Mumbrella360: Is broadcast television dead?
Back in 2009, a staggering 3.74 million Australians tuned in to watch Julie Goodwin be crowned the first winner of Masterchef Australia. On Sunday, Network 10 attracted 698,000 metropolitan viewers for the finale of its latest season.
Carl Fennessy, the man who brought the format Down Under when he was the boss of Fremantle Media, said the television landscape faces enormous challenges.
“I remember people writing about the death of TV back 10 or 15 years ago,” Fennessy said, speaking at Mumbrella360 alongside Hugh Marks, the former chief executive of Nine.
“I think it has a bright future. That said, it’s going to have to be much more nimble and get better at reinventing itself on a more regular basis than it has had to for the past 50 years or so.”
Audiences have more choice than ever thanks to an influx of local and international streaming services and the rise of online video content. They watch on a variety of devices at a time that suits them. Competition between content producers and broadcasters is fierce and the industry has fragmented in ways few could’ve imagined a few years ago.
“Television is far from dead but it is changing and will continue to do so,” Marks said.
“Sport, news, current affairs all live happily on the free-to-air linear platform. Reality, entertainment and scripted shows will shift away to networks’ on-demand platforms.”
Network 10’s digital platforms are grabbing eyeballs that have perhaps drifted from broadcast screens. For example, the total audience for Masterchef’s finale, across metro and regional linear, live streaming and catch-up, was 1.06 million.
He and Fennessy joined forces last year to launch Dreamchaser, a content studio that partners with creators to develop, finance, produce and distribute premium shows across genres. It’s an interesting time to be making television, they both agreed.
The state of the small screen market is such that making bold and risky decisions about untested formats isn’t something broadcasters are willing to do quite as much as they once did.
“TV is a risk-reward business,” Fennessy said.
“Most broadcasters would look across their slate and maybe see it as an 80-20 split between safe and secure at 80 and more of a high growth hope at 20. I think the market is demanding more of a 50-50 mix though, but that’s challenging.
“Generally speaking, no broadcaster and no streamer, no one, has ever had massive market-shifting success by aiming for the middle.
“That said, you can’t take a crazy swing with everything you do. It’s got to be the right idea at the right time, with the right people executing it and the right marketing plan supporting it… there’s a lot to get right.”
Ironically, he believes it’s the cashed up streamers from America who are playing it safe – in defiance of their approach to content when they launched.
“I’m slightly concerned at the moment. If I think back over the past seven or so years to the advent of streaming, it was much more bespoke and more genre based.
“I don’t want the disruptors to turn into the establishment too quickly and to offer traditional broadcast TV on an upsized basis. I think to some extent we’re starting to see that a bit.”
Marks believes that “what makes good television is still very much the same”.
“But the way people are watching and engaging with it have changed. That’s brought about some shifts in the sorts of things that now get made.”
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