| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Business Insider's Henry Blodget is the latest pundit to point out that the television industry is feeling pain courtesy of the same culprit as the newspaper industry: the Internet. "Specifically, the TV industry's attitude is the same as the newspaper industry's attitude was circa 2002 to 2003: Stop calling us dinosaurs. We get digital; we're growing our digital businesses; we're investing in digital platforms; people still recall ads even when they fast-forward through them on DVRs; there's no substitute for TV ads. And traditional TV isn't going away: Just look at our revenue and profits! ... As with print-based media, internet-based distribution generates only a tiny fraction of the revenue and profit that today's incumbent cable, broadcast, and satellite distribution models do. As internet-based distribution gains steam, therefore, most TV industry incumbents will no longer be able to support their existing cost structures." Indeed, the habits of TV viewers have been changing for years, wreaking havoc on the medium and the advertising industry even before the recession began. CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) has been hit especially hard. Standard & Poor's recently downgraded the Tiffany network's debt rating. The bankruptcy of General Motors Corp., one of CBS' biggest advertisers, is likely to lower the broadcaster's bottom line. And it's not just broadcasting and cable networks that are in trouble. "Eventually the cable-satellite-airwave monopoly over TV content in local markets will be circumvented by simple, global internet distribution," blogs Blodget. Cable companies that broadcast content such as Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE:CVC) as well as satellite companies such as Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) and DirectTV Group Inc. (NYSE:DTV) will feel the pinch. The traditional players in the television industry won't go down without a fight. TV's titans have all invested in the Internet and are doing what they can to steer Web content to complement their broadcasting content. The ultimate impact of TV on the Internet remains to be seen. - Gerald Magpily
CategoriesComments
From: Philippe Brodeur,
I have worked in both old and new media. They are completely different and serve different purposes. That isn't to say that they are not interdependent - they are - but TV will be completely subjugated by the internet within a few short years. Tv will not disappear. And when I say Tv I mean the push model of entertainment. People will always watch sports when it's live and get their news at significant junctions in the day. After all, although some businesses are 24 hours, most of us still get up in the morning, eat lunch around 1pm and dinner in the early evening. It's been so since the beginning of time and that is the only thing that is not going to change in this equation. What will change is the delivery method of entertainment. You can call it TV or Internet or whatever you like, but the traditional push model that has a schedule will become marginalised over time and internet pull model will take over. The push model won't disappear - just like cinemas have not disappeared with the advent of videos, but it will change and no longer be the dominant way we consume video entertainment. It's called evolution.
Posted on:
June 16, 2009 3:46 PM
From: Gerald,
Posted on:
June 17, 2009 3:48 PM
 Deal Video
    Community
 Elsewhere on The Deal.comDealwatchThe Deal MagazineCorporate Dealmaker
The Deal VideoCategories
Blog roll
Archives
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
Before Henry Blodget makes such a sweeping statement about the future of television he needs to work in the industry to understand just how unique and different it is from every other business.
I'm the fourth generation of my family to work in the entertainment industry and I spent thirty years as a motion picture-television literary agent. I've witnessed the power TV has to change the culture.
Television has become the collective unconscious of the nation and it is spreading across the world changing culture as it goes. I don't necessarily believe that that is a good thing, but it is happening nonetheless.
No other industry but professional sports has so many people vying to get in. Although the content may not show it, the industry attracts the best and the brightest people from around the world. Television is one of the few businesses where a single idea can change the fortunes of an entire company in seconds.
With a few minor changes broadcast television can regain the audience they have abandoned to other delivery systems. The greatest weakness today is the leverage placed on the back of networks and studios as they merged and merged and merged.
Breaking up the media giants would help return us to a free market of ideas, where studios might be able to afford to develop a new line of product rather than remaking past hits or turning towards comic books and cartoons.
There will always be room for the Internet, first run cable programming and DVD/Blue Ray, but watching broadcast television will always be the firelight we seek. It's where our society gathers collectively. We should respect its power. I wouldn't right it off . . . ever.