Content remains king at the Digi Trend Forum
The 2nd Digi Trend Forum was successfully held on Tuesday at the new Zurich Stock Exchange, with about 100 participants in attendance. Ten speakers addressed the question of whether channel or content has the edge in the digital media market. Read a summary of the most interesting remarks here.
The 2nd Digi Trend Forum was successfully held on Tuesday in front of around 100 participants at the new Zurich Stock Exchange. Ten speakers sought an answer to the question of whether channels or content have the better cards in the digitized media market. The Digi Trend Forum was organized by the publishing house Media-Daten AG in Rüschlikon and moderated by Pierre C. Meier, editor-in-chief of Werbewoche. Two classic channel representatives, Leandro Boschelle from Cablecom and Giovanni Conte from Swisscom, kicked off the event. However, their statements showed clear differences. While Cablecom sees itself primarily as a distributor, Swisscom is also involved in the content business. Conte cited the exclusive content and video on demand as some of the advantages of Bluewin TV. The view that only new or original content could be sold to consumers was also put forward by other speakers. Christian Gartmann from ProSiebenSat.1 Media even described this content as the fuel for technical innovation. However, the opportunities to sell this content are limited. This is because the media budget of households is finite. This was also evident in Publisuisse CEO Martin Schneider's summary of the "TV - medium of the future?" studies. Nevertheless, new models will make it possible to develop customized offers. The less someone wants to pay, the higher the proportion of advertising that will be delivered with a particular content.
On the way to audience-generated content? Today, content is increasingly being supplied by the audience. Marc Görtz, CEO of Ringier TV, presented an interesting example of this. At Talentscreen 06 in Zurich, amateur filmmakers had the opportunity to shoot a short film on a given topic (without a budget) within 48 hours. No fewer than 130 teams took part, ultimately submitting 93 films. These films were uploaded to talentscreen.tv and within a few weeks and without any advertising were viewed by 25,000 unique users with 215,000 page views and rated 8,000 times. Due to the high level of interest, Ringier now wants to expand this website into a portal on which films with HandyCam, WebCam or MobileCam can be stored. In addition, a media alliance of the Abendzeitung heute and Sat.1 Schweiz will ensure that this idea is publicized further. Marc Görtz does not know whether it will be a success, but he does know that trial and error is essential in this business. And because the demands of individual viewer segments are becoming ever more divergent, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the major television channels in particular to reach a mass audience. Ingrid Deltenre, Director of Swiss Television, noted that the demands of the majority are becoming less and less aligned with the demands of the various minorities.
Radio landscape searches for ways into digitalization The digital future of radio still seems to be quite unclear. On the one hand, Giuseppe Scaglione highlighted the new possibilities of radio broadcasting via the Internet. In the age of podcasting, however, it is also vital for radio stations to distinguish themselves through moderation or music expertise. For him, the future of radio lies in the Internet, which, with the increase in mobile broadband coverage, also loses the disadvantage of only being able to be used from a stationary location. In contrast, the replacement of FM by digital broadcasting channels such as DAB is proving much more difficult. Bruno Oetterli used a few figures to illustrate how difficult this changeover will be. DAB will only become interesting for the audience if exclusive content is broadcast there that meets with a high level of interest. However, the production of such programs is not free. And they can only be financed through advertising if they reach a sufficient audience. It will take years before this happens, during which the effort involved will be offset by hardly any income. So without investors with staying power, it won't work.
The situation is even more different in the press, where digitization can only extend as far as the printing plate. Urs Gossweiler, the proactive publisher of the Jungfrau Zeitung, takes the most radical approach to this situation. He focuses on the Internet, which the editorial team uses to enter all content directly. The twice-weekly printed edition is then only a waste product and is generated directly from the website without any further intermediate steps. Cash has also recently embarked on a new path with its Cash daily network. In conversation with conference moderator Pierre C. Meier, it became clear that the advertising industry is currently only organized to a limited extent to be able to use this service in its entirety.
Content remains kingIt became clear at the 2nd Digi Trend Forum that content remains king. Because only original content can be marketed. And the advertising industry will increasingly have to adapt to the fact that media will only reach part of the masses and that complex accompanying measures are therefore unavoidable. It is obvious that this will have far-reaching effects on remuneration models and usage research.
On the way to audience-generated content? Today, content is increasingly being supplied by the audience. Marc Görtz, CEO of Ringier TV, presented an interesting example of this. At Talentscreen 06 in Zurich, amateur filmmakers had the opportunity to shoot a short film on a given topic (without a budget) within 48 hours. No fewer than 130 teams took part, ultimately submitting 93 films. These films were uploaded to talentscreen.tv and within a few weeks and without any advertising were viewed by 25,000 unique users with 215,000 page views and rated 8,000 times. Due to the high level of interest, Ringier now wants to expand this website into a portal on which films with HandyCam, WebCam or MobileCam can be stored. In addition, a media alliance of the Abendzeitung heute and Sat.1 Schweiz will ensure that this idea is publicized further. Marc Görtz does not know whether it will be a success, but he does know that trial and error is essential in this business. And because the demands of individual viewer segments are becoming ever more divergent, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the major television channels in particular to reach a mass audience. Ingrid Deltenre, Director of Swiss Television, noted that the demands of the majority are becoming less and less aligned with the demands of the various minorities.
Radio landscape searches for ways into digitalization The digital future of radio still seems to be quite unclear. On the one hand, Giuseppe Scaglione highlighted the new possibilities of radio broadcasting via the Internet. In the age of podcasting, however, it is also vital for radio stations to distinguish themselves through moderation or music expertise. For him, the future of radio lies in the Internet, which, with the increase in mobile broadband coverage, also loses the disadvantage of only being able to be used from a stationary location. In contrast, the replacement of FM by digital broadcasting channels such as DAB is proving much more difficult. Bruno Oetterli used a few figures to illustrate how difficult this changeover will be. DAB will only become interesting for the audience if exclusive content is broadcast there that meets with a high level of interest. However, the production of such programs is not free. And they can only be financed through advertising if they reach a sufficient audience. It will take years before this happens, during which the effort involved will be offset by hardly any income. So without investors with staying power, it won't work.
The situation is even more different in the press, where digitization can only extend as far as the printing plate. Urs Gossweiler, the proactive publisher of the Jungfrau Zeitung, takes the most radical approach to this situation. He focuses on the Internet, which the editorial team uses to enter all content directly. The twice-weekly printed edition is then only a waste product and is generated directly from the website without any further intermediate steps. Cash has also recently embarked on a new path with its Cash daily network. In conversation with conference moderator Pierre C. Meier, it became clear that the advertising industry is currently only organized to a limited extent to be able to use this service in its entirety.
Content remains kingIt became clear at the 2nd Digi Trend Forum that content remains king. Because only original content can be marketed. And the advertising industry will increasingly have to adapt to the fact that media will only reach part of the masses and that complex accompanying measures are therefore unavoidable. It is obvious that this will have far-reaching effects on remuneration models and usage research.
