Thad McIlroy - The Future of Publishing

1. The Television Bureau of Advertising
"The Television Bureau of Advertising is the not-for-profit trade association of America's broadcast television industry. Its members include television broadcast groups, advertising sales reps, syndicators, international broadcasters, associate members and over 600 individual television stations."

2. The National Association of Broadcasters
The other large trade group for television (and radio) is The National Association of Broadcasters, "a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts."

3. As mentioned elsewhere on this site, and in a recent blog, The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) is a well-funded independent research organization operated by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Its website offers a plethora of analysis, reporting and commentary. But keep in mind that its focus is "understanding news in the digital age," rather than the entire dynamics of the medium.

PEJ's flagship report is its annual State of the News Media. The 2008 edition was published on March 17th, 2008. The report covers not just newspapers, but television, magazines, radio, online and more. The sections on television are divided into three parts, network, cable and local. A very thorough study!

4. Who's Consuming TV on the Web -- and What Does this Mean for the Future?
This Neilsen Online 32-page PowerPoint presentation from February, 2008 offers numerous insights into the questions posed by its title.

5. "In Move to Digital TV, Some Will Be Left Behind"
This May 27, 2008 article in The New York Times points to a challenge for television that doesn't receive much airplay. The article's lede: "Nearly 25 million homes have at least one television set that will stop functioning in nine months, when the nation converts to digital over-the-air television.

The author, Brian Stelter, reports that broadcast television stations will be switching en masse to digital signals from analog signals on Feb. 17, 2009. This won't impact TVs connected to cable or satellite services, but older television sets that receive antenna signals will need to be hooked up to a converter box.

The article continues: "The digital TV transition could have a significant impact on the television ratings maintained by Nielsen and relied on by networks and advertisers. If older TV sets simply drop out next February, viewer numbers and ratings will drop, hurting the local stations and television networks that sell advertising time tied to those ratings."

6. "Sony Sets Internet Course"
A June 26, 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal profiles Sony CEO's Howard Stringer's announcement of the company's revised mission: "...simply to be the leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment."

Sony plans to offer video downloading through all of its key products, including televisions, computers, music players, and videogame devices, over the next three years.

The nugget I found most beguiling: "(Sony) will begin delivering movies directly to its Internet-connected Bravia liquid-crystal-display televisions in the U.S. this autumn. Sony said it would become the first company to stream a movie directly to a television without a set-top box and without a cable or satellite television subscription."

And who said convergence is dead? As the article points out, Sony is in a unique competitive position because it also owns both a movie studio and a record company, and so has a chunk of the content required to feed its next-generation digital devices.