THIS week, STV’S chief technology and platforms officer, Alistair Brown, laid bare the challenges facing STV in a digital future at the Ayrshire Working Digital event.
The frank talk was about what was required for a media company to survive in the digital era.
Refreshingly, Brown didn’t do waffle and blue-sky thinking but provided actual solid data of how well STV is doing in comparison to others, the challenges being faced and the difficulties/opportunities ahead.
He also revealed a few interesting tidbits, like STV being one of the few to develop apps for the Microsoft tablet and mobile platforms and that the STV Player was pulled together in six weeks on a budget far less than the £400million the BBC had for the iPlayer.
And while it’s acknowledged STV have the right people on the ground – his colleague, Remi Brunier, was at the event and in the past the firm has hired the likes of Iain Hepburn, Matt Roper and Shaun Milne – Brown admitted having support from the top – with chief exec, Rob Woodward, on board – has played a major role in STV and shows like Scotland Tonight doing so well, digitally.
Take a look…
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Craig McGill has written for – or been a member of staff at – TIME Magazine, The Guardian, Daily Mirror, The Scotsman, Evening Times, The Press and Journal, The Sun and Evening Times. Author of four non-fiction books and lecturer in ‘cross-platform journalism’ at Edinburgh Napier University, McGill is currently the digital strategist (Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland) for Weber Shandwick. You can get him via Twitter @craigmcgill
