“Welcome to Television”: TV turns 60!

“Good evening and welcome to Television.”

It was 16th September 1956 when Bruce Gyngell greeted Australian viewers as TCN9 flicked the switch in Sydney.

Australian Television was born.

In the six decades since it has expanded to 3 Commercial Network, 2 Public Broadcasters, 1 Subscription Broadcaster, plus Regional Broadcasters, Streaming services, multichannels and catch-up. Australian TV has produced countless titles that have entertained millions around the world.

Today TV Tonight asks a cross-section of personalities, producers, executives and journalists to make their predictions on a single question.

“Where will TV be in 10 years time?”

Fittingly, the first to answer the question is the son of Bruce Gyngell….

David Gyngell, Director, Nine Entertainment Co:
“What an impact television has had over the last 60 years! And its excitement and influence continues to grow. Google is an algorithm that has helped improve your day. Television is an emotion – entertainment and information that improves your life. I know what will still be great in 60 years: Television.”

Eddie McGuire, Hot Seat:
“The return to dominance of live, local TV. News, sport and interactive variety and talk. On demand / binge drama and documentaries delivered to devices at super high speed. Further development and refinement of 3D virtual reality. We all might be sitting on the couch with a personal motorcycle helmet style surround sound / visual device with eyeball activated second, third and fourth screens; buying Amazon delivered goods with the blink of an eye as product placement becomes a major part of TV, thereby revolutionising advertising and revenue streams in the process.”

Tracy Grimshaw, A Current Affair:
“TV’s not going anywhere. I would confidently predict we will all still be watching news, current affairs, drama, game shows, etc in ten years’ time. What’s changing…rapidly and profoundly…is HOW we will watch it, and where, and when. Mobile screens and streaming have given viewers so much more freedom and power. When I started in TV 35 years ago, we all used to get home from work at the end of the day and gather around the box as a family to watch the news. Now we can watch it live on our screens on the train. So I guess the telly won’t be a central rallying point in family homes any more, but that’s been coming for a while. In ten years it won’t matter what time a show is scheduled. Viewers will do their own scheduling, and determining how a show rates will need to change accordingly. But news will still break, and remarkable stories about human survival and endeavour will still happen. And people will remain curious about all that.…I think…”

Michael Ebeid, Managing Director SBS:
“So long as we have great Australian stories to tell, TV has a great future, although in 10 years it’s safe to say we will be consuming it more On Demand and less linear programming. Only 15 years ago it was hard to imagine that we’d be watching TV on our computers or mobile phones and yet here we are. It’s important though that TV still brings family and friends together to share in those stories and that it doesn’t become just a personal experience. In 10 years, I’d also love to see Australians from the more than 200 cultures which call Australia home be able to switch on the TV and see themselves reflected and those making TV truly reflect our wonderfully diverse country.”

Harold Mitchell, Chairman, Free TV Australia:
“Free television has a strong future and will continue to occupy a central place in the hearts and minds of Australian people. Ten years from now, television will continue to be free for all Australians and valued by all of those who consume it – Australians have been watching TV for more than three hours a day for years! Popular, Australian-produced programming will continue to thrive and delight audiences. Advances in technology will bring great opportunity to TV – with even greater picture quality and more ways to engage than ever before.”

Rebecca Heap, Head of Audience & Digital, ABC:
“In 10 years from now, nothing can be guaranteed except that the TV experience, from both an audience and industry perspective, will be very different. Today’s disrupters will have been disrupted at least once, perhaps twice over. We’ll be working on different platforms, with different and more varied content forms. Many of us in the industry will probably be regretting the long term deals and commitments we made back in 2016. What will be the same, I hope, is the audience appetite for great, entertaining Australian stories and events that bring us together and inform who we are as a nation.”

David Speers, SKY News:
“For my side of the business I like to hope people will still put their trust in television for news, interviews and analysis. More people will continue to find their daily news and analysis online and on Facebook in particular. This will put pressure on the old model of news bulletins that don’t break any new ground. But television is still unmatched in its ability to put together compelling feature stories, hard-hitting interviews and robust panel discussions. This will be the strength for the news side of the TV business over the years ahead.”

