Public Broadcasting 2.0

Dennis Haarsager (one of the driving forces behing the Open Media Network) hasn’t blogged it yet, but his much-anticiapted follow-up to his 2004 “My Time” essay is out in Current. Among other things, he calls for PB to develop an on-demand strategy–now:

Looking back through the mirror now, you find you’ve just entered [Rod Serling voice-over] Public Broadcasting 2.0. Had you been familiar with this hypothetical media landscape, our current 1.0 operations might seem ineffective, scary and risky.

I’m not suggesting that we abandon linear real-time programming. To the contrary, we need to nurture the stations responsible for 18 billion contact hours a year — tonnage of public service that no other nonprofit or government agency can duplicate.

But we have the opportunity to provide even greater public service, especially for the “long tail� audiences we have always tried to serve, with a more effective economic support system, in PB 2.0.

Furthermore, we face the loss of viewers dissatisfied with the limitations of 1.0. Television’s audience has been slowly shrinking and will take a real body blow with the end of analog transmission. Radio’s performance is leveling off and, if we don’t intervene, will decline significantly. Other nonprofits and for-profit businesses will move quickly to serve 2.0 audiences, because barriers to entry are low. Public broadcasting interests urgently need to develop a coherent, viable on-demand strategy.