JamieG Analysis

This year is shaping up to be the year that Video heads online. Every second major news release from CES was connected with vendors of digital media products offering new capabilities or distributors doing deals. I was also very surprised to see much of my “Predictions for digital media for 2008” post had materialised by the 10nth of January.

Still, the industry is being pulled and pushed. Major players are spending near billions on this market in a questionable belief that they can control it. (Microsoft has publicly stated it had already spent over 500 million dollars on IPTV and streaming technologies.. And climbing. Consider adding Xbox360 costs!)

In this blog I focus on the direction of this industry based on a 15 years of working in the technical side of Film & TV and IT/Web/Multimedia technologies. I have also been part owner if Film & TV post production companies, telco grade data centres, satellite distribution networks, multimedia and web companies. I have been lucky enough to have been involved in many aspects of the industry, from management and evolving business models to actually developing the technology itself.

Many of my ideas are based on a clear understanding of the technology and how we use it. How it evolves. How it breaks out of the business models it was developed for.

When I look at what is on offer currently, I am very surprised that many companies have spent a fortune on ideas that go against many of my general rules for how this technology will evolve.

Like the old hockey saying goes. “Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where it is going to be.” Currently the industry sees the puck and they are all scrambling for it. While others, Microsoft, Apple and distributors, are building a golden temples and hope to grab the puck and lock it up. Then hoping to charge admittance.

All these ideas are based on short sited ideas in which the internet, and how we use it, does not evolve. While the internet usually evolves faster than any business modem can deal with.

Microsoft has spent more money than most, and I must admit, has developed some amazing technologies. The question is, do we need them. Or, do we want to pay for them? Or do we NEED to pay for them.

In future blog posts I want to try and break down some of the building blocks that enable digital media on the internet. I will compare trends I have seen in these industries and compare them to what the incumbent gate-keepers, or want-to-be gate-keepers are attempting. This, I hope, will bring a clearer understanding of these technologies and why many of these “Digital Media Business Models” are unrealistic.

I have a strong belief in sharing these ideas as to undo the “FUD” generated by the current players in an attempt to hinder the idalistic eveolution of the internet and how we use it.

Disclaimer: Technology and how digital media gets to our living rooms in one thing. One thing is certain. Advertising and/or the promotion of content is still a very big blue sky. In my opinion, I do not think we have actually evolved this side of the equation very well at all. I have been around and involved in marketing, but if anything this has taught me that marketing is far more complex and theoretical. I encourage those with incite here to make comments.