Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

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Vol 16(4): 1–19 DOI: 10.1177/1354856510375145
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From Television to
Multi-Platform
Less from More or More for Less?

Gillian Doyle
University of Glasgow, UK

Abstract / This article examines economic aspects of convergence and of multi-platform expan-
sion in the media sector. Focusing on television broadcasters in the UK, it analyses the recent
migration of conventional media towards multi-platform strategies and asks whether digitization
is making content delivery more resource–intensive than before or whether it is facilitating greater
efficiency. Findings suggest that adaptation to a multi-platform outlook on the part of conventional
media requires investment in staffing and re-versioning of content. Funding this, especially in a
period of economic downturn, has encouraged a more selective approach towards content, with
concomitant implications for diversity. Notwithstanding generally low commercial returns from
online activities so far, the potential economic advantages to be had from multi-platform are
significant. The experience of UK broadcasters suggests a well-executed ‘360-degree’ approach to
commissioning and distribution will increase the value that can be realized from any given universe
of content, partly because of extended opportunities for consumption of that content, but also
because modes of engagement in a digital multi-platform context allow for an improved audience
experience and for better signalling of audience preferences back to suppliers.

Key Words / 360 commissioning / cross-platform / economies of scale / economies of scope /

multi-platform

Introduction
The so-called age of convergence has precipitated many ‘false dawns’ (Ofcom, 2008a: 1)
and extensive if premature ‘hype’ about its progress has in the past caused some critics
to warn against allowing public polices or business strategies to be driven predominantly
by convergence (Noll, 2003). But, with growing use of the internet and of multi-media
devices, and with more and more media content now available on multiple platforms, it
is widely accepted that convergence has actually arrived.
Across the media, many organizations have responded to convergence by migrating
towards a diversified multi-platform approach to production and distribution of content.
2 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

This article focuses on the development of multi-platform strategies by television broad-

casters. In the UK television industry, migration to multi-platform has been characterized
by the introduction of ‘360-degree commissioning’ and by the development of websites
and other digital offerings capitalizing on popular content brands. A 360-degree
approach means that new ideas for content are considered in the context of a wide range
of distribution possibilities and not just linear television (Parker, 2007). A 360-degree
strategy implies that, from the earliest stages of conceptualization, content decisions are
shaped by the potential to generate consumer value and returns through multiple forms
of expression of that content and via a number of distributive outlets (e.g. online, mobile,
interactive games and so on) of which conventional television is just one, albeit still a very
important one.
This article is concerned with the extent to which media organizations are benefit-
ing from opportunities to disseminate content across multiple platforms. Is the migra-
tion to multi-platform enabling television companies to use their resources more
effectively than before? The main emphasis here is on multi-platform distribution but,
as reflects the interdependent nature of the relationship between distribution and earlier
upstream phases of commissioning and production of content, the analysis embraces
the wider context of related activities integral to supplying television. The most obvious
benefits from extending distribution across multiple platforms are greater economies of
scale and scope as additional consumption of content across new platforms is facili-
tated. But whether these benefits alone are sufficient to make sense of a multi-platform
strategy depends on how any additional audience value generated relates to marginal
costs.
Technological change is a constant feature in media industries and a number of
studies have concerned themselves with how organizations have adapted their strategies
to deal with convergence and growth of the internet (Aris and Bughin, 2009; Chan-
Olmsted and Chang, 2003; Dennis, Warley and Sheridan, 2006; García Avilés and
Carvajal, 2008; Küng, 2008; Küng, Picard and Towse, 2008; Raviola and Gade, 2009;
Wirtz, 2001). Some earlier work has looked at the implications of convergence between
television and online (Caldwell, 2006; Chan-Olmsted and Ha, 2003; Dowling et al., 1998).
Convergence is used and understood in many different ways but in the current context
refers to the use, right across the communications industry and in all stages of produc-
tion and distribution of content, of common digital technologies. Such technologies have
spurred on the development of new forms of content combining video with text, for
example, and involving interactivity and multiple layers (Roscoe, 2004) and also the
development of converged devices (such as mobile phone/media players). The transition
towards digital platforms – the internet being the principal example – means that content
of all kinds can circulate and be delivered to audiences across numerous avenues (e.g.
television over mobile or radio via DTT or the internet). Adoption of shared digital tech-
nologies has impacted not only on content and delivery but also, as many earlier studies
have shown, on the operational and corporate strategies of media and broadcasting
organizations.
Television is changing in ways that make it increasingly difficult to consider linear
broadcasting in isolation from other modes of distribution to audiences, such as the
internet and mobile (Caldwell, 2006; Creeber and Hills, 2007; Meikle and Young, 2008).
Processes of change, characterized by a much greater emphasis on multi-platform
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 3

