The Future of Media

Perspectives on new media, traditional media and what it all looks like in the future.

People are accustomed to paying to remove the ads with services like Netflix and Spotify. Will ads just become a tax on the poor? Will free-toair TV still exist in 10 years?

I think the first thing I would say (politely) is that I am not entirely sure this hypothesis is right. I don’t think that in the case of Netflix people are paying to remove ads. I think they are paying for access to what they perceive to be quality content and it just happens to be a by-product that is delivered without ads. In the case of Spotify, I again think people are paying for access to content in a format they want it, not to avoid what is in reality a pretty light load of advertising.

Conversely I think there are also examples where consumers pay for content and accept it comes with ads (i.e Sky).

That is not to say that I don’t think the consumer mindset is that they would prefer to avoid ads, but I don’t think the primary driver for uptake of any of the ‘new’ distribution services is ad avoidance…it’s all content driven.

So coming to your question, will free-to-air TV still exist? I think it will still exist and there will still be a need for adfunded content to be available. It will continue to evolve and the delivery mechanisms will change but I think free-to-air will exist. Granted what we consider free-to-air today may look different and I suspect the FTA broadcasters will have elements of the pay model in their businesses, but some content will be available free-to-air.