The world according to Sorrell

So – last night the Mantralites marched through the hail down to the Cavendish Conference centre to see Sir Martin Sorrell speak about (broadly speaking) ‘the world’. After half an hour or so thawing out amongst the crowds of suits (RTS events – very few women – lots of men in suits bellowing at each other), we were escorted in to the main room and took our seats in front of Sir Martin and the host for the evening, Hugh Pym – Acting Economics Editor for the BBC. Sir Martin started off by stating that unlike most agency people, he was actually going to answer the brief - a list of questions asking his opinion about the current and future state of the UK and global economy and the impact on the media markets. Key take-aways:

- If you focus on one media, in one market, you are a bit buggered (cue plentiful references to ITV)
- The BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the next 11 (or discounting Iran, 10) are the markets to watch and embrace – their growth is significant
- China has the equivalent to two times the population of the US on mobile phones, half of which are on one network
- The areas to focus on are PCs, mobile and video
- The potential of mobile will be realised when the operators are forced through threat to their business to sit together in one room

In addition, Sir Martin talked specifically about WPP. The TNS transaction which is expected to be formalised today takes them back to the no. 1 spot. His aim is to have WPP’s business as follows – 1/3 digital and new media, 1/3 BRICs and emerging markets and 1/3 market research, insight and services (NB – his predictions for PR are positive – phew!). One point that provoked an audience chuckle was his ‘dad-like’ observation of the digital industry. He believes the language digital people use is exclusive and confusing – “twitter, Flickr – what do all these words mean?”

When asked about the suggestion that Google was a parasite, his response was that if Google was a parasite – he would like to be one. The reason other business leaders talk in such a derogatory fashion is because they are jealous. But regulators should look a little closer at the monopolistic position that Google is taking.

One has to wonder how Sir Martin has time to do anything other than travel; “When I was in Sao Paolo / Brazil / Bejing / Germany last week…” but his international and multi-market knowledge is awe inspiring. We were captivated the entire evening and post-event chatter in the office has kept us occupied while the server decides whether it is going to wake up this morning.

Thanks Sir Martin (and RTS) - was a great evening.

MySpace, Hi-Five!

So Channel Five yesterday announced it will be producing a 'youth-focused' news broadcast, distributed on social network, MySpace. This is the second UK broadcaster (the BBC signed up in January) to begin distributing content on MySpace this year.

So is online TV finally ready for the mainstream consumer?

As always, content and access will be the key. Broadcasters and content owners are spending time and money ensuring their content is available on as many platforms (IPTV, mobile, online) as possible and accessible from as many places as possible (The BBC recently inked a deal with our client The Cloud to offer access to BBC content free from 7,500 locations across the UK).

2008 is finally looking to be online video/TV's year now bandwidth has caught up with the US. And here's just a few companies proving just that:

• YouTube - you have probably heard of them...

• iTunes - finally offering movies and TV shows oustide the US. WIN!

• blinkBox - send clips from your favourite films with personalised messages to your mates
  

• Babelgum - what Joost tried to be....

• Hulu - new venture from Newscorp and NBC offering ad-supported free content from over 50 TV networks, movie studios and web-based productions

• Kangeroo - the online venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV which claims to do for broadband what Freeview did for Digital TV