BPN 1132 Cross-media still needs finetuning

Yesterday the Mediapark Jaar Congres (Media Park Annual Conference) took place for the first time: MPCJ 2008. Media Park is in Hilversum the place where most of the public and commercial broadcast stations have their base. Over the years digital media companies have based themselves in that park as well as every self respecting broadcast station has now at least one web site, if not more. The conference was well visited. No less than 602 delegates had registered. This is a big number in The Netherlands; but one should not forget that the admission price was 50 euro over against the usual 950 euro. It was a conference with lectures, short movie reports, pitches, a spoken column and two interviews. It was a lot to chew on.

The overall theme of the Conference was officially cross-media, but could have been specified more closely as cross-media in a broadcast environment. In no way for example the lectures touched print. The closest to that came during an interview with Michiel Buitelaar, the COO to be of Sanoma. Buitelaar has worked for KPN and is presently working for Endemol; but he will leave his present post, which he accepted hardly a year ago, as he misses the work floor.

He was asked what cross-media meant to him. Endemol is usually describes as a format producer, he said. Instead of the word format he rather used the word brand (he is probably already accommodating to his new employer, which sees it print magazines also as brands). Cross-media to him was the use of a brand over more than one medium. A rather superficial definition IMHO. Buitelaar is not talking about cross-media, but about multiple media. You take a theme and you apply it to a medium, using the characteristics of that particular medium and that sit. Just one way multiple media. No mention is made of the interactive side of cross-media, i.e. the particular response yielded by the medium. I guess Buitelaar should start reading up cross-media literature before he joins Sanoma.

Buitelaar was asked how far Endemol is with cross-media? Is it used in all the formats that are generated. Endemol is working on it and now starts for example to put web programs in social networks, so that people can tell their friends about a particular television program and discuss it. But cross-media has not penetrated yet into all corners of Endemol, was his assessment. The 360 degrees format was not accepted yet by everyone. Partly this can be ascribed to the fact that TV stations have little contact with clients, Buitelaar said. But cross-media was coming through slowly at Endemol as could be seen on Upstaged, a brand new entertainment event by the BBC.

Blog Posting Number: 1132

Tags: cross-media

John de Mol: never say NEVER

In 2005 the Dutch media tycoon John de Mol said that he considered Endemol to be a closed chapter. It was a one-liner, which he diplomatically used in order to create silence on this subject. Telefónica had just offered the shares of TV and digital media production company Endemol to the stock exchange. But when in 2006 Telefónica solicited serious offers to sell the company, John de Mol was one of the parties; his investment company Cyrte bid for the company in the consortium with the Italian media company Mediaset and the haute finance company Goldman Sachs. In the meantime John de Mol kept silent.

Now Endemol will be transferred to the consortium for 2,63 billion euro. All three partners are in the consortium for an equal share of 876 million euro. John de Mol will laugh at the deal. In 2000 at the height of the internet hype he and Joop van de Ende sold Endemol to Telefónica. This telecom company had been convinced by the gurus that telecom would converge with the digital media and that the mobile telephone would become a pocket PC, an MP3 player (when did MP3 players become fashionable?) and a television screen. Content would be needed to fill that market hole. While Time-Warner merged wit AOL, Telefónica acquired Endemol. The price paid, 5.5 billion euro, was reasonable, given the bright future.

But then internet crashed. The CEO of Telefónica was dismissed. The company was left with a company which was no core business for a telecom company. Besides the price paid was too high given the revenues. The accountants had to write off a hefty sum. But Telefónica took the time to get rid of the Fremdkörper. So the years went by and in 2005 Telefónica thought that the time had come to sell and cash. But as the acquisition of Endemol would be expensive, Telefónica sold 25 percent of the shares on the market. The value of the company was estimated on 1,1 billion euro at that time; after five years it was just one fifth of the original price paid for by Telefónica in 2000. With the present price of 2,63 billion euro, Telefónica can say that the company made a profit of 1,4 billion euro. But that is only the view of the new Telefónica mangers. You can also say that Telefónica has lost2.87 billion euro over the past five years.

John de Mol played the game DEAL OR NO DEAL well. He cashed with Joop van de Ende in 2000 5,5 billion euro. He was not allowed to be in the entertainment business for 4 years, so he invested his money in telecom companies and other companies. Once the entertainment clause was not valid any longer, he started the radio and television station TV10 in The Netherlands, just to show that he was back. And back he is with a vengeance. TV10 might not be the hottest station with the consumers, it is however a station to merge with or be acquired by RTL Netherlands or SBS. Once the position of TV10 has become clear, John de Mol can go back to Endemol to create formats and test them out on the channel TV10/RTL.

What is the future of Endemol? There may be three shareholders in the consortium. Usually this is a sign that the company will be broken up (see the scenario for the beleaguered bank ABN AMRO; do not show sympathy for that bank as they mess up the present sale in an Italian way!). But in this case only Goldman Sachs could take advantage of that; Goldman Sachs will be the company that will step out after a while and offer the shares to the two consortia members. A break-up would not help them. As a global creative entertainment company Endemol needs profits of the entire value chain from creating formats, to production and distribution. Endemol will teach Mediaset the international way of trading entertainment products for Italian and Spanish products. But Mediaset will always stay in the Golden Cage of Endemol, while Endemol will behave like a Big Brother to Mediaset.

(The picture is of the first Big Brother series in The Netherlands in 1999)

Blog Posting Number: 755

Tags: entertainment industry

Cross country for cross-media (14)

While the CMID07 was going on on Hemavan (Sweden), my Italian friend Max Giovagnoli organised the cross-media conference Cross-Media #2 in Rome. Max is professor cross-media at the Link campus of the University of Malta in Rome; in fact he will manage there the new Cross-media Communication and Management Master of Arts next academic year!. In his former life Max was involved in entertainment and especially in crossmedia and broadcasting, amongst other as a director of the Italian version of Big Brother. He is the author of a book about cross-media; however the book is in the Italian language (see cover). He has organised the cross-media conference for the second time as you can see from the announcement. Having returned from Hemavan, I asked him how the conference went.

How succesful was the conference and how many people were present)?
Between the 100 and 120 people attended the conference. Cross-media # 2 had a great result on Italian media. No less than 5 dailies, 2 weekly newspaper, 2 television stations and 3 radio carried items about the conference.

What was the most talke about question. Was there a discussion on the term cross-media?
I openend the conference with a speech and focused on new trends in the cross-media communication and management market. I stressed the importance of videogames, virtual worlds online, mobile contents and new media narratives as the most powerful battlefields of the present and future.

What was the most convincing cross-media case brought forward in the conference?
It was not just one. In fact we had three cases:
- Second Life;
- Spiderman;
- Final Fantasy.

I also asked him a question about the Italian broadcast company Mediaset of the former prime minister Berlusconi. Mediaset and John de Mol team up in a consortium to acquire Endemol. John de Mol wants to get back Endemol, while Mediaset wants to learn how to make international deals. Being a big player or even bigger soon, it is important to see whether Mediaset would become a driving force.

What direction will cross-media in Italy take? Will broadcast be the main drive or film? And what would be the influence of Mediaset, if it acquires Endemol together with John de Mol; will that give a special drive?
It depends on what Mediaset will bring to the partnership, and on what it wants to achieve from Endemol. In general, I never had partnership or contact with Mediaset for cross-media initiatives and projects, and I believe it could be a significant happening, since there's still a terrible confusion in Italian television concerning convergence, multiplatform distribution and cross-media. But I could be wrong (I hope)...

Blog Posting Number: 719

Tags: cross-media

John de Mol playing chess

While the newspaper and book publisher PCM is looking for a new strategy, John de Mol’s television station TIEN (ten; formerly Talpa) is in trouble. De Mol is now playing chess on more than one board.

John de Mol is in principle a format creator and producer. So when he started the broadcast station TIEN more than a year ago, everyone was looking with anticipation. It was not the first time that he started a commercial television station. In the nineties he had started SEVEN, but this became a disaster due to broadcast politics in The Netherlands. This time the forecasts were better. He hired a star-studded stable of presenters, bought the soccer rights to the premier league, laid on some new formats for entertainment and news, formulated a new policy for commercials and started. The public broadcast companies rethought their radio and television policies and the commercial broadcast companies like RTL and SBS anticipated with new programs.

But the game is over for the broadcast station TIEN. At least that is the way it looks. For weeks already rumours are flying around that John de Mol is talking to RTL and SBS. The talks have been confirmed, but no comments have been made about the direction of the talks. Key in the talks will be the soccer rights. John de Mol bought them and paid a lot of money for it. If the station TIEN stops, the rights go back to the soccer association and principally would come up for auction. But as the soccer season has not ended yet, the soccer association will most likely co-operate with a transfer to another station. Most likely John de Mol will be able to decide which ones as that company will have to buy the rights for the remaining part of the contract. And the station that gets the rights can be assured of high viewing figures on the Sunday night.

In the meantime the troubles of TIEN have not stopped John de Mol of playing on another chess board: Endemol. This entertainment company, for 75 percent part of Telefonica, is up for sale and by the beginning of April a decision will be taken by Telefonica’s board about the offers. John de Mol is one of the parties involved. His investment company is forming a consortium with the Italian Mediaset of former Prime Minister Berlusconi to buy Endemol. The consortium is not the only one making an offer. The former owner of the French division of Endemol is making an offer; a private equity consortium is putting down a bid. And in the last days the Italian media company De Agostini has shown interest. If John de Mol wins the bid, he will be back in his former company, which includes his name.

And if these two major actions are not nerve wrecking enough, John de Mol is buying shares in de Telegraaf Media Group (TMG), not to produce a newspaper, but to influence SBS, in which TMG has shares. He also is investing in smaller companies, oriented towards internet such as Bright, an internet site and magazine and in an internet advertising company Spotzer Media.

Oh well: you win some, you loose some. The John de Mol story continues

Blog Number Posting: 710

Tags: broadcast

Second Life: a flight from First Life

I am a veteran in multimedia of 62 years and text oriented. When I see all the rumour around Second Life, I wonder whether I should study it better or even dive into it, like I did with blogs; but blogs are text-oriented and not part of the visual culture.

Today I read about the Dutch Protestant university, De Vrije Universiteit (VU), in Amsterdam having created a virtual department in Second Life. (The angel in the drawing below is - of course - not part of their site). The university researches the opportunities to teach and do research there. This looks logical as Second life unites students and teachers into a learning community.


Of course we had had companies toppling over each other in order be present in Second Life. The Dutch ABN Amro bank has a virtual branch in Second Life, while its competitor ING Bank will enter Second Life in the company of partners such as Rivers Run Red creating Our Virtual Holland (uncommon nationalism for Dutch people). Philips opened a concept store. Dutch Internet bureaus like Evident, IN10 and Tam Tam are present in Second Life and Evident went out to recruit new employees. Also media companies have created their virtual spot. The Dutch youth broadcaster BNN opened a hang-out. Talpa Digital opened Dropzone.

I am wondering about the hype. It is a very small group of people visiting Second Life and yet even stock quoted companies put a lot of money in a virtual space. ABN Amro bank said that they had every day some 80 people passing by. Endemol had in Big Brother only 6 people passing by. ABN Amro is getting realistic about Second Life as it notes that people passing by are disappointed when they notice that they can not bank in real time or with Linden dollars.

So is it only a hype? I am reminded of the son of a neighbour who created his own worlds. He drew maps, built houses, developed a language and designed a political system. Since he has become a nuclear scientist, he no longer is busy with the virtual world. Will we see the same thing happening in the development of Second Life. Will there be the next interesting thing overpowering this virtual world?

I see Second Life as part of the change in communication, from text into the visual culture of graphics, animation, photographs and movies. This means that veterans like me will have to get used to visuals. So Second Life is and island for the next generation. So do not trust companies like ABN Amro and ING Bank getting into this virtual world. They enter the virtual world to experiment with business; when they notice that there is no business, they will leave the virtual offices. Second Life has also good aspects too. It is a source for gaming, creativity and co-creation.

But also the aura around the hype site is tarnished by attitudes from First Life. A few days ago, the Dutch news broadcasts drew attention to the paedophile sites in Second Life. Paedophiles can design their own victims and take them; of course, for money.

I am still lurking at Second Life and questioning whether Second Life is a flight of First Life.

Blog Posting Number: 674

Tags: virtual world, second life