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August 2012 www.tvbeurope.com


“Historically, broadcasters delivered certain national and local services for civil society”


TVBEurope 15 News & Analysis


Global Broadcast Summit takes shape


Spectrum issues are at the heart of a planned new conference, bringing together CEOs from the world’s leading broadcasters. Adrian Penningtonlooks at the key issues


THE GLOBAL Broadcast Summit (GBS) aims to create a trans-border lobby group of commercial and public broadcasters to persuade governments and regulatory bodies of the need for a level playing field in issues of spectrum dividend and multi- platform competition. The GBS, which is being


held for the first time from 28-29 November in London, is being billed as an exclusive roundtable debate for broadcast CEOs to consider the global broadcast industry from policy and business strategy perspectives. It is being organised by


Broadcast Planet, a partnership of Media Asset Capital and BPL Broadcast and chaired by Michael McEwen, a 27-year veteran of CBS including as executive VP of Media, and a former director of Media Asset Capital. “In conversations I have had


with over 30 broadcaster CEOs about the Summit I can state that there is a hunger to share concerns and talk to peers about certain challenges that transcend national borders and the competitive environment,” McEwen explains. “There are some principals in regulation and in multi-platform distribution for example that can be shared, recognised and applied in domestic markets and it is those principles that we hope to crystallise.” The event has enticed CEOs from broadcasters including


Michael McEwen: “On-demand services, internet streaming and mobile content only exacerbate market fragmentation”


ZDF, France Television, RTL, ABC Australia, NHK Japan, CBC Canada, PBS USA and Televisa Central America. At least one representative of a national government and another from a regulatory body will be invited. The BBC’s outgoing Director General Mark Thompson is providing an opening keynote. The forum will be underpinned


by research and analysis orchestrated by CMRI (Canadian Media Research Inc), which will tax the CEO, COO, CTO and the CFO of 100 broadcast organisations with 200 questions about production, financial, operational and audience issues.


Regulation obligations “One focus is to ask what government and regulators expect broadcasters to deliver in an environment that has changed so much over the last 10 years,” says McEwen, who is also director general of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). “Historically, broadcasters


delivered certain national and local services for civil society in return for a relatively protected


“The question is whether


governments understand that in many cases broadcasters are struggling to maintain their core services let alone have the capability to innovate for the future. The more that spectrum is squeezed the less chance broadcasters have to deliver on the promise of future formats like UltraHDTV.” He adds: “The principal of


broadcast spectrum has to be recognised by governments


and the consequent need for licensing regimes, retransmission and distribution agreements to allow public broadcasters the benefits of increasing their audiences and revenues. It will further ask how business models can be adapted to plough digital revenue streams back into the core service and how broadcasters can adapt their workforces, trained in linear programme production, to produce for cross- platform applications. The spotlight will also be


turned on journalistic accountability in a social media age (although McEwen hopes the event will not be sidetracked by the Levenson enquiry which is due to report in the autumn). The Summit is primarily for


organisations that have a broadcast service component at their heart, whether over the air or retransmitted on satellite or cable. There will be no Microsoft, Google or Facebook.


“The principal of broadcast spectrum has to be recognised by governments around the world and ratified by the ITU. If broadcasters don’t have sufficient spectrum then their contract with society is broken”


regulatory and legislative framework and spectrum for over the air broadcast. “That market has changed


irreversibly with the introduction of pay and specialty channels on cable and satellite which don’t face nearly the same regulation obligations. They don’t have the same kind of barriers to deliver revenues that helps them create content and has led to an imbalance affecting a conventional broadcasters’ ability to fund and fulfil their own license agreement. On-demand services, internet streaming and mobile content only exacerbate market fragmentation.


around the world and ratified by the ITU because that is where a broadcaster’s core services lie. If they don’t have sufficient spectrum then their contract with society is broken. “Delegates to the Summit will


be able to return to their national governments, having met as an industry on a global basis, and say ‘we need you to pay attention and to practice some fairness in usage and distribution of spectrum.’”


Cross-platform A second focus of the Summit will look at the multi-platform evolution, in particular the demand for content to be made available on every platform


“There is no forum that


brings together broadcast leaders at the C-level as peers to look at issues they all face after a decade of unprecedented change,” says McEwen. “Many are moving from


traditional broadcast organisations into content distribution companies where broadcasting is only one platform. “We thought that if we could bring them together, put some research behind some of those issues and give them the space to explore and come to some conclusions in terms of principles of action, then that would be a useful contribution to the discussion.”


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