Peter Hitchener, Nine News:
“Not sure what the delivery technology will look like, but people will always want content. In particular news and entertainment. It’s part of who we are as human beings.”

Jennifer Hawkins, Australia’s Next Top Model:
“I think social media will be involved in some way because the way it has taken over everything is scary. If I’m still working in 10 years that would be amazing. It’s such a great industry to be involved in, but who knows? But people like to be taken away into a fantasy world, so I think that will still be the same, for sure.”

Lachy Hulme, Offspring:
“Still in my living room, probably.”

Marc Fennell, The Feed:
“I’m not going to do the typical SBS thing and tell you that there will be more diversity on screen. There just will be. All you need to do is look at the faces of the major youth brands globally like Buzzfeed, Fusion, NowThisNews and Vice to see that your next employee will probably be brown. Get out ahead of the curve and hire one of us while you can still get brownie points for it. The real change?  In 10 years time TV channels are no longer TV channels. They are apps that exist across your tv and mobile devices. Netflix and Stan are your obvious touchpoints here. They will stream much the same content as we have now (drama, reality, news, live sport). The major difference is that there will be much more global competition. Global brands like HBO and Showtime already have paid US apps. When the economics become favourable they will all pull a Netflix and go global.  My view is that companies that live off local licencing are at incredible risk. Those who can generate (and own) their own unique content and then deliver it seamlessly to tv, tablets, phones, VR headsets should do well.”

Luke McGregor, Rosehaven:
“I think it probably be more interactive. They way they are playing with 360 degree cameras could apply to sporting matches. But I think after it goes towards that they will realise there is an element of control that is important to keep. So it will come back to the traditional style of choosing where the camera angles are and the edit points are. A 360 degree soccer match is not as good as a bird’s eye view or a slow-motion replay with different angles. So as technology advances there will be a push-pull about how it is implemented.”

Celia Pacquola, Rosehaven:
“I really hope it’s not more Reality. I feel it filling the room like water -which is warm and nice, but will get to a point where I can’t breathe. I’d like it if there was a balance and it tips more into scripted TV.”

Tim Latham, Executive Producer Media Watch:
“The commercial, free to air schedule will be dead and buried. All programming will be on demand. There will be an abundance of online offerings, filled with cheap, crappy content – including more advertorial shows. Event TV, like live sport and rolling news will be more critical than ever. The ‘television’ will be as retro as the fixed phone line or the home stereo and TV ratings will remain a questionable science.”

Richard Lyle, Chief Classification Officer, Nine Network:
“My prediction for TV 20 years from now is the opening line from ‘Grand Hotel’ 1932: a very old man is seated at the bar in the opulent lobby of the hotel and surveys the surrounding crowd and says:
‘Grand Hotel, people come, people go…nothing ever changes!'”

Matt Campbell, CEO, Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder:
“In ten years time 90% of TV will be on demand, I’ll be living on the farm and hopefully an entire new generation of talented creatives and executives will be running the media world…”

Andrew Mercado, TV Historian:
“I have no idea where TV is headed in the next 60 years because everything is changing so quickly right now. But what I hope is that, despite audience fragmentation, Aussie drama just keeps going and going and friends and families continue to watch things together as a community.”

Michael Lallo, Senior Entertainment Writer, Fairfax Media:
“I think dramas will be less dark, literally. We’re sick of having to close the curtains and turn off the lights so we can watch the latest critically-acclaimed series. Ten years ago, the wobble-cam effect, dim lighting and a washed out palette were used to signal “quality”. Now, we see those techniques in car insurance ads. You know what would be truly innovative? If a producer turned on some lights, plonked the camera on a tripod – and let great writing and acting be the star. Sport will become an even bloodier battleground. Networks and pay TV operators will continue throwing cash at the major codes for exclusive rights. But as technology improves (and when – or if? – we get a decent NBN), each code will ask themselves, ‘Can we make more money by selling direct viewing access to our fans?'”

Tom Gleeson, Hard Quiz:
“I predict that in the next ten years, due to Streaming, I’ll say the famous words, “Good evening and farewell to Television.”