While all current trends indicate that pay TV and advertising spend are still vital components of the media marketplace, TV viewership does face a number of challenges, including fragmentation, technology-enabled time shifting, and the disruption of media stacking or mobile/tablet multitasking.

Developments in technology are impacting TV advertising effectiveness and the dramatic rise of connected mobile devices is leading to an increasingly distracted use of TV.

Digital technology has also accelerated ad avoidance through time shifting and on-demand viewing, and has enabled a significant amount of fragmentation due to sheer volume of content and niche. All these developments work together to degrade the value of TV ads and are deeply affecting the Pay TV industry as scarcity is removed due to IP delivered content.

Welcome to the new world of TV. These are problems that need solving. They need to be hacked.

Why hack TV?

• Because there’s half a trillion dollars up for grabs globally in TV ad spend and Pay TV revenue as the Internet starts to collide with traditional TV. According to Forbes.
• Because companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have proven that Open Communities with Open APIs, Open SDKs and Open Source drive innovation far beyond any closed, proprietary systems do. Wouldn’t you like to have 50,000 developers working on spec like they do?
• Developers are the new rockstars. They speak the secret languages (code) which are changing the world.
• Print and Music were both disrupted by the Internet. TV is next. Opportunities abound as the current value chain is under threat with new gatekeepers in the living room (Samsung, Google, Apple, Boxee, Roku etc.) and new consumer behaviour with second screen engagement whilst watching TV.

Introducing Hackfest.TV

Building Innovation in Multiplatform TV Content Development

Hackfest.TV, a platform designed to bring together developers, coders, content, tv production,  and entrepreneurs for a coding marathon workshop of creativity and hands on developer collaboration.

Hackfest.TV will be landing at a variety of TV industry, App Centric, Developer, Advertising and other events during 2013 educating and inspiring the developer and creative community in becoming innovative and creative around TV and film production.

Key benefits of sponsoring

• Showcase your API’s and SDK’s to leading developers and creative’s > expanding your developer community and building awareness.
• Place your product evangelists and tech team in direct contact with hackfest participants to share and collaborate with your APIs and SDKs
• Extend your networking beyond just the hackfest audience but also be able to capture critical business connections other parts of the media convergence scene which includes entrepreneurs, investors, producers, writers, and other creative’s.
• Sponsorship of Hackfest.TV will include demo space
• Have your brand associated with a thought-leading and creative industry platform.
• Be seen as a innovative leading brand

The objectives of Hackfest.TV

• To build examples of future video entertainment distribution formats, integrated with social media, gaming, interactivity etc
• To show how future video entertainment could be delivered within an interactive multi-screen environment
• To build commercially viable business models for the distribution and delivery of these future video entertainment formats.
• To solve a problem or respond to a brief, pushing second screen, first screen, or multiplatform content briefs.