NBC's Ben Silverman's comments on network television hit a rare sweet spot: right between the heartwarming and the truly sad. Heartwarming because they came from an old broadcast TV exec and hit the core of what's wrong with television: the programming. And sad because they highlight not only how backwards we view the demise of network television, but also how there is nothing to indicate that we will do it any differently in new media.
The models in old and new media are essentially the same and equally intrusive: Someone shows you something and in return gets to expose you to messages you don't want to see. The content is sub-standard. Even giving it away for free is now hard. And the messaging is not something you want. Why do we need to be bribed with entertainment to see it? As soon as either the sponsorship or content gets to be relevant or good enough to exist independent of the other, the current TV model breaks down. Perfect pairing with Dumb and Dumber.
New media ads might be more targeted, but that doesn't mean more relevant. And because the ad model is basically the same, we measure it in the same and fundamentally flawed way Mr. Silverman measures his television audience.
But more importantly, Mr. Silverman's main point applies just as well to new media: He believes that the problem isn't the audience but the content. But better written shows will not save the calcified broadcast model or 30-second spots for laundry detergent. And why even bother? What we need to save is the new media before it is too late. New media is our chance to do better—to build and grow a content industry unencumbered by the broadcast legacy and model. We need to set the bar higher than the legacy players ogling new media aggregation plays are setting it... banking on us all to produce new media content bland enough to require the same old ad model. And as Mr Silverman argues—and I concur—the bar set with broadcast television hasn't even been set that high.
At the end of the day—if it isn't better than television and will perpetuate the current content/advertising model, why bother?