Category Archives: Internet

What is Premium (Video) Content?

Video content continues to proliferate online. None of us can keep up with all of it, let alone most of it. In this environment, we hear the phrase, “content is king” uttered by countless defenders of the Hollywood industrial complex, … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Distribution, Hollywood, Innovation, Internet, Marketing, Movie Theaters, Old Media, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Fred Wilson Thinks Today

Fred Wilson writes on his blog, AVC, every day. He has done so for over ten years. Some might consider this activity a full time occupation. Not Fred. He really spends his time searching for the next company in which … Continue reading

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Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Pay TV Bundle Erodes

“How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” —-Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises The Internet does one thing very well (among others). It destroys business models, particularly those long held by legacy media companies. Two years I … Continue reading

Posted in Broadband, Cable, Distribution, Innovation, Internet, Old Media, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Achilles Heel of the Cable Networks

In Betting Against the Cable Bundle, Emily Steel captures some of the fault lines that exist in today’s mass media ecosystem. A cable TV provider, Suddenlink Communications, is in a dispute with Viacom, the media conglomerate that owns several cable … Continue reading

Posted in Broadband, Cable, Distribution, Internet, Television | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Media and a Strong Culture of Experimentation

Sometimes you read something that says it all. A group of sentences that you wish you had come up with (but sadly did not).   Yesterday I came across one of those gems while reading an interview with Amy O’Leary, recently … Continue reading

Posted in Audience, Distribution, Innovation, Internet, Old Media, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Taylor Swift Gets Right

Taylor Swift’s new album opened big last week and everyone is talking about how she pulled her music off Spotify. As usual most people are looking in the wrong direction. Many argue that the web and streaming services don’t pay … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, Internet, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Film in the Future and Fan Uploaded Content

I recently did a radio interview with Spark, hosted by Nora Young, on CBC Radio One. If you live in Canada you can hear it today at 1PM NT or you can hear it now on the Spark blog under … Continue reading

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Will Hollywood learn from The Fault in Our Stars?

In June of 2012 I wrote Another Crack in the Mass Media Wall, a post that detailed how Lionsgate effectively used social media for the first time to get a huge opening weekend for The Hunger Games. It is worth … Continue reading

Posted in Distribution, Hollywood, Innovation, Internet, Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The Comcast Tax and Broadband Shell Game

Cable companies operate two distinct lines of business. Traditionally they bundle and resell linear TV networks.  The cable company feeds these networks into our homes and provides the interface that lists the content for our selection.  The cable company pays … Continue reading

Posted in Broadband, Cable, Distribution, Internet | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pay by the Size of the Screen? Not Likely

This was recently reported by Variety. “DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg thinks the windowing model of feature films will become a “pay by the inch you watch.” During the Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Corporate World panel at the Milken Global … Continue reading

Posted in Distribution, Hollywood, Internet | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments