NAB-RTNDA 2006

TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker sums up the convention in a Wednesday night blog entry:

The Book starts Thursday.

RTNDA ends Wednesday.

That's a little tight. I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea. I'm sure the date was scheduled years before Nielsen got around to setting the book dates for this year.

In any case this led to an earlier than usual mini-exodus today.

Got to get back in time to broadcast.

So what have we learned?

Dan Rather feels moderately positive about Katie Couric. Very moderately.

Shepard Smith is an adept walk-and-text messager.

Regis is happy to be in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, but says he still doesn't know what his talent is.

Jack Valenti has the First Amendment memorized.

Dan Rather cries easily. But we all knew that.

Tom Brokaw is less prone to crying.

There were college student job seekers who looked older than FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Don't leave Shep out of the Katrina video montage.

The Hispanic audience is increasing faster than gas prices.

Charlie Gibson has a future.

Citizen Journalism is User-Generated Content, but not all User- Generated Content is Citizen Journalism.

Video On-Demand will continue to explode and be really cool. Except for when it doesn't play, you just get audio -- or it crashes your browser.

The CNN party took off when the Neville Brothers hit their groove. But the dance band that began the night should really not have expected news directors to dance with each other. Or college student job seekers.

Don Fitzpatrick will be missed.

There will be people who complain about RTNDA like people who complain about Saturday Night Live -- "It used to be better." But the truth is, it is what you make it. On any given day there you may encounter the particular insight, person or technology that will make all the difference. We had those in abundance.

See you next year.

TVNewser NAB blogger Simon Marks wraps up the week:

If you'd asked me before I arrived in Las Vegas where this industry of ours is heading, I would have said "not much of a clue." Like most of us toiling in the on-camera trenches, I don't usually give much thought to how my boyish good looks get from my dateline into the living rooms of our "end users" - the viewers whose eyeballs we crave. For 20 years, I've just taken it for granted that they do.

But visit Las Vegas this week and you catch a glimpse of the future....or, to be more accurate, a glimpse of several futures some of which appear to be in direct contradiction to one another...

continued...

TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker writes:

"I could dress up the actual outlook in convention speak, but it's pretty simple. There is going to be more -- and better -- video available more and more places. Breaking and live, archived and indexed. It will be easier to find and search and watch.

Look for news video on all possible screens and maybe a few surfaces. Like the new Fox MyUterus.com for fetal viewers. Hey, don't think they haven't THOUGHT about it..."

continued...

TVNewser NAB blogger Shelly Palmer writes:

"On the money, direct, to the point, Anne Sweeney, Co-Chair Disney Media Networks, President Disney-ABC Television Group flawlessly delivered a "let's do it together" speech at Broadcasting & Cable's 'New Distribution Pipelines: Turning TV Content into Revenue' keynote. What will we do together? Absolutely everything to do with alternative distribution of network content. How? Don't confuse the issue with details, we'll just do it together."

continued...

TVNewser NAB blogger Simon Marks writes:

"At NAB today I had the pleasure of moderating a panel titled 'Covering the Muslim World at Home and Abroad.' Among the panelists: Russell Merryman, editor-in-chief for web and new media at Al Jazeera International.

So I asked him when the network will launch, and where we will all be able to see it.

His answer: 'Don't know. And don't know.' But he did offer the audience a detailed presentation the network's plans, saying that 'we hope to be available in homes in North America at our launch.'"

TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker sums up day one:

"By this point in the night I had talked with a legion of news directors about their list of priorities. All of them said, some version of -- the Internet.

Nearly all of them, when pressed, indicated a general sense of -- what the heck do I do now?"

continued...

TVNewser NAB blogger Shelly Palmer, author of the new book "Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV," sums up the tech and hype on the convention floor:

"Everyone has a broadband strategy (or at least they think they do.) Is it Internet Television, IPTV, IP Video, Broadband Video, Streaming Media, Downloadable Files? The answer is, "yes." I have never heard so many people try to talk tech in my life. Actually, it's quite charming..."

continued...

TVNewser NAB blogger Simon Marks writes:

"Want to improve your ratings? Reach out to the Latino audience. That was the message today from Jorge Ramos, anchor for Univision, at the RTNDA/NAB 'Super Session' titled 'The Shape of Things to Come.'

'We see the white population as a percentage of the total population declining,' said Ramo. 'So is the African-American population. But at the same time, the Latino population is growing... it's right in front of you. You want more audience? The Hispanic community is growing so much. We are paying attention to them and our ratings are going up.'

Ramos claims some non-Hispanic local news directors have told him that the Nielsen numbers they're facing must be wrong. He tells them: 'What's wrong is that you are not paying attention to the segment of the population that is truly growing, and that's Latinos.'"

TVNewser NAB blogger Simon Marks reports:

During today's RTNDA/NAB Super Session "The Shape of Things to Come" Dan Rather offered his first public comments on Katie Couric's appointment to the CBS anchor chair.

"Katie Couric is a good person, an attractive person. She's an experienced television pro. And I think she's a good pro, I wish her well and I think she will do well."

"In terms of where we go in the future, a lot of that depends on when Ms. Couric gets to CBS, her leadership capacities, her capabilities which are great. If she loves the news as I think she does, she will get along very well with the CBS news people."

Rather, who was notably asked the question during audience Q&A, not during the earlier interaction with moderator John Siegenthaler, measured his words and his endorsement of the CBS decision.

"I emphasize again that I think she will be successful, but in terms of the business....it's easy to over-emhpasize the role of the anchor. The anchor is no better than the people who are working with, or in some cases for, him or her. An anchor can make a difference whether it's on your 11pm local news or the network news, but from one who's been there it's very easy to overemphasize the role. We'll see how....she affects the future. She's bound to in some ways. But in terms of what we've been talking about here... in the great scheme of things, with the greatest of respect, nobody's anchor is going to make a great deal of difference in my judgement."

> Also: Here's a write-up by Lost Remote.

TVNewser NAB blogger Simon Marks reports:

Dan Rather, the Former Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News, issued a clarion call on the broadcast networks to prioritize international coverage during his appearance at NAB.

Arguing that "American journalism needs a spine transplant," Rather told the RTNDA/NAB Super Session on "The Shape of Things to Come" that "at a time when the United States needs more foreign coverage than ever, there's less of it."

Rather said broadcast network coverage of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America is "awful." For this, he said, there is "no excuse."

"International coverage will continue to shrink unless those of us who believe in it and believe it's important can make the case to the leadership and the ownership that this is a public serivce. It may not help the demographics and the ratings, and it may get you cursed out of the country club, but it's the kind of coverage you need if you're going to have integrity."