From September 14 to 16, CBC/Radio-Canada played host to over 60 public broadcasters from around the world. Public Broadcasters International (PBI) is an annual event that was held this year in Montreal. The theme was The NEXT Future: Connecting the Digital Generation to Public Broadcasting. Maxime St-Pierre and I were invited to attend and provide a keynote presentation, which you can watch here. Below are our top observations from the event.
Millennials are Still Aliens
It was common for people to refer to Millennials as “the young people,” seeming to be ignoring the fact that many Millennials are in their 30s, in careers, with kids themselves. I didn’t consider myself a youth when I turned 30. I think we still have work to do to make our younger citizens a part of our culture both internally and as part of our audience.
Richard Kanee, Head of Digital, CBC
Authenticity
Overwhelmingly the most cited word used by all presenters. Vice, YouTube, Wattpad and others claim that the single most important thing we can do to reach Millennials is to speak authentically to them. I think what they are saying is that online audiences consider themselves a peer with content creators. How we create, publish and engage through our content should reflect this new flattened relationship where our audience are friends rather than targets.
Millennial Projects
One approach to reaching Millennials that we heard often was to create stand alone autonomous units that are shielded from the core business. We have examples of this at CBC/Radio-Canada, including the Idea Accelerator, the CBC Creator Network, as well as the Next Generation project announced at PBI. What was less discussed was the harder but necessary work of transforming our core business holistically from a public broadcaster to a public media company that privileges digital as equal alongside TV and radio.
Though challenging, and at times overwhelming in scope, the results of CBC/Radio-Canada’s efforts in this regard can already be seen in the additional 2 million Canadians per month we now reach online. This effort, fundamentally changing how we work and what we work on will enable CBC/Radio-Canada to expand and deepen our leadership position in Canada.
Us or Them
The tension between investing in our own digital sites and products vs “fishing where the fish are” on Facebook, Google and other third party platforms was a major theme of the week from the first panel. CBC/Radio-Canada has charted a path forward that lies somewhere in between. To reach new audiences, we must actively go and find them while also investing into branded products that serves a specific audience interest in our content, our brand and our experience.
Emphasis on Content, Not Product
Absent from the discussion last week were strategies and approaches to digital products. We are and have always been first and foremost content companies and that tends to be our focus. Our approach at CBC/Radio-Canada includes developing great products that answer the needs of our audience and creates an ideal environment for them to engage with and through our content.
Online publishers’ websites haven’t changed very much in a decade, while platform companies like Facebook dominate engagement with our audiences and relegate publishers to the role of content suppliers. Today we reach 16 million Canadians every month, the 9th largest digital audience in Canada. We are largely dependent on Google and Facebook for this audience. By investing, we will deepen engagement and retention of our audience on our products and allow us to continue to grow, regardless of whatever changes may occur on our partner products.
Passion
From small pacific island states to PBS and BBC, everyone in attendance shared a common passion for the cause of public service. The Robocon presentation from NHK was particularly inspiring. The Japanese broadcaster presented a case study on Robocon, an internationally televised robot building competition. Audiences were massive and in each of the 18 countries that participated, enrollment in engineering schools increased after airing. Truly inspiring public service programming!