engagement with audiences, are evident in all stages of the television industry – from
content production to product assembly to distribution – and, as earlier research has
shown (Roscoe, 2004; Ytreberg, 2009), these changes are affecting media forms and
how content is consumed and enjoyed. For broadcasters, a desire to capitalize on multi-
platform distribution will inevitably shape and inform content acquisition decisions and,
in turn, production activities at earlier stages, irrespective of whether production activi-
ties are located in-house or not. So, to find out how multi-platform approaches are
enabling broadcasters to use their resources in improved ways, a focus on a range of
broadcasting companies in terms of degrees of vertical integration is apt to yield a richer
body of findings than looking solely at publisher-broadcasters or at producer-broadcasters.
Most television broadcasters, irrespective of vertical structure, have hurried to
embrace a 360-degree or ‘multi-platform’ strategy, though what this actually means in
practice can vary widely. Multi-platform is generally about dispersal of content across
multiple outlets (Bennett and Strange, 2008) and this may sometimes involve creation of
multiple texts to enhance the suitability of content for different modes of delivery,
although not necessarily so. One approach towards multi-platform distribution revolves
around reuse of existing content across additional digital platforms, for example supply-
ing linear television content online or via mobile devices. Another involves modification
of existing output (e.g. re-editing) or adding additional layers of content. The creation of
additional original (e.g. web) content as well as other ancillary materials to complement
existing linear offerings can be central to multi-platform distribution strategies (Leaver,
2008). And multi-platform often involves content forms that combine or blend conven-
tional alongside digital delivery. Event television (e.g. Pop Idol) and popular factual formats
that draw on interactive technologies have led the way in demonstrating the potential
for multi-platform content to engage audiences across a range of platforms, including
the internet and mobile phones as well as television (Roscoe, 2004). So among broad-
casters, multi-platform approaches towards distribution and, related to this, towards
content decisions at upstream stages of commissioning and/or production can vary,
with some involving much more significant levels of ambition, experimentation and
innovation than others.
One of the most defining features of broadcast content in economic terms is its
‘public good’ quality – the fact that consumption by one individual does not reduce its
supply to others (Collins et al., 1988). Because of this quality, the impetus to adopt a
360-degree approach towards creation and distribution of content seems to make a great
deal of economic sense. Multi-platform distribution capitalizes on the public good
characteristics of media content and, at relatively low marginal cost, allows much fuller
commercial exploitation of intellectual property assets across additional distribution
outlets (Küng et al., 2008: 133). Multi-platform repurposing of content is common
practice amongst major media conglomerates (Caldwell, 2006) and a significant
contributor to the high levels of profitability they achieve (Vukanovic, 2009).
Recycling of television content across additional audience segments is by no means
new. The process of ‘windowing’, which is about calculating what returns can be earned
from video content by selling it through different channels or ‘windows’ and then arrang-
ing the sequence of releases into the most profitable order, was described in detail in the
early 1990s by Owen and Wildman (1992). This pre-dates the arrival of digital platforms
but, in principle, the technique of windowing is more relevant than ever for media
4 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

suppliers in the digital era, albeit that modelling the range of distributive outlets and the
factors likely to dictate their sequencing is more complex.
The shared use of digital technologies in production, content management and
distribution has made reversioning and reuse of content easier than before. But many
publishers and broadcasters have struggled to generate any significant revenue from
supplying content on the internet. Piracy, although not the main focus here, is clearly a
part of the problem. As broadband capacity increases, illegal copying and intermediation
of broadcast content on the internet poses an obvious threat to television industry
revenues (Bates, 2008: 55; Duffy, 2006: 39). More generally though, a predominant
culture of free access to content on the web has made it difficult to derive user-payments,
especially for mainstream content. This was reflected in Rupert Murdoch’s assessment
that the newspaper industry’s business model is ‘malfunctioning’ and that suppliers need
to start charging for online content (Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2009).
Even so, thanks to digitization, the translation or reformatting of content from one
media platform to another makes increasing economic sense and, given an ever-wider
array of content offerings now available to audiences, brand building has become a
crucial aspect of digital strategies (Duffy, 2006; Johnson, 2007; Ots, 2008). The impact
on diversity of coordinated distribution of strongly branded content across multiple
delivery platforms is questionable (Hesmondhalgh, 2002: 76), though it has been argued
that, because only a small percentage of brands ever achieve widespread acceptance, any
threat to diversity is limited (Murray, 2005).
Multi-platform digital distribution opens out numerous possibilities for public service
broadcasters to offer new sorts of services and output to audiences (Bennett, 2008;
Bennett and Strange, 2008; Born, 2003; Enli, 2008; Graham, 1999; Trappel, 2008). This
article is not about public service broadcasting as such but about how multi-platform
distribution strategies are enabling broadcasters, whether market or non-market players,
to make better use of their resources. One outstanding example of this is the BBC iPlayer,
an online catch-up service, which, since being launched in December 2007, has become
quickly accepted and heavily used by viewers (BBC, 2010). The potential for multi-
platform to facilitate greater audience value was summarized as follows by the BBC’s
Director-General in his Creative Future vision of strategy for the corporation:

Programmes won’t be shown once and then forgotten. They’ll be there forever to be linked, clipped,
rediscovered, built into bigger ideas. (Thompson, 2006: 14)

But migration to multi-platform strategies is not solely about more effective use of
content. The impetus to re-envisage corporate missions in a more platform neutral way
also reflects massive changes in media consumption patterns and in the appetites of
(especially younger) audiences that threaten to leave conventional media behind unless
they too change. Research conducted by, for example, UK regulator Ofcom, confirms that
although broadcast television remains supreme in its popularity, audiences are embrac-
ing the additional choice, control and opportunities for participation offered by the
internet and mobile connectivity (Ofcom, 2008b: 118). The ways in which convergence
is enabling new forms of participation and collaboration are elucidated by Jenkins
(2006). He argues that shifts in the strategies of media organizations towards a more
multi-platform approach and towards a re-balancing of top-down versus bottom-up
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 5

