In a report in a local daily newspaper dated 2 July 2015, it was announced that over 1,000 jobs may be cut because of the continuous reduction of people watching traditional TV in Britain. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will be cutting more than 1,000 jobs as part of a long-term savings programme. Main reason? Viewers are shifting to online and this is expected to reduce the funding it gets from British households with a TV. It currently gets funding via the levy from viewers with a TV. The number of viewers ditching their TVs and switching to online is increasing very fast and according to Ofcom, only 50 percent of viewers aged 16 to 24 are watching live TV. There are no data available for Malaysia but I think it is safe to say that the trend is definitely true as well.
These viewers in Britain are switching to online services such as Netflix and “catch-up” services provided by broadcasters which allows them to watch their favourite shows whenever they want. Yes, here in Malaysia, ASTRO is already offering such a service. In fact even the youth TV channel BBC Three would be closed and moved entirely to online. BBC said, “The licence fee income in 2016/17 is now forecast to be £150 million less than it was expected to be in 2011.” Due to this, more than 1,000 positions would be cut with cost savings programmes such as merging some departments, cutting management layers and even simplifying support services such as marketing, finance, human resources and IT. I hope those being let go would quickly find jobs at online related companies.
To be very honest, until today there are still marketing department in housing developers which tells the world that they can sell by posting only in newspaper. I am very sure they are right since they still get to keep their job thus far. However, think objectively, would smartphones and online accessibility be increasing or decreasing? The unfortunate thing about traditional media is the inability to customise their messages to the different crowds. With online media, smartphone Apps and smartphones, the world is changing very fast. There are NO branded developers I know who launches project without any online presence. Please tell me if you know any. Let me learn something new.
Let’s not even start talking about the cost of one day traditional media versus months of online exposure. Of course, any online media which is too generic may not work in the future as well. The key is to have even more customisation, integration between different platforms and ever wider presence. Of course, this would not happen overnight. However, to believe that it would not happen would be totally suicidal. Always future proof our career. Learning about online helps tremendously. Happy marketing your projects with ALL medias, whether traditional or online.
written on 2 July 2015
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