Mainstream Media and the Internet
The Internet Landscape
Commercial Strategies
Public Strategies
Future Developments
Alexander Shulzycki
European Broadcasting Union
IGF in Rio de Janeiro, November 2007
...
“Internet governance is the development and application by
Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their
respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decisionmaking procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution
and use of the internet.”
- UN Working group (WGIG) in July 2005
...
Global Internet Activity
Online population growth over time (1995-2007)
1000
Millions
800
600
400
200
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Source: EBU based on comScore
Only half of Europeans use the internet regularly and broadband
penetration remains below 20% in many markets.
Global Internet Activity
Internet users per world region (Jun'07)
Worldw ide
778,310
Asia Pacific
286,741
223,922
Europe
North America
Latin America
Middle East/Africa
178,372
53,664
35,611
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Source: EBU based on comScore
Global Internet Activity
Average hours per visitor per month (Mar'07)
Israel
44.8
Canada
44.1
United Kingdom
37.1
Argentina
Brazil
33.4
South Korea
32.8
Sw eden
32.8
Spain
32.7
US
31.4
Chile
30.9
Finland
30.6
Netherlands
30.5
Norw ay
Source: EBU based on comScore
34.5
28.5
France
27.8
Colombia
27.7
Taiw an
27.3
Average hours per visitor
per month
The Long Tail
Top 100 websites in Europe by total unique visitors (000)
200,000
180,000
Total Unique Visitors (000)
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
Source: EBU based on comScore, May 2007
The Long Tail - a relatively small number of web sites control vast
amounts of traffic flow across the Internet.
Global Internet Activity
15 most visited Internet properties, August 2007, Worldwide
Rank
Site
Unique Visitors (000)
Difference 06
% Increase
1 (3)
Google Sites
561,090
92,794
19.8
2 (1)
Microsoft Sites
525,541
19,494
3.9
3 (2)
Yahoo! Sites
478,723
-3,255
-0.7
4 (5)
Time Warner Network
270,084
46,045
20.6
5 (4)
eBay
240,357
1,276
0.5
6 (6)
Wikipedia Sites
210,811
72,170
52.1
7 (8)
Fox Interactive Media
158,232
36,288
29.8
8 (7)
Amazon Sites
151,944
17,001
12.6
9 (11)
Apple Inc.
124,069
29,825
31.6
10 (13)
CNET Networks
122,240
30,485
33.2
11 (9)
Ask Network
121,604
6,139
5.3
12 (10)
Adobe Sites
108,728
8,138
8.1
13 (20)
Viacom Digital
92,373
37,539
68.5
14 (12)
Lycos Sites
76,789
-16,298
-17.5
15 (42)
The Mozilla Organization
72,514
37,471
106.9
Source: EBU based on comScore
These top sites have shown an average 25% increase in the last
year.
The Long Tail
In the measurable universe of 15,000 sites, the total usage of the first 750 sites equals the
usage of all the rest.
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
0
1
1192 2383 3574 4765 5956 7147 8338 9529 10720 11911 13102 14293
The top 5% of the measurable internet universe has the same
number of users as the bottom 95%. (Unique Monthly Visitors)
Brief selected history of the internet
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...
The internet infrastructure was created by large subsidies from the
United States Department of Defense from the late 1960’s
Scientific, academic institutions lead development of applications
The creation of www and browser software made the internet accessible
the general public
In 1995 the US government gave up its backbone to seven private
companies
Studies in late 90’s clearly indicated that the overwhelming majority of
users were strongly opposed to advertising.
Advertising, subscription, shopping developed rapidly
Someone said “Monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an
array of cottage industries....”
