Scaring the Hell Out of the Networks
This transition to consumer choice in television viewing via Internet isn’t a matter of ‘if’ anymore but rather of ‘when’ and who is going to be the first to cross that line. It will result in the biggest transition in television that we have ever seen and it scares the hell out of the networks because they will not have the same control anymore.
Steven Hodson, a tech veteran, blogger and writer, writing in the Inquisitor about the big shake-up coming to television, namely television delivered via broadband internet.
As Hodson says, when viewers have the ability and inclination to watch individual shows via the internet, it will have a profound affect on the industry.
Right now both the cable companies and broadcasters are jockeying for position in the online TV space. The CBC launched a video portal a couple months ago, and at the end of November Rogers debuted its online TV portal. Both moves seek to capitalize on the popularity of online video, and mimic the success of NBC’s Hulu, which is now the third most popular video site on the internet.
“I think we’re turning a corner,” Mark Tauschek, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech research group told the CBC in June. “We’re just on the tipping point of it being available… My intuition is that we’re on the cusp of really big changes.”
But as Hodson points out, as both broadcasters and cable companies try to capitalize on online TV, there will be friction. To make a full transition to internet TV will require more broadband capacity, and the cable companies hold the keys to the pipe.
Right now the cable companies have been using tactics to cope with the growth of online video, from traffic shaping, to introducing billing tiers based on how much video you watch, to introducing video portals. Hodson says “both the television industry and the broadband provider business are trying to position themselves where they are still in control.”
Maintaining control is crucial because the stakes are very high. Online video is still in its infancy and no-one has yet figured out how to make any real money. At least not the kind of money you can make from conventional television advertising or from cable subscriptions.
For cable companies like Rogers, with 3.7 million subscribers paying monthly fees that are usually north of $50, the growth of online video is as much a threat as an opportunity. If people start pulling the plug on their cable subscriptions because they can get the content for free online, Rogers will see its lucrative customer base eroded.
It’s not an idle threat. The CEO of Roku–a device that streams movies and shows from the Internet to your TV screens – said in Wired in September, “Our goal is to have everyone cancel their cable subscription.”
The race among cable companies and broadcasters to capitalize and protect themselves from the gradual shift to online TV will be a dominant story next year, and will have lasting impact on broadcasters like the CBC, as consumers shift over to a new medium.
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The sad thing is that it’s too late. This is not news. It’s not something that snuck up on them. It’s something that anyone who has been paying attention knew was coming for years.
The current methods employed by the cable companies – traffic shaping, etc., will not hold. The cable and other internet providers are putting themselves in an adversarial position with the public by doing things like this and no company can hold up long in an adversarial position with their customers. The internet landscape in Canada will become more competitive and traffic shaping will eventually be banned. Content producers need to get used to a world where they compete directly, on a level playing field with all of the other content producers in the world. Networks and broadcasters of other people’s content need to get used to being in a subordinate position to those producers. If you aren’t producing your own, in house, high quality content then you are youtube (merely a content platform, not a producer). And all platforms and video sites need to be ready to compete with free, ad free file sharing services – like it or not, legal or not, they are here to stay (87% of the audience and climbing isn’t going to pay for online content.)
As I said though, none of this is news. It has been readily apparent to anyone who has been paying attention that it was what was going to happen. The decisions made by broadcasters for the last decade should have been in preparation for this transition. If they did not prepare then there is no reason to have sympathy for them over it and no additional funds should be directed at them because of it. Any additional consumer fees or government subsidies should be directed at content producers not platforms and websites to carry content.
Newflash – CBC had a video portal a long time ago.
And there has been video delivered “via broadband” for years.
Part of the problem is that CBC has turfed or let so many innovators walk out the door, so that articles like this seem like a a new thing.
Pisses me off to see the collective history rewritten like this by sudden converts and people responsible for stifling the lead CBC had long ago.
Right now it is much easier and more comfortable to watch TV programs on TV .
Boxes like Roku , Apple and other devices that move media from you computer or media drive to your TV or in some cases live programs, are making t to easier to watch content in a traditional environment.
Not to mention the challenges to access sites in the states, Hulu, Comedy Central that technically we cannot watch unless we find a work around.
Even up against Rogers & Bell TV compressed HD signals much on line video still needs a little help.
Sure first adopters make it work and love the that they are pioneers on the convergence wave.
The death of TV has been announced before with the Betamax, VCR, TIVO and PVR.
The traditional TV industry to survive must be able to adapt and embrace new way of suppling content.
Does any body have numbers breaking down TV watch on live vs. the tube?
[...] What had triggered the vanity search is that the post was directly related to one that I had written at The Inquisitr titled The big shake-up coming to television. [...]
No News is Bad News
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At the end of the year it’s traditional to look back at what occurred during the past twelve months and pick out the highs and lows. Most years there are a few examples of each. 2009, however, has proved to be one of the most dismal years for news and current affairs in Canada ever. I can’t think of a worse period in my lifetime.
