Wednesday May 03, 2006
The Quest For Three Screens (Part 2)
Welcome to part 2 of my dissection of the quest for three
screens. In this part I want to focus on consumer behavior.
Note that this is a very subjective topic and is very much changing
every day. Because of this, it is likely to be heavily influenced
by my wishes, but I will also try to add scenarios that I would not
follow.
The basics of my view revolves around something very simple -
choice. Consumers want many choices for how, when, and where they
can consume content. If I want to watch something when it is
being broadcast, then that is fine. If I want to time-shift (ie:
tivo) the content, that should be trivial. If I want to
place-shift the content - ie: play it on my computer or psp or ipod or
phone - that should be easy as well. And, it should be available
to all the content I want to consume. The problem today is that
all studio generated content only exists in silos. These silos
exist in explicit time slots as well.
If I want to watch a new movie, I have to go to the theater. Then
I have to go on a plane. Then I have to use pay-per-view or
video-on-demand (vod) or stream it to my computer/portable
device. That is, if the content provider has struck a deal with
the appropriate distribution channel. Then I can rent or buy the
DVD. To make it worse, when a piece of content is in a silo, I am
restricted as to where I can view the content and when I can view the
content. Although, VOD and streaming to other devices are
starting to fix the "when" problem.
Here is a real world example. We watch The Amazing Race.
The time slot that it runs is right in the middle of when we get our
three kids to bed. And, as a parent you may know that the chaos
that ensues during this nightly ritual sometimes prevents us from
hitting the record button on the DVR in time. No problem, I
think. With this enlightened day of providing content online
after it has aired, I figure I can just pick it up - for a small fee of
course - and watch it later. Unfortunately, the only way it is
available online is in streaming form, and it has a time limit.
Now, I don't usually have my laptop networked into my AV system, which
means that I have to set all that up just to watch this content.
I can't imagine anyone who is not tech-savvy could make it through this
process. I am not trying to pick on The Amazing Race and its
network/partners. I am just using it as an example.
As for music, it isn't much better. If I bought an ipod, and was
convinced that I was always and forever going to use an ipod, then this
might be easier. I love the looks and features of the new video
ipod. My problem is that I am not going to start building up my
online music collection just to have it be useless bits if I don't get
the next ipod. Again, I want as much of my music as possible
everywhere I want to listen to it - my little music player, my big
music player, my psp, my AV system, and all of my computers. This
is another area where we are limited by the deals being brokered by the
distribution channels and the content owners.
All of this has caused me to use a different method for letting me
consume content anywhere I want. I end up purchasing the retail
materials and using that to purpose it to my devices. For DVD's,
I can use it on my computer and my DVD players - fixed and
portable. For music, I still buy the CD's and use my computer, my
CD players, and re-purpose the music for my digital players. I
would love to switch to a full digital distribution model, but there
are still too many risks (ie: money) involved with making a bet today
as a consumer.
Tomorrow, I want to move on to what I believe is truly the future of
consumer content - consumer created content.
Posted at 11:23AM May 03, 2006 by dtwilleager in General |
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