The dot com bust, over-investment by media groups
web 2.0, high advertising growth, increasing role of media companies
Commercial Media
Quarterly Internet ad revenues
$5,000
$4,500
$4,000
$ Millions
$3,500
$3,000
$2,500
$2,000
$1,500
$1,000
$500
1Q'07
3Q'06
1Q'06
3Q'05
1Q'05
3Q'04
1Q'04
3Q'03
1Q'03
3Q'02
1Q'02
3Q'01
1Q'01
3Q'00
1Q'00
3Q'99
1Q'99
3Q'98
1Q'98
3Q'97
1Q'97
$0
Quarterly Internet ad revenues
Source: EBU based on Interactive Advertising Bureau /
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Many advertisers shifting budgets from traditional media (radio,
Newspapers)
Commercial Media
Evolution of large media groups' web properties
300'000
Time Warner Netw ork
Fox Interactive Media*
Total Unique Visitors (000)
250'000
Viacom Digital
Sony Online
200'000
Disney Online
Vivendi
150'000
NBC Universal
RTL Group Sites**
Groupe Lagardere
100'000
Liberty Media Holding Corporation
Modern Times Group
50'000
SBS Broadcasting***
ProSiebenSat1 Sites
0
Mar- Apr- May- Jun- Jul- Aug- Sep- Oct- Nov- Dec- Jan- Feb- Mar- Apr- May06
06 06
06
06 06
06
06 06 06
07 07 07
07 07
Source: EBU based on Comscore
With subsidiaries included, the top 3 media companies control
900 million users. (unique monthly visitors not unduplicated)
The Long Tail?
“I listed every Internet property by subcategory and then distinguished
between the media-related properties and the non media-related ones.
Once I’d bifurcated the properties, I calculated a ‘power rating’—a volume
metric measuring total user minutes—to assess user engagement,” Miron
explained. “While page views and unique audience are important, my
power rating reveals share of time: Since interactive-media properties are
supported by advertising and subscriptions, this seemed to me a good
indicator of performance in today’s environment. Interestingly enough, I
found that the 42% of Internet properties identified as being media related
accounted for 70% of the power rating. What’s more, the top 10 media
properties accounted for approximately 76% of the power rating when
compared to the media property universe, and the top 100 media properties
accounted for approximately 91% of that power rating. These findings
alone do not support the existence of a long tail in interactive media. In
fact, they support just the opposite: Interactive media is indeed the ‘land of
the large.”
Lex Miron, executive director of CIBC World Markets’ Media and Entertainment
...
Commercial Media
negative effects of over-commercialization
...
•
Pluralism – diverse points of view not heard; control
•
Advertising – most people don’t like it
•
Pay Models – exclude part of the population from content
•
Diversity of content – homogenised product dominates
•
Thwarted innovation – acquisition-monetization cycle
Public Broadcaster Strategies
EBU Members website reach - Aug'07 (% reach among national population)
BBC Sites (United Kingdom)
55.9
MTV3.FI (Finland)
36.0
DR.DK Denmark)
36.0
Publieke Omroep (Netherlands)
33.0
TV2 Danmark (Denmark)
32.3
TV2 Sites (Norw ay)
30.1
YLE.FI (Finland)
27.4
NRK.NO (Norw ay)
24.6
Sveriges Television, SVT (Sw eden)
21.5
ARD Sites (Germany)
21.3
ORF.AT (Austria)
21.2
VRT Sites (Belgium)
20.7
Groupe TF1(France)
17.6
Channel4 (United Kingdom)
16.1
ITV Sites (United Kingdom)
15.4
SRG SSR idee suisse (Sw itzerland)
14.7
France Televisions Interactive (France)
12.2
RTE.IE (Ireland)
11.0
RTP.PT (Portugal)
8.9
ZDF Sites (Germany)
8.7
RAI Sites (Italy)
6.6
Grupo Radio Television Espanola, RTVE (Spain)
4.2
RTBF Sites (Belgium)
3.4
0
10
20
30
% Reach
40
50
60
More than one fifth of internet users in Europe visit an EBU Member web site at least once a month.
Public Broadcaster Strategies
PSB Radio Website Usage (in thousands) in Europe April 2007
Country
total unique visitors
to radio sites
% to radio sites
PSB rank
Austria
3,721
487
13.1%
1
Belgium
4,728
1,148
24.3%
1
Denmark
3,045
439
14.4%
1
Finland
2,818
399
14.2%
1
France
25,388
5,153
20.3%
2
Germany
32,578
9,344
28.7%
1
1,365
107
7.8%
1
18,086
1,529
8.5%
2
Ireland
Italy
Public radio ranks first or second among radio sites.
Public Broadcasters
Case Study: SVT
SVT uses interactive solutions and services to invite the audience to
have their say in public debates:
•
Argument - programme connected to public opinion.
