Are traditional broadcast brands becoming more important?

Traditional broadcast brands could become increasingly important in helping users find quality content, according to the panellists at today’s Media Playground conference in London.

Panellist David Cuff, commercial director at Virgin Media Television, said that channel brands are the first port of call for most consumers. “The consumers know they want to watch something…people are turning to recognised brands to find content.”

He added: “Strong channel brands are increasingly crucial in the digital space. It’s all down to the strength of the brand.

Cuff included YouTube as a strong brand because of its role as an aggregator for a specific kind of popular viewing.

“YouTube is a respected content aggregator because people know they can go there and get a certain type of content.”

However, not everyone was in agreement. Spotify sales director Jon Mitchell said that it is not because of the brand that a consumer will turn to a brand as a content provider but rather because of its ease of use.

“It is down to how easy you make access to the content,” he said. “It’s how you aggregate it. You don’t have to be a big traditional brand – it is how you offer it.”

The important question, said MediaCom’s head of implementation TV, Rhys McLachlan, is whether the big channel brands can “deliver to us some sort of entertainment that makes us have an affinity with that brand”, as there is a new generation of people who just want to be entertained and are not as channel loyal as previous generations.