MGEITF 2009: TV has to embrace internet thinking

Television has to understand the online video environment through the medium of the internet user, Ashley Highfield, managing director and vice president, consumer and online at Microsoft UK, told delegates at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival today.

Giving a presentation outlining his thoughts on what could happen in the TV industry over the coming years, Highfield emphasised that TV and the internet should no longer be viewed as two separate industries.

And in case television was in any doubt as to the seriousness of the challenges it faces, he warned that “the industry has two to three years to adapt or it will face its iTunes moment”.

Highfield named three key drivers behind the changes facing television:

1. New Audience Facing Technologies: The majority of screens in the home will become two-way interfaces, giving the consumer more control
2. New Audience Behaviours: There is a new trend of consumers doing something else – perhaps online or via their mobiles – while watching TV that is likely to be connected to the programme they are viewing. Over time we will increasingly see multiple screens being used together, Highfield said. For example, a viewer could be watching a reality TV show while simultaneously placing a bet on the outcome online
3. New Business Models: As online and TV continue to merge, solutions have to be found to the problem of monetising content online.

Micorsoft’s view is that targeted advertising is the solution to number 3, and although Highfield acknowledged that some people are not fans of it, recent IAB research found that less than 10% of internet users do not like it.

And following James Murdoch’s incendiary McTaggart lecture on Friday, Highfield had some warm words for his ex-employer the BBC. Unlike commercial entities, he said, the BBC “is able to take a long term view and invest in things that can catalyse the industry”.

The BBC’s role is “vital” in ensuring that new technologies are fully examined, as it does not have to deal with commercial pressures, he added.