This is a report on the October 27 Video Everywhere Summit, organized by the New York-based Digital Place Advertising Association (DPAA).
In many ways, it was a mix of amusement and disbelief, at least for a content-centric publication such as VideoAge.
Our first observation is that the ballroom at the Roosevelt, a hotel near Grand Central Station in New York City, was too small for the over 800 registered participants at the one-day conference. This could certainly be read as a sign of the Summit’s success, but it resulted in many people listening from outside the ballroom entrance doors, where the sound quality was poor and there were no video monitors showing the conference stage.
This was unfortunate for at least 50 participants who could not fully appreciate some of the presentations, especially the one delivered by Doug Ray, CEO of Carat (pictured above).
Some 28 speakers made the trip to the podium to participate in 18 conferences, touching on topics such as mobile consumers, video innovation, data-driven creativity, shifts in viewing and Digital Out of Home (DOOH) experiences. In fact, there was lots of DOOH, with even a Daily DOOH “printed” publication prominently displayed. Obviously, print is still king in the digital world!
But one king that was not honored — indeed it was somewhat, if only indirectly, pushed aside — was quality content.
And here is the disbelief part: It was a commemoration of mobile and second screen media and a celebration of the demise of traditional television.
It seemed like speaker after speaker took delight in presenting data showing how terribly traditional television is performing, and predicting that it will only get worse.
Besides the fact that these kinds of statements are refuted by recent data that shows how relevant traditional television still is, the question that begged to be answered was: If traditional television will supposedly disappear, where will quality content that drives mobile and second-screen media growth come from?
In a final analysis, one could say that the DPAA seminars represented the typical case where a nose is cut off to spite the face!
Television, as in the case of radio and film, will never disappear. As long there are needs for such media, be it advertising, political outreach or government propaganda, television will be around.
You would be hard-pressed to provide an example where a widely-accepted medium faded away. That is not to say that modifications won’t evolve e.g., the player piano or the nickelodeon, but vanish? No way!
In terms of quality, be definition, it has become worse. When you had only three national outlets, the competition in terms of quality was paramount. In today’s world, media accepts mediocre quality because of the various alternatives and the need to “fill in” space or time.
You need examples? Look at your national newscasts and formats. In prior years, the focus was on experience and talent; today, neither; it is more a photographic contest. Would TV journalists such as ABC’s Bill Lawrence; CBS’s Walter Cronkite or NBC’s Frank McGee be deemed “acceptable” as major TV personalities of today? Dubious at best!
Yeah, people have for decades opined on the Denise of traditional TV and yet like the oil industry, it still is a huge income generator. Mobile is very exciting but still very smalll piece of the pie..