Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Content is King (Like Cotton)

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on December 12, 2009

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Phil Leigh

Comcast bought NBC to gain control over content distributed by its CATV system. Time-Warner advocates that popular TV shows be made available on the Internet only to consumers already subscribing to conventional Cable and Satellite networks. Prominent publishers require that new book releases be hard-cover-only thereby delaying ebook versions by four months. Such actions reflect the spurious notion that “Content is King”. Unfortunately it’ll prove to be about as effective as King Cotton diplomacy was for the Confederacy.

First, despite the alliterative allure a recent Atlantic Monthly article explains that “content is king” is a fallacious viewpoint in terms of corporate profitability. Even if talented individuals perpetually create superior content, they tend also to appropriate most of its value. For example, once authors like Stephen King and John Grisham achieve stardom, they normally make most of the money when their new titles hit the market.

Second, we are inclined to overvalue the work-product of people like ourselves. For example 30 years ago the three broadcast networks largely dismissed the potential threat from emerging cable channels because they argued only second class talent would consider working for the newcomers. The hubris is being repeated today through general disparagement of original programming arising from the Internet.

Third, there is an exponentially growing abundance of high quality programming already on the Net. Much of it is in the Long-Tail where each of us can match our personal interests with relevant videos. As Google improves its algorithms and consumers become ever-more skilled with Internet search engines, they’ll find suitably compelling alternate programming germane to their personal interests even if they can’t find “Lost”, “American Idol”, or whatever else is popular on TV currently. Furthermore, once they locate acceptable alternatives they can watch them instantly without having had to remember to TiVo the shows.

Fourth, too many media companies wishfully ignore that consumers are discovering how to use their flat-panel TVs as monitors into the Internet. Connecting a laptop, MacMini, or most any computer to a TV is often hardly more complicated than attaching a DVD or video game console as documented by this instructional video. Thus, consumers don’t have to watch Internet Video only on their computers. They can also get it on their TVs without limitations.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War three-fourths of the World’s cotton was produced in the American south. Sixty percent of the value of all U.S. exports was cotton. Worldwide demand was exploding because mechanized ways of weaving the fabric had made it the cheapest and most utilitarian cloth available. The Confederacy erroneously assumed the World could not get along without its cotton. It was a fatal assumption whose echoes seem to resonate within the halls of today’s media empires. Only the wavelength has shifted, from “cotton” to “content”.