It’s been a long time since the NAB convention has been just about broadcasting. Over the years, the conventions has pushed out into new markets and established itself as the premiere marketplace of technology for producing and distributing all forms of electronic media. Broadcast TV and radio are just parts of a much larger whole.

Now, the organizers of NAB want it all. They want the annual event in LasVegas to go beyond the tools for creating content to the business of managing and distributing that content to any platform—from AM radio to iPhone.

The strategy may not be new, but it is the theme of this year convention (April 11-17)—“Where Content Comes to Life’’—and executing it seems to have taken on new urgency as CES has emerged as a formidable rival.

In this interview with TVNEWSDAY Editor Harry A. Jessell, NAB convention chief Chris Brown details the concept-to-consumer content strategy that includes bringing the TV syndication business to Las Vegas in April and attracting as many TV broadcasters as possible.

An edited transcript:

What exactly are you trying to achieve with the content strategy?

I suppose the biggest piece of that is just trying to make it clear to our audiences that this show really is about far more than just broadcast and what it really has been for a very long time is a platform for content creation and distribution across every possible medium. So that’s why the shift in focus away from the NAB name and logo to just being a content show.

It’s always been the place about the tools of creating content. But from talking to you before, you seemed to want also to make a place for content dealmaking between copyright owners and distributors.

That is the evolution. It will take us a couple of years to evolve it that way. I like you pointing out the tools piece because that is certainly where we’ve come from. Obviously the content creators have always been involved and been at the show. Now, it’s just sort of a matter of bringing them to the other side of the aisle and having them use it as a forum for actually marketing their content.

So, we are focusing a lot of attention on trying to bring in more of those types of people through our speakers and conference programs.

Let’s focus on marketing of content. Who’s marketing what to whom? What would you like to see happening at this show?

It’s everybody from the big content players right down to the independent players and overseas players. We were, for example, just over in India. We did a swing through last week and we’re spending a lot of time talking about to the country’s prolific film community. While much of that content is very regional in nature and focused strictly in India, there is a growing movement there to distribute content outside of its borders. So that would be a perfect example of the kind of thing I’m talking about. We intend to have an Indian pavilion at the show this year.

Would you like to see all the domestic program distributors at the show—Sony, NBC Universal, CBS Television Distribution, Warner Bros.?

Sure. But it’s part of a building process. Those particular names you mentioned are not yet in the show, but certainly we have active conversations going with all of them.

So that’s part of the building process. Those companies have to sort of change the way they have been thinking about the show and obviously everybody’s trying to sort out who goes where and where the best opportunities are.

So part of this would be those companies as well as smaller companies like Program Partners and Debmar-Mercury—everybody who sells programs to TV stations. You want all these people at your show, correct?          

Yes.

When I was at NATPE, I talked to a lot of broadcasters and syndicators and asked them what would be the ideal time for a syndication convention and many liked the idea of October when companies are actively selling for the following fall.

Based on some of the conversations we’ve had, I’m not sure that any other events are necessarily in a better position in the calendar. In fact, some of the feedback we got at NATPE suggested that the timing is perhaps less important nowadays than it was or would have been in the past.

The broadcast syndication marketplace has always been NATPE. The folks there are a bit paranoid. They think that the fact that NAB has its board meetings at the same time as their convention is no accident and that you’re trying to wipe them out. Do you see possible cooperation with NATPE? For instance, could you bring NATPE under your wing as you did RTNDA?

Yes, sure. I think we would welcome that opportunity. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of kinship in our membership. We would much prefer to do things that way. I think there’s probably a good win-win in that type of scenario.

The other player here is CES, which seems to want to do the same thing that you are doing. In fact, it hired the guy who used to put together the exhibit for NATPE. Sony and NBC Universal had pretty major presences at the show this year. Do you see CES as a competitor for this programming marketplace business?

Certainly, based on the things that you just mentioned. This is a space that a number of folks are going to be pursuing and CES, simply because of its sheer size and its focus on the consumers, is among them.

But we think we’re better positioned then they are, ultimately. When it gets right down to it, the thing that I believe Sony and NBC probably found of most value there was media exposure. They do get tremendous media exposure, but it’s largely consumer media exposure. In the B-to-B space, the fit on our end is far better.

Isn’t CES a better place for program rights holders to go if they want to find mobile platforms or new media platforms?

It’s a perception issue and something that we are working on changing.

