A TIPPING POINT: DECISION TIME IN BROADCASTING ON ITS ROLE IN NEW MEDIA

Published: Oct. 3, 2006, 8:15 p.m.

For more than a decade, broadcasters have felt, with much justification, that they would be a major player in the "new media landscape." But the early momentum and enthusiasm for new media applications rose and fell along with the Internet boom and bust. Now, as the Internet economy continues along its second--and more sustainable--era of expansion, both stations and networks face a set of formidable challenges. Can the networks generate the requisite level of affiliate support to develop a true "system strategy?" Can the broadcasting system mobilize the capital required to compete in the totally deregulated market of online services? How do broadcasters embrace the explosion of user-generated content? And most important: what is the sustainable service role for mid-sized and smaller stations that make up the vast majority of broadcast networks? However difficult these questions may be, one element of doubt has been removed from the picture: online/new media service is no longer a financial black hole. There is revenue, literally tens of millions of dollars in online advertising and/or underwriting revenue that could be available to pay for service development.