Multimedia Managing Needs “Agile Top Decisions”

Michael Hedges July 6, 2006

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) recently presented its annual Multimedia Meets Radio and TV workshop for member public service broadcasters. With each year not only does this event attract more participants – over 100 this year - but also the subjects covered now advance management issues.

The first step in successfully managing for multimedia remains purely technical, says EBU radio department head of news and sports Javier Tola. “Broadcasters must first lift themselves out of the analogue world,” he said “It just doesn’t work with multimedia platforms.”

The Catalan (Spain) public broadcaster Corporacio Catalana de Ràdio i Televisio formed CCRTV Interactiva more than five years ago in a process of adopting multimedia platforms. The mission is, according to General Manager Santiago Miralles, to “keep reaching all citizens with quality content” in the Catalan language. He emphasized, “reaching.” Last year CCRTV Interactiva won three Promax Gold Awards for interactive services.

“No relevant growth can be expected for radio and television,” he said, bluntly assessing the need for commitment to multimedia strategies. He pointed out start statistics from Catalonia – mirroring survey results from every European country – which teenagers and young adults are more tuned in to new digital platforms than radio or television. This he reports with no lament whatsoever: “New media is a competitive advantage.”

Until recently multimedia and new media departments within public broadcasters have been shoved into back rooms separated from the main production centers – if not technically analogue, still very traditional. This is changing. The BBC, for example, now integrates new media specialists within work groups. Miralles said this is essential; new media must be “integrated, not simply tolerated.”

Making this possible, Miralles said, requires “agile top decisions,” atypical for traditional public broadcasters. Integrating new media into large institutional broadcasting organizations, he said, starts with the chief executives, executive committees and boards. “New media must become part of the mission.”

He also stresses “getting the financial people on your side.” Even before the new media company is breaking even, he said, appeal to the needs of the financial controllers by “offering better reporting that the radio and television companies. Make the best us of IT to explain your performance.”

Much of CCRTV Interactvia’s development as a functioning unit, he said, came from union and syndicate flexibility. New job profiles, new skills and new salary schedules were required and, he said, the unions easily saw the virtue of “planting the seeds and letting them grow for some time.” He also observed that new media units should operate in the “style of private companies.”

Integrating new media into radio departments also means involving the radio producers, presenters and journalists. Miralles calls this “evangelism,” involving traditional producers requires conversion. CCRTV Interactivia regularly presents workshops and seminars to bring all departments up to date on the possibilities and invite producers to think of their programs “with the interactive dimension in mind.” He also recommends special attention to the “stars” of the radio department.

Technical integration has its own challenges. Fully integrated content management systems, he says, are essential to maximize employee efficiency. But he stresses technical coordination rather than full integration because “different platforms move at their own speed. Don’t wait until a whole multipurpose, multiplatform system is designed.”

Ad sales, however, is the one area where Miralles recommends a separation. Beyond the different metrics, “radio and television sales departments don’t sell new media well,” he said. “They don’t know the product. Volumes are below their threshold. But coordinate, yes; just 2% of Catalan Radio and Television revenues is break-even for us.”

New media and multimedia are becoming a bright attracting among EBU members. The organization announced formation of a “new radio” working group, headed by Javier Tola, to give EBU members a forum on new developments and best practices.

Workshop discussions like these give participants the opportunity to explore the big ideas with the like minded. Grasping the very nature of broadcasting in the multimedia works requires, said EBU’s head of new technology David Wood, “developing meta schemes” for content aggregation, rights issues and, of course, the evolving relationship between broadcasters and the public. Where does new media and multimedia fit? “Somewhere between a conversation and broadcasting,” said Norwegian Broadcasting’s Are Nudal.

Previously published in Radio World International, June 2006, in a slightly different form