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New report counters: 'web won't kill TV' BANFF/NEXTMEDIA NEWS: A new report that challenges industry perceptions about the realities of the Web v traditional TV models is gunning to stir up debate among delegates attending this year’s annual industry confab in the Canadian Rockies. The Banff World Television Festival has released a Green Paper report to facilitate discussion at the Wednesday, June 14 Town Hall session it has planned to address the future of Canadian television.  The report, appropriately entitled The Future of Television was published by the Nordicity Group, and says that broadband entertainment won’t have as large an impact on traditional TV models as the media hype has many believing. It posits that distribution of TV on the Web won’t trump cable and satellite any time soon, because the tremendous costs of bandwidth associated with streamed and downloadable Internet video and particularly high-definition (HD) formats, will hamper growth of the medium. Meanwhile, television distribution by satellite, cable, fixed wireless, and wireline (through IPTV) is quite efficient, says the report, and thus will remain the dominant distribution system for TV content. The report also says that while video on the web can reach niche groups more effectively than broadcast television, the numbers of people that can be reached with a single message are still dwarfed by the reach of linear TV. This is all contradictory to other much-quoted research on the subject. It directly contradicts a study released by IBM this winter entitled 'The end of television as we know it,' which predicted that broadband entertainment would cripple traditional TV broadcasting in short order. 'We accept that on-demand television is threatening the linear model – crudely through time-shifting, and more directly through PVRs, DVDs, VOD, and IP-based streaming and downloading options. But we argue that the end of linear television is hardly nigh,' says the report, noting that new delivery platforms do not in fact signal a 'death knell' for television. “On-demand television will not destroy linear TV, but broadcasters will need to adjust. While consumers will get ultimate control of when and how they watch, the linear model will still remain – to break the ‘hits’ as well as to provide the lean-back big-screen experience which will never lose appeal,” says the report. 12 Jun 2006 © C21 Media 2006 
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