The TV value chain can be broken up into three distinct, even if generic segments: content creation, content distribution and content consumption. In the the early days of TV, content creation (movies, TV shows) was mostly done by the the large studios and broadcast network. Content distribution was almost entirely left up to the large broadcast networks. Finally, content consumption was through a single device - the TV with an antenna. Since there were only a handful of TV channels, consumers had a relatively uncomplicated life - buy a TV and get access to the all the content that networks were broadcasting. That's it.In recent years, all three segments of the TV value chain have been "democratized". Thanks to video phones (eg iPhone, Android based smart phones), video cameras (eg Flip) and SLRs with video capability (eg Nikon D90), amateurs are producing mammoth quantities of video content that adds to the professionally produced content from various studios. Distribution has expanded to cable, satellite, internet (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Flickr) and video stores (Netflix, Blockbuster), besides broadcast TV. Finally, content that was formally consumed only on TVs, is now consumed on phones, tablets, computers and TVs (with assistance from set top boxes).
Thus a consumer today has to invest significant time and/or money to decide which content to view, via which distribution channel and on which device. There are impedance mismatches between all segments of the value chain. For example, a consumer who wants to see a movie recommendation from a friend may find out that the movie is unavailable for Netflix streaming but is available on iTunes. The consumer knows how to use iTunes and wants to see the movie on his/her big screen TV but doesn't have AppleTV. The consumer is stuck - not only is he/she prevented from accessing the content, he/she has to spend brain cycles evaluating AppleTV.
The holy grail of TV (or content, video or otherwise) is to have the ability to watch any programming, any time on any device without jumping through technology hoops. Unfortunately, given the fragmentation (aka democratization) of the value chain, this is far from possible today. However, the arena is not without progress. Various companies are pursuing two broad strategies in search of an acceptable solution: "the killer app" and "the killer platform".
Netflix and Hulu fall into the "killer app" camp. They don't make all content available to a user - only the professionally produced content with some time delay. They don't work on all devices, but do work on many - especially Netflix. GoogleTV falls into the "killer platform" camp. GoogleTV wants most content - both amateur and professional - to be available through most distribution channels (cable, satellite, internet) onto a GoogleTV enabled device. For the platform to succeed, GoogleTV needs to be enabled on most devices where video/TV content can be consumed. It seems to me that, that is the general direction GoogleTV is (or should be) headed in. AppleTV, while harder to place, is closer to the "killer app" end - the AppleTV solution brings specific professional (Netflix) and amateur (YouTube) content through the Internet distribution channel to a specific set of Apple devices. It is as yet unclear if Apple wants to maintain this positioning, or push in the direction of becoming a "killer platform".
While all this sort itself out, consumers will just need to muddle through either by over paying with time and money (eg by getting cable + Netflix + AppleTV + DVD player) or satisfying themselves with narrower choices (eg by getting Netflix + networked DVD player). Personally, I have opted for the latter.
0 comments:
Post a Comment