Broadband gets 'society' approval A series of lectures hosted by the UK's Royal Television Society (RTS), relating to the significance of broadband to traditional broadcasting, promises to raise the profile of the technology within the television community and is a sign that broadband has reached a new level of maturity and that its potential is at last being realised by the sector

One of Europe's most traditional television institutions has given a huge boost to the broadband community by staging a series of information lectures and discussions about the new 'broadcast' medium. The Royal Television Society whose members are among the most powerful - and conservative - in British television, has been accused of ignoring recent developments including cable and satellite television and the Internet, but it is determined to ensure its support for broadband.

With broadband companies and technology suffering from relatively low investment levels and slow consumer uptake, the interest of organisations like the RTS is seen as a vital connection between new industry companies and traditional powerhouses.
Chairman of the meeting David Docherty, managing director of broadband at UK company Flextech/Telewest, staged an electronic poll during the evening in which over half the voters believed involvement with a new media company was essential. "It's good for the RTS to stage lectures like this because it missed the Internet generation and the vote showed how much people in the business want a new technology partner," said Docherty.

In addition to chairing the first session, Docherty presented a video of Telewest's future broadband output featuring the home life of a twenty-something man. He was seen cooking with the help of a voice-recognition-assisted 'celebrity chef-style' programme, playing a video game using a virtual reality eye mask and checking footage of his potential new girlfriends - all from inside his apartment. "The video shows everything that is currently technically possible with broadband," said Docherty; "I wanted to show the non-broadband person the extent of what is already possible."

However, in their new-found excitement to embrace the commercial opportunities afforded by broadband, service providers must be careful how - and to who - they present the technology. While Docherty's presentation may have made other service providers lick their lips in anticipation of their subscribers spending more time online with its increased exposure to advertising, any 20-year-old in the audience would have probably run a mile.

Dinosaurs
Another contributor was Katharine Everett, controller of new media at the BBC, who explained that the 'Beeb' is now committed to launching a broadband portal and said that the organisation would soon be unveiling its broadband strategy.
Everett's presentation was of a broadband game based on the popular 'Walking with Dinosaurs' television series, including 3D animated footage of a predator's hunt for food, supported by several levels of background information on prehistoric animals.

"Broadband is about building communities and providing educational opportunities," said Everett. "Building on a brand like Walking with Dinosaurs gives us an advantage to do both those things because it is a recognisable property." She also believed the lectures were an important step forward because they proved that "the old media world is waking up to the changes that broadband is delivering." This will be music to the ears of broadband service providers who have been vainly attempting to sell the merits of the technology for some time.

The third presentation of the session came from Ashley Faull, joint managing director of bid-up.tv, whose experience reflected the gulf that exists between the potential of broadband via the web and its reality, but also the crossover of audiences between different media - particularly in the UK. Faull launched bid-up.tv as a web-based broadband service but commercial realities necessitated a move to digital TV.
"Bid-up.tv was launched on broadband, but we now also have a digital channel on the Sky Digital platform and, for the moment, that's where most of our revenue is coming from. We haven't lost faith in broadband, but we need revenues now, so a digital satellite channel was an obvious medium-term step," said Faull.

Meanwhile, another small-scale interactive poll of the attendees (split approximately 50/50 between those from new media organisations and those from traditional broadcasting) were still cynical of the time scale for broadband's success. The majority voted in favour of broadband's future prosperity, but they also believed that its time was some way off in the distance.

Embrace the future
The RTS sessions were the brainchild of Joyce Taylor, managing director of Discovery Networks Europe, who had previously fought for cable and satellite channels to become part of the Society's audience. "It was important for the cable and satellite channels and the RTS to start talking to each other, and about each other, in the 1990s, and the same is now true of broadband," said Taylor.

"Broadband must not be ignored within broadcasting. It is an opportunity, not a threat. There are some good business models out there already and both traditional TV members of the RTS and those people working in broadband can benefit from discussing them together," she said.

The RTS launched the three-part series of lectures with 'A Bluffer's Guide' to broadband. This was followed in early May with a session about broadband advertising and concludes on 30 May with a session entitled: 'Killer content - what the viewers want', at the Royal Institute for British Arts (RIBA) in London.