“Technology is completely meaningless unless it changes the way we behave.”
So says Shelly Palmer, the keynote speaker at Media Experts’ Third Annual Digital Day Media Conference, running today in Toronto.
Palmer, the host of NBC Universal’s Live Digital with Shelly Palmer, set the tone for one of the event’s themes–change–using the example of the capabilities of 4G networks compared to 3G networks.
If a consumer wants to make a price comparison, for example, they can do so instantly on a 4G network while its sluggish 3G counterpart takes six to 10 times longer, he said. “4G is going to change the way people behave. It will change the fundamental way we buy and sell.”
And while only 18 months ago “video snacking” was a buzz term in the industry, with the general thought being audiences would only watch short snippets on small screens, Palmer said audiences will now watch content of any length on any screen.
Today’s audiences consume TV the art form, said Palmer, “not the platform.”
He also touched on the elephant in the room–“cord cutting and the horror that goes along with it.” While many in the traditional media industry are afraid that audiences will stop watching broadcast TV and simply consume content online, Palmer shared an anecdote from his personal life to quell their fears.
He said his wife recently told him she wanted to watch TV, but their kids were playing Xbox. “Which button do I press?” she asked Palmer. “For a certain group of people, [cord cutting] will never happen because they don’t have the technological know-how.”
He added that cord cutting will happen, but not to the extreme that some are predicting. Speaking about the young demographic of “born digitals” that have only lived in a world with today’s digital technologies (those who laugh off VCRs the way 30-somethings laugh at 8-track technology), Palmer said “they won’t cut the cord. They’re never plugging in” to begin with.
“Don’t let anyone tell you the digital revolution is an ‘either/or’ [between digital and television]”, he said. “All of this stuff co-exists.”
Palmer suggested the media industry worry about how to build business propositions around where the cash is flowing in the dual revenue, subscriber supported/advertiser-funded landscape.
“Figure out a part of your day to architect the future since the business is changing,” he said. “You have to think about how to measure, package and charge for this exciting new world.”
The hardest part of working in media in the 21st century, said Palmer, is preparing for new models while simultaneously watching where the money is coming from now.
