“Blow up the television industry and start again”: A bold start to MIPCube

We’re at MIPCube in Cannes, France, for a weekend of exploring the future of TV. If the organisers wanted to open with a blast, choosing Cindy Gallop as the first speaker was certainly the way to go.

A feisty advertising industry veteran who now aims to redefine the porn industry via the forthcoming MakeLoveNotPorn.tv project, Gallop implored the television industry not to get caught in the trap of “collaborative competition,” where a whole industry makes the same mistakes in adjusting to a new landscape (hello, music industry).

Modifying your existing business model is not enough, Gallop believes, you need to “Blow it up and start again.”

Gallop sees the future of TV as tied to the future of payments – two industries that are evolving at a rapid pace. This is something we’ll be exploring further in our coverage of MIPCube. Unable to work with the likes of PayPal thanks to her X-rated content, Gallop is speaking to the likes of Dwolla and Gumroad, newer, leaner payment services willing to take more risks.

While she rattled off a few ‘new business landscape’ clichés (embrace complete transparency, open yourselves up), there’s no doubt that it’s something the TV industry needs to hear again and again lest it stray down the path the music industry took more than a decade ago and is only just recovering from.

The looming shadow of Apple

As with all other content industries (probably excepting, ironically, porn), Gallop sees Apple’s reported ambitions in the television industry as it gradually transitions Apple TV from being a “hobby” to a priority – through greater fusion of its hardware with content deals, is a threat that needs to be tackled head on. “Everyone says that they want to be like Apple – now you have a chance to be like Apple before Apple is.”

TV creates empathy and holds a mirror up to humanity in a way that no other medium can, Gallop believes. Will the industry do what she asks it to, and “Put the ‘vision’ back in television?” Stay with us over the next few days as The Next Web finds out just how innovative TV can be.

Follow our MIPCube coverage on our dedicated channel.