Category Archives: Content
The Meteor Cometh
So for a long time, we’ve been talking about the mythical meteor that was going to hit the TV industry and wipe out all the dinosaurs. Because there didn’t seem to be a logical out to the situation we were in, where everyone was making money and no one wanted to rock the status quo. Which left prognosticators like me talking about the meteor, the “something” that would happen and cause change in the industry. Only we couldn’t figure out where that meteor would come from or what it would look like. Then suddenly this morning, the meteor appeared. I’m talking about the lawsuit that Cablevision filed, asking the court to void the late 2012 carriage agreement they signed with Viacom because Viacom had “coerced them” by “threatening to impose massive financial penalties” unless they complied with Viacom’s demands.” There’s a wonderful irony in this too, given that it was Viacom who successfully shut down Cablevision’s TV Everywhere play back in … Continue reading
Talking TV On TV: KIT’s Alan Wolk on The Brian Lehrer Show
KIT’s Global Lead Analyst Alan Wolk appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show last week along with Lost Remote blogger Natan Edelsburg and Tampa Bay Times TV critic Eric Deggens. Topics included the reaction to Netflix House of Cards, Netflix business model and the general future of television. The clip starts at 30 minutes and 30 seconds into the show.
The TV Business: A Primer For The Uninformed
It’s a relentless drumbeat: the TV industry is dead. It’s just like the music industry. 20somethings are avoiding the cord. I want HBO a la carte. YouTube will kill cable. The TV industry is dead. And yet, if there’s a common thread to all these articles and blog posts, it’s that so many of the people writing them have a limited idea of how the television industry actually works, particularly from a business perspective. So here’s a little primer on how the US television industry works (there are significant difference in other countries), just to clear the air. The Players: This is step one – knowing who is who and what their relationships are. We are going to look at the 7 key players, circa 2013: The Networks, The MVPDs, The Premium Networks, The OTT Networks, Smart TVs, Third Party devices and Social TV. PLAYER #1: The Networks: The networks (ABC, CBS, MTV, et al) provide content and right now, … Continue reading
“TV” or “Video”: A Rose By Any Other Name…
It is frequently debated nowadays whether “television” is still the right word for all the video entertainment we watch these days on a multitude of screens, given that so much of it comes from sources other than the main TV networks and is watched on devices other than a TV. The suggestion is that we just start calling all this content “video.” Logically it makes perfect sense. But logic and consumer behavior are rarely in sync. In the mind of the consumer, the people using the product, the distinction is not as easily made. To them, “television” is high production, long-form video content, something that’s worthy of being watched up on the big screen, while “video” is of lower production value and, unless it involves one’s own pets or children, better viewed on a smaller, handheld device. That, and television is always television, no matter where you watch it. Take in an episode of Seinfeld on your iPhone on the way home … Continue reading
Why “Cord Nevers” Don’t Worry Me
The latest study to put the television business in a tizzy is a study from TDG that shows the number of “Pay TV refugees” — users who have broadband but not TV– growing from 9.5% to 12.5% over the past 2 years. Particular attention is being paid to “cord nevers” — people (usually in their 20s) who have never had a cable subscription. The easy conclusion is that because this generation grew up with a wide array of online video options, they are going to abandon TV en masse and that it’s just a matter of time until pay TV dies. Not so fast… The problem with making sweeping generalizations about generations and their behavior is that the generalizers forget that the behavior often has more to do with life stage than with birth year. Millennials switch jobs and careers a lot because they’re in their 20s and people in their 20s have always switched jobs and careers a lot: they’re unburdened by families … Continue reading
Four Things Australian TV Broadcasters Could do to Become Better User-Centric Companies in 2013
2013 is shaping up to be a massive year in the Aussie broadcast TV industry. Online ad revenues are about to overtake free-to-air (FTA) TV ad spend, there’s talk of a consortium of FTA channels launching a Hulu-like aggregated TV service and sole Pay-TV operator Foxtel is aggressively seeking to improve its subscriber numbers by pursuing content deals like its recent exclusive one with HBO. On top of that, almost every broadcaster is rushing to launch a fuller suite of connected device apps to meet the demand for content at any time and on any device. Connected device availability, depth of quality content and affordable (or free) data usage are all critical to attracting customers. However, as the competition heats up, so too is the urgency to deliver on expectations of a world class, multi-device user experience. Users are a fickle bunch, and they tend to flock not only to the best value experiences but also to the simplest ones. … Continue reading
Apple’s iTunes Problem
Apple does a lot of things right, but iTunes video isn’t one of them. I’ve rarely had a smooth experience with the service, and my recent experience shows they’ve not gotten any better. With Hurricane Sandy approaching, I decided to rent Casablanca after my kids noted they hadn’t seen it. So I downloaded it to my laptop, as I’m able to plug that directly into my FIOS router and get a faster connection. All good… until I decided I wanted to watch it on my iPad. I plugged the iPad into the laptop, opened up iTunes and dragged the unwatched movie into the iPad line-up. It showed up on iTunes, but when I unplugged the iPad, the movie did not show up. Thinking there might be some kind of WiFi connection needed to make the transfer, I logged both the iPad and the laptop onto my iPhone’s hotspot (we had no power and thus no wi-fi at that point.) Success … Continue reading
Do We Really Need Another Movie Channel?
