IBC 2011 – AMSTERDAM. Former MTV International chief Bill Roedy has said the fast forward function on personal video records should be disabled in order to safeguard advertising revenues.
Speaking at the opening session of IBC on The Future of Broadcasting, the 35-year broadcast veteran admitted the statement was at odds with his philosophy that the consumer was king.
“For the content providers and cable operators disabling fast forward is key,” said Roedy. “In the end cable ops are looking to disable fast forward as a fast fix for the problem. You have to intergrate the commercial message, make it more entertaining, commercial messages are great things.
While it is technically possible for systems such as the NDS XTV – marketed in the UK and other territories by operators as Sky+ – to prevent the consumer from skipping ads the feature has not been implemented. The public argument has been that consumers with PVRs watch more television, so that any ad skipping is compensated for.
Roedy agreed with fellow panelist Luke Johnson, the venture capitalist and former chairman of Channel 4 that current advertising models were in jeopardy. “I think traditional spot TV advertising is under severe threat as a business model. It’s offering worse value than eve,” said Johnson. “Although I think there is no way that legacy broadcasters are out of business anytime soon they are in decline.
Johnson said when he joined Channel 4 eight years ago a top show would command fan audience of four million, whereas now the broadcaster would be happy with two and a half million. “Young people are migrating towards digital devices and I think the television in the corner of the room is heading for extinction”.
Asked about the position Facebook, Johnson said he would not be surprised if the social networking site started to produce its own programming, given the amount of freelance talent available.