participatory culture ‘is being driven by economic calculations and not by some broad
mission to empower the public’ (Jenkins, 2006: 243). But can the two be neatly sepa-
rated? If digitized, platform-neutral, interactive and multi-layered forms of content is what
audiences demand, it surely follows that more resources ought to be directed towards
supplying this.
The aim in this article is to examine what are the main strategic motives encourag-
ing television companies to embark on multi-platform distribution strategies, and to what
extent digitization, convergence and multi-platform approaches are enabling broadcast-
ers to operate more efficiently and effectively. In what ways is a 360-degree approach to
content distribution affecting the ability of broadcasters to exploit their resources and
serve audience demands effectively? Some have argued that audiences are being ‘super-
served’ with multiple options and media suppliers ought to draw back from creating more
and more new content and delivery formats (Bell, 2009: 4). To what extent are the costs
of adopting a multi-platform strategy outweighed by new revenue streams or greater
audience value or other actual or expected strategic benefits?
The sample chosen for this study – the BBC, Scottish Television, ITV, Channel Four
and MTV – includes some organizations who are mainly focused on broadcasting and
others involved in content production as well as broadcasting. This selection reflects the
point that, because strategies for dispersal of television content are frequently interwoven
with and interrelated to production decisions, the experience of a sample of broadcast-
ers that is varied (in terms of vertical structure) is apt to provide fuller evidence about the
impact of multi-platform strategies on the economics of supplying television. An
exploratory investigation, based on analysis of reports and financial statements for these
television broadcasters, and interviews with key television executives, was carried out in
2009. Interviewees were involved in functions including corporate planning, strategic
management, content acquisition and management of digital operations. The sample
includes not only leading UK broadcasters but also, for additional depth and range, the
UK-based subsidiary of an international television company. In order to take account of
the differing objectives guiding strategic development in an industry partly devoted to
public service, the sample also includes both market and non-market players. Although
a limited survey, focused only on the UK, the strategic issues related to convergence that
are opened up by this research are of wider relevance to broadcasters and content suppli-
ers based elsewhere. Findings are analysed under three main themes: motives for
adopting a multi-platform approach; impact on conceptualization and exploitation of
content; and implications for costs.

Economic and Strategic Motives for Multi-Platform

Amongst UK-based commercial broadcasters, Viacom subsidiary MTV has been one of
the most advanced in devising and executing strategies that capitalize on a multi-
platform approach. Philip O’ Ferrall,1 Head of Digital Media at MTV Networks explains
that, while until a few years ago everyone perceived the business as being just about
television, this has now changed irrevocably. It is now recognized that, for example,
console games and online games involving virtual worlds are as much a part of the
business and its future as production and broadcast of television and film content.
According to O’Ferrall:
6 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

MTV in the UK is a completely 360-degree media owner . . . We’re not a broadcaster; that’s just
part of what we do. We make programmes, we own brands and we media-cast multi-platforms.
The media-cast continuum . . . that we provide is completely 360.

While transformation to ‘a completely 360’ outlook has been achieved by niche broad-
caster MTV, the extent to which this mindset has taken hold across the television industry
more widely is questionable. Many UK broadcasters, despite adopting multi-platform
strategies, are quick to point out that conventional broadcasting remains by far the most
popular and powerful medium with audiences, notwithstanding growth in internet usage.
A number of mainstream broadcasters account for their transition to multi-platform as
being ‘a defensive move’ – a necessary strategy in order to defend their market position
at a time when the behaviour of audiences and advertisers is changing, as exemplified
by all available international data (Ofcom, 2008b: 118, 160).
Another issue is the age profile of television executives involved in programme
decisions (Parker, 2007). Alan Clements,2 Director of Content at STV Group plc and
former independent producer, explains that although much more weight is accorded now
than a few years ago to how well a prospective programme idea might perform in a
multi-platform context, the chief concern is still whether or not it promises to be a great
television show:

for the foreseeable future – for the people that are going to be in positions of authority in television
over the next ten years – I don’t think the first default position is going to be ‘how does this work
online?’ . . . It is part of the thought. But less so than ‘is it a killer format that’ll work?’

MTV’s orientation towards youth audiences is reflected in a more committed approach

to multi-platform development, as reflected in Philip O’ Ferrall’s view:

If we want to continue to grow our business there’s no point saying ‘let’s make a great TV show
and then put a bit of content online’ – it just doesn’t work. So everything we do, it’s in the DNA
now to think: ‘right, we’ve got this audience and what do they want at the minute?’ . . . [W]e create
that audience and build it prior to just being a linear broadcast. Any of our shows start online, on
mobile, on social networking sites and we build an audience. They migrate to television and when
they’re not watching on television they can continue to have a relationship with that media property
on any platform. So that’s basically how all of our shows work now.

There are, of course, differences between how commercial players and public service
operators explain their need to adopt a multi-platform approach. For commercial tele-
vision companies, whether the aim is to mitigate the impact of declining audiences or,
more positively, to build brand profile and diversify revenue streams, motives for moving
to multi-platform distribution are usually traceable to long-term profit maximization. For
PSB operators, the primary concern is public value and audience welfare rather than
profits and so strategic motives are more wide-ranging. Matthew Postgate,3 Controller
of Research and Development within the BBC’s Future Media and Technology Division,
sums up the BBC’s motives as follows:

there’s a two-fold thing there in that the BBC should, we believe, be an innovative organisation but
also we need to remain relevant. Both of those are strategic objectives: chasing audiences; serving
audiences. [A]nd then there’s the building digital Britain remit . . . [I]f you look at a society like Korea,
there the Government chose to make a massive public intervention at a network level. Essentially
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 7

they pay for everyone to have broadband . . . [whereas] in the UK, as a society we have chosen to
have a large scale intervention at the content layer. But broadly speaking you’re seeking the same
social outcomes and you’re trying to seek a balance between public sector and private industry
arriving at the most competitive outcome. So building digital Britain is the third strategic driver for
our cross platform convergence strategy.

