Over the credits of every popular or semi-popular ABC series, an announcer intones: “Want more? Watch this episode again at ABC.com!” If you take him up on his invitation, you’ll find yourself watching blurry, low-resolution, streaming video.
To watch the show, you must be connected to the Internet. You cannot download the show and watch it later. You can’t watch the show on your video iPod. You cannot skip the mandatory commercials. You must watch the show in a tiny window embedded in a web page. You are expected to watch the show at your computer; there’s no easy way to watch the video from the comfort of your television.
In other words: everything — everything! — about ABC’s online video experience is wrong. In fact, their online offerings are a textbook example of just how little the (doomed) traditional television networks understand about “the Internets.”
If they’re going to survive beyond the year 2010, here’s what television networks need to understand:
Free isn’t good enough. “Hey,” some readers will say, “get over it. Sure, the resolution is crappy and the ads are mandatory and you have to watch it at your computer and you have to be online to see them and you can’t save a copy … but, at least, the shows are free!”
That’s true: the grainy, jerky feeds from ABC-TV’s website are, indeed free. But fabulous, high-resolution, high-definitions of the same episodes of the same shows are easy to find and download using websites like isohunt.com and software like Azareus. Hmmm. One free version is ugly, contains mandatory ads, and forces me to watch according to the network’s terms … the other free version is beautiful, has no ads, and can be watched where I want, when I want. Given they cost the same … which version of the show would you choose?
People will pay for convenience. If you do choose to go looking for televisions shows to download, you’ll discover that the process is inconvenient and complex. First, you have to search a torrent directory (like isohunt.com) for a link to a copy of the show you want to see. Then, you have to scan and interpret the results supplied by the torrent search engine and find the episode you want in a format you can watch. Finally, you have to drag the appropriate link to your file-sharing software and wait (usually about three hours for a one-hour show) for the show to download.
Now, which would you rather do: slog through all that for a free copy of LOST … or go straight to the ABC website and, with one click, download an HD copy of LOST that you could watch any time for, say, $2.99?
I can hear the network executives howling now: “But if we do that, we just make it easier for pirates to download the show and share free copies with millions of their friends!”
Arrrgh! Wake up … WAKE UP! Pirates are already posting high-resolution copies of the show to file-sharing networks. It’s already easy for them to do so. They’re doing it right now, today.
What pirates can’t provide is a simple, legal, “download with one-click” storefront. Are you listening, networks? There’s your edge in the market place.
Customers don’t like being forced to do stupid things. If I prefer to watch T.V. on my T.V. instead of my computer, forcing me to watch your shows on my computer is stupid. If I prefer to download a show to view at my convenience — say, when I’m on a plane, with no internet access — then forcing me to watch it live and connected to the internet is stupid. If I prefer not to watch ads, forcing me to watch advertisements is stupid.
Can you imagine buying a book that you could only read on a proprietary viewer … while connected to the Internet … at your home computer … and that forced you to read ads after every chapter?
Wise up: consumers resent companies that corporate control over consumer convenience.
It comes down to this: being successful in the online media market isn’t rocket science:
1) Offer the highest-quality possible. If you want to offer a free, downgraded, crippled, ad-laden version of a show to the masses, fine … but why not give folks like me the option to pay a couple of bucks for a high-definition, high-quality version?
By the way: as someone who does buy DVDs of his favorite shows … I can promise you that having easy access to a high-quality version of an episode of a show will not keep me from buying the DVD … because the DVD will feature director’s tracks and other extras the downloadable version of the show will not.
2) Charge a reasonable price. A T.V. show, frankly, is disposable entertainment. Once I’ve seen it, I’m done with it. I don’t watch reruns. When I buy an episode of Battlestar Galactica from iTunes, I don’t save it. When I’m done with it, I delete it.
I’m willing to pay a reasonable price to watch an episode of one of your shows. Multiply me by a million folks, and consider what that could do to your revenue streams.
3) Don’t meddle with my ability to watch what I want, when I want, where I want. Want me to love you? Let me pay a reasonable fee to watch a show when and where I want to. Want me to hate you? Force me to watch ads, force me to watch t.v. on my computer, and force me to be connected to the internet in order to see the show.
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