Every conference needs a pantomime villain, the unpopular newcomer, or in management school speak a disrupter.
It used to be YouTube or Google TV that took on this role, but in recent months the role has fallen to Netflix. The online streaming service doesn’t have to do anything, and that includes turning up at a conference. In any case they’re too busy disrupting.
The same used to be true for YouTube, it was going to and has to a certain extent, revolutionise the way we watch television. And now we have YouTube appearing on panels alongside the broadcasters, there’s still a certain amount of nervousness and jokes about skateboarding ducks, but the video site has been largely accepted by the audience.
The there is the telco-cable dispute. For years cable conferences have spent their time telco-bashing. Indeed, there’s a certain amount of it at the annual CTAM EuroSummit, from where I’m writing this column. But I’ve also just seen an interview here with the former BT and KPN CEO Ben Vervayen, so the makings of an olive branch are being constructed.
We even had an entry from Sky Deutschland in the CAP Awards.
Just as well. What will happen at events now that Germany’s largest cablenet is once again owned by a telco, and what about TDC in Denmark or DNA in Finland?
Maybe it’s time for a coming together, an acceptance that the two sides have strengths and weaknesses, and the debate can be about what they are and in the same room.
