Examination of Witnesses (Questions 498
- 499)
TUESDAY 17 OCTOBER 2006
INGENIOUS MEDIA
Chairman: For our final session, could
I welcome Patrick Bradley, Director of Ingenious Media which is
one of the main investment companies in this sector and, therefore,
represents another very important element. Could I ask Paul Farrelly
to begin.
Q498 Paul Farrelly: Thank you very
much for coming along, and I hope we can tease out some of your
trade secrets so that we can spot the next Google or YouTube before
you do. In your submission you quite rightly draw attention to
the change that is happening in the industry which has been driven
by new technology. How are investors reacting to that? What do
you look for as an investor? Where is your money flowing round?
Mr Bradley: I think the key element
that we always look for, being an investor who is primarily interested
in content as opposed to technology, is the quality of the management
team and the quality of the creative excellence of that team.
Where we are sitting now is we see opportunities for investment
being created by the impact of changes in technology, changes
in regulation and changing consumer habits of consumption and
media. From our point of view as an investor, and I think this
goes for most other investors in this sector, what we see is a
breakdown of the existing business models, the existing forms
of funding into those businesses and an opportunity for high-growth
investment. That is really the potential we are looking for and
that is where money is flowing at the moment. We see investment
moving towards mobile opportunities, IPTV platforms, content aggregators,
new ways of digital marketing or digital advertising and also
to digital film and digital music. Old media's growth has now
flattened and will decline and from an investment point of view,
these changes in different drivers in the media market are creating
a perceived opportunity for high growth.
Q499 Paul Farrelly: When you say
content is king, and it is content rather than technology per
se, how do you define content from a range of original production
to content through to aggregation?
Mr Bradley: I think primarily
what we are looking at is production in the sense of the production
of content, the actual programme, record or game. That is where
we see value being created because, ultimately, consumers choose
to go to a particular delivery system because it will provide
them with the content that they are seeking. I think a very good
example of this was last year when I was driving my daughter to
school and there was a huge hoarding up on the side of the road
which said, "If you want 24, get Sky". Some of
you may be familiar with that particular programme. What that
told me was here was compelling, quality content that was being
used by a delivery platform to drive new subscriptions. Our view
is always that quality content, demanded content, is the thing
that will drive consumer revenues and will drive uptake of particular
platforms to deliver them.
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