Television’s argument for relevance

The TV industry warns the fight for advertisers’ dollars is far from over

Kennedy Nixon Presidential Debate 1960

One of the notable things about the media’s collapsing business model is how television has suffered nowhere near the same downturn in advertising revenues as the other channels.

This has been baffling for many of us pundits so a series of interviews I’m doing with media executives on digital disruption was a good opportunity to discuss why television is holding the line where print has dismally failed.

While the executive has to remain anonymous at the moment, the series is for a private client, their view on why television has so far avoided the advertising abyss is simple – accountability.

We have something, as do my friends at other media companies, that YouTube and Facebook don’t have which is we create quality content. What will differentiate us is we have premium, locally produced content that is one hundred percent brand safe and one hundred percent viewable and, most importantly, is independently measured by third parties.

My view is that advertisers in that environment is a much more powerful experience than advertising in Facebook or YouTube

While many of us may laugh at Australian commercial TV being described as ‘quality’, it does appeal to audiences far bigger than the typical YouTube channel or Facebook Live stream.

The advertising industry’s established systems also, unsurprisingly, work for the television industry in giving the sector accountability that the online services lack in a world where ‘click fraud’ – software tricks to report false web impressions – is rampant.

Even more importantly for the new media giants is the ‘brand safe’ message being pushed by the incumbents. The advertising crisis for Google is real and the established players intend to exploit it.

While the TV executive is pushing their own product, it’s clear the fight for advertising and marketing dollars is far from over.

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Author: Paul Wallbank

Paul Wallbank is a speaker and writer charting how technology is changing society and business. Paul has four regular technology advice radio programs on ABC, a weekly column on the smartcompany.com.au website and has published seven books.

3 thoughts on “Television’s argument for relevance”

  1. Spot on with your point about “quality” when referring to Australian-produced content.

    Thanks to PIA’s $80 p.a. VPN, we’ve canned Foxtel and rarely, if ever tune in to local stations.

    Australians are a bit slow on the uptake with what’s available from overseas on the internet though, otherwise Harvey Norman wouldn’t still be in business.

  2. I’m still not a fan of the metrics that TV uses – but the big digital platforms have been lax. Saw an interesting video on this topic and included it in my latest blog post (first in a while). Seems the momentum is building

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