Broadcasters' point of view on IPTV

IPTV is at the center of service providers and vendors strategies for a while, but up to now very comments were issued from the broadcasting industry. NAB 2006 was the occasion to understand a little bit more their strategies on the matter. Schematically, the TV market is organized in two levels: the networks and the local broadcasters. The local broadcasters put on air both networks shows and local programming. They make the bulk of their profits from local programming, such as news, but also from ads sold during networks shows. While working in tight cooperation for years, both players are not exempt of recent infidelity. It is appealing for networks to potentially bypass the local broadcasters and sell shows and other content on line. Some networks for example have sold some programs the day after their were broadcast, impacting ratings and related ad rates. They more or less consider IPTV is just an additional distribution channel interesting for multi-channel and on-demand kind of content. For local broadcasters, the interest is elsewhere. The Internet interactive nature promises the ability to target advertising to consumers, and therefore to track the effectiveness of advertising spends. They naturally fear any closed relationship between networks and IPTV providers at their expense. Very rapidly, the whole broadcasting industry reacted to avoid any kind of bursting. Networks and broadcasters are more and more likely to find ways to share revenues from non-traditional ways of distributing shows and related advertising dollars. The flagship is always “keep control of the consumer”.