A once in a lifetime shot to reshape TV

“A once-in-a-lifetime shot to reshape TV,” Richard Lindsay‑Davies, CEO, Digital TV Group (DTG) described the move to IP at the conference session “Television’s Great Rewiring: Strategy, policy and audience enjoyment in the all-IP era”. 

“This transition isn’t about replacing television. It’s about making sure TV takes its place in a software‑defined, data‑driven future. But there’s a risk: while focusing on the transition, we forget the destination.” 

Antonio Arcidiacono, Director of Technology and Innovation, EBU, agreed: “The polarisation between broadcasting and IP is completely wrong,” he said. “It goes against the laws of physics.” 

He described a shift from the historic one‑to‑many broadcast model to today’s many‑to‑many social media ecosystem and now toward a new paradigm “many‑to‑one, where personalised services revolve around the citizen.” 

Arcidiacono warned that broadcasters must anticipate rapid change by 2034 – a date referenced by several European regulators for DTT switch-off. “If we want to stay relevant, we have to capture the interface between the citizen and the engine that serves them,” he said. That means embracing edge intelligence, personal assistants, and AI‑driven content discovery but on broadcasters’ own terms. 

“Let’s invest ourselves. Why should I give all my data to somebody else?” he said, urging public‑service media to build their own AI layers rather than rely on Big Tech. “The cards are being reshuffled. It is possible. Let’s do it together.” 

The UK’s move toward all‑IP television is already underway. “We have to modernise to survive,” said Lindsay‑Davies. “AI will reshape everything from content creation to user interfaces. AI‑driven and AI‑curated experiences will create entirely new commercial opportunities. There will be formats that we haven’t even imagined yet.” 

The biggest risk, he cautioned, “is that we don’t think big enough.” 

“The opportunity is far bigger than efficiencies or incremental improvements,” he said. “Media is heading toward a data‑driven, generative future, whether we like it or not. We need to be bold. We need to organise ourselves with a coordinated, efficient, effective transition.  

“If we do that, we’ll hit that moonshot moment for TV at the end.” 

ATSC 3.0: “Not either‑or – it’s both” 

In North America, broadcasters reject the idea that IP delivery will replace broadcast. “ATSC 3.0 combines the one‑to‑many reliability of broadcast with the personalisation of internet delivery,” said Rebecca Hanson, Director‑General, North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). 

However, adoption faces obstacles: handset manufacturers control access to devices, the FCC refuses to sunset ATSC 1.0, and spectrum auctions continue to erode the frequencies broadcasters rely on. 

 “It’s a race against the clock. We still have a critical mass of over‑the‑air viewers, but we need to get to where we want to be before the majority reaches a point of no return in the digital space.” 

She also issued a stark warning about AI’s impact on journalism. “AI is not a friend of broadcasting. They’re stealing your content. They’re taking your journalism without paying for it,” she said, noting that AI‑generated summaries reduce click‑through rates by up to 47% and risk misrepresenting news brands. “Whoever captures the AI layer captures the entire market. It’s on us to push back.”