Australia is sometimes seen as a place where people can say things without those things reaching back to the northern hemisphere. Last week Dawn Airey, the CEO of Channel 5, was in Sydney and gave a very candid view of the current state of the global television industry.
“Looking at what dial-up internet has done to the newspaper industry, you only have to imagine the havoc that can be reaped upon us in this room when super fast broadband is a reality,” she said.

“And unless we fully take account of how these changes are reshaping the world around us and work out new ways to reach audiences and diversify our revenues then we, queens of the screen, probably deserve the same nightmarish fate as the princes of print.”

Having worked in the digital strategic teams of various broadcasters in the UK and Australia, it was good to see the CEO of a broadcaster making this call. It is rare, it is bold, and it is vital that this message comes from a company’s CEO as it is only the CEO who can effect the strategic change required to integrate the changes required to build a digital transformation within the business.

In preparation for our Transmedia Storytelling session this year at MIPTV (Tuesday April 13 2010), one of the topics of conversation has been how pro-digital we should be with an audience of television executives. Given the integrated approach that transmedia projects require, the argument is that we avoid ruffling feathers within television networks, and celebrate the individuals who have supported digital projects within the networks.

My view, however, is that it is important in this period of chaos that we tell the truth clearly and loudly: audience behaviour has changed and it is important for the continued success of television networks that they invest in new forms of content that match this change.

This means that the CEOs of broadcast networks need to incentivise commissioners, marketing departments, sales teams and promo producers to understand the behaviour of digital audiences, and support projects from the ground up.

Australia punches above its weight in independent transmedia production companies.Recently the Australian government gave the free-to-air networks a A$250m (€170m) rebate on the broadcast licence fees triggered by “the advent of the internet”. This rebate should not be a lozenge to the bottom line, it should be used as the opening to create a committed digital content strategy, and to execute on that strategy.

A dollar invested in digital is worth more than a dollar invested in mono-platform production, wherever in the world it is spent.

This blog post was first published by MIPTV 2010