​The TV industry is set for an app-based “gold rush” with creators providing shorter-form digital originals to viewers on-demand, Television Academy Chairman Bruce Rosenblum said Friday.

“The biggest change that’s happened is people don’t watch television in a linear fashion anymore,” Rosenblum said. “i haven’t watched a program in a regularly scheduled time—outside of sports— in a few years. i couldn’t tell you what time “Breaking Bad” or “Homeland” is on. All i know is on Sunday night i’m going to come home and watch “Homeland.”

Rosenblum, who also is Legendary’s president of television and digital media and formerly was co-president of Warner Bros. Television, was speaking at the E2: Evolution of Entertainment Conference at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The explosion in digital platforms has allowed creative talent to think outside the 22- and 48-minute world of traditional television, and play with ideas like an 8-minute episode, Rosenblum said.

“To me as a content supplier, there is nothing more exciting than thinking about what this world is going to look like in four or five years,” he said.

Viewers could be clicking on a Legendary app, for instance, to watch the latest episode of their favorite 8-minute show.

The industry, according to Rosenblum is seeing an app-based and on-demand gold rush delivered over broadband.

The one hiccup in this whole scenario: metrics.

“For all of that excitement I just described, the measurement services are about 20 years behind,” he said.

He called a modern metrics tool that can accurately measure viewing on all devices and platforms the “holy grail” of television today.

When asked by an audience member whether ratings giant Nielsen is tackling the problem of metrics, Rosenblum was diplomatic.

“I would not say that they don’t have a clue, but what I would say is they have their work cut out for them because The Nielsen Company needs to collaborate more aggressively with Silicon Valley, he said. “The best thinking is happening in Silicon Valley, and it has advanced beyond what [Nielsen has] the capacity to deal with.”

Brief Take: Hollywood’s creative community is embracing the new digital world, but financing it requires measurement companies to keep up as well.

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