Our Sites:
Broadband Internet and the printed press
Even before broadband Internet was largely Australia-wide, newspapers were already taking note. The Sydney Morning Herald, for example, launched a web version of its newspaper as far back as 1995. The consumer’s choice is more complex than simply whether to buy the paper at the newsagents or read the same information online, with the Internet essentially able to offer a host of additional content, and archived, related news at the click of a mouse. The Internet not only provides on the spot access to “professional” quality journalism from across the world, but it also offers a mass of user-generated content (which can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing). Where writing and opinion-forming is concerned, the growth of blogs and forums means that anyone with an Internet connection can be heard. One result has been a noticeable drop in newspaper circulation figures, with brands shifting much of their marketing focus to the online sphere.
Europe’s biggest publisher, Germany’s Axel Springer Verlag, even launched a tabloid newspaper within “Second Life”, the online virtual world. This was seen as an attempt to regain influence over an increasingly-out of reach sector of society: the Web-savvy online faithful, who seem growingly cynical of restricting, traditional methods. With consumers being increasingly used to forming their own opinions online (and expressing them freely), large media companies must find new ways to adapt to the Internet and (if possible) maintain their prominent standing in the delivery of media content. To weather these developments, established media brands have turned to online advertising to cover costs. Whilst unpopular, adverts, such as those for credit cards, loans and Internet plans, are favoured to pay-per view journalism.
How broadband affects the broadcast media
The Internet has threatened media stations by offering the consumer greater control over exactly what content is viewed. Television has traditionally relied on advertising to generate crucial funds, and broadcasters on the Internet attempt to find new ways to restrict the consumer from skipping or avoiding sponsored advertising (to appease the advertisers paying for space or time). This might come in the form of video commercials preceding a video clip or radio advertisements interspersing streamed radio content (without the choice of passing over them to the required section). Rather than simply broadcasting adverts in-between programs, the media companies must find ways to “force” users to view advertising within the much more unruly online environment.
Due to technological constraints (lack of bandwidth), TV and radio companies have been affected by the Internet later than newspapers, but the same issues have arisen over the past few years. Following the rise of the audio podcast (whereby anyone with a little Web know-how can “broadcast”) and the “vlog” (video blog), and the seemingly-endless popularity of YouTube and similar video-sharing sites, user-generated content is increasingly a threat to the privileged broadcast monopoly of large media companies.
File-sharing programs have also played a part in the redefinition of viewing options, with discontinued shows discoverable at will, rather than when TV networks choose to replay them. With this increase in “on-demand” viewing, TV networks have had to adapt by offering “on-demand” online services. These services are generally only available to subscription-payers if offered by cable or satellite channels, but it does demonstrate television’s need to adapt to changing times. Network TV channels may offers repeats online after the television broadcast, or perhaps just highlights if the show is a sporting event. In a similar way, radio, with its playlists chosen by DJs and not listeners, seems suddenly archaic in the broadband age of mp3 players, podcast subscriptions (to radio stations, professional or otherwise, that specifically speak to the listener’s particular interests) and highly-customised content.
A way out for TV broadcasters?
As an example of TV networks adapting to embrace the Internet, SBS has introduced high quality news (“The World Tonight” and “Foreign Correspondent”) and sport (“The World Game”) to its website, whilst ABC has added audio content from its radio stations for a while now. The BBC is considered to have maintained a strong online presence since the inception of its website also. The question remains, however, of whether or not commercial stations have a genuine future long-term. Very large corporations always have the opportunity to buy into online trends (such as Rupert Murdoch’s buying into MySpace, in addition to launching an online pay-per-view service for his Sky Sports network, or The Seven Network buying a big stake in Internet phone company Engin), but even large broadcasting networks cannot guarantee holding the consumer’s interest at the expense of Internet-powered interactive, and sometimes free, services.
With the growing area of online streaming, and establishing of high-definition (HD) providers, such as Miro and Joost, questions remain over whether such media can survive without advertising content. It also remains to be seen if such sites can genuinely offer the quality of content that television viewers have become accustomed to, rather than just the pull of much-improved freedom of choice. If live sporting events and movies are only available for free online illegally, the question remains whether or not viewers would wish to take such a chance, or pay to watch content on their computer, when they can pay a fee to watch it from the comfort of their armchair. Of course, with the Internet and the living room increasingly becoming intertwined, things may be affected considerably, but perhaps only in the sense that traditional television programming service providers will, for the first time, face true competition from online content broadcasters.
