Media Festival underway with old and new media ‘rubbing up’

Adrian Slatcher mingles down at the Media Festival

Hipster goaties. Black rimmed spectacles. iPads. The usual signifiers of new media are dotted around the room, but outnumbered by suits and men of a certain age. This year’s Media Festival at the Palace theatre sees an old media model – lots of BBC, lots of corporate sponsors and venture capitalists – but a very new media programme. If in the past “convergence” was a theme it seems that there’s no question about it now. The key themes of today and tomorrow are all about the new media environment. This morning’s main session has the provocative title “The Gameification of Everything” and the main BBC contributions to the next two days are about new models of commissioning and the development of their new iPTV platform “Youview.”

Many of the breakout sessions are focussed on different digital business models. Yet, there’s not obviously a big presence from Manchester new media companies here, as the linkages between the big broadcasters and the more grass roots content companies are still not as strong as they ought to be.

Obviously the driver for this convergence is the BBC’s forthcoming move to Salford – and the almost glacial speed at which the commissioners and the large broadcasters start thinking out of the box. Watching the recent BBC4 drama about the birth of Coronation Street, one was struck by how broadcast TV in the early 60s, particularly the great ITV franchises such as Granada, were creative entrepreneurs. It’s been a long time since TV and radio were innovators in that way – however innovative their TV models were – so its fascinating at a conference such as this to see how new and old media will rub up against each other.

I’m looking forward to a couple of days of exciting conversations – and the programme is certainly a challenging one. Julie Meyer, Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, has begun the plenary by talking through the changes over the last few years – less money is around, but funders are looking at doing much more with less, with the new business models allow companies to do so. Like all conferences there are some familiar tropes, and I felt nicely reassured that we’ve already had the Clay Shirky reference. New media has its cliches just as much as old media.

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