Media Maelstrom

Cory Doctorow has a great mini-rant over at Boing Boing about the oppressive, and frankly obnoxious, tactics used by the movie industry to squelch all possibility of viewers photographing or filming their precious wares. And here I was postulating that cinemas would be okay in the digital media future because they offer a unique “event” experience. If the event in question involves body cavity searches, however, folks may prefer to stay home and crowd around the 80-inch plasma with a DVD, or even a BitTorrent download if the powers-that-be won’t let us get new releases legally. Cory goes on to blast every braindead anti-consumer tactic employed by the entertainment industry to avoid the reality that it is they, not their customers, who need to adapt to fast-evolving world of digital media. Amen to that.

In fact, traditional media companies have a lot to be afraid of, as Chris Anderson points out on the Long Tail blog. Revenues are declining year-on-year for every category of maintream media. So what’s a media mogul to do? Well, they could do worse than follow Jeff Bezos’s example. Selling books by the page is a great idea that creates brand new revenue streams by embracing new technologies instead of trying to subdue them. Less strikingly, but equally positively, CBS and NBC are following ABC’s example by offering on-demand TV shows. It’s easy to get gloomy when your comfortable gravy train runs out of steam, but there are huge opportunities for those smart and bold enough to grasp them.

Update: Om Malik has a good point: the CBS/NBC announcement isn’t really as significant as it might seem at first blush since they aren’t providing shows for download. They’re just offering a sort of hosted DVR service.

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3 Comments »

1. […] ry, It’s just a bug). wrt the oppressive, and frankly obnoxious, tactics , All Peer comments : And here I was postulating that cinemas would be okay in the digital media fu […]

   Pingback by False Positives » Blog Archive » When Entertainment Companies Become Gangsters — 11/10/2005 @ 7:03 pm

2. I would like to know how to find news media statistics,(%)each nbc,cbs,abc,fox etc.

   Comment by Clint Counts — 5/16/2007 @ 6:59 pm

3. I am trying to find statistics for news listeners for the news networks, percenatges of listeners for the networks, abc,cbs,nbc, fox, etc.

   Comment by Clint Counts — 5/16/2007 @ 7:03 pm

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