Industry actions can boost video uptake
July 5, 2011
By Colin Mann
Although soon-to-be-released figures suggest that video consumption has slipped into third place in terms of consumer spend behind cable and satellite subscriptions and ISP subscriptions, Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association contends that with appropriate actions, the sector’s position can be restored.
Participating in the Industry Leadership Debate on ‘Owning a slice of the new value chain’ at the Intellect Consumer Electronics Conference in London, Carey said the first of these was super-fast broadband. “We want to see that rolled out as fast as possible and hopefully, 2015 is going to be soon enough,” she stated. “We want entertainment, consumer electronics, and software industries working together to help deliver the interoperability needed to encourage consumer uptake of these new services.”
Referring to plans in the Digital Economy Act that would be sent out by ISPs to users suspected of illegally downloading or sharing content, she said “We want those notices to go out as soon as possible … we need to remind those people that there are 29 legal services out there. It’s a great opportunity for the video industry to bring commercially-viable and appealing content to consumers.”
While contending that packaged formats still retained a place in consumer choice and affections, she said that it was the content creation that mattered. “Anything that drives the revenues back to future production. So long as you can get people to pay in some form, it doesn’t really matter what the platform is, so long as people pay for it.”