19th
The Closing Gap
Just a little personal observation here. My wife and I have spent most of the last few weeks watching episodes of 30 Rock on the Roku Netflix player.
First, finally I feel like we’re getting value out of our Netflix membership; you really have to keep on your DVD viewing and adding new films online, and returning. We were all over that, but then our daughter came along last May and that time evaporated.
We’ve also been using DVRs for three or four years now — to the point that I can’t remember just sitting and watching prime time television, commercials and all. But even with a DVR, you see and are exposed to a number of messages. And studies show these messages can be somewhat subliminal. As DVRs become more prevalent via being more affordable, people will be bypassing more and more commercials, which drive the revenue for the networks to develop the content that’s being recorded.
So, now channels are doing fairly well at moving their content to the channels audiences control, like hulu.com and other online sites with streaming video. And of course they have an advertising-based revenue model, with display and video ads functioning in a “commercial break” or gap, model. Now, applications like the Adobe Media Player and Boxee pulls in those shows, giving users more control over that advertising. And soon advertisers will catch up, probably with the same model.
Thing is, that isn’t going to work soon. You see, the Roku player can play entire DVDs of shows, like 30 Rock, without any form of advertising. And I notice where the gaps are in each show for the commercials. And thus we’ve spent the last few weeks being minimally exposed to tv ads, if at all.
Point is, advertisers and networks, especially, need to rethink the advertising model on television, or at least the way the show content gets distributed. Make it more about enabling — creating the content, making it more directly possible, rather than interrupt it. Because great little devices like the Roku Netflix player will keep coming out, and keep putting more control in people’s hands.
