DVD Shovelware

I ran across this short article in Video Business covering an event called the Digital Video Conference. There are countless digital media conferences these days, and substantial debate about Internet delivered video. These debates tend to be too myopic, or overly broad, and the terminology becomes cross purposed and conflicted.

First of all, I’m often unsure what is meant by “Internet video.” Does that mean video that I watch on my computer screen? Or does that mean video content delivered to my living room TV via the Internet? Those are two different phenomenon, and the broad debate over Internet video often ignores that these are two potentially different business models.

Secondly, Hulu gets injected into these debates because of the perceived success of the site. In this Video Business article, Hulu is labeled as an “aggregator” as opposed to “network programmers” like NBC or Fox. This a confusing generalization because A) Hulu is owned by the “network programmers” in a joint venture between News Corp, NBC Universal, and Disney. B) The network programmers are themselves a form of aggregator. They’re actually “packagers,” but that’s a fine distinction in this media landscape. If Hulu debuts an original production, they’ll be a “packager” too.

I don’t know how Internet delivered video will shake down for independent producers, but right now it smells a bit like the DVD boom of the early 2000s. The big conglomerate media companies paid for the development of the DVD format, remastered their back catalogs, spent millions marketing the format to consumers, and created a retail valuation. Once that infrastructure was in place, independent producers were able to exploit the new medium and sell movies to millions of consumers they didn’t previously have access to. If those producers had spent more time building brands and establishing better relationships with consumers, the transition to Internet video delivery might not be so daunting. Instead they turned the DVD market into “shovelware” by glutting retail shelves with too many mediocre movies. Now retail is dying, and few of those producers have the kind of direct customer relationships that equal sales on the Internet. They’re waiting for the studios to set up an Internet infrastructure that they can slide into, wondering if lighting will strike twice.

By the way, lightning does strike the same place twice, all the time.