I was lucky enough to attend Future of TV Advertising Global last week – which was as excellent and illuminating as ever. I shan’t repeat what many others have shared – and it was all thoroughly reported by The Media Leader's excellent Omar Oakes and Ella Sagar – so do have a read if you haven’t yet.🤓
Instead, I’ll say that as someone who began their career making TV programmes, I’ve always proudly watched as the industry has taken innovative leap after leap into the unknown. From HD to 3D, to live events, SVOD and catch up. It’s never been an industry to shy away from a challenge. And as Justin Lebbon kindly pointed out I am someone who’s been to many iterations of #FTVAGlobal over the years (!), and yet for the first time in its history my resounding takeaway was that TV is falling behind.
As Brian Wieser, CFA said, “video is video”. But there are many weeds the video powered industry is getting bogged down in. From cat videos and digital viewing that’s fit-for-TV to the messy middle, data transparency and one measurement to rule them all (with a sprinkling of ‘under currencies’ thrown in). Brian’s warning was stark, “digital advertising will bury television as it’s been historically defined.” 📺
TV’s ever-presence in your living room, lounge or front room gives it huge power and popularity – and for most of us it’s still the number one way to watch. Indeed, a beloved way to watch. So perhaps it’s time for telly to get out of the weeds, remember its innovative heritage and start to, as ITV’s Kate Waters so eloquently put it, “compete on content and collaborate on everything else.”
There’s no doubt 2023 has delivered more than its fair share of TV-related challenges but surely nothing it’s 100-year heritage can’t handle. I want to leave #FTVAGlobal next year feeling invigorated and excited, not sad for the demise of an industry I’ve always loved. Come on telly land, it’s time to bring it home!
Congratulations on a brilliant event to Justin Lebbon, Steven Scaffardi, Greg Grimmer, Sam Tidmarsh and John Moulding and everyone else at Adwanted Events! 👏🏻
Lovely to see some other familiar faces too! Joanna Nowakowska, Colin Mann, John M., Gary Brown, Jon Watts and Ian Whittaker. 👋🏻
