ABU GA – Artist warns broadcasters not to take audiences for granted in new media age
One of Asia’s most famous hip hop artists, Tiger JK, has warned the region’s broadcasters that artists such as he now had the power to sidestep the established media and connect to their audiences directly.
The Korean star told a meeting of the ABU’s Standing Programme Committee in Seoul that new media platforms gave artists the advantage of connecting with the audiences directly and the power to deliver content without having to pursue television organisations for exposure.
Tiger JK, one of the founding members of hip hop group Drunken Tiger and the former CEO of Jungle Entertainment, had been invited to join an expert panel at the end of the Committee’s two-day meeting as part of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union’s 49th General Assembly.
The session examined the possible future of traditional media in comparison to new platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where users were no longer a passive audience but also the content generators.
Joining Tiger JK on the panel were Dr Kim Sun-Tae, Senior Vice President of the telecommunications company LG U+, Mr Brian Suh, Head of YouTube Partnerships Korea and Ms Bernie Cho, President of the DFSB Kollective creative agency of Korea. The session was chaired by Ms Keiko Bang, CEO of Bang Singapore.
The panellists spoke of rapidly growing audiences for YouTube and other media platforms and how more people were tuning to these channels for their interactive, personalised, instant feedback and anytime/anywhere-available content. The old business models were reversing, with producers seeking audiences who chose what they wanted to watch.
Committee Chairperson Dato Borhanuddin Osman and ABU Secretary General Dr Javad Mottaghi had earlier opened the two-day meeting of more than 200 delegates by thanking members for their involvement, which demonstrated the cooperative nature of the ABU family.
There followed reports from the ABU Secretariat and other bodies on current and completed initiatives and plans for the future.
Another forum on the second day examined Social Network Services and asked “Is the content industry entering a new paradigm?”
Titled “The Future of Radio and Television as We Know It”, the session discussed the challenges of new social media technologies and on how traditional broadcasters needed to cope with growing demands in the digital era.
Speakers highlighted the need for traditional broadcasters to have a social identity on the Internet and recommended measurement to analyse social media viewing.
The Programme Committee meeting concluded with the election of Mr Jun Jin-Kuk from Korean Broadcasting System as Chairperson with Dr Michael McCluskey of ABC Radio Australia and Mr Hideki Tazuke from NHK-Japan as Vice Chairs.