Disruption is only going to get worse

Delegates to IBC’s Leaders’ Forum were warned that if they thought they had already seen the worst of the disruption in broadcasting markets they were wrong. Much worse is on the way with Netflix, and increasingly companies such as Apple, leading the charge.

Netflix may already have 140 million subscribers but that “could easily double over the next three to five years,” according to a West Coast broadcasting specialist.

If such growth happens that would give the company almost unimaginable firepower which would totally dwarf the individual national public service broadcasters of Europe.

Already in the UK the number of Netflix subscribers had passed the number of pay TV viewers.

The unequal nature of the battle, even before future growth, was highlighted by the fact that Netflix already employed 3,500 engineers and were planning to add a further 500.

YouTube already had no less than 5,000 engineers.

“Only the BBC with 3,500 engineers can begin to match that brainpower,” the executive argued. The other public service broadcasters of Europe lagged a long way behind in terms of scale.

This is the eighth IBC Leader’s Forum, one of three forums being run this year with the others devoted to cyber security and telecommunications. All are subject to Chatham House rules which means individual speakers are not identified.

According to the speaker, who has worked for the US tech companies, they are now looking…