“But it seems increasingly clear that lots of people are using iPhones, Android handsets and iPads (and maybe, one day, Android tablets) as auxiliary TV sets at home. What that means for the TV business depends on your perspective.” -
There is only one perspective about what the internet means to the TV business:
The internet is here to replace the broadcast TV platform.
The internet will deliver TV shows to audiences instead of the broadcast TV platform. It’s why the internet is here — to replace old, antiquated information delivery and communications platforms. We’ve already seen plenty of reasons why. When a disaster strikes, the old platforms stop working. That means information and communications can (and usually are) cut off to the public. The internet, however, stays in operation. This was seen during Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti. The internet was designed for this. The technical term is ‘fault resistant.’ How it works is pretty cool. In simple terms, if it can’t get to you one way it re-routes itself and finds another. No other platform to date can really do this.
Not to mention the internet platform is device agnostic (no specific device required to access it) and available everywhere. It’s also less expensive to own and operate for those who own/operate platforms in platform business.
What the internet will not do, however:
1. End television consumption among audiences, including in the home and via TV sets.
People will still watch TV, and likely lots of it. Only instead of it being delivered into their homes or what not by the broadcast platform, it’ll be via the internet platform.
Not too much else will change, but there will be some changes. For example, audiences will be able to watch television anywhere and from a range of devices (including cars, for example, and of course, TV sets). They’ll likely be able to pick and choose shows and networks in new ways, though this is yet to be seen (and to be determined by how TV industry reacts to and harnesses disruption by the internet). There will also likely be more TV options, including international shows, networks, etc.
TV networks will likely find more opportunity not less when it comes to advertisers in the future — the internet will enable all kinds of new ways of engagement, which will in turn potentially create new revenue means and channels for networks. It already is. Not to mention the future will also include the usual revenue stream of subscription content. Subscription content and services are always a when-scenario in platform business, entirely driven by consumers who want richer quality and/or access than what’s available for free. That’s the way it’s always worked through multiple disruptive platforms before the internet and will hereafter. With internet-delivered TV being freed from solely being viewed in a fixed environment, it means more eyeballs for TV advertisers.
TV industry won’t likely struggle with adapting itself to the changes above, in part because of where we all are in the course of the internet’s disruption and in part because it won’t be restricted by devices as print media has been before the advent of readers and tablets. Where TV will probably see disruption will be in user control of shows and potentially increased competition but outside of that, little else will likely be different.
So in reality what the internet means to TV will be simple: It’ll mostly be the same, just a different delivery platform. This will be important to understand in the coming years ahead.
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