Can the Olympics draw a line in the TV convergence sand?
The first truly mobile Olympic games have the power to change TV-centric thinking once and for all, says Ricky Chanana.
When we talk TV, we’re no longer referring to the box in our living rooms. This is not news to anyone. The concept of TV is so much greater than that. Yet we remain hung up on TARPS (target audience rating points) while the networks cling to their P&Ls.
It’s high time we stop talking about TV and start thinking screens. For the majority of us, this is a no brainer. And in a few short weeks, something major is going to happen that could well draw a line in the sand. I’m talking about the Olympics.
Seven is spruiking the Rio Games as the first “truly mobile and social Olympics”. With 92% of Australians expected to be engaged with the biggest sporting event in four years on devices other than their TVs, this is the biggest thing to happen to viewer’s perceptions of TV yet.
This is the time of the ‘portable TV viewer’, the consumer who effectively carries their TV in their pocket. Seven certainly knows it. This is why it is introducing a free and paid-for app that will ensure viewers don’t miss a moment of the games.
This is the next phase in the convergence of TV.
As we lead increasingly busy technologically enhanced lives, long gone are the days when my mother would round us up before the 7:00pm time slot of Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
That was when the only way you could watch at a later time was to whack a VHS tape in the old JVC VCR. Some shows such as Game of Thrones and, of course, live sports still command this sort of appointment-style gather-around-the box viewing but the point is that we’re no longer beholden to viewing schedules set by networks. And we don’t have to be glued to our couches.
It’s not about TV being dead. It’s not. We all know that. You can’t argue with the 54 cents of our advertising budgets that go to TV, according 2016 SMI figures, or the Q1 Australian Multi-Screen Report tells us that broadcast TV viewed on TV sets still accounts for the largest proportion of viewing time on any single device.
But you know what the Multi-Screen Report also tells us? In Q1, Aussies spent an average of eight hours and 33 minutes per month watching online video. That includes internet-delivered catch-up TV, live streaming and subscription video services as well as Youtube, Vimeo and Facebook.
This figure increased from six hours 57 minutes a year earlier. And that number will keep going up, especially for millennials who think SBS, Seven, Nine and TEN are nicknames of their parent’s friends who often come over to visit. Like I said, TV is not dead. The keyword here is convergence.
Athletes don’t need to be the only winners at the Olympics this year. The industry could finally break the shackles of TV-centric notions. Once we do, perhaps the myopic view of the family communal screen will become more fluid and TV will truly be infused with everything we do.
Ricky Chanana is the national head of investment at Maxus Communications Australia
HEY HEY was at 6.30. Come on, every Australian knows that.
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A revolution in Olympic broadcasting would be letting us graze the noodle bar: all sports, all feeds, on anytime replay with access to the multiviews. Sure, can it up for live, but can we dial up what we want and pick and chose? FFS ‘Woodstock’ did multiscreen 45 years ago. Can’t we do that on TV yet? If we can ship HD, we can screen 4x SD and sub-channel it? or run multiple youtubes?
Lets face it: the rights got sold to sell ads. What we actually *want* to watch hasn’t figured in the conversation. I’m still stuck arguing if the real view of TV cricket is behind the bowlers arm, when replay of interesting play shows there about 10 views of that moment I could enjoy under my own steam.
And we’re in a world where the assumption is: Live in OZ? want to see Aussie “gold” except we’re 40%+ immigrant, and maybe want to watch that neato loaner from Tristan Da Cunha run in the heats? Or Eddy the Eagle? But no. its aussie gold. STRAYA! (sigh)
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