Watercooler Wednesday-Why Hollywood Is Flunking The Digital Age...

Welcome to the Ethos Watercooler Wednesday.

HERE are the guidelines. If this is your first time 'round the watercooler, PLEASE take time to read them. It will save us both a lot of time.

To join me, do a post today about Arts/Culture, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.

Join me around the watercooler today and each Wednesday...

Why Hollywood Is Flunking...

"To succeed in the digital realm, Hollywood needs to offer total convenience, almost infinite choice, and the freedom to watch any way we want. Instead, we have iTunes, which delivers video you can't watch on any portable device that wasn't made by Apple, and Amazon Unbox and Netflix's Watch Instantly, which feature downloads you can't watch on any device that was made by Apple."

You can't, because Hollywood is determined to protect DVD sales at the expense of electronic downloads. That needs to be fixed — because if people don't find what they want at online storefronts, pirate copies are just a click away.

The lessons from the music fiasco are clear: Trying to limit the inherent advantages of digital files is a losing strategy. The way to stop piracy is to make everything available — easily, legally, and at a fair price. But it's a lot of work to secure Internet rights to old films and TV series from writers, directors, composers, and the like, and the studios show little inclination to monkey around with their lucrative sales to premium channels like HBO — deals that don't affect DVD sales but are written in a way that can keep electronic distribution rights locked up for years. "There would be a lot fewer Mercedes pulling up to the Palm every day without those pay-TV deals," one exec quips. Right — but how many music moguls have you seen pulling up to the Palm lately?

HT: Wired

Comments

[spence]

I love that you give us the forum to express the creative side of our lives.

[jim Drake]

We've become accustomed to our DVR so much that when we are in a place (like a hotel or another home) that doesn't have it--we're reaching for the remote to rewind, replay, or record something. I think eventually all media will have to be on demand.

Jim

[Jeremy]

I hope Hollywood is a better/quicker learner than the music industry has been. I came across an interesting article about this whole "everything for free" idea - I'll be posting about it tomorrow.

[Phil]

Like anything living, you hold on too tightly and you smoother it. Our human tendency is to hold on -- to protect what's ours, out of greed, out of fear ... -- and it seems to me, that is what has happened in the broadcast media.

But it is a hard balance, since there are so many who glibly harvest others work as their own and expect to be able to do so without the investment put in by the associated artists who produced the work.

[kim]

feels like we're on the edge of everything changing. can't help but think about my grandparents who are still watching the tv with rabbit ears. To what level do we upgrade the grandparents? :)

[Tahni]

I'm excited to share for the first time around the watercooler!

[jeff atwood]

randy - thanks for helping us all think different thoughts in different ways.

[mike ritter]

Hooray for Hollywood! Scratch that. Hooray for Main Street! There's something to be said for free market economics and how the consumer is reshaping media distribution.

[Paul J.]

I'm in...my first Watercooler Wednesday.

[MarkLee]

Thanks for making this available, Randy. Cool idea...

Where I think the film industry differs from the music industry is the lack of the "live show". Whatever happens to the recorded side of things, we musicians are a resourceful bunch: we can always hop in the van and do some gigs to pay the bills. But this type of outlet is not available to filmmakers...

[Nathan G.]

Can I just say that I LOVE Watercooler Wednesdays!! This is so much fun. I find myself thinking through the week, "what am I going to blog about next Wednesday??"
I love seeing everyone else's posts too!

Awesome, Randy. Awesome.

[John Voelz]

the last time i watched live t.v. was the Superbowl at your home.

p.s. i have a great idea to pitch to TiVo but i don't know where to start. have any ideas?

[Dan Perkins]

Do I feel bad for all of the Blockbuster and Hollywood Video Rental outlets? NO. Because they couldn't care less about the customer's needs until a start up dot.com called Netflix entered the scene... now after a few short years the future of all the above mentioned is dubious at best. The content will be there how we get it will continue to change as the calendar pages turn.

[Davin Peterson]

The problem is that Apple's iPod unfairly dominate the market and so they think Apple is the best and don't recognize the other player.

Creative invented the iPod interface, which Apple stole and now Creative doesn't get any recoginiton.

You have a picture of the Creative Zen Vision:W. It is a true wide screen player which is great for playing movies and tv show. Apple doesn't make this type of player.
I like Creative's Zen lineup. They are better than the iPod.

I hate that the radio station and American Idol are always promoting iTunes when us who have Creative players can't use it because locked it down. I wish Apple would unlock iTunes for everybody.

[Ted Williams]

Water Cooler Wednesday--Great idea, Randy. I'm in (a week or so late).

[Ken Davis]

As a kid one night, I spilled my spaghetti all over the floor. My Mom said that it was my last supper. As hard as I looked I couldn't see Judas, the disciples or nothing. But this one takes the cake. You can't miss the art in this one...

Ken

[Chad Jarnagin]

Gitty up!

C

[One Busy Mom]

Better late than never, right?

--b

[Endlessly Restless]

I've never been to the watercooler before -it's cool!!