The latest from Laura Frankel of KIT digital Content Solutions Someone once said to me that there is not enough revenue to support all the content that exists today; not to mention what is coming tomorrow. A statistic that I tend to believe is that we have over 15,000 channels world-wide (including local). And, what is crazy is new cable channels keep popping up. Epix launched several years ago as Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate believed that we need another movie channel. Sony launched Sony Movie Channel in 2010 because Sony also believes that we don’t have enough movie channels. Well of course what is really driving this is the desire to have a channel to monetize their content further. But as I have said many times, what will drive subscriptions are strong originals…HBO has “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones” and many others ; Starz has “Boss” and a few new originals; and Showtime has “Homeland” and “Dexter” among others. … Continue reading
Why #NBCFail Is #Doomed
This article originally ran on Digiday It sure sucks to be NBC this week. The Peacock Network is at the center of yet another Twitter-centric firestorm around a relatively minor First World Problem that’s got the cable-free utopians in yet another uproar. Granted, not showing the opening ceremony in real time online or on Bravo was a bit of a miscalculation. But it’s certainly not the disaster of apocalyptic proportion the Occupy TV types are making it out to be. It was a business decision. And while I get that no one else you graduated from Vassar with has cable, between 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans do, so NBC really isn’t all that worried about the 2 percent to 5 percent that don’t. No matter how much you tweet about it. They (and the rest of the TV industry) actually do get that change is coming. It’s just that right now, it’s not profitable for them to radically … Continue reading
Lessons From Netflix
While it’s a given that Netflix’s runaway success as an online streaming service took everyone (including Reed Hastings) by surprise, I’d like to offer up a few reasons why consumers are so enamored of Netflix. First off, it just works. The UI is very well designed and has a real indie film theater vibe. Recommendations are sorted by quirky categories, but there are enough of them that it works as both a discovery engine (when I have no idea what I want to watch) and as a recommendation engine (when I do.) It’s easy to search for movies and TV shows, and just as easy to watch them. That may not seem like such a big deal at first, but the fact that there’s no Buy or Rent option, no HD or SD choice, makes the whole experience feel more like watching a cable channel than watching VOD. And if you’ve ever had to wade through the VOD offerings of … Continue reading
Do Consumers Really Know What They Want?
This week brings another update from our Content Lead, Laura Frankel. I wanted to share with you a study that I got as part of being a member of CTAM. Check it out here. As with all research data, one needs to overlay the information with what they know and are learning from their own consumer base. For me, this data rings true… not necessarily the segmentation piece; but the overlap of needs and behaviors that shows that about 25% of the US population has cut the cord or was never attached to the cord in the first place. The Omnivores (who get content from a variety of sources) maybe the one behavior segment that is still attached to the cord, but are not tied to it. I want to add one comment on segmentation before I discuss the findings on what elements around the TV experience matter most. I have been in the media biz for over 20 … Continue reading