JamieG Analysis

I was listening to “The Media Report”, a podcast covering the general topic of Media by the ABC (Australia).

See here for the link to the story “A look at the Australian TV scene with Glen Dyer”

I wanted to bring attention to this because I am trying to get my head around the very important topic of DRM. I will do a memory dump on that later, but for now lets look at the above story.

One of the more interesting comments of the story is how many of the top rated US TV shows are bombing here in Australia. And the admission, by Glen Dyer, that the TV networks KNOW that this is mainly because people here in Australia are Downloading TV shows.

I have written in many Blog comments covering this topic that TV downloads are out of control. The Media industry reporting this, however, seems to play it down. Probably because its not in there interest.

Still, what does all this mean. The first thing that pops to mind is that the producers of the TV shows in the US are most likely crying all the way to the bank as they are probably only very rich, and not filthy rich. But still, this is likely to hurt the industry in some ways as Australia passes over purchasing the content.

(A general rule of thumb is that you don;t start a production of something like a Heros/Desperate House wifes, until you have pre-sales to a number of TV/cable networks. Ie its mostly paid for before you start. Then once its made and doing well, you sell it to all the other networks around the world, and thats when you make your money.)

So if Australia passes on purchasingUS TV shows, so are many other networks. As such, I imagine this will greatly effect the US industry.

Still, a HUGE plus out of all this is that local Networks are going back to there roots, and making LOCAL content. They see local content still having the first run pull to keep the viewers on board. (Still, I imagine piracy and online downloads will still effect this more then they expect. People are more prepared to wait to watch a show, as long as they know they will not miss it. Ie, I missed Ep2, I’ll download it in a few days. Eventually they are watching nothing but downloads, a few days later WITHOUT COMMERCIALS)

Recent open market deals with the US had destroyed the local production industry as the Networks could purchase top quality US content for far less then making there own. So they stopped making local content nearly altogether. (I have been working in Film and TV post production for about 15 years and I would say the industry in the post production side is 1/3 the size it was when I started. Plus its lucky to still be that large, thank god for the Asian Markets growth.)

I have not gone into Feature Film here but similar breakdowns in business model also exist.

I have heard some say that new business models will arise that caters for the cost of producing these expensive TV shows, while still floating the business model. I am sceptical and as such am very interested in DRM to see if it can be the life raft, and not the anchor that it is painted as by most Podcasters (Who make give away content).

(James Puts his DRM thinking hat back on)