• by August 19, 2004

A FEW DEVELOPMENTS THAT DEMAND YOUR ATTENTION - These days, Madison Avenue seems transfixed by prospects for video-on-demand and the impact server-based program delivery will have on viewing to TV programming and advertising. And with good reason, VOD is a real deal-changer for just about everyone concerned - programmers, networks, advertisers, and especially consumers.

"I mean, what is a network in a video-on-demand environment? Viewers will be creating their own networks," pondered Adam Gerber, director of strategy and innovation at MediaVest, and one of the experts who will be delving into this and other issues being raised by next-generation media technologies at MediaPost's upcoming Forecast 2005 conference to be held on Sept. 22 in New York. While the ad industry seems preoccupied by set-top based digital video records such as TiVo, Gerber said the real transformation in TV viewing - and buying - patterns is more likely to occur when cable and satellite operators begin ramping up VOD, and in the process, become the ultimate gatekeepers of television content.

But while such changes are evident and seemingly inevitable, nary a word is discussed in advertising circles about the impact on-demand technologies may soon have on other consumer media. Sure, you could argue that print media were always "on-demand." With the exception of subscriptions that came in your mailbox when publishers and the postal service deemed fit, consumers could always go out and pick up publications when they demanded them on newsstands. But the Web is making "print" a truly on-demand medium. And we're not just talking about accessing content on magazine and newspaper Web sites, but in the genuine on-demand notion of digital editions of print publications. Digital editions are already transforming - not surprisingly - the tech publishing industry, and have recently become a point of debate within the circulation auditing business.

Okay, so you get the print scenario. What about radio? As it turns out, the oldest electronic medium is also gaining some on-demand capabilities. XM Satellite Radio Wednesday announced plans to offer a new radio receiver enabling subscribers to pause and rewind live radio broadcasts, in much the same way a TiVo system gives viewers control over their TV sets. The new receiver, the Delphi SKYFi2, will cost $130 and can store 30 minutes of radio content from multiple radio channels, essentially mimicking the capabilities of a DVR. Putting aside the implications for an already apoplectic Recording Industry Association of America, the technology is a surprising development for Madison Avenue. But it shouldn't be. Ultimately, MediaVest's Gerber said any media content that can be digitized - and doesn't that include most anything? - ultimately will be available to consumers when they want it and in the form they want to consume it.

Okay, so satellite radio isn't really an advertising medium and it's growth curve still seems small. But how long will it be before some smart consumer electronics marketer begins selling conventional radio receivers with built-in storage and replay features?

What's that? You say one of them already has? Well, sure Apple's iPod does have a radio receiver option, but we suspect few iTunes downloaders are aware of it, much less care about it. It's just not marketed as a radio receiver. Interestingly, the satellite radio receivers keep getting smaller and more mobile and some of the newer ones are now about the size and weight of an iPod. Who'll be next? Sony? And what are the chances that listeners of digitally recorded radio will "zip" through ads in what already is the most cluttered electronic medium? If television's DVRs are any example, we think it'll be something to the tune of half- to three-quarters of the time.