Economies of scale and scope are often thought to be the main incentive for multi-
platform diversification. But the experience of UK organizations suggests that the range
of motives driving broadcasters to embrace a converged 360-degree approach is usually
much more complex. For some, a key attraction is the opportunity to engage with target
audiences more comprehensively and more effectively. For many, the need to move
beyond broadcasting is more of a defensive move. Multi-platform provides a means to
remain relevant to audiences and advertisers whose interest has shifted away from broad-
cast to online and mobile media. For PSB operators, multi-platform diversification is also
about trying to keep in step with evolving and, arguably, much more demanding concep-
tions of the key purposes public service provision ought to fulfil in the digital era.

Content Acquisition and Exploitation in a 360-Degree World

As the television industry adapts itself to an emerging appetite amongst audiences for
what Mark Thompson (2006: 14) called ‘Martini media’ – that is, media available to access
anytime, any place and any how users choose – a key question is how is this affecting
the cost-efficiency of television companies? Does the reuse and reformatting of content
across numerous products, services and digital delivery outlets generally enhance the
economics of supplying television by allowing ‘multi-casters’ to wring much more value
out of their content properties and intellectual property? Or, in a world of fragmenting
audiences, is the additional return or value generated by multi-platform distribution
matched and outstripped by additional costs?
In practice, the experience of UK television companies suggests there are two main
ways in which digitally converged multi-platform distribution can improve efficiency in
delivering value to audiences via television content. One relates to the opportunity, with
a multi-platform approach, to provide more and improved access to content. A second
advantage stems from the opportunity, because of the return path with digital delivery,
to engage with users in ways that are different and that allow for audience needs to be
understood and catered for better than before. Anmar Kawash,4 Chief Operating Officer
at STV summarizes the benefits of 360 distribution thus:

what you’re seeing is more windows to exploit . . . more outlets for your content . . . also you’ve
got a different way of your audiences connecting back to you.

A 360-degree approach to content multiplies the number of windows or distribution

outlets through which broadcasters provide audience access to television content and,
related to this, it extends the time period over which content properties are able to deliver
value and earn a return. As Kawash explains, the addition of a website as well as a
conventional broadcast channel means that broadcasters are no longer constrained by
the limitations of a linear television schedule in which access to content, especially at
peak-time, is tightly restricted. A strong appetite amongst audiences to avail of more
8 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

flexible access was demonstrated by, for example, record levels of online viewing for video
clips from ITV’s show Britain’s Got Talent in May 2009 (Barnett, 2009). David Booth,5
Head of Programming at MTV UK, confirms how crucial it is to be aware that exploita-
tion of content assets is not just about the first transmission:

It is about aggregate viewing [across multiple outlets] . . . When we commission something we’re
thinking: what is the longevity of this show? You could have six 30-minute episodes – that doesn’t
mean the show is over in six weeks time. You’ve probably got two years sweating that content on
different platforms . . . The commissioning model is about having high production, high quality, high-
cost vehicles as opposed to just doing something that’s a one off. So the economics of television
has really come into it. I spend a lot of my time with Strategy and Finance working out return on
investment across different platforms of doing an idea. Whereas in the past . . . if it was a great idea
then people just thought: ‘that’s brilliant for linear; that’s great for a Sunday night spot at 9 o’clock
or 10 o’clock’.

So, for commercial broadcasters such as MTV, a 360-degree approach partly means fuller
exploitation of what has been described as ‘the long tail’ (Anderson, 2006). This gives
rise to the need for careful strategic planning of how to maximize the return from any
content property across all available distributive outlets. Both the necessity for and the
complexity of ‘windowing’ in a 360 multi-platform context are reflected in David Booth’s
observation about time spent with the accountants. For public service broadcasters, a
prolonged distribution period will not necessarily yield additional revenues but, as
evidenced for example by the popularity of the BBC iPlayer, it can extend public value
quite considerably.
However, another highly important if less loudly trumpeted benefit of digital tech-
nology is the potential for the return path to improve efficiency. Head of Digital Media
at MTV Philip O’ Ferrall explains how interactivity allows MTV to manage its resources
much more effectively:

we run a whole load of music channels and we’ve got a bunch of experts that know music and
none of them are the same demographic as our audience . . . So what we’ve done is tell them what
the audience want and we do that through interactive charts. We do it through our relationship
with, for example, a MySpace chart, we have an MTV.co.uk chart, we have a mobile chart, we have
a chart that you can vote on online or through red button. Who better to shape the programming
of music on the TV channel than the masses? . . . Everywhere [online] there are comments, part of
the job of my team is to trawl the editorial, pick up comments, pick up important information, feed
it back to me and into the production team so we can slightly change the way that a production is
going . . . We can do that because we have a direct link between our audience and the TV.

