Glimpse the Unthinkable

I would like to thank Apple for coming out with the Video iPod. Why? A few reasons:

1 – It doesn’t negate or devalue their other products. Kind of self-explanatory on this one, but it needs to be said. There will always be a market for a music player and a video/music player. At least for the next few years, when they finally shuffle out the old and bring in the new.

2 – It completely and utterly destroyed what TV is all about. There is a lot to this one, so I’ll try to condense it. First there is the excellent rundown of Hollywood hand-wringing (props to Jeff) where Hollywood is basically freaking out. Nielson ratings can’t be happy about this either.

Take for example yesterday’s conversation with my wife:

“You know that ABC is releasing Lost and Desperate Housewives for two bucks a show?” I say.

“Wow, you mean we can just go home and download and watch it right now?”

“Sure.”

“That sounds great.”

This is such a duh stupid idea that I’m personally astounded that it took so long to come to the market. But there are other forces at work here.

3 – While Jeff strongly argues that Conversations are king regarding putting multimedia on an iPod-like device, you need to take in account that for the time being, only the iPod can provide you with television shows and music videos on the go in a hand-held package (Okay, and the ten people who have tablet PCs too). This is a powerful, powerful thing and say what you wish about iTunes, but they are the undisputed champ right now in online music. What I’m saying is that Right Now Distribution Is King. It will change in the future, as all things do, but face the music: Apple is ruling the distribution roost right now, and is in effect calling the shots.

There seems to be a huge trust issue that Jeff can’t get around. Let me tell you: If you’re selling a product “straight up” “no frills” and “no strings” with a few DRM-based restrictions, then trust is already there. This doesn’t remedy the idea that distribution is king, or even debunk it. It merely validates basic netizen principles. Don’t screw your customer, and your customer comes back to buy more stuff.

What needs to happen:

Each network needs to setup their own distribution system. Yes, this will demolish ratings. But in a good way: Not only can you accurately track a shows popularity, you can profit from it. This seems like such a no brainer idea that (again), I’m just astounded everyone is “surprised” by the move to distribute new content over the internet.

Would I pay $.99 or $1.99 to download new, high-quality Family Guy episodes? You bet your ass I would.

Thinking a bit deeper, the more popular a show is online can actually fuel its budget, almost simultaneously creating internet-only shows with big stars/talent and making fanbases truly responsible for their favorite shows. No more letter writing to save Star Trek — just buy more episodes to show your support!

Each movie studio needs to setup their own online distribution system – This is an evolution of the DVD, or specifically DVD extras content. With a solidified (and God willing standardized) method of downloading and viewing movies and features and extras, the studios can profit from those who want the movie on their computer rather than on a disk. As disk space gets more and more available, and as compression only gets better and cleaner, this should be another obvious choice.

I’m not talking about simultaneous DVD, Theatrical, and Online releases (as Mark Cuban chimes in on the first two), but at least when the Official DVD release rolls around, make online purchasing an option. This is simply another revenue stream and allows the user/consumer to pick how they want to view the show. You could even break down special features into prices: $.99 for the commentary, $1.99 for the one-hour special behind the scenes, etc etc.

I would’ve happily paid $4.99 for the extra super sweet bonus material from the Extended version of the Lord of the Rings movies. I bet a lot of other people would as well. And so on, and so forth.

So until the next generation of multimedia presentation comes around (think cheap, easy to use, and powerful — pick two), remember: Conversations are the pauper to Distribution’s prince. And someday that will change.

May we be so lucky to watch the change happen as each day goes by.

My chest is in my head
My stomach’s upside down