The way television content is distributed won’t last much longer

That’s a pretty bold prediction, but stick with me on this – you may just agree with me. Let’s look at the old TV content value chain :

Studios produce TV shows. TV networks buy this content from studios. Networks air their content and generate revenue through a mix of subscriptions and advertising. The viewer watches the show when it is aired by the network.

This makes a great deal of sense in a situation where the only way to distribute media to a viewer is via broadcast (other than hard copies of course). It also makes sense in a situation where the viewer is disconnected from other viewers and could not collectively purchase the media content. Enter the network acting as the intermediary.

But now with high speed internet facilitating direct distribution and a hyper-connected viewing public as well as viewers who are increasingly protective about the precious resource of spare time – viewer wants and needs are changing :

1. They don’t want to pay for things they don’t want to watch
2. They want to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it
3. They don’t want to wait for their local network to buy the content and then air it, they want it as soon as it is available
4. If they are getting content for free, they don’t want to be interrupted by marketing for things they don’t want
5. They don’t want to have to leave the house and go search through DVD’s at a store and select one to watch.

The current model does not meet the new demands of the TV viewer. Something is going to have to change soon…

In my next post, I have some ideas where this may be heading.