Interactivity and more effective use of systems of feedback allow broadcasters to know
about and cater to the specific wants of a target audience. Through in-depth analysis of
current trends, and through judicious use of online teasers and tasters for forthcoming
programmes, a closer relationship becomes established whereby the target community of
interest can be cultivated in advance and directed back and forth across platforms towards
additional opportunities to engage with popular brands and content properties. So the
emergence of a converged multi-platform media environment lends itself to new oppor-
tunities for management of audience flows – a concept that is by no means new to the
television industry (Williams, 1974). Achieving a level of ‘hyper-engagement’ whereby
audiences are progressively built up and can then be directed towards those distributive
outlets where attention is converted to revenue is, as David Booth explains, very crucial:
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 9

If we didn’t have 360 degree commissioning, just nothing would cut through. We wouldn’t get the
viewers and it’s about hyper engaging back. That’s the thing. We’ve connected with the viewers and
we’ve given them what they want and the key over the next two years is to get all this traffic that
we’ve got online and hyper-connect them back into the linear channels. If you do that, you’re onto
a winner. And I don’t think anyone’s quite got that right yet, because it is very difficult; it’s
complicated.

Do Multiple Platforms Mean Multiple Costs?

Distribution of media content across numerous platforms and in multiple guises and forms
can result in larger audiences, an improved experience for end-users and higher returns.
On the other hand, supplying ‘Martini’ media may involve at least some marginal costs.
Notwithstanding the public good features of media content, the need to adapt it to suit
the platform it is being distributed on and, in some cases, to produce extra material, may
involve additional effort and resource (Erdal, 2007; Bockowski and Ferris, 2005). A
successful 360-degree distribution strategy requires that the specificities and strengths of
each differing mode of delivery be taken into account, as Matthew Postgate at the BBC
explains:

where convergence has been successful it is around companies who have been able to use different
platforms to their strengths to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts. And where
you have failure it is that people have put different platforms together and tried to layer a single-
service proposition over them, when it was only ever optimal for one of them. So convergence is a
concept that is in some ways defined by divergence.

A converged approach within processes of content production can generate savings and
help minimize the extra costs involved in multi-platform delivery. As earlier studies on
newsrooms and on multi-platform journalism have shown, news is one area of content
production where converged approaches have become relatively well established (Cottle
and Ashton, 1999; Dailey et al., 2005; Deuze, 2004; Erdal, 2007; Killebrew, 2003;
Lawson-Borders, 2003; Phillips et al., 2009; Singer, 2004). Many if not most broadcast
and other news media operations are now well advanced in adapting their newsrooms
and work practices towards a multimedia outlook, driven at least partly by managerial
hopes of widening audiences and cutting costs (Quinn, 2005). How this impacts on jour-
nalistic standards, although important, is not the focus of investigation here but rather
how multi-platform impacts on costs. BBC Scotland’s headquarters at Pacific Quay in
Glasgow is fully digitized and, as its Head of Corporate Affairs Ian Small6 explains, savings
in news creation costs are possible because news teams routinely produce content
offerings not only for broadcast television plus radio (as per the BBC’s long-established
‘bi-media’ approach) but also, now, for online and mobile delivery too. At BBC Scotland
as elsewhere, news-gathering and production resources can be more fully utilized because
they are shared across a wider number of news-based outputs.
But, because not all forms of content lend themselves so well towards converged
production as news, a multi-platform distribution strategy will in some cases necessitate
multiple production processes in relation to a single content property in order to construct
a range of texts and ancillary material designed to enhance and ensure the suitability of
that content across a range of platforms. To the extent that multiple production activi-
ties are needed then, although multi-platform dispersal will enable some economies of
10 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

scope to be reaped (e.g. through shared use of story, characters, brand and so on), the
cost of generating multi-platform outputs will clearly exceed that of making just one form
of output such as a television show. As technologies have advanced, audiences have come
to expect ever more dedicated and sophisticated tie-ins for content offerings that migrate
across platforms. Meeting these demands can be expensive (Soun Chung, 2007), as Ian
Small notes:

The best sites are those which are dynamic. We can see that with blogging sites, message boards,
chat rooms and whatever. However, the difficulty with these sites is that they are labour-intensive.
You have to have someone moderating on a regular basis, assessing the content etc. So, much as
we would love to have these across the board, it gets back to resourcing. The appetite may be great
out there but, even with convergence – even working as cleverly as you can – you might not be able
to match the resources available with the increasing appetite for different sorts of websites.

Multi-platform distribution strategies are apt to add to a broadcaster’s costs but, at the
same time, because of the ongoing fragmentation of television audiences discussed
earlier, the impact of such strategies on any broadcaster’s aggregate audience reach may
be negligible. The experience of many UK broadcasters – see, for example, Tables 1 and
2 – suggests that 360-degree distribution will not necessarily produce a significant uplift
in revenues (though it may be instrumental in stemming declining audiences). Therefore,
against a background of tightly constrained and in some cases depressed budgets caused
by advertising recession, the cost of meeting audience demands for additional volume,
range and depth in multi-platform content delivery is something that all broadcasters are
highly aware of. One commercial television executive summarized his sentiments thus:

I think if it wasn’t for competition – if it wasn’t for the consumer having more choices – broadcasters
wouldn’t want to deal with convergence, because it’s a pain in the ass!

