Staci Kramer of PaidContent.org is doing her usual stellar job of covering the NATPE conference in Los Angeles and scored a great interview (MP3) with keynoter, BBC Chairman Michael Grade. “On demand is the future,” he told the crowd, and he warned them about working together to create technological standards for an on-demand world. He later told Staci that the only thing people such as himself can do is to remain platform-neutral in their approach to on-demand.

I think that is in the consumers’ interest, in our licensee-fee payers’ interest and it’s in the BBC’s interest. I also happen to believe, in the end, if we’ve learned nothing out of the last 20 years it’s that the public don’t want to be trapped by one piece of proprietary this or proprietary that. They’re going to invest a lot of money in new kit as it comes along … and they want to be sure that what buy, they can get whatever they want from whoever… In the end, consumers will tell the industry that’s the way they want it to go.”