Everybody has already noted the disaster that is the new National at CBC: thin gruel masquerading as news, the worst reporting staff in CBC Television history, the inability to fill sixty minutes with relevant stories, and this doesn’t even refer to the ludicrous and totally unmotivated standing around to read the news and do interviews. The good news is that the audience numbers are way down. Perhaps this will induce the CBC bosses to see the error of their ways. I’m not holding my breath.
The CBC’s last great journalism show has also been diminished. The Fifth Estate has been moved to the dead zone of Friday night where it is almost impossible to garner decent ratings. The reason for the move: a better night to run Being Erica. Now I’m all for Canadian drama but why do the schedulers at CBC need to promote Canadian drama at the expense of their flagship current affairs program?
CBC fell further under the leadership and thrall of the evil emperor, Richard (Darth) Stursberg. He and his hand-picked minions of “yes” people seem to be doing the best they can to wreck CBC News and Current Affairs. Under his rule we have seen the degradation of national news, the moving of The Fifth and local news to dead zones, the virtual disappearance of the once popular program Market Place (it finally reappears after New Years), the now almost non-existent documentary, and I haven’t mentioned the terminally unwatchable CBCNN. There are those within the network, the cynics I guess, who believe Stursberg wants to see news and current affairs fail miserably so he can take the money and spend it on new drama, comedy and reality. If that’s the case the man has not looked at the history of television. News has been, and still is, one of the best ways to build an audience for your entire schedule. Hello, Dick, is the CBC still the CBC without Little Mosque on the Prairie and Being Erica? Is the CBC still the CBC without The National and The Fifth Estate?
CBC Radio has fared a little better but those in charge there believe it is purely a case of benign neglect and they fear that neglect is coming to an end. One producer of a flagship current affairs program on radio told me that Stursberg and company are beginning to look at radio. Scary. Ratings are good, but they can better if the shows are “dumbed –down” like over in CBC-TV land, at least that’s the idea the radio producers are getting from their bosses.
Over at CTV and Global the news is not much better. The bulwarks of “Capitalist Broadcasting” are coming to the government cap-in-hand begging for money in the form of cable and satellite fees. Their hook: they want to save local TV. Local TV, isn’t that the part of their empire they have abused and chopped going way back before they had a small financial dilemma? To prove how much they care about local TV they have been closing local stations even before they find out whether the CRTC will grant them their millions in unearned cash and they have steadfastly refused to guarantee that the dollars they squeeze out of cable and satellite subscribers will go to local TV. Save our shareholders! I guess that doesn’t sound so good in a television ad.
In the meantime CTV still runs W5 but buries it by running it against hockey on Saturday evening and if and when they invest in a documentary, it always airs in the W5 timeslot.
Over at Global, they bury their current affairs in their schedule too. Hands up anyone who has seen or heard about a Global documentary. I saw one on the rise of religion in Canada but that was only because a friend produced it and was kind enough to let me know when it was going to air.
CTV and Global news do a much better job of appealing to Canadians than CBC News does. For proof of this I only have to point out that both get over a million viewers regularly while CBC has trouble reaching half-a-million. Both are better produced and slicker than CBC’s effort but there is little room for celebration. Neither makes any attempt at depth or context. In a world where ABC, NBC and CBS have long understood that fewer stories told more completely is the best way to compete with all-news TV; CTV and Global are still doing newscasts the same way they were done pre-CNN and the internet. Here too CBC News’ failure may be a key. CTV and Global have always done a better job when they were pushed by excellent coverage at CBC. Now that the “Corpse” news has sunk below CTV and Global’s level there is no need for the privates to try harder.
In the U.S. we have witnessed the disintegration of the CNN audience with the odious Fox News being the main recipient of new viewers. Serious stories go unreported south of the border while the balloon boys, disappearing politicians and “birthers” dominate the airwaves. Sensationalism is winning and stories like Copenhagen are losing. Worse still the all news folks are challenging each other to see who can distort or get the facts more wrong. Any coverage of the health care debate by Fox or MSNBC is sure to make a Canadian’s eyes roll.
The good news? Well 60 Minutes somehow continues to tell excellent stories and surprise, surprise, gets a big audience too. The Fifth Estate still has the ability to do the best research and find the best stories. PBS’ new Newshour format is even better than it was before. CTV’s reporters, as a group, are as strong as any reporting team I can remember; perhaps that’s because they took their best and added some of CBC’s best to create a kind of dream team of news reporting. The Agenda with Steve Paikin gets better every year and deals with the kind of topics that only PBS and TVO tackle; oh, and surprise, surprise, they get pretty good numbers doing it in the middle of prime time against the toughest competition. CBC Radio has so far stayed the mostly fine course (we can only pray that lasts). And finally, Lou Dobbs is gone from CNN, this alone could be reason to celebrate the New Year.