Streaming of content on the internet may cost relatively little (provided rights are owned),
but piping content into homes generally involves at least some marginal expenses, includ-
ing payments from broadcasters to content delivery networks to ensure quality and avoid
loading-time delays (Bradshaw, 2009). In addition, it is widely conceded that the design
and upkeep of websites and the creation of innovative and appealing properties suited
to digital multi-platform delivery requires investment. Sustaining a varied portfolio of
digital channels, even where all channels are utilizing much the same content, involves
more work than providing just one. Audiences now expect the many extra features or
services (such as time-shifted channels, watch again facilities, and opportunities for more
in-depth and for two-way engagement) that digitally convergent and multi-media
distribution make possible, but only some of these will be successful in generating
incremental revenues to a level that enables marginal costs to be covered.
Some sense of the cost of extending delivery across new media platforms may be
gleaned from the financial statements of television companies who report separately on
online or ‘new media’ activities.7 The online division of ITV plc, which was loss-making
both in 2007 and 2008, at that time consisted largely of itv.com, an advertising supported
entertainment site built around ITV’s popular programme brands, plus Friends Reunited,
a reunions site (ITV, 2009: 31). Notwithstanding disappointing returns from online
businesses, an analysis of the trend in average staff headcount by division – see Table 1
– underlines the extent to which this television broadcaster has focused on building up
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 11

TABLE 1
ITV plc – online v total segment analysis

ITV plc

Year to 31 December 2006 2007 2008

Revenues: (£m) (£m) (£m)

Online 23 33 36
ITV total 2536 2414 2350

Online as % of total revenues 0.9% 1.4% 1.5%

Average employees:
Online 135 286 373
ITV total 5957 5700 5597

Online as % of total employees 2.3% 5.0% 6.7%

Source: Based on figures from ITV plc's Financial Statements 2007 and 2008.

its internet activities over recent years. The average number of employees in ITV’s online
division had reached 6.7 per cent in the year to December 2008 but, in the same year,
the share of ITV’s revenue accounted for by the online division was only 1.5 per cent.
Likewise at Channel Four, the scale of creative and financial investment into online
and multi-media delivery far outstrips any return being earned from these activities at
present. Table 2 shows how, across the three year period from January 2006 to December
2008, the average headcount involved in creating and maintaining ‘future’ media services
such as the company’s websites (C4.com and E4.com) and video on demand offerings
grew from 12 per cent to 16 per cent of the company’s total number of employees.8 This

TABLE 2
Channel Four – new/future media v total segment analysis

Channel Four

Year to 31 December 2006 2007 2008

Revenues: (£m) (£m) (£m)

New/future media 18.5 26.7 33.4

Channel Four total 936.9 944.9 906.1

New media as % of total revenues 2.0% 2.8% 3.7%

Average employees:

New/ future media 111 137 146

Channel Four total 917 965 905

New media as % of total employees 12.1% 14.2% 16.1%

Source: Based on figures from Channel Four Financial Statements 2007 and 2008.
12 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

level of investment is generous compared with an earlier survey focused on the US tele-
vision industry which found that companies generally devote 1–5 per cent of their overall
budgets to internet related activities (Chan-Olmsted and Ha, 2003: 590). At Channel Four,
while average headcount involved in ‘future’ media reached 16 per cent in 2008, income
from this source was less than 4 per cent of the organization’s total.
There are currently two main aspects to Channel Four’s online strategy: first, websites
that seek to exploit the multi-platform potential of its existing strong television content
brands and, second, an initiative called 4IP. In terms of sites offering content, the company
broke new ground by making a major proportion of its back catalogue of popular
programmes accessible to UK viewers for free from July 2009 through its 4OD catch-up
service (Dowell and Williams, 2009). The 4IP initiative, by contrast, is actually not about
television or reuse of content but rather, as Head of Nations & Regions at Channel Four
Stuart Cosgrove9 explains, about investment, in partnership with others, in ‘social media
platforms, participation platforms and technology enabling tools’ that may over time
generate public value and new income streams. When asked about why, despite high
costs and low returns so far, investment in online is still considered worthwhile, Stuart
Cosgrove explains:

Well, the answer is the same as with any other organisation. You have to have a stake in the future.
And sometimes that stake is loss making. Sometimes it is not clear where the revenues are going to
come from or what shape they’re going to take. And some of it is about staking out whether the
future is going to pan out the way that you strategically analyse it will. And we have to have a stake
in that future. We can’t not.

Although, for many UK television companies, online activities have cost a lot and
produced relatively little return so far, it is widely accepted that diversification – moving
beyond broadcasting and into the new forms of engagement with audiences – is
absolutely essential for survival. Earlier research in the USA has also found that building
audience relationships is a key motive for greater investment in internet-related functions
(Chan-Olmsted and Ha, 2003: 593). In the USA as in the UK, the strategic response of
broadcasting incumbents to the growth of internet-based competitors such as YouTube,
Facebook and Google has similarly focused primarily around development of online distri-
bution services for their own content. The Hulu online video service run by NBC, News
Corporation and Disney, which allows viewers to stream television shows from the major
networks, has grown rapidly in popularity since its launch in 2007 (Edgecliffe-Johnson
and Menn, 2009).
The conviction that new forms of engagement with audiences are essential for survival
is as evident amongst public service broadcasters as commercial players. At the BBC, the
proportion of public service expenditure attributed to online activities (including mobile)
has gradually increased over time and reached 5.8 per cent in 2007–8 (see Table 3). While
BBC managers were criticized in a review in 2008 for insufficient control and while curbs
have since been imposed over the costs of the organization’s web operations (Conlan and
Sweney, 2008; Oliver, 2009), it is also notable that the BBC Trust concluded that that
‘bbc.co.uk is an excellent service that is highly valued by users’ (BBC Trust, 2008: 12). The
iPlayer service introduced at the site in December 2007, which allows viewers a chance to
see programmes missed, has proven especially popular and within only a few months of
launch was reaching over 1 million viewers per week (BBC Trust, 2008: 31).
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 13

