The annual TV confab Edinburgh International Television Festival started this weekend in Scotland, and bunch of news coming out it, some related to digital media as well:
—Gore wants TV to welcome more users Internet-style: Al Gore, speaking there, said the Internet is not yet technologically capable of replicating TV’s power…he said Internet is cannibalizing TV, and “What is needed is to reverse the flow and find ways to use the Internet to give individuals access to the public forum, which is television,” he said.
—Internet, TV are no rivals: Google: Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of search products and user experience said that Goog was TV’s friend, not its rival. “We’re computer scientists,” she said. “We’re not brilliant storytellers or content creators.”
Mayer said Google had failed to foresee the huge popularity of user-generated content - its original model for online video emphasised premium content.
—ITV chief lectures industry on its digital future: The just-stepped-down CEO of ITV Charles Allen took the opportunity of the main lecture to deliver a parting shot to his competitors while painting a pessimistic vision of the future of public service broadcasting. On the future of public service broadcasting: “We’re still applying sticking plasters to analogue PSB, rather than developing a sustainable digital model. It’s all about tweaks, in-flight adjustments, rather than putting commercial PSB on a secure footing for the future.” The full text of his speech is here.
—The four main blogs from the festival: MediaGuardian || Scotsman.com || BBC News || Digital Spy