Access for All

As I mentioned in my previous article, fear regarding copyright and the complex laws surrounding it is harming access to the wealth of information and creative programming out there. It is important to acknowledge that advertising revenue is vital for the majority of broadcasters. Yet at the same time the ‘super-platforms’ of Google, Amazon, and Facebook have gained the largest market capitalisation out of the top industry players (Accenture, 2014). These companies understand customer/ viewer behaviour in more detail than has even been possible through the measurements of BARB in the UK and Nielsen in the US. The internet is a different environment to what broadcast TV is predicated on and a vast amount of data can be collected on any one single user and then used to target ads through the use of complex algorithms. Facebook, the world’s largest social network earns $1 Billion dollars per year through it’s Ad Exchange. Amazon, the world’s largest retailer and Google, the world’s largest search engine have vast swathes of user information and viewing/ searching habits that they can offer extremely targeted advertising, the revenues of which are soon to take over that of broadcasting (Hof, 2014). Broadcasters then are at risk of losing their largest generator of income and must adapt quickly in order to keep hold of their market share. Innovations such as second screen and ‘dynamic ad insertion’ (Comcast, 2012) technology is an attempt at continuing to attract lucrative advertising deals but recent statistics have shown that digital ad revenue has, for the first time, taken over from broadcast TV (Koetsier, 2014).

What has this got to do with LGBT and television? Well, just as I highlighted in my earlier post the importance of access to content for LGBT audience who have a notoriously small airtime is great. As Netzley’s 2010 study 'Visibility that Demystifies' highlights, 7.5% of all characters coded from the 10 most popular primetime fictional network programmes studied were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Of course the LGBT population is small, estimates sit at around 3.8% of the USA population (Howden and Mayer, 2011) while 11% admitted to having sam-sex attraction without defining as LGB or T. I would refute the argument that these figures should directly correlate into on-screen presentation after decades of invisibility. Of course in the five years since that study many developments in televisual representation have changed and with the introduction this month of the UK’s Silvermouse programme attempts are being made by broadcasters to address the issue (Campelli, 2015). But if viewing habits have changed towards a more on-demand and decentralised system, then broadcasters need to become more aware of the value of the content that currently isn’t accessible, at least legally, and that by making their archives available via streaming services, online and on-demand they have the potential to expand their current revenue streams and to capitalise on a market which is currently being dominated by super-platforms while also offering a greater range of content to LGBT audiences.

The problem then isn’t the fact that networks simply can’t gain as much information on their viewers as these internet conglomerates but what they can do to utilise the content already at their disposal. Also, as Kalanje (2005) highlights there is a pressing need for organisations to see the leverage of intellectual property beyond the ‘right to exclude’ and if broadcasters worked together we could create an environment where we would have access to content that caters for all and one that encourages exploration and discovery.

Bibliography:

Campelli, M. (2015). Diversity: indies speak out. Broadcast Now. January 22 2015. [Online]. Available at: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasters/diversity-indies-speak-out/5082054.article. [Accessed 19/03/15].

Edwards, J. (2012). ANALYST: Facebook Is Generating $1 Billion A Year From Its Ad Exchange. Business Insider. [Online]. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-fbx-revenues-are-1-billion-per-year-2012-11#ixzz3UF8xV5wX. [Accessed 26/02/15].

Howden, L. M. and Mayer, J. A. (2011). Age and Sex Composition: 2010. [Online]. Available at:http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf. [Access 22/02/15].

Kalanje, C. (N.D.). Leveraging Intellectual Property: Beyond the `Right to Exclude'. World Intellectual Property Organisation. [Online]. Available at: http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/leveraging_ip_fulltext.html#P8_119. [Accessed 20/02/15].