NAB Radio vs TV….Same Challenges

While I was fighting the good fight with Radio at the NAB Radio show in Charlotte last week,  Terry Heaton (above) from the AR&D Consultancy, was in Austin at the NAB TV show. We might have been a few states apart, but we were both experiencing similiar situations. With my background in helping Local TV, Radio and Newspaper with Web revenue strategy, I was not surprised to hear of Mr. Heaton’s sobering time with well intentioned, yet still skeptical TV folk. 

Reflections on his time at the TV conference HERE…..my take on the Radio conference HERE. 

Terry put together this spot-on list that is quickly becoming the stuff Media text books are made of:

1. The TV audience for local media isn’t coming back.
2. News — and especially local news — is being increasingly commodified.
3. The local weather franchise is moving to The Weather Channel, Weather Underground, and a host of outside providers who’ve made their applications easy to find and easy to use.
4. Advertisers themselves will put a halt to the blue smoke and mirrors of mass marketing.
5. We will never, NEVER overcome revenue losses to our legacy platforms through portal websites alone.
6. The people formerly known as the audience are entertaining themselves and each other. The best we can do in this scenario is to support it — let people show off. Teach them to know what we know.
7. The network-affiliate system isn’t just changing; it’s history.
8. A successful internet sale is AGAINST television and all mass media. This is why the lack of dedicated web sales people is beyond problematic.
9. The local advertising community needs to be taught about internet advertising, and we have to do it.
10. Local media MUST move forward along two separate paths of profitability, one maturing as rapidly as the other is growing.