•
Bobster - users can record their best joke and the video might be
shown in TV.
•
Folkets kommentator - users could make their own videos
commenting a football game and the winner, selected by the
audience, was invited to comment an actual game for the World
Championship in 2006. This is an example of users’ creativity
starting on the web and ending in a TV studio.
•
Packat & Klart, travel programme - users are invited to send in
pictures from all over the world and be part of a weekly
competition to get the pictures published on Svt.se. They are also
encouraged to make a video of their own reportage.
Attitudinal research shows that SVT's most prominent quality is
trustworthiness. Professionalism, quality and diversity are other
characteristics that are associated with the SVT brand.
Public Broadcasters
Case Study: SR
• As one of SR's missions is to make content for children, they
launched a special website focusing only on content for this target
group in 2002.
• In 2006/07 children became a highlighted focus area and obtained
extra resources to create a new distribution form for children,
combining both FM content and web unique content.
• SR Bubbel - a new web channel, launched in December 2006,
playing only children's music. It was also aimed at supporting the
production of children's music.
• Radio-apans ljudjakt (the Radio-monkey's sound hunt) - a game
integrating radio and web letting children experience different
sounds in an interactive way.
• Additional content - making more in-depth web content in
connection to all radio programmes for children.
....
Public Broadcasters
Case Study: BBC
• Website for disabled persons - reflecting the lives of disabled
people including features, quizzes, podcasting, blogging, a
community message board etc.
• Have your say - users can propose discussion subjects, ideas for a
news spot, send their own videos or photos, vote on various topics
etc. Sometimes e-mails get read out directly on air.
• Climate change experiment - in partnership with Oxford University
inviting users to participate in the world's biggest climate
prediction project and contribute to the debate on global warming.
• One day in Afghanistan - project initiated by BBC News Interactive,
showing pictures of Afghanistan from people around the world.
Raising awareness about living conditions in other countries.
• Live from Ethiopia - UGC project - reportage made live from
Ethiopia. e-mailed questions set the agenda and the villagers tell
their stories direct.
According to the Superbrands UK Web Survey, the BBC is the
most trusted brand on the web.
Public Broadcasters
Case Study: DR
• To promote freedom of speech, democracy and dialogue Dr.dk has
established many different services:
• Debate - this forum is led by DR hosts moderators. The hosts invite
users to contribute their thoughts and ideas on topics they
introduce.
• DR Blogs - consists of blogs from DR experts only and not from
users. However, a new expert group made up of users will be
added to this section.
• Local Heroes - a local pilot project where citizens could use the
site as a platform for ideas and initiatives they would like to carry
out.
• Candidate database - candidates in the municipal elections can
display their profiles and explain their positions on Dr.dk.
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Importance of professional content
"...Internet over the past five years: blogs and (more recently)
video-sharing websites have opened up new creative outlets
to tens of millions of people around the world. At the same
time, the appetite for professional produced
content....continues to grow.“
“... no matter which medium or platform consumers turn to, the
demand for high-quality content will always exist .”
- Vint Cerf, Google VP
...
Importance of professional content
Professional videos are preferred to amateur productions
online, but amateur content appeals to coveted segments of
the young male audience.
Overall, 62% of online video viewers say that their favourite
videos are those that are professionally produced, while
less than a fifth prefer amateur video. Another 11% say they
enjoy both professionally produced video and amateur
online video equally. For young adult men there is a much
narrower gap: 43% opt for professional video, while 34% say
they prefer amateur content.
http://www.pewInternet.org/, July 2007
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Increasing demand for video content
...
•
Social networking and UGC sites have driven the online
video market and prompted media companies to act.
•
Online video consumption tends to be additive and does not
replace normal TV viewing
•
Disputes with Apple
•
New advertising techniques
•
Launch of peer-to-peer networks
•
Separation between the PC and the television breaking
down
Net neutrality: a looming crisis?
As online video reaches a mass market capacity problems will
emerge resulting in renegotiation between content
providers and network owners. Costs are likely to rise for
broadcasters and consumers who are heavy online video
users.
This may result in a toll-based internet which threatens net
neutrality.
...