NYC Television Week, Round One

Version 10 of NYC Television Week developed by the owners of top trade publications Broadcasting ampamp Cable and Multichannel News didn39t make local headlines or break news What it did do was worth observing what it didn39t do the sameWhat it didShowcase a welcome camaraderie between the industry39s pair of trade organizations off the bat Veterans still remember the time when the National Association of Broadcasters and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association were at loggerheads over every issue These days despite a thorny retransmission consent environment and general dysfunction in Congress NAB president Gordon Smith and NCTA counterpart Michael Powell exhibit tendencies to be working for everyone39s common good quotWe both have a mutual interestquot Powell remarked last Monday morning quotgrowing and succeeding For Smith quotwe want cable to succeed The question with retransmission consent is getting equilibrium We don39t like service interruptions the same way we don39t like service interruption in Washington as in Congress gridlockquotPush Ultra HD as the next big technology horizon TV will conquer and viewers will embrace Smith advised his constituency to start investing in a transition from HD to ultra HD while In Demand chief executive Bob Benya sees videoondemand leading the way to fuel viewer appetites for ultra HD content once more gets produced that way FYI Benya isn39t raising the white flag on 3D television When glassesfree TV sets come into the marketplace next year or so public demand for 3D will riseamp160Demonstrate a growing prosperous Internet will not be at TV39s expense The demonstration came from Group M chairman Irwin Gotlieb one of the advertising industry39s biggest power players When faced with an opening question about TV becoming a dinosaur quotif TV was standing still it would be a dinosaurquot Gotlieb answered quotBut is TV is not standing still thanks to smart TVs interactivity ultra HD and videoondemand Everyone is moving in that directionquotamp160Open a debate over the infrastructure under which scripted TV programming gets developed and greenlighted by channels Steve Mosko president of Sony Pictures Television labeled the system a quotmessquot last Tuesday morning quotIt39s just a bad system Sometimes you39re forced to get acceptable TV just to fill a timelinequot Mosko wants to see the pilot process largely scrapped in favor of more 10 or 13episode series orders absent pilot On the other end 20thCenturyFox TV cochairmanchief executive Gary Newman wants options to the current development nature of things not scrapping quotDon39t throw it outquot he told attendees a few hours after Mosko39s interview quotThere39s value in it Let39s see yearround program development and not trigger series until they39re ready Also put together more miniseries and limitedrun seriesquotWhat it didn39t doShowcase smart TVs beyond Gotlieb39s comments Ultra HD had a panel a good one Wednesday afternoon The smart TV movement didn39t despite the growing penetration among TV households and growing usage among viewers A big lost opportunity to deal with possibly the most important and arguably impactful technology development of this decadeamp160Give attendees much opportunity to ask questions or react to what they saw To the credit of organizers every keynote presentation oneonone interview and panel throughout the week cried out for substantial QampampA sessions Very few provided themtwo maybe three minutes tops at the end If you want to turn NYC Television Week into something big and special this point has to be addressed The easiest way to turn off a crowd and create bad buzz is to have them sit for hours without ample opportunity for feedbackNevertheless there39s the kernel of something big and special at play here The New York Television Festival the justlaunched Paley NYC showcase Diversity Week and other TV outlets should consider a connection with NYC Television Week So should local chapters of such groups as NAMIC which had an executive breakfast with Pivot president Evan Shapiro last Wednesday with plenty of audience giveandtake and Women 2039s Founders Friday meetups The tent39s big enough and congratulates the organizers for realizing their first passLook forward to Version 20 of this venture on the rise next fallUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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NYC Television Week, Round One

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Simon Applebaum

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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NYC Television Week, Round One

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Simon Applebaum

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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