I delivered this speech at the Rotary Club Alabang on August 28, 2014. Topic: Philippine Tv News Media: In the Advent of Digital and Non-Linear Technology

1. Philippine Tv News Media: In the Advent of Digital and
Non-Linear Technology
by Martin Andanar, Head, Tv5 Everywhere
President Dante Fajardo, Immediate Past President Nick Villatuya, Officers
and Members of Rotary Club Alabang, Good Evening.
It is with great pleasure to speak before a group of respected gentlemen
from Rotary Club Alabang. And with this invitation I would like to thank you
from the bottom of my heart.
As a practicing broadcaster for the last 20 years, I consider myself one of
the luckiest persons in this field.
Why do I say this? I say this because firstly, i was still able to use and
experience the analog technology in audio and video before its demise. I
remember editing audio and video using the reel to reel multitrack and the
linear video editing machines when I started working in radio in 1994 and
when I started working in television in 1999. Second, naturally I was in the
middle of the transition from linear to non linear video editing and from tape
to digital audio editing.

2. What used to take 30 minutes to edit, whether video or audio, now only
took 5 to 10 minutes. This, consequentially, affected the delivery of news.
When we became digital, it became faster to deliver it because editing was
faster and since the file was digital in format, transfer was no longer in
realtime. One just needed an email and internet connection. Digital gave us
speed of delivery unimaginable in the 70’s and 80’s.
Let me show you how the newsroom value chain changed.
Before Non linear and digital communication.
1. Newsdesk Assigns News Assignments to reporter using telephone or
through physical meetings
2. Reporter and Cameraman gather report
3. Reporter calls newsdesk for report update using landline. Reporter stays
in the press corp office so he can be contacted anytime.
4. If story is approved by News Executive Producer for airing, reporter
returns to newsroom to write and edit story.
5. News Executive Producer approves the script and soundbites.
6. Video Editor transfers video in real time and starts to edit.
7. News Executive Producers approves the edited news.

3. 8. If the story is big, reporter is assigned an OB VAN.
9. News Story Airs.
10. Viewer Watches News on Tv.
Newswroom AFTER Non-Linear and Advance Digital
Communications were introduced.
1. Newsdesk assigns News Assignments by text or mobile call. (No
physical presence in the news room needed).
2. Reporter and Cameraman gather report.
3. Reporter texts or calls newsdesk for news update using mobile phone.
Reporter can do this anywhere, he doesnt need to stay in the press
corp, therefore giving him more opportunity to gather more stories or
multitask.
4. If story is approved by Exec Prod for airing, reporter writes the story
where he is, voices it where he is, and sends them, including the video,
through email. No need to go back to the newsroom, no need to send a
courier, no need to LCB or Fedex tape.
5. News Executive Producer approves the script and soundbites.
6. Video Editor transfers video by dragging the file to his work station. He
no longer does this real time.
7. News Executive Producers approves the edited news.
8. If the story is big, reporter is assigned an OB VAN.
9. News Story Airs.
10. Viewer Watches News on Tv.

4. The new process saved the news organization about four hours just to
produce one news story!
All of us here inside this room are fortunate we are at the center or at the
cross roads of this technological change. We can either observe it or
become part of it. Whatever it is, we are all affected by this massive
technologoical wave that has changed how we receive or relay information.
In my case, I was not only able to witness several digital technologies that
affected NEWS unfold right before my very eyes, I was also given the
chance to champion and introduce one of the most disruptive digital
technologies in Tv5.
The evolution of the internet gave birth to the concepts of online video and
social media. These two concepts eventually became the biggest internet
offering that completed the package of wireless connections that big telcos
began to offer; the package would be in the form of convergence or triple
play. Finally, all three; Voice, Data and Video can simultaneously exist
through the internet protocol pipelines of the telco. In our case PLDT.
In 2012, my pitch to develop the first FREE TV News EVERYWHERE in the
Philippines saw the light of day. What propelled me to push for the idea
back in 2010 was the fact that Tv5 was having difficulty changing the habits
of the Filipino Viewers on free tv. If we cant win on free tv, surely there was
a way to win online, especially that our mother company owned majority of
the internet pipelines of the country. To me, it was sacrilegious we werent
implementing the convergence that PLDT wanted to accomplish with Tv5.
So in May 2013, we launched News5 Everywhere (news5.com.ph), the first
FREE news video/audio on demand and news streaming in the Philippines.
We believed that with the right curation, aggregation and social media
strategy, we could be the number 1 news video online portal in the land.
(Show graph Hits)
(Show graph Value Chain)

7. 1. Newsdesk assigns News Assignments by text or mobile call. (No
physical presence in the news room needed).
2. Reporter and Cameraman gather report.
3. Reporter texts or calls newsdesk for news update using mobile phone.
Reporter can do this anywhere, he doesnt need to stay in the press
corp, therefore giving him more opportunity to gather more stories or
multitask.
4. If story is approved for airing, reporter writes the story where he is,
voices it where he is, and sends them, including the video, through email.
No need to go back to the newsroom, no need to send a courier, no
need to LCB or Fedex tape.
5. News Executive Producer approves the script and soundbites.
6. Editor transfers video by dragging the file to his work station. He no
longer does this real time.
7. News Executive Producers approves the edited news.
8. If the story is big, reporter is assigned an OB VAN.
9. News Story Airs.
10. Viewer Watches News on Tv.
11. Curation, Aggregation & Social Sharing for Live Streaming and Catch
UP Viewing

8. The evolution of the internet with its powerful cloud storage servers,
sturdy content distribution network internet pipelines and the
phenomenal democratization of media through social media gave
impetus to online tv everywhere viewing.
In reality, to embrace it is to survive the content creation business. To deny
it is to die in the sea of competition.
Its birth has spawned appointment and flexible viewing, the
democratization of media and individuality. Anyone can watch anytime they
want. Anyone can create their video channels if they want.
Under these democratized condition, the world discovered new superstars
and personalities out of normal creative people who share their art on
youtube. Well meaninged independent blogs and citizen journalists have
also seen sudden popularity for their activism. This is just great!
However, it has also given unwanted exposure to radical extremists like the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.
Ironically, James Foley, the journalist they beheaded recently was
employed by independent online newspaper ONLINE GLOBALPOST.
On the other hand, online tv everywhere viewing has resulted to more de-nucleurized
familes. Families dont watch tv together anymore because
every member now holds a mobile tv screen. Whether this is good or not, I
leave it with you to decide.
The delivery of information has been marked by several major innovational
and technological crossroads from medieval ages when messages were
delivered by homing pigeons and horses which were eventually replaced
by trains and automobiles, the invention of the press during the mid 1400‘s,
in 1835 when Samuel Morse invented the Morse Code which led to the
electric telegraph, Graham bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876, in the
early 1900’s when radio was invented by Marconi, when television was
invented in the early 1900’s and when the world wide web and sms were
introduced to the market in the early 1990’s.

9. Today my fearless forecast is “free online tv everywhere” will be what
broadcast television was in 1925. FREE Online Tv Everywhere is the next
biggest content distribution platform. It is more powerful than broadcast tv
because it is democratized. It is more powerful than broadcast tv because it
can directly address and target an individual. It is scarier than broadcast tv
because any group can easily push an immoral message in the guise of
good news. It is more alluring than Tv because it is on demand and
shareable on social media.
This will be very disruptive. Is this going to be good or bad?
Before I end this talk allow me to leave you a quotation from the famous
Steve Jobs.
”Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people,
that they are basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, theyll do
wonderful things with them.”--Steve Jobs
Thank You Very Much!