From the musings of New World Selling vs Old World Selling session to the Investment Seers debates and a discussion on brands counting fingers after agency meetings, last week’s Media Summit was full of deep insights, top dog business views, personal opinions and hearty discussions.
While admittedly I was most anticipating the Tech and Platform panel, particularly with CommBank’s new move to take its programmatic trading desk in-house and given that Foxtel’s Ed Smith tends to make no bones about the reasons behind its like minded move, it was actually the Screen Wars session that got me thinking.
While my journo hat was firmly on that day, hoping to soak up as much knowledge from the industry heavyweights as possible, following a couple of comments I was quickly left shirking such responsibilities and found myself looking at what was being said not as a journalist, but as a TV watcher, a consumer.
“The funny thing about all of this conversation is that often the consumer gets completely left out of it,” said UM CEO Mat Baxter.
“The experience for a consumer right now, traditionally in television, has not actually been that good of an experience because you are asked to fit in with TV networks’ timing for what you want to watch.”
He said it’s not as good an experience as being able to do it on your own terms, when you choose, and that the category will be disrupted because the consumer wants a better way to experience television – not the “old and dying concept” of fitting in with the TV networks.
This got me thinking, and agreeing. Not just about the frustrating fact that the networks seem to all put their chief shows on at the same time, but about the confusing swell of TV options we are left to wade through and decipher.
As soon as I came over to Australia, having been used to Freeview and Sky TV/Sky Plus, the plan was always to sign up to Foxtel, or something with more offerings than the free-to-air TV. However, having arrived in October and then soon becoming acquainted with offerings such as Presto, Quickflix, Fetch TV and then Stan, HbbTV and now Netflix, I reached a stalemate position where I was unable to make any sort of TV decision as quite frankly I didn’t (and don’t) know what is the best option.
Granted, I have a lot of exposure to all the options given the AdNews remit, but if I am finding it a somewhat chaotic offering surely others are too?
Can too much choice be a bad thing? Could the TV networks make it easier, as Baxter suggested? From my stance that would be great and I don’t think I’m alone.
So while choice is great, as is writing and learning about all these different offerings as a journalist, actually as a consumer I am simply left watching less, but wanting more – not more options, just more ease.
Did you catch my last opinion on Media moguls fight – part two?