LAS VEGAS -- From entertainment to coffeehouses, the future is digital, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina told the National Association of Broadcasters, meeting here this week. And not surprisingly, HP plans to be in the middle of it, she said.
Noting HP's place in the digital revolution, Fiorina mentioned the company's recently announced partnerships with entertainment powerhouses Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. She also cited new services with partners such as Nokia and the Starbucks coffee chain.
HP has placed itself front and center of the digital revolution, following the tone Fiorina herself set in her speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
NAB President and CEO Edward Fritts spoke as well, briefly mentioning the major regulatory issues facing the industry. In keeping with the frequent butting of heads between broadcasters and their cable and satellite opposites, Fritts called attention to what he sees as a mystifying disparity between how cable and satellite providers are treated by the Federal Communications Commission in regards to the digital television transition and decency standards.
Oprah Winfrey, popular TV talk show host, magazine publisher, and CEO of Harpo, received the 2004 Distinguished Service Award at the ceremony in front of an enthusiastic audience, which gave her a standing ovation. Fiorina cited Winfrey as an example of broadcasting's potential to inform, educate, inspire, and uplift.
Three Digital Revolutions
Fiorina discussed the basic digital revolutions going on today, including the shift from analog to digital in all manner of processes from content creation, to editing, and to distribution. She also mentioned the federal regulations that have spurred nationwide upgrades to digital television broadcast.
But the most disruptive, she said, is the revolution going on at the consumer level. In an era where content "is going from analog, static, and physical to digital, mobile, and virtual," consumers will "watch and listen to what they want to watch, when they want, at any time they want, on any device." Because of this change, many traditional business models may no longer work. If users are recording TV programs and skipping the ads that pay for those "free" programs, what happens?
On the flip side, she also pointed out paths to new revenue. For example, say a teacher wants to show her class an in-depth program on the Civil War. In an interconnected digital world, that teacher could call up the available archives of programming, select the best program for her curriculum, and have it delivered straight to the classroom--for a fee, of course.
Regulatory Grumblings
The NAB's Fritts touched on the first and most basic of the revolutions in his speech as well, congratulating his colleagues on the progress the industry has made in the transition from analog to digital broadcast. However, he pointed out, though nearly 1200 local stations broadcast digital signals, only a third are carried on cable.
"Our DTV signals are all dressed up with no place to go," he said. Though the FCC has mandated the transition and addressed associated issues like the broadcast flag for digital content, it has yet to address must-carry rules for digital programming in relationship to cable and satellite.
Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" would have barely rated a shrug had it happened on cable or satellite, he said--a far cry from the nationwide furor and Congressional activity it has caused. He acknowledged that broadcasters have a special compact with the government due to the spectrum licenses they receive, and mentioned that the NAB had held a summit on responsible programming with an eye toward self-regulation.
That self-regulation may have come too late. Already, new legislation dealing with decency standards and higher fines for violators has been drafted by both houses of Congress. The House of Representatives has already passed its bill by an overwhelming majority, and the Senate bill may come to a vote as early as next month, according to senators present at a special session at NAB.
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