"TV Everywhere" is the future of TV.
But it's being driven by consumers, not by cable companies. The cable companies are reacting, not leading. And that's a good thing.
I've tried to isolate what consumers are demanding from TV, in a tidy package called "The Four C's": Convenience, Control, Choice, and Cost.
- Convenience means access to content on any screen: TV's, computers, netbooks, tablets, Kindles (?), and smart phones.
- Control means consumers can create their own lineup of favorite shows and share the TV experience with family and friends.
- Choice means consumers can access the full library of TV and movie titles, on demand.
- Cost means getting the above at what consumers perceive as a "fair" price.
These 4 C's encapsulate the vision of "TV Everywhere".
90% of all American households already subscribe to an MSO (cable, satellite, broadband, or broadband wireless). That's an unbelievable stat. And as such, I believe MSO's are naturally best-positioned to fulfil this consumer demand. That does not mean they will get it right, however. MSO execs are smart and realize that getting it right and winning the hearts & minds of consumers is critical. This time around, the MSO's can't rely on monopolistic positioning to strong-arm consumers. MSO's now face competition for audience from many directions: Hulu, Boxee, Netflix, piracy, etc... each of which have very loyal and passionate audiences! As I have argued, horrendous consumer brand-image is the MSO's achilles heal.
MSO's can't afford to screw this up. If they do, they risk losing their customer base. Not only will they need to coordinate amongst themselves, they also need buy-in from the TV programmers (NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, HBO, ESPN, etc) and the distributors (web site publishers and app developers).
It's the web publishers and app developers who know and understand the consumer the best. They must be included in this process to ensure the MSO's and TV programmers "get it right" with consumers.
NBC and Fox were very smart to get a consumer-focused web entrepreneur (Jason Kilar) to design and run Hulu. Comcast and TimeWarner need to do the same.