At CES, what somebody sees is the ultimate end device and how their content might be portrayed on a particular mobile device or whatever, but the folks that are actually at that show are not the ones who are coming to our show. We have the people who are absolutely expert at making and delivering the content to the device. Everything that goes into making it and then getting it through to that final consumption point is what our show has always been about.

We’ve had heavy emphasis over the last couple of years on mobile delivery solutions. We’ve got a dedicated conference piece on that side and we’ve added IPTV in the last couple of years. Broadband delivery solutions are a big focus as well. New media are what have been driving a lot of the growth in our show for probably five to 10 years.

When I mention moving the syndication conference into CES and NAB, broadcasters and syndicators say they don’t want to be thrown into conventions with more than 100,000 people who are there for other reasons. They are concerned that they will be overwhelmed.

That’s been an ongoing challenge for us with a lot of different segments of the show, so we have heard it before. The only approach to take is, you simply have to carve out the-show-within-the-show opportunity so that you give people an identity through a number of different elements that includes the separateness on the floor, the separateness through the conference programming, even special events and networking opportunities.

We have to break the show down into a dozen or more mini-shows. Sometimes it’s easier said then done, but it is possible to give people very targeted opportunities to get together with the people they need to get together with.

Could you see a syndication event happening across town at the Mandalay Bay or the Bellagio while the tech show is going on at the Convention Center?

Sure. That’s one possible scenario we have talked about. Given that Vegas has lots of space options and hotel options, that is something that can be considered. We’ve even considered that with groups like RTNDA that want to be able to maintain their own identity and some level of separateness. It’s a balancing act because they want to be identified separately, but still integrated into the overall event.

Well, this is all fine and good, but you know the joke is NAB stands for “Not About Broadcasting” because over the years the broadcasters have become a smaller and smaller proportion of the 100,000 people who come to this show. The question is, what are you doing for those folks?

Great question. Let’s change it from “not about broadcasting” to “not all broadcasting.” That’s really more appropriate. Broadcasting continues to be fundamental to what we do and we talk a lot about it. It’s really now more about a new definition of broadcasting or a broader definition of broadcasting,

To answer the question in terms of what we’re doing for them, part of it is continuing to deliver very, very extensive conference programs. We still do a TV management program and a radio management program. The broadcast engineering program is still big, between 1,800 to 2,000 people, which is almost half the total that comes to our conference programs.

I know you are aware of our affiliation with RTNDA. We continue to do well with that. They help us to focus on the news piece of the broadcast equation. They also bring with them group meetings. This year they’ve got about 10 or 12 groups that have already committed to holding meetings. And then we just found out that the Fox affiliates are going to do their meeting with us to the tune of about 100 or 150 people.

The Fox affiliate meeting is a fluke. They were supposed to meet in Los Angeles, but that didn’t pan out because of the writers strike so they found their way to NAB. Are you working to keep them at NAB next year and to bring in the other affiliates: ABC, CBS, NBC?

Absolutely. We’ve actually approached them prior to this. We would provide them, obviously, VIP access to meeting facilities, special hotel accommodations, all that kind of good stuff. We have presented a package to all the networks to encourage them to bring those meetings to Vegas.

Are you ever going to be able to get the station GMs back to NAB?

[NAB President] David Rehr puts it pretty well when he says it’s all about being able to deliver value. Certainly we look to do that through the programming I mentioned and trying to reach out to them with offers of additional assistance. We continue to look at ways to create very focused programming for the GM level.

We’ve tried a couple of different things in the past and I think we’re still trying to land on the right formula. With these other kinds of affiliate groups tied in and some of the other promotion we’re doing, hopefully we’ll continue to get more of those folks back. What makes you think none of the GMs are coming to our shows?

I sit there and I look at badges as they come in and I count them. If there are 1,000 GMs of full-service, commercial TV stations, how many now go to NAB?

I would say half or more are in Las Vegas, maybe not always on the floor, but they’re in and around. The challenge for us is to get them in the hall and get them active so that everybody knows that they’re there and doing business.

You have a series of executive producers of primetime programming schedule to speak. What’s the point of that?

Well, again, it’s an effort to attract the attention to the creative side of the equation, the actual content creators. Hollywood people like to hear from folks like themselves, that are in the business of creating good stories. A lot of these guys too are doing really interesting things in the new media space. So, [speaker] Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI, is looking at distribution across a bunch of platforms and at all the interactive possibilities. We’re trying to bring the creative community much more tightly into the whole mix.