Via Slashdot: Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton was recently quoted as saying, “I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. Period.”
This quote was from a discussion about the future of filmmaking and obviously the internet, piracy and copyright.
I can understand Mr Lynton’s pain, being the CEO of a movie company that loses money due to piracy. But for better or worse (depending on your point of view), things have changed. In fact, I posit that there’s no going back.
Users have had a taste of the good life, and it’s sweet. They won’t accept an 88 mph Delorean-inspired drive Back to the Past.
Sure, BitTorrent traffic could be disabled. Communities and web sites can be sued and taken offline. But the posse will just move on to a new system, like they’ve done previously.
Instead of complaining, Sony et al should be coming up with solutions to embrace the new media distribution world that consumers have moved into.
Here’s a distribution model which I came up with a few years ago and will happily publish for free:
Bob visits the Fox web site and can browse every TV show & movie that Fox has ever produced. Bob pays $1 to download a high-quality episode of the Simpsons with no adverts and no DRM, and can copy and watch it on whatever devices (TV, computer, iPod) that Bob likes.
Alternatively, Bob can watch the whole episode for free (via a stream), but with local adverts included. Similar for movies.
Admittedly, songs are a bit tricker, but iTunes does well with its current system. It’s mainly TV and movies that need to play catchup.
Will Bob pay the $1 and then share the high-quality episode on BitTorrent? Maybe. But piracy won’t be anywhere as prevalent as it is right now. The majority of users will happily visit Fox and legally watch the episode for free (with ads).
Why? Because consumers simply want to watch their favourite shows/movies. Their goal isn’t piracy; it’s to watch their shows. They hate waiting to see their favourite shows, especially when they know it’s already aired somewhere. They don’t want to wait 6-12 months for a U.S. show to appear on their local TV stations.
And they don’t want to miss an episode because they forgot to set the VCR/DVD/HDD recorder.
With this model, the consumer definitely wins. The creator/content owner wins too, since they’ll get revenue either by ads or by direct payment. Who loses with this new model? The middle-man TV networks. If consumers can buy (via ads or directly) their shows from the creators, then Bob doesn’t need BBC1 or Channel 7 or whoever. Likewise with cinemas.
But that just presents a new challenge and opportunity for the TV networks and cinemas. They’ll certainly have to work hard to entice consumers to watch their TV networks or visit theirs cinema rather than going direct to the content creator web sites. But so what? Competition is good. Cinemas didn’t die after video/DVD stores came out.
People will pay for quality, which is why even today with massive screens and surround sound systems, people still enjoy (some) cinemas.
So to Sony et al, I say: Come on! We’re here waiting, ready to pay (or watch ads) whenever you’re ready.
May 26, 2009 at 5:00 pm |
Yeah, they really need to catch up with the rest of the world. Although with execs like Lyndon coming out with absurd statements like that I don’t see much likelihood of that anytime soon.
It’s interesting to look at the games market, which is having exactly the same issues but is trying really hard to innovate and keep up, shifting to online delivery and global availablility etc.