There are several reasons why television is going to be the internet, maybe on your wristwatch or at least on the cell phone. Tracking the entertainment industry is extremely complicated, but there are clues that explain the direction that it’s heading. In mid-November, Nielson confirmed that a kit was going to enable a different way of measuring new types of media. Any Way You Watch It: Nielsen to Incorporate Mobile Viewing into TV Ratings and Dynamic Digital Ratings.
Get the picture? Nielson is going to incorporate the mobile element into its ratings. This will include streaming internet TV from your favorite media streaming device. Nielson understands that the entertainment industry is shifting to the internet. What does all of this amount to?
Nielson is going to track cable’s enemy, which is Netflix. This is a new development. During the last decade, there was the popular opinion that it was impossible for the golden egg to be stolen from cable. This view is rapidly changing.
Let’s look at it another way. Satellite dish providers make their profits by broadcasting signals that come from space. It’s quite clear that a media shift to data is transpiring. The internet is eating up TV like the shark in the Jaws movie.
Don’t think so? Let’s look north to the Canadians. Shall we? The Canadians are ditching TV and landlines by the thousands: “Online streaming services expected to get 665,000 customers this year, and 25% of homes have no phone.”
From CBC News:
“More Canadians are abandoning traditional telephones and TV services, reflecting a growing trend prompted by changing lifestyles, according to a new study.”
This has got the cable and the media industries scrambling. They have rested on their laurels for decades, with the understanding that the Jetsons were not going to land.
Two major Canadian companies are introducing the online offerings, as more customers get rid of traditional cable in favor of Internet-delivered TV like Netflix. The promotion is Crave TV.
How do we account for the extraordinary tech mergers that have we’ve seen happen in the past year? ‘Merger mania’ may be best explained by the epic technological transition.
From The Washington Post:
“Now is an amazing time for mergers. Not just because they’re all happening at the same time, but because they’re taking place amid a grand convergence of all media onto a single platform: the Internet. Voice, video, data — sooner or later, it will all be carried over broadband. These companies know it. And they’re preparing themselves for the epic slugfest ahead.”
The pivotal is mobile data. Wireless goes broadband, cable goes wireless, and big data gets cheaper. Video will become easier for everyone to consume. As data gets cheaper and faster, it will be soon be readily available on cell phones and maybe even wristwatches.
The major difference is going to be new internet satellite technology. Internet satellites could be a game changer in the near future. Google is looking to invest billions into satellite connectivity, so the handwriting must be on the wall.
