NAB Show Perspectives: How media consolidation affects the economics of the show

The major mega-mergers are dominating the landscape and may dampen this year’s NAB, as many of the companies involved, including Paramount and WBD, have limited travel budgets and are unlikely to make purchasing decisions until the dust settles and the mergers are complete.

That said, the broader trend of technology companies acquiring media businesses is ushering in a new era in which technology is being used to reduce costs dramatically. In Paramount’s annual report, new CEO David Ellison said, “If we want to remain competitive long-term, we must strengthen our technology and do what it takes to position ourselves as the industry’s most technologically capable media company.”

This is a strategy all media companies will need to embrace to stay competitive, and it should make for an interesting NAB, particularly for suppliers focused on using technology to help manage costs. I would argue that BCNexxt is well positioned to benefit from that shift.

But there is a second dynamic at play.

As buyers consolidate into a smaller number of massive organizations, the economics of NAB itself come into question.

Many of the key executives at these companies either no longer make the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas or remain tucked away in the Encore or Wynn for internal meetings. The model worked when executives from 1,600 call-letter stations and 100 cable networks were making purchasing decisions. Today, there may be only 200 executives making 80% of the purchasing decisions worldwide, and they are unlikely to simply wander by an interesting exhibition booth.

I am sure attendance will once again reach record levels, boosted by students and other fringe constituencies. Still, I cannot help but feel that 95% of exhibitors will not get access to the real decision-makers, such as David Ellison or his key executives, at the show.

It is a question that has long been predicted but never quite materialized: is this once again the beginning of the end, or perhaps the end of the beginning, of the large trade show?

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Graham Sharp, BCNexxtGraham Sharp is the VP of sales and marketing at BCNexxt.