Upsum 3
- 25 Apr 06, 10:44 AM
It looks like the rest is going to be about technology and user generated content - and I now have to go off and do my day job. Therefore a quick summary of what the 大象传媒 bosses have said this morning... (I will follow it from here on in on the media website)
The content is going to be cross-platform and they are going try and engage the audience more through interactivity. They are going to push News into the global marketplace. They are going to do the best they can with the sport they can afford to show. They are going to focus resources on better more durable brands, but there will be fewer of them.
Their major problem - like all media organisations - is that a big section of the audience is not deferential and has become positively hostile to the paternalism embodied in traditional broadcasting models. They are going to err on the side of meeting the demands of that audience in Entertainment etc, and in the "core TV" content - ie 大象传媒1.
This is a coherent vision but carries risks: the potential objection to it is that maybe the public service broadcaster model simply cannot serve the fragmenting, non-deferential audience given the plethora of digital platforms and content. However if you say "give it a try" this is the best way of doing it. The bosses' biggest challenge will be the internal culture of the 大象传媒 and how to open it up to all the talented people who can't seem to get into it. He is talking about this now: willingness to respond to and respect our different audiences.
Thompson has, 51 minutes in, mentioned blogs. And the licence fee! He says it is not just about the licence fee - because they have freed up money for all this 350m p.a. from the various redundancies and outsourcing currently ongoing.
So that's it. Most of this was predictable if you've been following the Beeb's problems - but it does seem to be a coherent strategy and a lot more concrete than what the last Director General achived. What it means for Newsnight, which is not very watched by the "low approvers", I don't know. Chip in via the comments button. I am off to get cracking on a piece for tonight... (not about this). Incidentally I did not ask anybody's permission to do this...usually they have to rely on leaks and briefings...
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I just hope more comedy does not mean more "New Tricks". Good comedy is about playing the part straight and letting the situation create the laughs. In "New Tricks" everyone plays for laughs and it is frankly awful. Production, script, and acting are all less than third rate. A much better example is "Monk", since it has bedded down
An approach to music that involves all types of music on all channels would be fantastic if it means that one could get Skin, System of Down, Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi, or a Britten quartet on 大象传媒1 or 大象传媒2.
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I just hope more comedy does not mean more "New Tricks". Good comedy is about playing the part straight and letting the situation create the laughs. In "New Tricks" everyone plays for laughs and it is frankly awful. Production, script, and acting are all less than third rate. A much better example is "Monk", since it has bedded down
An approach to music that involves all types of music on all channels would be fantastic if it means that one could get Skin, System of Down, Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi, or a Britten quartet on 大象传媒1 or 大象传媒2.
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It'sd great to see some off the cuff thoughts in real-time so-to-speak. More!
Re: Newsnight. It seems that the digital strategy is being driven by the low approvers audience. I really believe that there's an appetite for CA amongst a low approver, younger audience but would innovations needed to bring this audience in [such as Grauniads print model strategy applied to broadcast and post-broadcast] as part of the programme sit well with the 'approvers' - the heartland NN audience? They'd need some persuading I think. Challenging your audience in this way is potentially really rewarding but quite risky.... no?
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