The Future of Broadcast Content

In this media content keynote, New Yorker essayist Ken Auletta discusses how the “age of Netflix” is good for writers as it gives them more liberation as opposed to the more typical broadcast structure.

Even though there has been a decline in traditional forms of broadcast lately, there are some types of content that can survive it and some that won’t. Auletta believes that companies that choose to stick to older formats are more likely to lose out because people now no longer have the patience they used to have with options like Netflix and online streaming so readily available and affordable to them. He cites examples like sports events and the Academy Awards—that pull in up to 1 billion viewers every year —to prove that some broadcast content can still survive.

The most important thing he highlights in his media content keynote is the fact that writers will have more freedom to write for series and sitcoms without having to worry about ad breaks that sometimes kill the buildup the writers had designed when writing the script.