The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

October 24, 2014 | 2 min read

Broadcasters should no longer consider themselves broadcasters but instead focus on their role as content producers for a varying range of formats, according to Al Jazeera manager of digital distribution Taahir Hoorzook.

Speaking to The Drum at Mipcom in Cannes, Hoorzook said the network had been one of the first to launch live services on YouTube four years ago and has continued developing strategies for its online output.

However, in order to stay relevant, he added that broadcasters must change the way they define their offering.

“Broadcasters should be thinking of themselves not as broadcasters any longer but as content producers for multiple formats,” he said.

“Television will remain a very important part of people’s video experience for some time to come. There’s a lot of talk of the death of TV but all research indicates that TV is still very relevant, people are still watching content on the big screen.

“The delivery platforms may change and we need to just be aware of that and we need to be adjusting the way we operate in order to cater for that, so the idea of being a mobile-first operator is not really the question we should be looking at as content producers.

“The question that we should be answering is how do we produce content for multiple platforms so that we can engage with people in the best way on that particular platform.”

Also at the Mipcom event in Cannes, Twitter’s head of TV creative, Fred Graver, discussed the importance of social TV to the business.

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