Tavernier urges ‘central focus’ on digital

MIPCOM: Traditional TV businesses will eventually have to restructure with a “much more central” focus on digital, according to the head of FremantleMedia’s new media division FMX.

Speaking on a Mipcom panel called ‘The Audience Shift: Could you show me the way to the future of TV?,’ FMX boss Claire Tavernier said the biggest hurdle for TV companies developing digital plans was to come up with a clear programme strategy.

“If you’re talking about your audience on linear television, you can either try to increase your audience, keep them or monetise them, but you need to have a clear objective, because there’s so many things you can do,” she said.

Tavernier added that a company’s structure tends to be the second biggest concern, with digital still often falling into ancillary divisions or marketing departments.

“Certainly a lot of people that are involved in the day-to-day business of television don’t see it as their job,” she said. “They’re glad it’s there. I think we’ve passed a moment when they wish the internet had never happened, but they don’t really see it as their responsibility.”

“Eventually traditional media companies will have to restructure around the fact that digital is much more central than it used to be to the business.”

Earlier this week Fremantle announced two new YouTube channels as part of the latter’s European original content push. FremantleMedia’s German production arm, UFA, will create an urban life channel and a crime net for the video platform – two of 60 new premium channels announced for the UK, France, Germany and the US.