Scenarios for the Future of Public Broadcasting What Does Public Service Mean in the Multi-Choice Digital Age? Channeling Public Interest Media: Reporting on the Public Broadcast System

Strategic investment scenarios Sustaining investments Sustain the legacy business Best practices improvements Collaborations to lower costs and gain scale

Strategic investment scenarios Repositioning investments Often disruptive innovations (à la Clayton Christensen) Reposition in new directions consistent with original mission

Über trends in electronic media Digitization Personalization Democratization

Über trends: digitization Content meets mathematics Noiseless generations for production & distribution Metadata – data about data Find, manipulate and distribute content with great granularity and flexibility Repurpose content Extend the life and value of media assets Search

Über trends: personalization Content meets self-organization Tagging (folksonomies) XML syndication (RSS, Atom) Attention (metadata that tracks to what people are paying attention)

Example: Tagging at flickr Tags / norway Sample photos from the RSS feed of the tag norway from flickr.com

Example: RSS Really Simple Syndication (better: Really Simple Subscriptions) Its very easy to implement. It aggregates in one place whats new in web content to which you subscribe. Combined with personalization, it will provide a powerful distribution platform for pubcasters (or, a powerful competitor). Open a Bloglines.com account and try it.

Über Trends: democratization Content freed from gatekeepers Inexpensive but powerful production tools Low barriers to effective distribution Search and referral substitutes for marketing

Example: Podcasting Works with any portable media players, PCs, Macs, and most news aggregators. Means adding an enclosure to an RSS 2.0 item (can be a link to any file: MP3, WMV, etc.). Specialized aggregators can automatically sync your files with the player. Implications for how we do journalism and production.

The long tail meme From Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream. Real time is hits oriented. For non- real time long-tail distribution, success can come with much smaller numbers.

The long tail meme Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, et al. have much larger inventories than corre- sponding brick-and-mortar stores. The average record store has 40,000 tracks, but Rhapsody has 735,000. The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles...[, but] more than half of Amazons book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles.

The long tail meme

Broadcasters must adapt to A multi-platform future A multi-choice future

A multi-platform future Were evolving from distribution over one platform to distribution over multiple platforms: Over-the-air transmitters Internet and broadband Cable and satellite Physical media Mobile and portable devices From Dave MacCarn, WGBH

A multi-choice future The number of channels through which users will be able to access our content will continue to grow. Increasingly, users want control over when and where they use our content. Increasingly, users want choice and personalization. Successful public broadcasters are morphing into digital libraries. From Dave MacCarn, WGBH

The new media divide People are taking control over their media usage. My time (non-real time) is the fastest growing segment of media usage. I want what I want, when I want it, the way I want it. So its less and less audio vs. video or print vs. electronic, its... Real-time vs. my time.

Who does my time serve? People who have already left linear programming for other reasons: Career Chores Community Family People who cant get enough of what they like on your stations.

CPB TV primetime study PTV viewing was small in two segments compatible with PTV: Innovative & Inclined Distracted & Unavailable Together, they are 26% of viewers: Limited free time Frequent users of technology Medium-to-high users of public radio

CPB TV primetime study

Real-time economics For real-time broadcasting, distribution costs scale perfectly ($ for 1 = $ for 1,000,000), but time for content is dear. Rewards AQH listening/viewing. Programmers are tacticians. Programming strategy is finding hits and competing with other hit-programmers.

My time economics For my time distribution, costs scale incrementally with use, but time for content is limited only by storage. Requires a business model to cover incremental costs. Rewards cumulative access over time. Programmers are curators. Make the tail lo-o-o-ong. Programming strategy is to make content personalized and accessible.

Public Service Publisher A my time, long tail repositioning initiative Public broadcasting stations and independent producers Partnering with Open Media Network for content distribution component To include citizen-supplied media Broadcasters can serve as enablers for community public service content

Public Service Publisher Multi-platform content delivery from a common user interface Internet Free Subscription Pay per use Cable VOD DTV broadcast data caching Physical media (DVD, CD) Station-supplied Amazon, Netflix, et al.

Public Service Publisher Users can access via portal or station affiliated pages B2B services Station program guides Fair use recording

New revenue sources Member benefits (more content, convenient times) New audience revenue (relationship building, underwriting) User compensation for access to niche, premium or hard-to-find programming

New revenue sources Assets in permanent distribution build record of community value, important for tax-based, foundation and philanthropic funding B2B revenues (rights to distribute, marketing content for derivative works) Distribution services (datacasting, load balancing, my time traffic)

Pull urgencies Opportunities: My time use growing rapidly. PBCore, broadband, off-the-shelf core technologies are in place. Long-tail businesses are succeeding. Pubcasters and partners have great and deep content assets. There is substantial interest in use of my time electronic media by other public service organizations.

Push urgencies Threats: Competition for pubcasters is coming from the for-profit sector. Its no longer a one-platform world. If we cling to one platform, we risk our mission. XML-based syndication to portable devices is growing and presents a real bypass to linear programmers. Barriers to entry are low. If we dont do it, someone else will.

Contact information Dennis L. Haarsager, Associate VP & GM Educational Telecommunications & Technology PO Box Washington State University Pullman, WA Contact info: Weblog: Resources: