[BC] Bob Pittman speech at NAB

[Gil & Judy Gillivan]

This just in.from Marketwatch.com.

 

Bob Pittman to tell NAB where the money is

By Frank Barnako

Last Update: 4:22 PM ET Mar 15, 2007





Bob Pittman will deliver a keynote address at next month's National
Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. The co-founder of MTV,
and former president of America Online, will tell broadcasters how venture
investors - like himself - are finding opportunities in radio and
television.

Pittman and other former broadcast executives believe they are already doing
it. They are creating micro networks aimed at the younger audiences, which
are watching less TV and spending more time on the Internet, hoping online
advertising will pay off. 

Pittman is a partner in Next New Networks, which announced plans for half a
dozen Web sites, with video, focused on young-demographic friendly topics as
cartoons, car racing, comic books, and fashion. Former Walt Disney Co. CEO
Michael Eisner is in the business, too, with Vuguru, an independent studio
dedicated to producing and distributing content for mobile phones, the Web
and other digital outlets. Network2.tv is another player, offering more than
500 shows, many of them produced by amateurs. 

The fact that Pittman will be on the podium talking about this is
appropriate, not ironic, says Gary Arlen, president of Bethesda, Md.'s Arlen
Communications. "Micro channels are aimed at younger viewers and the 'short
attention span' viewers which don't want more than three- or five-minutes of
programming," said the interactive media and telecommunications consultant. 

"Delivering TV over the Internet is very efficient because, as a digital
signal, it fits on the big wall screen, the laptop, or the mobile device,
which is how 'Gen M' wants to pick up the content." Older viewers are used
to traditional television programming and scheduling, and they watch it on
TV sets. 

This is a replication of what cable networks did 20 years ago. "That was one
of the great models. Pittman and MTV taught us how to tune to a certain
channel to get one topic, and now these micro networks are doing more of the
same." As with cable, Arlen says, it will take time for them to figure out
revenue models and to generate income. "It's going to take years for some,
but more years for some than others."