Churches Media Conference

The key question is how do you engineer competition for quality. The BBC as the only public service broadcaster would not work. PSB should not be built around failures of the market (types of broadcasting that can't be met by the market).

The opening session was with Tim Gardam who offered a personal view supported by OFCOM statistics. I'll leave you to look up his credentials, but will say that he has held some of the most senior and influential positions in broadcast journalism. He went down the well trodden path of reminding everyone that the media world has changed - a fact of which we must be aware by now.

TV, he said, used to be special, but in the crowded media market place, asked if it was still so. He thinks it is special and can help us embrace ideas that are personally and publically useful, understanding difference and changing the way we think.

The media is changing at a greater rate than culture - there is a mismatch here, he said.
Accademic values must not remain in the academy
Distribution economy has been replaced by attention economy

Changes to the media are eroding authority which relied on one shared conversation (not sure what I think about this - perhaps authorty feels insecure because fewer people are excluded from the "shared" conversation).

TV looks outward, the web is more personal and about people with similar interests. (Actually I think the web broadens our outlook as well, so not as simple as he suggests.)

He said that people go to the internet for basic information but go to the TV for news. In the same set of statistics he pointed to the fact that Local and Regional news was loss making - he must have meant that the public goes to network tv news. Perhaps the research was conducted in London and referes only to network programmes?  News is hugely popular on ITV Local and is often available faster than broadcast news.

The internet is not for entertainment! Yes, he did say this (or at lease the statistics did). This seems quite unbelievable when I see the range of gaming, movies, competitions that are driving interest in the web right now.

He said that TV (as oppsed to the web) alows you to meet people you would never otherwise encounter. I think: Surely the web has given us access to countles people we would never have otherwise met, and often in a more authentic and uncontrolled way. TV has been notoriously the victim of spin doctors, on occasions, and so the word "meet" is used perhaps inaccurately.

TV has never understood the audience as individuals. Other than Sky, TV has never had a one to one customer relationaship with its viewers. I think this is a London perspective; out in the regions there is an impressive relationship with the audience as individuals exemplified in BBC Local Radio.

The key question is how do you engineer competition for quality. The BBC as the only public service broadcaster would not work. PSB should not be built around failures of the market - types of broadcasting that can't be met by the market.

My comment:

All in all I felt that lalk was based heavily on statistics which didn't ring true for me - at least where I am in Yorkshire. I think news in the regions and particularly on the internet in the regions has huge potential which has not yet been properly realised or encouraged. I think the web represents a threat to traditional broadcasters and forms of broadcasting which are often controlled from London. The BBC and ITV as brands have to find a way of protecting their brands and creating a unique environment while at the same time immersing themselves in the dangerous word networks, links and partnerships.