hal...
take your pick:
moving, or court appearances?
my absence may be attributable to both,
but i'm not so sure about the stock price...<g>
at any rate: if we must see 2 3/4, so be it:
at least we may then feel reasonably sure
that the latest bottom has been fathomed...right?
ed and BAM have surely mastered
the art of corralling, and of taming the questions list:
for considerable time expended toward its final digestion,
sincerest thanks...and to all who contributed: well done...
and,
finally,
more on content, content, and convergence:
Tangled Web
Industry scrambles to form alignments
By JOSEF ADALIAN, March 7, 1999
NEW YORK - Whether out of fear, folly or good, old-fashioned greed, Hollywood is rushing headlong to embrace the Internet revolution - and the myriad unknown changes it promises to produce.
Rarely a week goes by without word of some upstart Internet player pacting with an old-school showbiz stalwart.
Or of a vertically-integrated entertainment conglomerate gobbling up an equity stake in the hot Internet portal of the moment.
Or of a well-respected studio/network/agency exec announcing plans to start a new career as head of an unknown quantity new media company.
Ready for anything
Unsure what the Internet will mean to showbiz - and apparently unconcerned about unkept tech promises of the past - Tinseltown toppers are scrambling to position themselves for whatever the wired world will bring.
Some of the most ambitious Internet plays are coming from companies with major TV holdings, like Disney/ABC, NBC and Studios USA, which over the past year have formed strategic alliances with portal services Infoseek, Snap and Lycos, respectively.
In the short term, such deals are allowing old-school media companies to leverage their well-known brand names to create lucrative business opportunities within the structure of the Internet.
Increasing awareness
"Microsoft has their operating system. Netscape has their browser. We have these established media properties we can use to make our existing customers aware (of Internet services)," says Jake Winebaum, who oversees all of the Mouse House's Internet properties as chairman of Buena Vista Internet Group.
"ABC has 150 million unique users weekly," he adds. "If you can make them aware of your online activities, they're going to check it out."
Indeed, there's evidence they already are: With a promo push from new partners ABC and NBC, Infoseek (rebranded as Go Network) and Snap already have seen traffic to their sites skyrocket. And, according to NBC, MSNBC.com quickly has become the leading news-oriented site on the Internet thanks to the built-in synergy of the MSNBC cable network and NBC.
But long-term, big media companies are betting on something larger: convergence. Specifically, they're counting on high-speed, broadband connections to become much more common, very quickly, making Web surfing a lot like channel surfing.
Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Michael Eisner thinks convergence will usher in a new era in showbiz.
On the horizon
"If we're talking a decade from now, with the confluence between computer and television, there will be a new kind of entertainment," he predicts.
Other industry toppers agree, saying convergence figures greatly to increase the worth of companies with strong brands and access to entertainment content.
"As you move toward broadband video, content is going to become all that more valuable," says Tom Rogers, president of NBC Cable and an exec VP at the Peacock.
Rogers believes that as the Internet becomes more like TV, broadcasters will have a huge advantage because of their experience providing entertainment and advertising to mass audiences, as well as the fact that they already will have a large library of video programming ready to place on the Web. Internet companies without major Hollywood partners will have to create their own content.
"When you get into producing high-quality video (product), unless you're already involved, getting into the game gets prohibitively expensive," he says.
Supply in demand
That's why even smaller indie studios not aligned with a major broadcast or cable net stand to benefit from the rising demand for high-quality programming able to be easily transferred to the Internet. Trimark Holdings, for example, last month licensed 50 titles from its film library to netcaster broadcast.com in a deal that will let broadcast.com use the lure of free, downloadable movies to pump up traffic to its Web sites.
Some Hollywood insiders, particularly those linked to traditional TV networks, aren't all that giddy about convergence. They worry that by building up the Internet old media companies are really signing their own death warrants, providing the content and marketing skills that ultimately will lead to the end of broadcast TV as we know it.
"A lot of people get paralyzed about killing the golden goose," admits Winebaum, who says such fears have prevented some companies from making the full leap into the Internet future.
Winebaum, representing the Mouse House's take on the issue, believes that it's better for media giants to go on the offensive.
"If (the Internet) is going to cannibalize our existing businesses, we want to be the ones doing the cannibalizing," he says.
And while convergence will alter how consumers use their TV set, most observers believe that the way viewers watch an entertainment-based TV program like "Everybody Loves Raymond" or "The Practice" won't be radically different 10 or 20 years from now.
Can't get better
"Watching a half-hour sitcom will be pretty much the same as it is now," predicts Edmond Sanctis, chief operating officer of Snap. "That experience is not something you can improve on too much."
However, the Internet "will expand the range of what watching television means now," Sanctis says. "What the TV is used for will expand (beyond) just connecting viewers to an incoming stream of video."
NBC Cable's Rogers notes that consumers have "already seen some elements of convergence" between TV and the Internet, pointing to the gobs of information now crowded onto the screens of all-news cable channels like MSNBC and Bloomberg TV as an example of how viewers are becoming conditioned to expect more from TV than just pictures and sound.
"Data enhancement ... is becoming more and more a natural part of the viewing experience," he says.
While predictions about the Internet's likely impact on how consumers get their entertainment make for sexy stories, many Internet analysts actually believe that the biggest changes ushered in by convergence will be in the multibillion marketplace for network TV advertising.
Right now companies that buy ads on national broadcast networks usually do so not to sell actual units of a given product, but rather "to reinforce and strengthen their brands," says Rogers.
With convergence, broadcasters think that they'll be able to sell products directly to consumers as they're watching a TV program - changing the way advertisers buy time on television and creating an incredibly lucrative revenue stream.
"If you take TV's ability to captivate and then add the capacity for sell-through, it's probably the ultimate e-commerce experience," says Rogers.
Phenominal potential
Winebaum says convergence has the potential to turn TV networks into larger, broader versions of Amazon.com, the Internet-based bookselling phenom.
"You're going to be able to make television transactional. It's like being able to do home shopping on a broadcast network," he says, adding that companies that own big broadcast networks will have an advantage over outsiders trying to get in the game because of their expertise at appealing to large audiences.
Some networks, motivated mostly by dwindling or disappearing profit margins, already are experimenting with crude forms of direct response. NBC has sold thousands of videos and CDs related to its programs hyped onair through toll-free numbers, while CBS and Elektra Entertainment recently teamed up to do the same with the "Grammy Nominees 1999" album.
Convergence promises to make such retailing even more common.
Says one network exec, "Imagine (the profit potential) when ordering a product from TV is easier than picking up the phone."
variety.com |
