The Internet’s impact on local TV
Don Day August 16th, 2008
Last week, I sat on a panel put together by the very forward-thinking Idaho Press Club that looked at the Internet’s impact on local TV. I was joined by Mark Danielson, GM of KIFI and Vickie Holbrook of the Idaho Press Tribune. Danielson talked about his station’s WiNG efforts (which we previously profiled), and Holbrook talked about her paper’s rapid diversification.
The Idaho Press-Tribune is this state’s third largest paper, but is easily the most innovative. They produce more content than the much larger Idaho Statesman with a much smaller staff.
I told the audience that newspapers are almost dead (which elicited a knowing smile from the panel’s moderator - who also happens to be the editorial writer for a newspaper). But I warned that TV as a medium could be next. I write extensively here about the challenges facing newspapers, because our part of the industry could - and is already starting to - take a similar path. Hulu, P2P file sharing and centralized DVR technology could make it increasingly difficult for TV stations in the future. The entire panel talked about how the playing field has leveled out in ways no one thought just a decade ago. In many markets, the traditional newspaper and TV powers are battling on each other’s turf.
10 Comments Add your own
1. Wessl van Rensburg | August 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Blogs and internet users themselves will become the multiple small content distributers of the future me thinks.
2. Anonymous | August 17th, 2008 at 4:04 am
I dig archival TV clips from out of market, news,test, old promos…mostly on You Tube and not much from an area stationfor a news story. We have 24 hrs local and regional repeaters for that on air. Just don’t expect me to get a 4 GHz Whizbang XP to stream it on a wacked out video card with more memory that I have to project it and players ain’t much butter for tiny videos of Fritz the wonder Obama kitten.
Don’t ever smirk or make too much of yourself for someday you will be obsolete too.
3. tdc | August 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
then there’s this new idea out there about a timeshare slingbox, you can use mine in detroit if i can use yours in beijing… so much for nbc holding stuff.
i could have caught oly’s live and a chinaman could see our mayor get jailed and tethered!
4. mako | August 17th, 2008 at 6:25 am
While I love Lostremote, the TV bashing is becoming so generalized now that it reminds me of an Obama speech. If you haven’t noticed, four OEM’s are now making fully connected (internet) television sets. TV is here to stay. TV as we once knew it is gone. But, this is not like the demise of print where the medium of ink and paper and delayed information is gone. In fact, broadcasters have huge opportunities with connected televisions and 19.39 Mbps of bandwidth per 6MHz channel. Don’t toss TV in with newspapers, as if they are the same… It’s just blog fill without much thought.
5. Nick | August 17th, 2008 at 8:38 am
@Mako
When you say it reminds you of an Obama speech. Do you mean because it’s trying to define the future and what needs to be done to achieve that?
Because if you mean, because it’s full of errors people seem to let pass, I think you’re thinking of a McCain speech.
6. mako | August 17th, 2008 at 10:43 am
LOS. Lack of substance. In suggesting that about Obama, I made no endorsement of McCain.
7. wtf | August 18th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I feel sorry for any TV station that still carries “NBC”, “CBS”, “ABC” or “Fox” as their station brand (ie… CBS2, NBC5, etc..)
These guys are distributing their content EVERYWHERE online (except of course their local affiliate websites)
It’s going to cost them a fortune when they have to re-brand down the road when the motherships pull out of affiliates… or when the affiliates can’t pay to carry they’re primetime programming anymore.
8. Anonymous | August 18th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Or CBS 3 is gone and you inevitably have to either regain your callsign identity or develop a new branding scheme over 6-12 months.
9. Anonymous | August 27th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I still hate it when I see the terrible cliche of a vague looking keyboard and those phony overemphasized “CLICKS” for both the KB and mouse (not to mention the pointer that rolls across the address and it gets bigger or highlighted for a second).
If God already has Nine Billion Email Accounts, why do people figure we have no idea what cheapinfomercial dot com is?
10. Anonymous | August 27th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I would like to say that the Idaho Press-Tribune hardly has any sales points in Malheur County other than M&W Market in Nyssa. You also have to pay to see their paper and not even Ontario, Oregon’s paper the Argus Observer makes you do this.
This is only 32 miles from Nampa. Not very good.
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