Broadcasting vs narrowcasting: what’s the difference?

As dealers in in-store media, we place great value on clear communication with our clients. However, the information available about in-store media is far from clear, and this leads to confusion in our external communications. How can a client trust a communications company that itself does not communicate clearly?

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Broadcasting is a concept as old as the radio, and is extremely popular in in-store media jargon: the term ‘in-store broadcasting' generates 8,800,000 search results. But the new term ‘narrowcasting' has been enthusiastically adopted by the market, and a Google search results in 125,000 hits for the term ‘in-store narrowcasting'.

So which term is correct? Suppliers themselves are not consistent in their terminology, further complicating the situation. For example, Cisco delivers ‘in-store broadcasting solutions', while Adam Curry talks about ‘narrowcasting congresses'; Kroger has an ‘in-store broadcasting network' in more than 2,500 shops, while Kraft Food places a ‘narrowcasting network' in 2,850 Wal-Mart stores. Further investigation reveals that, if we use all these terms, there is just as much information about these activities as the products themselves. 

An important question is thus, what is the difference between ‘broadcasting' and ‘narrowcasting'? From the many definitions, we find the following elements relevant.

  • Broadcasting is aimed at a wide public, narrowcasting is aimed at a specific target group.
  • Broadcasting has a wide reach, narrowcasting a limited reach.
  • Narrowcasting enables you yourself to decide what is shown, broadcasting does not allow this.
  • Narrowcasting allows a director to show different content within the same marketing channel. Broadcasting does not allow this.
  • In narrowcasting, the Content can be changed quickly . This is not the case in broadcasting.
• Broadcasting is a ‘push' technology. Narrowcasting is not. 

There is a large grey area between these differences. Everyone knows intuitively that national television stations are broadcasting. But so are the production companies that purchase air time on these stations. We also know that radio is a form of broadcasting. If we look further into the differences in this form of broadcasting, we actually see that there are no real differences.

Television production companies have well defined target groups, and they generate their income from advertising to these groups. For example, in the Netherlands, companies wanting to sell products with a ‘young, fast, and wild' image advertise through the television broadcaster Veronica. Those wanting to reach the Christian community advertise through the EO (Evangelical Service). It can be argued that setting up an in-store media network in 2,850 shops is no longer aiming at a specific target group. In the case of Wal-Mart customers, they have only one thing in common: they happen to be in a Wal-Mart store at the same time. For the rest there is little homogeneity.

While the reach of TV is wide, it is not limitless. Some broadcasters such as Sky, can only be received through a decoder; satellite channels can only be received through a dish; and all broadcasters here in the Netherlands - with the exception of the national channels Nederland 1, 2 and 3, and even these for not much longer - are only available through a special cable. On the other hand, if people run a repeating RSS feed on thousands of blogs, or if Wal-Mart with its enormous numbers of customers can be the fifth largest TV broadcaster in the United States, then we see that in-store media can also have a very wide reach.

Just as the director system in an in-store media network decides what appears on a screen and when, the human director of a TV station also decides what and when a programme is shown. The customers themselves have little influence over the audio/visual content of in-store media. There are interactive digital kiosks and other presentation systems that allow customers to request specific content, but do these systems fall under the categories broadcasting/narrowcasting? If so, this further complicates the definition, because if this is the case, all websites on the internet can be seen as broadcasting/narrowcasting systems. This makes any definition unusable.

One common story in the in-store media sector is that it is possible to show different content on different screens within one or more branches. This is indeed possible, just as it is possible for one broadcaster to show its programmes on different channels. An example of this is the BBC which transmits programmes on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3, all of which are aimed at different audiences. In theory, it is possible for Wal-Mart to show different content on every screen (as long as the bandwidth permits this), just as it is possible for the BBC to set up an unlimited number of channels (as long as the frequencies allow this, and after they have stepped over to a digital system within the limitations of their bandwidth). In practice however, there are two limitations: budget and content. Just as the costs would limit the number of TV stations, so would the creative process limit the content provided to the stations.

In terms of speed, it is easier for TV stations to adapt to changing situations than it is for a broadcaster or in-store media. On television, newsflashes can easily be sent out between programmes; on 9/11 the programming on many TV stations was postponed for a number of days; and programmes are often re-scheduled to make way for important football matches. However, its ‘push' approach also allows narrowcasting to do this. Many in-store media systems are driven by a player. The player ‘pushes' content to the screen, and many in-store media models are designed so that the player is synchronised with either the director or a CD memory chip. There are systems available in which the director can give a ‘push' to update a subset of all the players in the network. There are also systems that require the players to be connected online or to an internal network so that they can play the content directly from the director/fileserver. Is it possible that some in-store media products are narrowcasters and others are broadcasters? If so, then the core of the difference lies in the technology. However, given that both terms are often used interchangeably in customer information, the differences between the two are often unclear.

It can be that the term narrowcasting is just a hype. Was it perhaps invented by the same marketeers who, by using terms such as ‘IT Solutions', ‘burn rates' and ‘market share' a few years ago, gave themselves a feeling of self-worth and value in the hope that they would also be seen as worthy in the eyes of their clients?

For Tripany, the term narrowcasting is ambiguous, and we would like to know the difference between broadcasting and narrowcasting so that we can be clear towards our clients when we demonstrate our in-store media products.

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