One of the main TV channels in the UK is ITV, the main commercial competitor to the BBC. Or rather, maybe we should say it was one of the main stations in the days when there were only four channels on the box.
Now it is just one of the many choices and its audiences are declining.
So like so much MSM, ITV is going back to school to learn about digital media. Jemima Kiss at The MediaGuardian was able to sit on on an away-day for the entire marketing and communications department of ITV and provides an entertaining run through of the day.
Some of the stuff will sound familiar to people already working in digital media. It is all about time-shifting, place-shifting, interactivity, remixing, community and niches.
The best lines belong to British writer Ben Hammersley In a room full of people who spend their time trying to build up the ITV, he said no one gives a toss about brands. And nobody cares about ITV.
They don’t care what channel Lost is on – they just want to see Lost. This is really important to understand. They will conspire together online in communities to get more stuff. The only thing you can do is help them
This is hardly revolutionary thinking. But is surprising that TV executives still haven’t got to grips with this notion.
It is a very simple idea but challenges the top-down approach of television. In a digital world, control shifts away from the centre to the edges, from the TV station to the audience.
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