[opendtv] Analyst: As Consumers Dictate Content Access, Will Old Media Get Out of the Way?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:35:28 -0400
http://seekingalpha.com/article/260685-as-consumers-dictate-content-access-will-old-media-get-out-of-the-way?source=marketwatch
As Consumers Dictate Content Access, Will Old Media Get Out of the Way?
March 29, 2011
Rocco Pendola
"I don't know what a TV is anymore. It's kind of an anachronistic
term." - Melinda Witmer, Chief Programming Officer, Time Warner Cable.
I have been thinking about that quote since I read it in The Wall
Street Journal last Friday. And it's probably because I want to marry
Witmer as a result of it. She's slick. And, best of all, she's right.
Defending Time Warner's app that allows Time Warner cable and
Internet subscribers to watch the company's traditional television
offerings on an iPad, Witmer argues that Time Warner is doing nothing
wrong, despite protests from Viacom, Scripps Network Interactive and
other media giants. These competitors contend that Time Warner only
has the right to broadcast the networks they carry - channels like
MTV and HGTV - over "cable television." And they're right as well.
They have just failed to step into the year 2011.
"So I bought a .44 magnum it was solid steel cast
And in the blessed name of Elvis well I just let it blast
'Til my TV lay in pieces there at my feet
And they busted me for disturbin' the almighty peace
Judge said "What you got in your defense son?"
"Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on"
-Bruce Springsteen
As the Boss predicted many years ago, you might as well just smash
your television to pieces. Witmer's colleagues miss the point in the
debate over "cable television." It's not about the hardware, it's
about the content. Cable television is a type of content. You can
elect to receive this content through a traditional television set or
some other means. Over-the-air network channels, premium services
like HBO and Cinemax, DirecTV and Dish Network satellite programming,
or the video of your wife bearing your first child - all of this
qualifies as content. You can choose to view it on any piece of
hardware you wish, be it a traditional television set, Apple's iPad,
your computer, or something else. That's at least how it should and
eventually will be when the lawsuits settle.
Smart and savvy, forward-looking media executives like Witmer get
this. Witmer's peers at Cablevision do as well. According to the
Journal article, Cablevision has "plans to launch an even broader
service for in-home streaming to Internet-connected devices,
including all of its traditional services such as video-on-demand, in
coming weeks." Apparently, Time Warner has bigger plans to hatch as
well.
The funniest part of the Journal's story comes from the mouths of
unnamed "media executives" who "worry that encouraging viewers to
watch on iPads could train a new generation to eschew TVs - and
potentially never sign up for cable and satellite subscriptions."
Guess what, stodgy, afraid of "disturbin' the almighty peace,"
uptight television executives? The young whippersnappers will abandon
these things with or without you. Therefore, step out of your comfort
zone, wave the big bucks in the faces of the Gen-Yers who work at
Google, Pandora and Twitter, and adapt, innovate, or die. It's really
that simple.
As an investor, I will watch closely to see how this controversy
unfolds. Regardless of how this particular dispute resolves, the old
guard will end up losing. Consumers of content ultimately dictate how
they will receive it. As things shake out, it's seems pretty simple
to me - go long the companies that listen to what the new generation
wants and go short the ones that fear and resist the inevitability of
change.
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