Broadcast industry conferences can fall into the trap of becoming mere forums for insiders sharing old ideas with other insiders – and at their worst, an echo chamber removed from real world concerns. One of the goals of AIB’s #iamabroadcaster Global Media Summit last month was to look outside established wisdom to the real world and real audiences the broadcast industry serves.
TIMA (The International Media Associates) partnered with AIB to provide a series of on-the-street interviews with young people in Washington DC, London, Paris, and Teheran, providing a unique insight into how the 21st century expects to consume its media.
It should surprise few that conventional, linear tv viewing was far down the list of priorities of the next generation. When asked what was their primary means of consuming news and entertainment content, most favored the computer, tablet and phone. “I watch television a little bit in the morning, but that’s all.”
“Internet. I barely use the radio and the television. I practically only use the Internet,” said one Parisian man. And in London, the responses were similar: “Online, on my phone. I really don’t watch TV at all.”
The responses were no different in Teheran: “I don’t have such a great relationship with the TV. I don’t put much time on it.”
On the face of it, this would sound like a death knell for broadcasters. And it is, if you still believe that broadcasting means linear distribution to a TV or radio. But TIMA’s vox pops revealed that the hunger for content has gone through the roof. Reliance on mobile technologies means that audiences formerly tied to viewing hours in the morning or evening can now access content any time, anywhere.
Said one Parisian “What is practical with the Internet is that you can do it whenever you want, so I do it when I want all day long.”
The trick for broadcasters – for anyone distributing content through the internet – is not the demand or lack of audience, but getting that audience to pay for the content.
When asked how willing they were to pay for content, some of the interviewed young people echoed a Parisian responder “The Internet is basically the contrary of this. We can share our information freely and as much as we want with no monitisation on it. So, no.”
Many already had subscriptions to services like Netflix and Spotify – and a few said they might be willing to pay extra for some premium content.
An American responder said, “We’re so used to having such easy and ready access to it, that for it to become a pay structure, I think that would be really upsetting. I’d find ways around paying.”
Interestingly, the young people in Teheran expressed far more willingness to pay for quality content online than their western counterparts.
The entire collection of these #iamabroadcaster Global Vox Pops can be viewed on our YouTube page: