Our collective challenge in broadcast, and why collaboration and respect are key to success

By Brian Clark, managing director, Maverick Media Services.

A close friend once described me as someone whose experience is matched only by his passion – or perhaps affliction – for this business. It’s an affliction shared by nearly everyone who loves broadcasting. We’re all in this industry because we love what we do, but the real question is: are we doing enough to protect it for the future?

So, where is the market at the moment? During the past 10-12 months, I’ve had time to reflect and research the broadcast industry. The challenges facing our colleagues, friends, companies and clients are clear: increased competition coupled with a technology shift shorter audience attention spans and the impact of working from home on productivity all amid declining revenues and budgets.

Brian Clark

Reports indicate that the media technology market grew by approximately 1% in 2022, but projections for 2023 suggest a decline of just over 4%. This might be too conservative, as it reflects economic softness in several regions. The outlook for 2024 is “mixed,” which itself seems uncertain.

Relationship changes Traditional supplier-client relationships are evolving as companies try to protect market share and profits. We see broadcasters and production companies taking services in-house to save costs, while equipment suppliers are shifting from purely technology providers to offering services as well.

Technology challenges All the while, technology is evolving and lowering barriers to entry – especially in sports coverage. It also creates its own long-term challenges. If broadcasters bring sport coverage in-house, larger events might need to rethink their supply models. Experience shows that when investments are internalised, there’s pressure for a quick return, often at the expense of innovation and R&D. As a result, future investments might be postponed with justifications like “not this year, we need to make our returns” or “the running costs are more than expected.”

The economics of 2024 The rising costs of borrowing, living, and running businesses, coupled with changing technologies and a unpredictable and reducing revenue on offer, affect everyone in the industry – from broadcasters to the talented people creating content. Simply focusing on looking after individual P&Ls or supplanting the work of the companies we used to work with is a short-term solution that risks reducing choice and creativity as companies struggle, downsize, or close.

This could lead to a vicious cycle of decline, where the elements that make broadcasting great are diminished. Ultimately, this is about what we collectively put on screen – content is king.

So, what can we do?  In the view of many – myself included – we need to all be better partners to each other and advocate for each other against the demands of simple economics and technology changes.

But we must embrace the need for the technology changes and not focus on the legacy of the past to the detriment of the solution for the future. Instead, we must acknowledge these factors and look for the evolution of the services needed by the broadcast markets.

You can’t look at the industry news without noticing the pressures companies are under, redundancies and cutbacks across the board. It may seem like doom and gloom, but we are witnessing a seismic shift in the workplace and the technology employed, and it is seldom painless. The key to surviving this is working together. This sounds simple and mundane but is not.

Collaboration begins with a conversation in a room, not separate rooms focusing only on cost-saving. We need to make sure the sales person has the engineer in the room, and make sure the engineers talk to the clients in the room, and that the producers talk to the suppliers, and so on. As soon as you isolate the conversations then you can lose the reasons for the change or the needs of the market for their content.

We all want the latest shiny toy of broadcast to tell the stories but the path to getting that should not be littered by the death of companies, loss of people or the short-term exploitation of the market.

We also need to talk and plan freely together to navigate these cycles of change. When someone imposes 60-day payment terms, do they consider the stress that puts on suppliers or the person trying to pay their mortgage? Banks certainly don’t accept “pay you in 60 days, that’s my terms.”

And when a supplier raises prices by 10%, do they consider that the client’s bills have also increased while the budget from the commissioner has not? The cost savings that are invariably needed these days are not achieved in a procurement process only, they are achieved by having meaningful conversations around that process. We need to avoid the race to the bottom, which invariably results in a poorer outcome for everyone.

In summary, it’s all about respect. As a learned ex-colleague once said, “be respectful” to everyone in the supply chain.  The conversation needs to include everyone, from top to bottom, to understand how one action can have serious ramifications further down the line.

So start talking, start sharing, and stop passing the problem on to others. If we all own it, we can solve it. I hope. Thank you for listening to a man “afflicted by TV.”