media apocalypse

Henry Blodget feels that television is so fucking fucked:

As with print-based media, Internet-based distribution generates only a tiny fraction of the revenue and profit that today’s incumbent cable, broadcast, and satellite distribution models do. As Internet-based distribution gains steam, therefore, most TV industry incumbents will no longer be able to support their existing cost structures.

Jerry Del Colliano feels that terrestrial radio is similarly doomed:

the last insult may not be the demise of the Evil Empire [Clear Channel] but the lure of purchasing radio stations at long last for favorable prices at a time in history when an entire generation is not available to be a growth engine.

I would buy a radio station not because it makes money or could make money again, but because it has a brand — a real strong brand – that could lead into a digital media platform.

For myself, I keep noticing how straightforward it would be to make dramatic improvements to the usability of cable television. Why not buckle down and do the work? My wild guess is there’s a clusterfuck going on among the owners, and the only thing they can agree on is to keep milking the cow until they can’t anymore.

And then what? What’s next? Where do all these dollars disappearing land?

3 thoughts on “media apocalypse

  1. The music industry will move toward gear and recording products.

    The next hill is the movie industry. As technology improves, it will no longer require
    x million to make a cinema-worthy film.

    Hollywood seems to recognize that special fx “big films” are the thing that can’t be done on a budget.

    But what will happen when small human-interest films can be done cheaply–and when the internet permits the creation of well-known indie film stars who draw in box office?

    A new paradigm–the end of the movie theater as we know it, the end of netflix and the DVD rental places.

  2. their needs to be a proper recognition of the shift more than on any collapse.
    some industries may be more sloppy than others during this shift but ultimately, the Internet and newer co-existing digital networks will be the TV, the Radio, the Theatre as we have known them… controlled, not free and ad friendly… since a meshing of the mediums will have occurred.

    i’m guessing the the basic internet will not change but the new media rich internet will be segmented as a differet zone with different game rules. it cannot remain a mostly untapped commodity forever.. as big media industries start requiring presence as the home television sets start pumping in content from these on-demand infrastructures.

  3. People still watch lots of television. I bet if you reduced the amount of money people make, then the networks would make more, and that would make them happy again.
    As for “I would buy a radio station not because it makes money or could make money again, but because it has a brand — a real strong brand – that could lead into a digital media platform.” Um, ok. Except that why would you buy something that you don’t plan to make money with? Isn’t that silly? Radio still makes money, but it’s definitely declining rapidly. That said, people who say radio has no influence on music should look at the sales charts and the most played songs on radio. They’re quite similar. How could that be the case if radio has no influence anymore? Every car has a radio, so the medium will be around for a long time. Whenever I read that “everyone” has an ipod or “nobody” listens to the radio anymore, I take that with a grain of salt. It’s easy to become myopic and forget that there’s a world out there of people who actually lost their television service in the digital conversion because they don’t have cable, or who drive all day and leave the radio on. Some people even still read newspapers!

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