Channel 7 has announced a third channel to be named 7Mate. The station will be squarely focussed on the male 16 to 49 demographic with a range of shows like Family Guy, American Dad, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother as well as more as the much maligned Jersey Shore and Punk’d.

The big question is how Seven’s regional affilliate, Prime, will react. When Seven launched their second station 7TWO , Prime took quite a while to respond, allegedly due to unhappiness over the name not being suitable for affilliates.

Will it be called Prime-mate?

Popularity: unranked

A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• Over 8 million tablet computers are expected to be sold in 2010. Source: The Economist

• Facebook flashed more than 176 billion banner ads at users in the first three months of this year — more than any other site. Source: Time

• Sales of music in the form of digital files grew by 9.2% to exceed a quarter of total sales during 2009. Source: The Economist

• Five months after it was launched, users of Blippy – a Twitter-like service that broadcasts what people buy – share $1.5 million in transactions every week. Source: The Washington Post

• The average YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day on the website, compared with 5 hours that the average TV viewer spends in front of the box. Source: The Economist

Popularity: unranked

I’m looking for a junior web developer to join the team at Sticky. We’ve had a solid year of growth and new client wins and it’s resulted in the necessary expansion of our team to keep up with demand.

We encourage a fun, dynamic environment so the most suitable person will balance the required skills with the right personality to be a good fit.

Please check out the position available and indicate your interest by Friday 3 September 2010.

Popularity: unranked

Australia needs to join the high speed broadband revolution

As usual, the current Australian government has done a poor job at explaining the benefits of one of their major initiatives and as a consequence it is being largely ignored and risks being totally abandoned if they lose power. I’m talking about the National Broadband Network.

Unfortunately, the cost of the Australian government’s planned $43 billion National Broadband Network has become the issue rather than the benefits of high speed broadband for the country. The Opposition has focused on the cost, perhaps with good reason, and claim that the project is a White Elephant, yet they haven’t offered any viable alternatives.

Meanwhile the Government has failed to sell the real benefits of the NBN to the public and potentially negate the argument against.

I’m no infrastructure expert and I don’t pretend to know the best way to deliver high speed broadband to the nation but I do believe we as a country must have a high speed broadband network as soon as possible.

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Popularity: unranked

Last week I was on a panel at the Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress where we were discussing the future of advertising. One of the questions I was asked was whether I thought 3D TV was the future of television advertising. My response was an emphatic NO.

Masterchef winner Adam Liaw

Nonetheless we did discuss many concepts that probably going to be a big part of television and advertising going forward and it seems to me that Masterchef has them in spades.

1. A good storyline will always be successful, even if its not alone in guaranteeing success. Masterchef cleverly builds towards a climax like most reality TV shows but really allows us to follow the growth of the contestants over the series. We get to know them and see them improve.

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Popularity: 12%

This week will be a conference-heavy one for me with plenty of focus on the future.

I’ll be attending the Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress in Sydney and sitting on two panels.

Panel 1 is to discuss Where is advertising heading? We’ll be looking at what the emergence of new platforms and players means for advertising spends on traditional media, questioning whether brands will continue to advertise en masse and even looking at whether technology such as 3D TV is the future for advertising.

Panel 2 probably has a lot of similar themes for me as we look at Strategies for successfully transitioning to a broadband economy. We’ll discuss what media companies need to do to survive in the changing technological environment, using the online channel to develop content and advertising products that cater to the on-demand media consumer and how media companies will generate revenue online.

The rest of the conference topics focus heavily on the digital age so its going to be fascinating to see what the rest of the industry is thinking.

The Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress is on 20-22 July 2010 at the Swissotel, Sydney.

Popularity: 7%

Social media steps out of the echo chamber

I only have time to attend a handful of conferences each year. Its often difficult to determine which are the best conferences to attend. You have to balance up the cost and the potential information reward for each conference.

Social media conferences are even harder to pick. Over the last 3 years I have attended quite a few social media conferences and events but the lingering impression I often have after each event is that the conference was preaching to the converted. Its been an increasing dilemma in the social media world….there are those who “get it” and those that don’t (yet). At most events I’ve attended the audience already “get it”.

Of course its great to have enthusiastic participants at your social media event, but it’d be a lot more valuable to the noise extended beyond the social media echo chamber to reach the people we’d really love to see “joining the conversation”…Ie leading corporate marketers.

That’s why I’m excited to be attending the iStrategy 2010 conference in Sydney in November. Here’s a social media conference that is very deliberately addressing marketing professionals from leading Australian organisations with the aim of “Bridging the gap in Social Media Marketing”.

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Popularity: 3%

Get noticed in the web industry

I just came across a great piece in Smashing Magazine by Christian Heilman titled Making your mark on the web is easier than you think. There is some excellent advice in here for people looking to get noticed, make a start in the industry or win a job. In fact it has some parallels with my thoughts on getting a job in the media and marketing industry.

Here are the main points, but please check out the full article for more details.

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Popularity: 9%

In the past five years social media has snowballed to become a dominant force in media and marketing. Here in Australia we now spend more time online,  17.6 hours per week , than with any other media. Astoundingly, Australia leads the world in social media consumption averaging 6 hrs 52mins per person per month.

advertising must adapt to the new social media environment

So it is fair to say that social media is now having a significant impact on how people receive information and how they consume marketing.

Social media finally brings “people” into the marketing equation. Its possible to actually develop real relationships with consumers rather than just broadcast messages to them.

Bob MacDonald, CEO of Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s leading advertisers recently said,

What I would like to have is a one-on-one relationship with seven billion people in the world and be able to customize offerings for those seven billion people. Digital allows that relationship.

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Popularity: 3%

Next month I am going to be a panelist at the 5th Annual Australasian Media & Broadcasting Congress in Sydney as media leaders discuss the industry and its future directions and I really need your help.

Is 3D the future of advertising?

One panel I am really looking forward to is titled The Future of Advertising. I’ll be discussing the big issues with Adam Good from Clemenger, Paddy Douneen from BMF, Marty O’Halloran from DDB Australia & New Zealand, John Sintras from Starcom Worldwide, Matt Whittingham from SingTel Optus and Paul Fisher from IAB Australia.

The initial question coming my way is based on a statement by Oscar-winning producer Jon Landau at the Cannes International Advertising Festival:

“3D is going to be the future of advertising”

Now I have been rather unexcited by the whole 3D thing and have my own opinions about it, but maybe I am way off base. So I’d really like to know what you think. Is 3D going to be the future of advertising? Is it just a fad, hyped by a desperate industry or is it groundbreaking technology that is going to make us love TV all over again and lap up the exciting advertisements that will be leaping off the screen?

I’d love to hear from people within the media and advertising industries. I’d also appreciate feedback from people who have invested in 3D televisions to understand their experiences so far.

All feedback is very welcome. I will compile the answers as part of my response to what I hope becomes a very lively debate at the Media & Broadcasting Congress.

Popularity: 3%