TV ‘dead as we know it’

New technology has created a “fundamental shift” in the media landscape and will bring about “the end of TV as we know it,” according to Ogilvy Entertainment president Doug Scott.

Speaking at the UbiQ digital entertainment conference in Paris, Scott said that new ways of telling stories and new connected TV devices would spell the end of linear broadcasting, creating a shift similar to the way Apple’s iTunes moved the music industry from an album-based environment to one that revolved around singles.

“I firmly believe that the channel strata as we know it will break down completely,” Scott said during his keynote presentation.

“Apple TV and smart televisions from Samsung and others will shift us into an environment where NBC, CBS and Fox as channels no longer exist. We will move to programming that we programme, that we curate for ourselves.”

Scott claimed that the rise of digital media had shifted power to the audience and suggested that what is commonly referred to as the ‘second screen’ – mobiles and tablets – is actually the first screen.

He added that the move from non-linear was creating a more continuous approach to storytelling, one not reliant on weekly timeslots, and said that social media was also having a knock-on effect on programming.

“We’re seeing a big shift away from traditional TV formats,” he said, citing forthcoming ABC reality gameshow Glass House (still the subject of legal wrangles with rival CBS) as an example of the “dynamic environments that are driven by viewers’ participation.”

“It will no longer just be about text 1, 2, 3 to vote, but much more about the viewer being engaged in the content in realtime – from one-way communication to open dialogue,” said Scott.

“That screen is empowering the consumer and, more importantly, shifting the environment so that we’re seeing a trend back to the early days of television – that of branded content or social content.”