can now attract the audience's attention from other places. How? By creating valuable content and giving it away for free.

To clarify, we're not talking about just blurring the line between the advertising content and non-advertising content. That's not good enough. The discerning audience doesn't buy that. Good content marketing gives away real authentic valuable content without any sales pitch. Just give it away. Yup - free! No strings attached!

Content marketing specialists, Junta42, define it as, "the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling."

Jeff Hurt, (Director of Education and Engagement, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting), writes in the Midcourse Corrections Blog, "Association leaders and meeting professionals need to consider how to react to the rapid growth of bias-free content marketing. If your mission includes education consider a co-opetitive (cooperative competition) approach. If you try to compete against those who have more trust or influence than you, you will lose."

I think there's a spiritual of maturity in the idea of 'agenda-free content marketing', that gives us a platform for audiences to weed out what's really valuable and what's not, something I personally value greatly and I believe the world desires more of. The audience isn't going to buy the product if it holds no value to them, they're less tolerant of content that's not valuable to them personally, so why bother serving it to them? It's a new paradigm of transparency in relating that we can find in mature, intimate personal relationships as well as business relationships. And it might go something like this;

Recognise the value and respect our own and others' personal spaces, consciousness and inner worlds. Create real value and trust that others will recognise that value and move towards it accordingly.

But before we get to thinking we're done evolving B2C, (B2A) and B2B communications, don't rest easy. This is just beginning. Not all content marketing is 'agenda-free' and may come 'loaded'. 'Agenda-free' may not be the kind of thinking old-school marketing institutions believe in just yet and may rattle some bones. Many will wonder how marketing can possilbly be effective without glamour, but my prediction is thus:

'Agenda-free' will emerge as the measure of value in B2B and B2C marketing communication because it will be more effective.

As the consciousness of audiences and businesses around the world evolves at an accelerating pace each year, they will demand greater transparency and openness. The old spells and glamours so deeply entrenched in the unconscious of business, political and religious marketing models must eventually crumble and give way to the new.
I'm up for it. Are you?

Enjoy,
Adrian