We\u2019ve all seen the chart, witnessed the presentation, heard the wails. Why do TV\u2019s detractors always show an old-fashioned small screen encased in a wooden cabinet? What about the new technologically advanced 50\u201d flat screen, hooked up to the home\u2019s wifi that does everything, including making the tea in the morning (if only..)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
We all know why, of course. The online players needed to position TV as yesterday\u2019s medium and themselves as new and wizzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet the report commissioned by the ISBA from Enders Analysis<\/a> paints a scary picture of the commercial side of TV being stuck in the dark ages, or the 1970s as those of us who lived through them like to call them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, audiences have changed. How they watch video has changed. What they watch on has changed. Where they watch has changed. But the way that the industry buys and sells airtime is depressingly recognisable to old gits like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Airtime buying and selling is the equivalent of the old cathode ray set. It\u2019s rather like the music business refusing to accept that much listening is done via streaming, or newspaper editors believing that this online thing was a passing fad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day the record industry turned round and saw the business had left them behind. The day dawned when grizzled newspaper sales guys realised that their future lay in the hands of those young guys they\u2019d given online to as a toy to play with whilst the serious business was done as it had always been in the ski chalets and in print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we said last week<\/a>, Enders is predicting a serious fall in ad revenue unless something changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, Phil Smith from ISBA<\/a> and Bob Wootton, ex of ISBA<\/a> have added their perspective and weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n