The Death of the 30-second TV commercial

Into the last phase of what has been a 2 year joy-ride. Must say friends taught me more than classrooms in these two years and it is them who i'll miss the most, when everything here gets over. Talking about things getting over, are there reasons to believe that the traditional broadcasting industry is on a downturn ?? Is the industry out of ideas to stem the viewership shift to Social media?? If the numbers about their falling Ad revenues is anything to go by, then this industry is in for one big & tough test.

The Websites in question are abc.com & hulu.com and i must say these sites hold good potential to eat quite a large chunk of the broadcasters revenues. Warner brothers some time back created a lot of media attention (has this become a cliche ???) by stating that a deal with Fox & NBC backed hulu.com was imminent. Most of the prominent content owners are looking to bypass broadcast networks using broadband and cellular networks to reach the final customer. You cannot fault the content owners to be fair. For decades the broadcasters have controlled the customer preferences giving him very less choice on content and mostly pushing "preferred" content. The Content owners on their part unsuccessfully tried to move away from clutches of the broadcaster. Netflix is one such not-so-profitable attempt. Netflix generated one time sale of DVD's for these companies but nothing much altered the bigger pie, the Ad sales. Apple TV was another such attempt. But i dont believe, Apple TV will be as big a hit because the idea of making viewers pay for Ad-free shows when they can view the same shows on TV for free(with small interruptions for TV commercials) looks fundamentally faulty. Neither Apple TV nor Netflix created the impact they were expected to create. The Content companies have been targetting the Ad sales(the mother of 'em all) of the broadcaster and i think they have hit the bulls-eye with hulu & abc. And yes the whole thing is still a beta. The Internet is the only place where customers accept applications that dont work right. Ever imagined a beta automobile or a beta aircraft ?

But figure this !! will you actually watch through a TV commercial on a youtube when you are at freedom to just skip through the buffered content ?? Well yes but only if the speeds are no longer a concern and the ad slots & durations are intelligently planned. There is no shortage of media planners these days to plan ad slots & durations and the bandwidth is very close to becoming a commodity. There arises another question. Are the internet audiences as captive as the TV audiences ? Well you'll have the answer to that question once you visit the website. Razor sharp quality, fast buffering, look of a theatre screen etc etc . See it to believe it. Although social networking is still not part of the entire package, i'm sure it is in the development stage (Its still a beta isnt it!!). Forget about the TV broadcasters, if social networking is eventually a part of it, i think it may well give youtube the scares(which is primarily making its living out of pirated and user generated content). Hulu will have quite a lead over others when warner eventually hosts content on its site. There may also be a shift of viewership from pirated & UGC to copyrighted content when the copyrighted content is made available for free. But again this viewpoint is quite subjective and only time has the right answer . Just one drawback though, geographical filerting(Damn !!!), the term mastered by BBC & Sky and unfortunately carried forward(hopefully not for long) by these new age companies. Then how did i get access to it? Well Microsoft remote desktop is quite an option.

Most people will eventually if not initially realize that they have only two modes of watching copyrighted content. Either pay for professional content or watch ad supported content for free. If i were given that option, i will have no qualms in watching ad supported copyrighted content for free. One thing is very clear, the world will have no dominant distribution model & gatekeepers for the coming decade. This is world the content owners have wanted for so long. The faster the broadcasters understand it & acccept it, the longer they stay in the business.