AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Sanjay Trehan is the CEO of NDTV in India. Speaking at the Online News Association's annual conference in Washington, DC on Saturday, he spoke excitedly about the tools of the new media revolution. This is a man who is launching 14 TV stations, mind you. You would think the Web would horrify him. It does not.

"The future is going to be a combination of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with more - a seemless ecosystem," said Trehan."  "You will consume news in this way. Not because it is fashionable to say so, but because the consumer is doing this."

Trehan pointed to Qik, the live streaming tool that lets you stream in real time from certain mobile phones. "This landscape that is emerging is going to be device and platform-agnostic." He referred to 12seconds.tv as the "Twitter of videos." You can do everything you can do with Twitter, but in video at 12seconds.tv - instead of being limited to 140 characters, you're limited to 12 seconds of video. (12seconds.tv is currently in private beta - you can sign up for an invite.) Don't go to 12seconds.com - it's a weight loss site. You know - unless you're up for that kind of thing.

Trehan pointed to online experiences like Lycos Cinema, where people can gather online to watch a film at the same time at different locations and comment. This is a pay model - if I want to watch "National Lampoon's Bag Boy" with five friends in five different places, it's $6.00. Not too sure about this one...

The point is that the head of this massive organization - at the building stage -- is embracing these technologies. He knows his video will be on YouTube. Heck, he's anticipating it. Trehan is building for the future, not hoping it will look like the past. Trehan isn't reinventing at all - he's simply inventing.

(Note: Trehan concluded his remarks here, and opened the floor to questions. I had to leave to prepare for our panel on Mobile technology that followed hot on the heels of this presentation.)