Letting go of content

The broadcast industry is said to be going through a dramatic, even paradigmatic, change.

The story is that once, broadcasters pushed content when they thought best to the audience and the audience seemed happy to orient their everyday lives according to the broadcast slate. On the one hand, the broadcaster who controlled the content, on the other, the audience.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. People used their videos to tape content and then watched when they want. They could even keep that content. Twenty years later, I have a few video tapes of films I like and would never want to record over.

Now, we hear about broadcasters having to, and even wanting to, let go of content - to let the audience mash it up, embed it where they want. But when a broadcaster puts linear content out via TV, viewers are configured to make a direct connection between the content and the broadcast brand, whether its NBC or the BBC or whatever. Viewers see good content and broadcasters want them to reference that content in terms of the broadcast brand.

So, what happens when that content appears on YouTube and that content is then embedded on people's websites? To what do viewers attribute value? Letting go of content means risking losing brand value. How can broadcasters negotiate this?