Aardvark Daily

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The future is approaching, fast!

The announcement that the owner of TV3 had been placed in receivership yesterday came as a surprise to many.

Although the finances of MediaWorks have been rather volatile of late and it has been disputing a $22m tax bill with the IRD, few people probably realised how close the company was to breaking point.

Major creditors however, seem to have been well prepared and within hours they had announced a "restructuring" that would ensure the company's broadcasting operations would not be immediately affected.

One can't help but wonder whether this is just the start of a crumbling of the traditional media empires that have, for so long, ruled the airwaves and printing presses of the nation, and indeed, the world.

Yes, as many of us have predicted for decades now, the Net is significantly changing the game for those in the publishing/broadcasting industries.

Yesterday's Mediaworks receivership may well be the tip of a very large iceberg that carves a huge swathe of "restructuring" through the entire media landscape.

For instance, Fairfax recently announced that it's killing off Computerworld, PC World and a few other print-media publications.

The age-old tabloid "Truth" is also rumoured to be facing extinction.

So is it any wonder that Mediaworks' broadcasting divisions are facing such difficult times?

Let's face it -- the concept of linear programming as we have with broadcast transmissions is coming under sustained and growing attack from interactive online services that will deliver what you want, when you want.

Every month there's another report showing that TV viewers are spending less time in front of the box and more time online. Why would people watch endless repeats of aging US sitcoms when they can find far more engrossing stuff on the Net?

Of course TV broadcasters have responded by throwing some of their content online and calling it an "On Demand" service -- but it's still just not the same and well crafted, purpose-built online content.

Even the previous big drawcards that broadcasters could use to guarantee strong viewership aren't working any more. Why wait weeks or months to watch the latest season of your favourite TV series when you can download the episodes from a P2P network -- without ads!

Although broadcasting will never completely die out (hey, some people still use Morse-code), its days as the "mainstream" of media are surely numbered.

Once NZ's UFB rollout is complete and the majority of TV sets are "Net-ready" then things will get even worse for broadcasters. They will be just one player in an incredibly competitive market and their existing commitment to the broadcast model will become a liability when compared to the dramatically lower costs of providing content through an IP connection.

Fairfax, Mediaworks, etc... I wonder if we'll even remember these names in a decade's time?

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