IPTV News reported an interesting session at the IBC trade show currently taking place in Amsterdam. It touched upon one of the hottest issues that hounds the Industry entrepreneurs and investors – the future of TV! In the past, I had heard many debates whether the content is king or the network. Bloody battles have been fought in recent past holding the real King– the consumer – a hostage. I guess, now, the King is hitting back!!! Consumers in large numbers are not only “cutting cords” (disconnecting the network gatekeepers) (read: Cable, satellite companies lose record number of subscribers) but also celebrating their reprisal on a “Cord Cutters Day” in cities across the world! (Read: Cord Cutters Day: Join Us Today for Meetups Everywhere). Consumers have been empowered by abundance of bandwidth in most urban markets and the convergence of multiple technology streams that now can deliver the video (Aka: television) right on their large flat screen TV sets without the help of any “gatekeeper”.
Ever since the advent of TV, we haven’t really learnt to light up “the tube” in our living and bed rooms without the interference of some content or network gatekeeper. This gatekeeper decided for us what to watch and when. The reason was simple – the economics of media! It was costly to produce video content and even more costly to transmit it. However, in the 70′s this intrusion did not cost consumers anything (since, the very “eyeballs” used to get these gatekeepers handsome advertisement revenue). But things changed with the advent of cable systems that promised consumers more content for a “subscription price”! Most of the times, consumers complained unsuccessfully about the cleverly-packaged content that was shoved down their throats that forced them to pay for much more TV that they ever desired to watch. To make things worse, someone decided that these gatekeepers needed protection against competition to recover their investments to bring this not-so-liked “bundled” content to the consumer and consumers were not left with much choice about their captivators. Of course, the content owners and aggregators had to be kept happy and when the gatekeepers and the content guys fought over the spoil, it was almost always at the cost of consumers. See for example: Consumers are held hostage in fight between Fox and Cablevision.
Then came the Internet, the savior! In its infancy, the gatekeepers saw it as one more component of their clever “bundle”. It made their subscriber “more sticky”! Well, not anymore!!! And now, the aggrandizing attitude of operators has given way to the panic. Suddenly, the search for a new business model has begun. But the earth beneath their feet seems to be moving violently and the collective minds of last few decades’ gatekeepers seem to groping for direction. Some cable systems hope that “mobility” will save them from an extinction and are ready to fight with the content guys for it (read: Dispute over cable’s streaming to iPad bursts into open). Some are hoping to position themselves to imitate some “new age” providers (read a funny analysis of DISH Networks buying Blockbuster – “Dish Buys Blockbuster for $320 Million. Why?“). A few others are still in the state of denial (read: TV, Cable Companies Convincing Themselves People Don’t Want To Cut The Cable from the the-self-delusion-of-the-damned dept). But, no one really knows the winning strategy for a successful future and it is very likely that we will see a breed of new winners and fading away of some of the yesteryears’ stars!
The news item mentioned above brings out a few very interesting point-of-views that are worth mentioning. (a) the “new-age” TV would open up market for niche and innovative content (and, if I may add my own two bits – the user-generated content), (b) the traditional content and network gatekeepers might still guide consumers towards the content of their (consumers’) choice – “broadcasters would be merely promoters of the content and not the schedulers”, (c) Content discovery and curatorship would be the key to future of TV. Suddenly, the market has become “consumer-centric” and not “gatekeeper-centric”. Wise investors would invest in buying technologies that would put them on the center-stage of this theater of evolving scenarios. Not only will the TV viewing change but so will the way advertisement industry operates will change. Google’s success does provide us with some path-makers but video offers exponentially more opportunities than the text.
Undoubtedly, the way we see TV is poised to alter drastically and we are living through a revolutionary phase in TV viewing, which we would narrate to generations to come with pride! We are shaping the future of TV.
