The future media landscape will be populated by smaller deals. I say this having talked yesterday with Jim Deans who runs GDBTV. Most Telcos gearing up for IPTV, Jim points out, have gone for the big blockbuster packages to tempt in consumers. But there's practically no differentiator in blockbusters. Cable companies use them, broadcasters use them, and now Telcos.
There may be more user-interaction with a Telco IP television offer but content-wise there's not enough focus on local.
GDBTV expects to launch 300 local channels across the UK between now and year's end (there's even two for Brighton). That's at around £20,000 for the year (set up and bandwidth). Jim is competition for the Telcos. A GDB set top box allows niche content to be delivered through the unmanaged Internet to people's TV sets.
Telcos are going to have to go for these sites and for the niche subject programmers but they're not going to be offering a lot back in terms of audience exposure. That's why a lot of small deals need doing.
I can relate to that. I'm currently out persuading media majors to outsource their content production. I'm a small outfit. Doors are opening. Small deals are in.
