“Lost” Opportunity: The Death of the DVD
I sit outside, it’s 65 degrees in sunny silicon valley – a brief reprieve from the New England weather. I have 30 minutes to kill before my next meeting. I am at a Starbucks, drinking some iced drink that is too expensive and I can’t even remember its name. Something about sitting at a Starbucks, drinking some coffee drink makes me feel smart – well maybe at least reflective. Maybe it is the people huddled around, studying, reading the books or newspapers that are too dry for my liking – whatever – I am feeling reflective.
So in 27 minutes, I have a meeting with a “physical media distribution company”. Anyone who knows a lick about Signiant knows that it is our mission to Make Media Move. Move unencumbered over networks, bits flowing without boundary. The distribution of physical media is like a rodent to us – something to be exterminated. Won’t life be better when all files move across networks and CDs, DVDs and tapes are things that kids will look at with curiosity like 8 tracks and LPs?
So – why blog about something that is so core and fundamental to Signiant’s business? Well, my reflection carries me to the challenges facing companies that distribute physical media – video rental stores, DVD retailers, DVD-by-mail. This weekend I was driving through my childhood neighborhood and had a Lost flash-forward moment. The chain Video Rental store had a big “Going Out of Business” sign out front. Can we see this scene repeating itself thousands of times over the next several years as more and more content is moved online, more and more people smoke the hookah and get on board with the digital media revolution? Imagine if you are making the decisions for one of these companies — they probably feel like Jack on the bridge.
Well – the good news is that crisis always presents opportunity for someone – the blacksmith that became a tire store, Williams Oil becoming Williams Communications are a couple that come to mind. So the opportunity exists for these companies to transform their business and capture an even bigger share of the entertainment dollar. My meeting in 20 minutes is with one such company that is adapting their business model and plans to flip their business model to digital media distribution over the next several years. There’s a good chance they can pull it off — they have a cultist loyal following and have progressive thinking. The challengers are fierce — IPTV, Project Infinity from Comcast, movie rentals from Apple iTunes and all the other companies adopting the Any Content, Any Time, Any Where, Any Device (A4) mantra.
Clearly, if you do not have a Digital Media strategy – it is a lost opportunity. Time is passing and while some people are predicting that it will be 5 years before the demise of the disk, I am not buying it. Unlike adoption of other technology – there are no barriers to delivering digital media with a high quality experience. Last week, after a DVR hiccup (I am the biggest DVR fan out there – had Tivo on day 1 – but the DVR’s day is coming too) cut off the last 10 minutes of an episode of Lost – my wife and I ran up to the study and caught it in full HD on abc.com.
So instead of making predictions about the longevity of the DVD, companies should be trying to figure out how to capitalize on what makes my wife and I stand around a 22” monitor in a cramped study as opposed to on the big HD downstairs. I can tell you, at the end of that Lost episode, there was some $$ figure that I would have paid - $10? $20? to watch the next episode right there! Why not take that money out of my pocket?
Coffee drink finished, blog post finished, soaking in the sun – 10 minutes until meeting. What to do…ponder what business the shells of old video rentals stores could be transformed into – there will be a surplus of them in the next few years (check out “Pump It Up” – gold mine I tell ya)… maybe go get a real drink – a diet coke …
Maybe we can turn them all into Super-Starbucks … where you can watch and listen to digital media … off to find a diet coke.
Postscript:
In true Lost fashion, on my way to the meeting, I opened the trunk of my rental … the only thing in my trunk was one little plastic card: My Blockbuster card… what does that mean? What symbolism is hidden here? Did The Others have something to do with it?
