The boss of Viacom has told the RTS Cambridge Convention that changes in US broadcasting will soon be felt across the Atlantic.
Phillipe Dauman said it was important not to confuse the medium with the message, while people were watching more video content than ever, they were doing so through different platforms.
“The revenue models being challenged in the US will come under increasing pressure here,” he said. “New technologies are expanding their role so what we need to do is to find more accurate means to measure and monetise.”
Viacom is in a good place to judge; the MTV owner has been in the UK market for 30 years, and last year bought terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5.
Dauman explained how historically his younger skewing audiences had not been recorded by US audience research systems.
As if to prove the point he told his audience about how Comedy Central was making 10 second comedies [sic] to appear on Snapchat.
Internationally, Viacom has been able to use new technology to break into previously untapped markets. “We’re not allowed to own a network in our neighbour Canda, but we can licence our content to a VOD player there.”
In the UK, Channel 5 has told Ofcom that it intends to increase the amount of news and locally originated content. There is also a commitment to the children’s brand Milkshake through to the end of the licence period in 2024.
