Open Broadcasting

Concept by David Bausola and Robert Myers

Introdcution

A broadcaster creates an innovative online community where users develop programme ideas, reducing development costs, removing format fees and getting shows the public really want to air. Advertisers, indies, audience and the Channel all benefit.

A broadcaster has 1 key customer (advertisers) and 2 costs (production and distribution).

Distribution costs centre around the fixed elements of bringing a channel to air but production costs are more variable.

Production issues

A large element of programme development costs come from the long development and production cycle (about 9 months to a year) which production companies need to work through in order to anticipate the popular shows of tomorrow. The production companies absorb these costs and they try to make this loss up through aggressive rights fees.

Customer issues

Advertisers are feeling the pressure around increasingly user-controlled and/or non-linear technology that has the ability to strip out their adverts.

Returns

Commercial

Commercial in terms of the broadcasters central value chain, the broadcasters can vitalise the stalemate of development and production costs and workflow to deliver innovation and vale to the advertising sectors and the consumers. This is achieved by identifying Formats that are naturally developed through user collaboration via the Wiki model.

Editorial

Editorial is the key to nurturing the consumer’s needs. Though instead of prescribing the ideas, editorial are the filter to the final product. Editorial maintain the balance between advertising needs, consumer needs and production company commissions.

Technology

Much of this is possible with established Open Source code, though the plethora of components and applications that a broadcaster has developed would integrate well to ensure the overall service to the users is aimed at enabling them to deliver their contributions and most importantly, exportable to TV production.

Marketing

Promotion of the service instead of the content would be the significant factor. As content is being produced on the site is Open licence, marketing can borrow heavily, thus matching advertisers to users easily.