Why Does The NAB Show Have No Sessions About Online Video?

With all that is going on with the current broadcast industry and all of the online video initiatives that broadcasters have under way, I still can't figure out why for the second year in a row the NAB has nothing in the way of conference sessions talking to the online video market for broadcasters. Where are the sessions talking about the new emerging business models? Where are the sessions talking about the technology and work flow issues these broadcasters are having, let alone the reporting and metrics issues that come with this new online distribution business?

Why isn't the NAB at the forefront of wanting to educate its broadcasters in a public forum? The RTNDA@NAB conference has some sessions about online but primarily all about the radio and news industries. Nothing about video distribution channels, technology, or business models in the entertainment and broadcast industries.

Comments

[Tom Streeter]

Unfortunately it's the nature of the NAB beast -- they really, really hope that this Internet thing is just a fad.

Heck, "cable" was a dirty word around there until the early 90's.

[Robert Gershon]

Agreed, Tom. At the yearly IRTS "Newsmaker Breakfast" in November the four big network VP's of Programming had a good ol' time talking about the importance of program moves from Sunday to Thursday or 8:00 to 9:00 but the Internet just seemed something to use to promote their shows. The broadcast industry as a whole has been minimally interested in a medium that, if theorist Marshall McLuhan is right (and he has been so many times), could usurp theirs. Their concern de jur seems mainly to be TIVO.