My life without cable
When I began my cable-free experiment nearly 90 days ago, I concerned myself primarily with disruptions in my own video viewing activity. Though saving nearly $800 per year was a big motivator, I wondered if the lack of access to ESPN or CNN would fill me with a sense of loss or detachment.
Though going ‘500 channel cold-turkey’ forced me to be a bit more considered in my viewing habits, I had plenty of options on hand – broadcast HD (w/DVR), Roku, Xbox 360, PS3, Apple TV and everything online.
I did, however, suffer one casualty in my switch away from cable; my Slingbox was left without a dancing partner. So sad. It’s a terrific device, making travel less tedious. Unless I jury-rig a connection to my broadcast DVR, Slingbox is destined to sit alone and unloved.
I am not ready to toss the Slingbox out just yet though. Even in the coming age of ubiquitous access to video content (anything, anywhere, anytime), DVRs, Slingboxes, DVD/Blu-recorders and upstart services such as Boxee may still act as important buffers for bleeding-edge consumers against the unpredictable nature of digital video distribution.
The battle brewing right now – should video be distributed on an open or ad-supported platform such as Hulu or TV.com or structured so ISPs offer exclusive channel or content choices based on similar cable distribution rights? For example, just as ESPN is only available to cable and satellite providers through license agreements, ESPN360 is also ONLY available through similar agreements with ISPs. No agreement, no access.
Comcast is teaming up with Time Warner to test their ‘TV Everywhere‘ model this summer, offering online access to TBS and TNT to a select group of current cable subscribers. Based on the “TV Everywhere’ model, only existing cable subscribers would be offered free online access to these channels. Cablevision and Cox are doing something similar, but on a more local level – offering online access to ‘in-market’ baseball games (for an additional fee). Ordinarily, such coverage would be geo-restricted to protect the local broadcast.
Though way too early to gauge the impact of these new efforts, it’s difficult to envision a ‘TV Everywhere’ model completely winning out over a broader, more distributed approach such as a broadcast network site or Hulu.com. More likely – they will find ways to coexist. Just as digital rental access typically follows a full purchase window, perhaps ‘TV Everywhere’ will wedge its way between premiere events and all other video distribution options?
One possible advantage to this model, a ‘TV Everywhere’ distribution layer may offer digital flexibility by title, similar to current movies in the theater. Content owners and distributors could pre-negotiate options, per title, to extend or limit exclusivity windows – blockbusters and other hit programming would be extended while less popular fare would move much more quickly through alternative distribution channels – all in an effort to maximize exposure and profit.
From the consumer perspective, there is one simple question – in an age of ubitquitous access (time, location, screen size, manner of consumption, etc) what is the premium value of instant gratification? While live sporting events are a given, what about short form content such as dramas and comedies? What is the price of accessing a new episode of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie today, next week, next month or 6 months from now?
This may be an easier question for consumers to answer if they think less about pipes (access and delivery) and more about content. Unfortunately, digital video distribution business models and their requisite infrastructures are extremely complex and balkanized, and risk becoming increasingly so if ISPs make exclusive licensing deals with content providers. In such cases, some users may not understand why their friends and neighbors enjoy online access to specific programming before they do, as is now the case with ESPN360.
Another confusion hurdle – technology. In an environment of full addressability, users will have to actively manage a mix and match of free, subscription-based and on-demand video options. Smart TVs will need to sniff out new video streams from any number of sources – broadcast, cable, online, satellite, library, friends, etc, while new software systems will need to make all these sources easy to navigate – leaving the viewer to focus on enjoying content and NOT the pipe its coming from. Services like Boxee portend of things to come – an integrated interface allowing users to mix and match any number of digital video sources.
IP-based video consumption will be an ever-evolving challenge for us boys and girls in the marketing community. We will be charged with figuring out how to mold these increasingly small, though increasingly malleable, balls of clay into something resembling a media plan.