TABLE 3
BBC – analysis of online expenditure

BBC

Year to 31 March 2006 2007 2008

Expenditure: (£m) (£m) (£m)

Online 151 154 182

Television & radio 2755 2883 2954

Online as % of total BBC spend 5.2% 5.1% 5.8%

Cost per user hour: (£) (£) (£)

BBC One 0.06 0.07 0.07

BBC Two 0.06 0.07 0.07
BBC Three (digital) 0.21 0.16 0.13
BBC Four (digital) 0.29 0.21 0.17

Cost per user reached:

bbc.co.uk 0.17 0.16 0.18

Source: Based on figures from BBC Financial Statements for 2006–7 and 2007–8.

When it comes to evaluating the success or otherwise of investment across new

delivery platforms, for commercial broadcasters indicators such as profit or return on
investment (applied over the medium-term) will normally provide at least some sort of
useful yardstick. But measuring return on investment in public service broadcasting is
inherently a much more challenging and complex task. The BBC has sought to underpin
accountability by offering a framework for assessing public value based around measures
of audience reach, quality, impact and value (RQIV). The RQIV is, in the words of Matthew
Postgate, an attempt to ‘provide a common measuring system across all our technology’
and which will help with making investment decisions across the BBC’s entire portfolio
of services. But the use of quantitative approaches towards public value in broadcasting
is bedevilled by the problem of measuring essentially ‘unmeasureable’ characteristics such
as quality (Collins, 2006: 41–3). And, even with such a comprehensive framework as RQIV,
problems around comparability remain because the way in which audiences get value
from content varies from one platform to another. Whereas ‘time spent’ is a positive
indicator for an activity such as watching television, it is less clear that this always holds
true for use of the internet. Longer time spent using an online news service, for instance,
may indicate a negative rather than positive value if the explanation is that the user
cannot find what they are looking for.
One of the key measures of value for money that the BBC reports each year is a
calculation based on user hour, in other words, the cost of providing the service divided
by the total audience multiplied by the number of hours of usage. Table 3 shows the cost
per user hour of four of the BBC’s television channels two of which are popular primary
channels (BBC One and Two) available in all UK homes and two of which (BBC Three and
14 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

Four) are digital-only channels receivable in multi-channel homes. The per-user cost of
the BBC’s website – bbc.co.uk – at 17p is broadly in line with reported per-user costs for
some of the organization’s digital television channels and therefore can be said to be
offering similar value for money. But note that the calculation of value for the website is
based on cost per user reached, not cost per user hour. So, arguably, the per-user value
being created in each case is not strictly comparable.
The need for improved means of measuring and comparing the value of audience
experiences from one digital platform to another remains a challenge for the media
industry, and one that affects not only public service broadcasters but commercial players
too. There is widespread awareness, too, that because of budgetary constraints the costs
associated with multi-platform delivery must be managed and controlled. Matthew
Postgate explains that, in relation to investment in new digital media at the BBC, rather
than seeking to expand the sheer volume and breadth of output, the objective is to
achieve impact and to evolve editorial formats and new platforms:

Broadly speaking we’re a fixed revenue organization. What that means is if you want to do some-
thing new then you have to stop doing something else . . . Delivering the Creative Futures strategy
can be summarised in very simple terms: fewer, bigger, better . . . Fundamentally it’s about trying to
focus the investment that’s warranted by the audience size around the kinds of experiences that are
going to appeal to the people who are either there or nearly there on the platform . . . You’re pulling
resource out from what it used to do into the new things . . . What the BBC has to do is accept its
total size and prioritise investment in line with audience behaviour, which is often tricky.

Echoes of the mantra ‘fewer, bigger, better’ may be heard right across the television
industry both as a response to recession and tighter programme budgets and, also, as a
formula for managing adaptation to a converged multi-platform model. In order to
perform the adjustment within a constrained budget, greater selectivity is being exercised
at the stage of content commissioning with more concentration on ambitious and poten-
tially high-impact ideas. Even at MTV where, compared with many other media organi-
zations, the track record of earning extra revenues from multi-platform delivery has been
very strong, it is fully recognized that success depends not on volume but on highly
selective investment in content. According to Head of Programming David Booth:

it’s not about having tons and tons of hours of content. I think every broadcaster has had to really
rethink their programme strategies and at the end of the day do bigger picture stuff – doing less
but being more cost effective because you’re able to sweat that content across so many different
platforms and you’re getting longevity out of it.

