Head over Heels
I attended a conference recently, that brought together broadcast studios, content providers, advertising companies, cable companies and new age video distributors (ie. telecom service providers.) It made for some very interesting conversation:
It appears to me that the media & content industry is showing the first signs of a collapsing chain. Take for instance what the iTunes store is doing to music - by putting the act of compiling CDs into the hands of end consumers. For a recording artist, this has greatly increased the risk of revenue loss on albums - for now, every single needs to be a hit song. Of course, there is a contrary viewpoint to this - that something like iTunes also vastly increases the "long tail" for niche segment songs etc. Similarly, mySpace and youTube are eliminating the "middle-parties" by collapsing the video content publishing chain. With the rise of TiVo and DVRs, advertisers are embedding their products into the actual content of TV shows. Sporting franchises are embracing the term "triple-play" in a whole new context.
Is the once linear chain of customer value delivery fast becoming a rush of players tripping over each other in an effort to directly interact with the end customer? Look at what's happening - "Intel Inside" is on the outside. Motorola markets its RAZR features directly to the end consumer so they demand it from their service providers. The Sony Store sells WLAN from Cingular.
Everyone is marketing his product using the ensemble. And any single entity's unilateral control over its marketplace has weakened considerably.
Consumers' inboxes are flooded - urging them to think out of the box.
