Why do you watch TV?

Probably to watch your favourite programmes, or one you’ve heard about or read about, or one that someone you or someone you trust has recommended to you. You probably don’t watch TV for the advertising… and you certainly don’t stick with one channel all night in case something interesting happens to be on.

How do you watch TV?

Well chances are you have multi-channel digital TV, which means you not only have a TV remote, but another one for the set top box. If you have digital TV you may also have a Personal Video Recorder, like Sky+ (over two million Sky Subscriber households have them). If you are really into TV you may have HD, and if you have broadband at home you may also have a Slingbox that lets you watch and control your TV, away from the home on a PC. If you’re a 3 Mobile customer you could even have Slingmobile and be watching Sky channels like ours on a mobile phone. All these devices are now freely available and more and more people use them.

It is possible, but highly unlikely, that this evening you will sit down and spend an entire evening watching TV at your PC, however much some would like to believe that. We’re watching as much broadcast TV as ever.

TV has changed, have you?

The point here is that TV has changed. With more channels, more programmes, more choice and the means to manage it, viewers have control…and this is bad news for a conventional TV businesses - and for you if you rely on conventional TV advertising for your brand.

Your audience is no longer a passive one, willing to sit through the commercial breaks until the programme returns. Instead they are zapping between channels, pausing their PVRs, time-shifting their viewing and skipping their way through your commercials. Too bad.

And in multi-channel homes, viewing of the “big” channels has fallen to new lows, as a larger proportion of your audience is dispersed over the many more channels and programmes available to them. Sadly, because of the small size of the BARB panel, this cannot be properly tracked. They are watching TV, but you cannot identify what they are watching. Now, that is seriously bad news.

The future of TV, today

So get over it, look at using TV in new ways. Why rent someone else’s audience when you could create your own? Why try and slice in your communications message into someone else’s content, alongside your competitors, when you could just as easily and often for less, create your own compelling programmes?

This is how TV will function in the future, not with pre-rolls and commercial spots, but with intelligent, entertaining or informative material, supported, sponsored and promoted by brands and businesses like yours. You’ll create trust in your brand from your audience by giving them what they want or are interested in. And as a result, they’ll be more receptive when you do sell to them. They won’t resent it as an interruption.

What’s stopping you?

This approach won’t work with a traditional broadcaster, fixated by ratings and ad revenues, clinging to the fast unravelling remnants of a business model built for an analogue era when you could count the available channels on one hand. The traditional broadcaster will insist on editorial control, to maximise the audience without regard to your target segment, and they will decide when it is scheduled, showing no compunction to pulling it altogether if the ratings are below what they need, even if you are happy. Advertiser funded programming (AFP) is a dead end – the old business model dressed up in new clothes. Chances are, you are unlikely to hear all this from your ad agency, but this is hardly surprising when you realise where they make most of their revenue.

Take control!

What you need is control of the message - the editorial content, the delivery - when and how often your programme is on air; the promotion - making sure the right people watch it. And when they do, why would you want to share this audience with anyone else, having gone to all this trouble? Exactly – so think about what you’d like them to do as a result of watching your programme. Approach this as a direct response opportunity and give them a reason to get involved.

Information TV lets you do this – you can buy the hours you need to broadcast your own branded programmes and channels at low cost. It offers you the flexibility and speed to broadcast your own branded content to entertain or inform, to engage and activate your audience, harnessing the power of TV. It gives you control.

• Who can watch my programmes? – anyone with Sky Digital or broadband Internet
• How will people know when my programme is on air? – you tell them!
• How large an audience can I expect? – that’s down to your own marketing
• How do I measure the audience? – you can’t, due to failings with BARB but hold on…

You are thinking ‘old TV’!  This is not about audience size, it’s about getting interested, targeted viewers to watch and the act upon your programme. So treat it as you would direct response and track its effects. It’s sales you’re actually after, not ratings!

Hopefully this has really got you thinking. If you are ready to take it further then lets start talking!