Now Where Was I? (Part 2)
By the PHANTOM
Shoot, there was this point about video that I was trying to make last time, but I got sidetracked on trivia about TV sets now and then. Now if I can just figure out where I was going with that video thought… I think it had something to do with how the video market has changed in recent years, but you already know that. Video used to be what we now call “linear TV,” where we run a bunch of TV shows out to people in a time-serial manner. People chose what they wanted to see and at the appropriate time they tuned to the channel carrying that show and watched it. Worked pretty well for a long time. We added video-on-demand (VoD) a few decades back, where you could watch certain things, mostly movies, when you wanted to and not when an invisible “someone” decided to show them. Then someone figured out that we could record bunches of TV shows and offer them on-demand too. And finally storage costs came down to where you could actually do it.
Then someone realized that they could get into the video business relatively cheaply. With this thing called the Internet pretty much everywhere, they didn’t have to string lines to every home in order to deliver video. All they had to do was to negotiate the rights to a bunch of video then resell it to anyone who already was paying for Internet service. Then someone figured out that if you produced original material, you could put together a bundle that no one else has. Of course there were problems (hey, we had lots of start-up pains ourselves). We were shaking our heads at the low prices some programmers offered at first. But then the prices started going up as people understood what their costs really were. And the churn (didn’t we introduce that word?) followed the prices up. People started leaving the traditional linear providers, mostly us and satellite, for the magical world of everything on demand, “when and where I want it.”
So where does this leave our industry? In the best of positions, I think. We have done a good job of pivoting to being, first, an Internet provider and second, a video provider. Many of us have arrangements to deliver on-demand video content as well as linear video content. And we’re doing a creditable job of becoming wireless providers too, even if using someone else’s facilities (just like the on-demand players use our facilities).
Who would I not want to be today? A programmer. Some have gotten into a high-maintenance mode where they need a lot of revenue to cover their committed costs (think sports programming). And we, with our roots in linear programming, are not providing the same revenue for them as we have in the past. With so many new program packagers out there, I suspect it is hard for some programmers to keep their revenue where they need it. But that may be a casualty of the times. For some time I’ve said that programming costs were out of line, and we suspect that more corrections are ahead. Maybe, just maybe, the worst of the pandemic is behind us and people will not be spending as much time with video as they have the past 18 or so months. So again, more pressure on the program suppliers, as the audience size shrinks somewhat.
And a little techno-artistic issue that haunts my mind at times: How the heck do you produce entertainment where one customer watches you on a huge 85” 4k TV with 48.1 (or whatever the latest craze is) channel sound? And the next guy is watching on a tiny smartphone screen (maybe 4”), which he can hardly see (if he’s this phantom’s age), with 0.2 channel sound from speakers so small you can hardly find them? Sure, it’s pretty straight-forward to generate several streams of data bits, a fast one for the gal with the 85” TV and a 1 Gbps connection, and something slower for the guy still on a crippled DSL connection. The slower the connection, the worse the picture. But if you put up text, say, at a pleasant size for Ms. 85 inch, then Mr. 4 inch ain’t gonna be able to read it. Or if you put it up at a size that Mr. 4” can read, it’ll be too big for Ms. 85” to read comfortably. And wonderful sound that rivals a concert hall for Ms. 85” is not much for Mr. 4’’ — good thing so many folks have tin ears.
Guess I’d better find another industry to haunt if the phantom bosses decide to put me back into the programming business. Lemme think: How did I pull off the switch from that French opera house gig to this cable gig?
The Phantom
the.phantom@youwontfindmeanywhere.com
You never know when The Phantom is standing right beside you. Sometimes he is in a meeting with you or walking the floor at your favorite cable show. Sometimes he’s hanging with the suits and other times with the front liners. But be assured, The Phantom sees all, The Phantom knows all and, most importantly, The Phantom tells all.
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