NELME: Next Generation Electronic Media Multi-production and Multicasting Processes, Services, Solutions and Tools. Conclusions

The Nelme (New Electronic Media) project had a mission to provide justifiable predictions of the most presumable and critical futures of electronic media, more specifically, electronic mass media, and, even more specifically, the future of the 'broadcast' as we know it today by the year 2020. To accomplish this task, a research framework was created to describe relationships and causalities between interdisciplinary trends and issues related to broadcasting and electronic media. This report supplements the intermediate report by Nelme 2016 Foresight with results of (weak) signal analysis and potential consequences in linear broadcasting, related to the analysis. Internet delivery is seen as a disruptive technology in Christensen's sense. This theory supports the (weak) signal analysis and is used to extrapolate the history of Internet delivery and broadcasting to the future. As a synthesis of the experiences from the current production, completed by the observations of the Nelme road maps with regard to technology and business development, a new electronic media production concept was outlined. Two user groups of forerunners (in the broadcasting context) were interviewed and the interviews are reported in this paper. Linear television did not play a significant role for them, and pay-TV channels did not fit into their media use habits and expectations. Broadcasting had an important role in families with children. Two strategic options were presented for broadcasters: A. Staying in legacy broadcasting while also providing services in broadband B. Positioning themselves in broadband and using broadcast as a diversifying asset. For a broadcaster, B seems to be the safer option. HbbTV is seen as a bridge uniting broadcast and broadband offerings. Furthermore, HbbTV is the only standard that would give the control to broadcasters.