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Lesson Two: Consumers are Wrestling Control from the Broadcasters
"Is this live?," he asks, his voice tinged with hints of disappointment. I often preach that the days of "same bat time, same bat channel" are forever gone. Increasingly, consumers are taking control of when and where they watch their programming. Such was the case with my son's question. Linear broadcasts can't be started after a bath or paused while we brush teeth. They can't be stopped when it is time for bed, nor restarted when someone wakes dad up far too early in the morning. They can't go back 5 seconds when he missed something.
Also, he points out there is little delineation between tv and movies in a digital world. There is only programming - stuff viewed on the tv (or on a PC or mobile device, etc).
Lesson Three: "Ownership" gives way to "Access"
When my son was born, I set about buying a copy of many of my favorite childhood movies so we might someday enjoy them together. My mistake. He loves to watch a film once, but rarely twice.
In the larger picture, and given this on-demand world where content is so easily streamed to the tv and choice is virtually unlimited, why should consumers pay to "own" it? At TDG, we believe that content ownership will give way to VOD/rental and subscription models. Yes, of course advertising will heavily play as well, but consumer preference will migrate from the need to own content to simply being able to access it in the cloud.
So while my son may not have been able to travel through time – as in the case of the movie we were watching - he sure was able to share a glimpse of a changed TV future.
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