Industry leader interview: The Future of Television, Mike Fries, Liberty Global

So, another post from Gavin, and I would use one of the pictures from our catch up drink last night but, to be honest, they wouldn’t show him at his best. This time, he picks up another perennial LBiQ favourite topic, the future of TV.

TV is changing, I think we all know that, but how, and where, are we going? Mike Fries president and CEO of Liberty Global Broadband heads up a company facing the challenges of how consumers are accessing content.

Fries presents a insightful background, that the market is a rapidly changing one.

When digital TV launched 3 years ago in the Netherlands, a technically superior broadband enabled country, there was scorn and mockery within the industry. Now it has a 50% market penetration and it seems that consumers are embracing the advancements and all the joys (…and pitfalls) that it comes with.

Internet TV is the shiny new toy that people want to play with, it’s an advancement of the entertainment unit that has sat in the corner of our family homes for the last 50 years. Unlike the digital music market however there is still the opportunity to get it right, where DRM failed within the music industry the companies ‘webifying’ TV still see the opportunity to nail this one.

With the technology out there though and consumers already engaging in the conversation of technology over service arises. People who are implementing technology solutions independent of a ‘service design’ strategy, we face the risk of driving down that familiar road, luckily we’re well before the fork and there’s time to impact change.

Fries has helped in my belief, that the whole ‘thing’ hinges on a few pivotal players, the content suppliers being willing to embrace what consumers want.

It relies on the technology providers providing systems that understand integration, between devices, which implies they need to understand how users interact, when and where.

Next, it relies on the wider community embracing this content, as the adoption of on demand services increases, the model of 10% of users sucking 80% of bandwidth will evolve. The digital youth and technorati’s of the world will embrace and spread the word, as long as my dad can work it, he’ll embrace it too.

Advertising is the keystone within this, as businesses this model will only be sustainable within an arena that can be monetised, the linear TV format we’ve been used to is dying, it won’t die completely, people will shift, it’s how advertisers embrace this and provide consumers what they want they will really get the community involved. Fries points out that it’s starting - bespoke channels are the start, the car channel that provides car related advertising, but I believe personalisation and localisation will be key. I don’t want to get all Minority Report but you get my drift, I hope!

So, how to summise? Well, as I said at the start we all know its changing, a shifting pattern of contribution and adoption. To quote Kara Swisher the moderator of this talk, “Do we want a world of Steve Job’s tasteful fascism”? A community that is, but really isn’t in control, the discussion of proprietary over open systems still reigns but that’s another debate. Fundamentally, its allowing users to make the choice, let them access content when and where they want and from a monetisation point of view allowing advertsiers to target consumers in a way that is relevant to both parties. Think ‘demand marketing’ and you’re probably getting warm.