Telemedia Conference in UK
TELEMEDIA MEETS THE MEDIA CHALLENGE IN LIVERPOOL
Liverpool, England – The Telemedia industry usually attracts all the wrong kind of attention from the media: just look how the 
TV and the press went to town on the industry when participation television became a bit mired in controversy. But next week we are turning all that on its head as the media – both print and TV – will join a range of brands, marketing experts, agencies and network operators in Liverpool for the Telemedia360 event.
The event has been born out of the need for the media to look at new ways of generating revenue from its content. Rupert Murdoch has publicly laid down the gauntlet that his mighty News International organisation is not going to give content away for free anymore online (or indeed on mobile). Other media organisations, while not as vocal as Murdoch, are all in the same boat. Even the music industry is now looking at how to sell its content over the web and mobile in such a way that pirate bit torrent sites are no longer an attractive option for consumers.
While all these media outlets are agreed that they have to start charging for their precious content, none of them really knows how to go about it. That’s where Telemedia360 comes in. The telemedia industry has, over the years, pioneered the best ways to generate, market, sell and bill for premium content. Despite the PRS landscape changing – shifting from the telephone and network operator billing to a more freestyle online, IP-based model – the industry still has the gift of how to get people to part with cash for content. And Telemedia360 Liverpool on 21 October has become the place for the media, hungry as they are for new ideas, to come and learn all about how to realise Murdoch et al’s dream.
Telemedia 360 is a call to arms for the industry to consider how it can bring its huge expertise, technology and general cheekiness to bear on making the media and marketing industries more effective at turning free content in premium, billable content.
“We have been supplying ways for media to bill its customers for over twenty years,” said Bob Bentz, president of Advanced Telecom Services which will be sponsoring the show. “The billing mechanism may have changed over those two decades, but the mediums are essentially the same.” Advanced Telecom Services provides billing mechanisms such as 900 numbers and premium SMS solutions.
The event will of course focus on billing, particularly in terms of the various new billing tools available and how they’re suited to different things: not just monetising media content, but also apps, charity donations and much more. There will also be an essential view of who regulates what in this increasingly complex chain of cross-platform suppliers.
Telemedia 360 has already brought together an impressive role call of very high level speakers and sponsors representing some very big brands. To reinforce its importance further, cooperation with the International News Media Association (INMA) and the Online Publishers Association (OPA), who run their own annual event (Outlook 2010) the very next day, will attract even more international representatives keen to understand how to use cross platform technology to generate revenue and eyeballs.
So we’re going down to Liverpool on the 21st Oct and we’re hoping to see you there.
