After Dave's talk, our panel (George Kliavkoff from NBCU, Dan Scheinman from Cisco, Blake Krikorian from Sling, Shawn Gold from MySpace and Gary Gannaway from WorldNow) got down to business. George, who's the acting head of the JV with NBCU and News Corp, filled in some details for how the venture will work, and that affiliates will be a key part of it going forward.

 

The panelists all agreed that community is going to be a big part of the equation moving forward and that broadcasters will be embracing in a big way. Gary articulated well that local broadcasters have a huge opportunity to excel in local content in a way that big portals will never be able to match, and that if they sell their inventory the right way, they'll be able to avoid being commoditized.

 

I tried to get Dan to take the bait on whether the era of broadband-delivered TV programming spells concern for cable TV operators. But given Cisco's ownership of Scientific Atlanta, he deftly deflected my attempt to stir the pot....Lastly, Blake encouraged broadcasters to see his Slingbox as an opportunity for them to build loyalty with their viewers, both for viewership while on the road, and also for deepening viewership, through non-TV displays. All-in-all, despite the fact that the first attendee question during a brief Q&A session labeled us as "dying dinosaurs", it was a spirited and lively session!