A No-Nonsense Yearend Wish List for the Video Industry

With just a few hours past Christmas, I’m fairly certain many items on my wish list are still in the works (TBD). That’s because some items take longer and require more work than defensive driving, patience in shopping center parking lots and general mall mayhem.

I’m sharing my video industry wish list with you in hopes that we can knock all these items off the wish list to advance the current state of the wide world of video.

It’s for a good case!

Here’s the list:

1. Hollywood – Please forget the movie remakes and focus on new and original films! Did we really need remakes of Red Dawn, Blue Lagoon, The Thing, Total Recall, et al? And you wonder why box office numbers have declined, DVD sales have crashed and pay VoD rentals are softer than snow? Consumers don’t want remakes of classics; they want you to class up your movie lineups with fresh entries.

2. TV makers – You stand to make more money amping up production of connected TVs that allow buyers to stream content then to keep producing ones that don’t. The only thing they connect to are wall mounts. Dead end monitors are more than one dimensional.

3. Playing off number 2, determine if there’s significant demand for 3D TVs. I’m extremely skeptical of 3D which has had a chance to catch on in some way each of the last several decades without luck. The price dive that began for 2D sets when 3D ones hit stores has drawn more consumers to the “less advanced” sets. That includes unconnected sets…DOH! 3D is a novelty, not a necessity. It’s ok to admit 3D sets aren’t the next big thing in CE. The industry has had plenty of not so bright flashes in the pan. Adding one would be positive not a negative, in the long run.

4. Live sports content owners. Causing service providers to raise subscription prices over and over ain’t a wise business strategy, now and in the future. They’re struggling to retain customers. Give them something to help with that and possibly to acquire new ones.

5. Pay-TV providers (cable, telco, satellite, etc.). Start planning now for cord-nevers who won’t sign up for your services. TV Everywhere misses entire content consuming generations, so start addressing their current behavior now.

6. All parties – Stop fretting about Netflix! They launched nearly a decade ago. Nobody has come close since, as in no “fast followers. “ Reinventing the wheel is fine if you do it exponentially better. Otherwise, innovate. Come up with something completely different.

7. Smartphone makers. You’re off to the races with content owners and distributors rushing to keep up. Maybe slow up a little bit and focus on real basics like lame batteries, brighter displays, maps that work and fewer versions. Content owners etc. need multiplatform distribution of video as much as you do.

8. Pay-TV providers. I would take all the mega- millions you spend on TV ads and direct mail carpet bombing and offer potential subscribers bigger and better offers. And then do-the-supporting math. I understand why Comcast (News - Alert) is among the top three spenders on TV ads, but I think this money could be better spent elsewhere. If you don’t know who Comcast (or Verizon or AT&T (News - Alert)) is and you are in their territory, come out from under that rock.

9. Revenue models for content owners. Advertising is still a huge work in progress for streamed content. Until viewer engagement times rise, straight sponsorships, website spots, subscriptions and content syndication will be the four-some to beat. Pre-roll ads are fine for coveted content such as live sports but….

10. More content, fewer dollars. Whether its consumers and/or pay TV providers the amount of video content constantly climbs skyward. With operators trying to provide a broader viewing array to more devices, just infrastructure and delivery costs alone also soar. Something has to give. Given the loooooooooooong list of channel options, it’s time to seriously rethink some form of a la carte pricing.

Most folks get that pure a la carte will never happen as you can’t completely pick by channel. More like channel groupings. Current tiers aren’t working for anyone, including pay-TV operators.

It’s high time to move forward.

But while I wait patiently for these gifts for the video industry, I’ll gladly settle for world peace and prosperity, safety and security.

Enjoy the holidays!