Unbundling @ the Edge of Television
Because I'm in Australia (not incl my virtual skype/email life) I deal with people new to (what do we call it now) Web 2.0, Blogs, RSS and so on - What we called New Media in 1994. So when Disney say they are going to offer free "Lost/Housewives" downloads on the web, there are 3 obvious classes of strategic bystander response (ie responses by people incl me that dont manage the Disney P+L or execs whose job/bonus/health is on the line if the free web downloads policy which has been driven topdown goes to Hell in a Handbasket)
Response 1 : It's really bad because it will cannibalise TV/Ad market share numbers, and even negatively affect pay per view Ipod Downloads. Kill It :(
Response 2 : It's really good Disney is offering downloads because it will drive user and advertising share. Open the Floodgates ;)
Response 3 : It's really bad to unbundle TV Shows because the value is in the mashup tools side, which is compounded by micro-chunk tool providers like YouTube benefiting from an increased supply of visual content. ("By focusing on unbundling without rebundling Disney is getting edge strategy exactly wrong." says Umair) Focus on the tools side ????? (TV exec : "what does microchunking mean ? is that like throwing up ?")
My Point of View : Free TV Shows available through the web is good because Disney will get a huge amount of downloads = users, while their competition will look crap. Every newspaper on the planet will write 3 articles on what they have done and how it went. Markets arent perfect or even imperfect. If Disney Generation (remember go.com) cross media sell the ads well (from existing TV advertisers) they should be able to keep their core revenue and make some tidy sums like they are on the Ipod downloads which has approved this business case. And this is just at the foreplay stage.
Disney should also buy Youtube or a similar tools co' as a defensive play and... then it's all lovely. Mashups can then be institutionalised at the production level ala YouTube/E-News deal. Anyone who has worked for a major media company knows you have to keep it simple. Keeping it complex and theoretical is stupid. Because it wont be implemented and will be left on the Edge of the Main Game.
Response 1 : It's really bad because it will cannibalise TV/Ad market share numbers, and even negatively affect pay per view Ipod Downloads. Kill It :(
Response 2 : It's really good Disney is offering downloads because it will drive user and advertising share. Open the Floodgates ;)
Response 3 : It's really bad to unbundle TV Shows because the value is in the mashup tools side, which is compounded by micro-chunk tool providers like YouTube benefiting from an increased supply of visual content. ("By focusing on unbundling without rebundling Disney is getting edge strategy exactly wrong." says Umair) Focus on the tools side ????? (TV exec : "what does microchunking mean ? is that like throwing up ?")
My Point of View : Free TV Shows available through the web is good because Disney will get a huge amount of downloads = users, while their competition will look crap. Every newspaper on the planet will write 3 articles on what they have done and how it went. Markets arent perfect or even imperfect. If Disney Generation (remember go.com) cross media sell the ads well (from existing TV advertisers) they should be able to keep their core revenue and make some tidy sums like they are on the Ipod downloads which has approved this business case. And this is just at the foreplay stage.
Disney should also buy Youtube or a similar tools co' as a defensive play and... then it's all lovely. Mashups can then be institutionalised at the production level ala YouTube/E-News deal. Anyone who has worked for a major media company knows you have to keep it simple. Keeping it complex and theoretical is stupid. Because it wont be implemented and will be left on the Edge of the Main Game.
posted by redbarren at 10:14 PM
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