Conclusions
The experience of broadcasters in the UK suggests that there is potential for a conver-
gent 360-degree approach to significantly improve the value provided to audiences by
suppliers of television content. The reuse and reversioning of content into new outputs
and across new platforms, which is characteristic of a 360 approach, yields substantial
opportunities for additional consumption and additional audience value. This undoubt-
edly allows for an improved use of resources but is not a new practice. However, another
way in which multi-platform digital distribution affects efficiency is that it brings unprece-
dented capacity for suppliers to match content to very specific wants and needs on the
DOYLE: FROM TELEVISION TO MULTI-PLATFORM 15

part of audiences. Increased distribution capacity plus effective search tools are facilitat-
ing more individually customized consumption. And thanks to the digital return path,
systems for signalling preferences back to suppliers have improved greatly. No longer
confined to a linear schedule, the total universe of content properties on offer from tele-
vision companies may now, theoretically at least, be used and enjoyed much more fully
by audiences than ever before. Also, stemming from the ‘lean forward’ rather than ‘lean
back’ character of digital media consumption, content suppliers can now forge and
capitalize on more engaged and intensive relationships with audiences than before (Lotz,
2007; Ytreberg, 2009).
While many broadcasters are still in the process of discovering how best to capitalize
on this endowment from digitization, it is notable that search engines and alternative
service providers such as YouTube that moved quickly to provide free access to video clips
and other television content have reaped enormous advantages (Aris and Bughin, 2009:
6). The siphoning off of audiences by online service providers who generally do not own
and have not borne the costs involved in producing content poses an obvious threat to
the revenues of broadcasters and other conventional media suppliers worldwide (Picard,
2009: 3). But, as is evident from the situation in the UK as elsewhere, an increasing
number of incumbent broadcasters are responding by themselves offering free catch-up
services and access to a wide catalogue of older content.
In general, a major advantage of adopting a multi-platform approach is the ability
to reap economies of scale and scope – being able, as reported by interviewees, to ‘sweat’
content across more windows and over a longer time period. The extent to which some
forms of content and some audience segments are better suited than others towards
capitalizing on the interactive qualities of multi-platform digital distribution was touched
on here and this represents a worthwhile direction for future research. The ways in which
the response of broadcasters to multi-platform opportunities is influenced by their status
as commercial or public service entities is another issue that warrants additional, more
focused, research. What is clear, however, is that as commercial broadcasters gradually
find ways to improve returns from online distribution, complex windowing techniques –
that is, careful planning and sequencing of the release of content across multiple outlets
so as to maximize audience value and/or commercial returns – will occupy an increasingly
important role in the full and systematic exploitation of television content assets.
But the transition from television to multi-platform also involves costs. The need for
investment in specialist skills is reflected in altered staffing patterns at major broadcast
organizations. An increasing trend in the proportion of employees who were engaged in
online activities at UK television companies in the 2005–8 period provides a clear indica-
tion of the perceived requirement for high levels of creative and financial investment in
new media.
Set against this investment, a problem faced by commercial broadcasters – and
indeed most other conventional media suppliers too – is that deriving a return from online
activities is difficult because, ‘[f]or well over a decade, the prevailing orthodoxy of the
internet has been that information wants to be free’ (Edgecliffe-Johnstone, 2009: 11).
Deriving revenues from the online supply of media content – getting consumers to pay
– is not easy (Tryhorn, 2009). The problem of coming up with a revenue model that is
fully adapted to characteristics of digitization and the internet has yet to be resolved by
many media firms who, in addition to negotiating economic recession, are also
16 CONVERGENCE VOL. 16 NO. 4

struggling through a period of ‘creation destruction’ as termed by Joseph Schumpeter

(1942) – that is, a time when established businesses that are unable to transform success-
fully in response to new technologies are at risk of extinction. Their protracted difficul-
ties support the view that new media technologies generally take longer than expected
to become commercial successes (Fidler, 1997).
In practice, a common strategic response to the conundrum of how to meet audience
and advertiser demand for multi-layered 360-degree output from within static or dimin-
ishing content budgets has been to focus on fewer, high-impact ideas. It has previously
been argued that multi-platform distribution encourages brand extension and the ‘market
ubiquity of a limited number of franchises’ (Murray, 2005: 431). The ‘fewer, bigger, better’
formula adopted at the BBC as part of its restructuring to a multi-media entity clearly
acknowledges that breadth must suffer in order to support more innovative and poten-
tially high-impact content proposals. In the commercial sector, because of recession in
television advertising expenditure, many broadcasters are also embracing the need for
greater selectivity in content decisions as part of their digital strategies. So, rather than
contributing towards diversity and choice, multi-platform distribution is in some senses
liable to encourage standardization around safe and popular themes and brands. In this
respect, despite offering opportunities for improved exploitation of media resources,
multi-platform distribution may in practice result in less from more rather than more for
less.

Acknowledgements
The generosity of interviewees who participated in this research study is gratefully acknowledged. Also,
my thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive input.

Notes
1 Interviewed in 2009 at MTV headquarters in London.
2 Interviewed in 2009 in Glasgow.
3 Interviewed at White City, London in 2009.
4 Interviewed at STV headquarters in Glasgow in 2009.
5 Interviewed in London in 2009.
6 Interviewed at Pacific Quay in 2009.
7 Differing definitions of ‘online’, ‘future’ and ‘new’ media detract from comparability of data between
organizations and over time although in all cases internet activities appear to feature strongly. Reported
employment trends at ITV and at Channel Four nonetheless confirm ongoing factor reallocation away
from conventional broadcasting towards online and new media.
8 Channel Four has implemented a number of redundancies since 2008 resulting in fewer staff working
in future media.
9 Interviewed in Glasgow in 2009.

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Gillian Doyle is Course Director of the MSc in Media Management at the Centre
for Cultural Policy research (CCPR), University of Glasgow, and a Visiting Professor at
the University of Oslo. She was President of the Association for Cultural Economics
International (ACEI) for 2008–2010.
Address CCPR/TFTS, University of Glasgow, 9 University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
[email: G.Doyle@ccpr.arts.gla.ac.uk]