Super Panel: Keys to Future of Television – Personalization, Flexibility and Promotion

Posted on June 3, 2015 in ATSC News

Lively… Provocative … Entertaining … One would expect nothing less from three television industry luminaries appearing onstage together for the first time at last month’s “Tune In to The Future” ATSC Broadcast Television Conference.

Gordon Smith (NAB), Michael Powell (NCTA), and Gary Shapiro (CEA)

Despite their different vantage points, the three top industry executives – Gordon Smith, President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Michael Powell, President and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) – all agreed that ATSC 3.0 will help enable television’s bright future in the years ahead.

“ATSC 3.0 is a very elegant standard that does a lot of great things,” CEA’s long-time chief Shapiro said on the “Future of Television” Super Panel. “Television set manufacturers are definitely excited about it – they’re willing to introduce and try new things. But if there’s not support in the marketplace, you’ll see that dry up,” he said, adding that ATSC 3.0’s success will hinge on the commitment of “broadcast management to invest and promote it.”

NAB’s Smith agreed. “I believe 3.0 is essential for broadcasting to have the flexibility and the incentive to do new things with less spectrum,” he said. In addition to enabling new business models like targeted advertising, “one of [ATSC 3.0’s] greatest virtues is the ability to do mobile…now broadcasting can be part of the mobile future,” the former U.S Senator added.

Citing a key attribute of ATSC 3.0, NCTA’s Powell said, “Internet Protocol allows flexible and strategic use” of content and distribution – for things like targeted advertising, recommendation engines and integration with popular social media platforms. “We’ve got to create flexibility to give consumers what they’re asking for,” said former FCC Chairman Powell.

In the free-wheeling, hour-long dialogue, moderated by another former FCC Chairman, the Honorable Dick Wiley, the three industry luminaries offered their unique perspectives on the future of television – from the pending spectrum auctions and government involvement in the process to what today’s consumers are demanding from their television services and devices.

Smith emphasized broadcasting’s central role in the fabric of American society, extolling free live broadcasting, localism, journalism and emergency alerting. “With ATSC 3.0, a very bright future indeed” he concluded.

Powell noted the key role of the cable industry as the nation’s leading provider of broadband services to help drive the marriage of linear television and the Internet. He said we are entering a “stunning period for video consumption.”

Shapiro cited the plethora of devices on which Americans consume television today and in the future – not just giant new 4K UHD TVs, but also tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, virtual reality devices and the like. “We’re still at the beginning of a lot of transitions,” he said.

The centerpiece of the 2015 ATSC Broadcast Television Conference, the Future of Television Super Panel was covered by CSPAN.

Posted in ATSC News