Anuj Agrawal

My Posts on TechCocktail

 

 

 

When I first started this blog, it was a great place for me to throw out my perspectives on mobile and the tech world in general. But then I realized, it would be great if this site had an audience who could actually read this stuff.  So I went out and started contributing to TechCocktail, a popular tech blog based in the DC area.  TechCocktail is one of the most comprehensive outlets about startups and entrepreneurship across the country.  My posts tend to have a bend on the product choices and strategy of the companies that I write about, both startup and Fortune 500.  Below is a running list of my contributions to the blog:

11/22/2011 - App Review: Unleashing Your "Creativity"
10/6/2011 - The Apple iPhone Strategy: We've Seen This Before (picked up by Techmeme)
9/15/2011 - 9 Startups Created at Startup Weekend Delaware
9/1/2011 - ZipTip's Mobile Payment App Acknowledges Great Service
8/26/2011 - Jumio Update: Targeting Bloggers
8/12/2011 - 3 Ways to Survivie App Fatigue
8/4/2011 - Jumio: Processing Credit Cards Through Webcams
7/19/2011 - Goshi: The Location-Based Marketplace
7/5/2011 - MoviePass Launch Fizzles Out
6/24/2011 - "Shazam"ing Interactive Content on TVs
6/9/2011 - Food for Thought: Analyzing the Pizza Industry for Startup Ideas
5/27/2011 - Apple: Eating Their Own Dogfood
5/19/2011 - The Chicken and Egg of 3DTVs
5/5/2011 - Is the Battle for the Living Room Becoming Over-Rated?
4/21/2011 - Kindle Library: Driving Mass Market Customer Adoption
4/14/2011 - Newspaper Digital Paywalls: A Test of Consumer Loyalty
4/7/2011 - Mobile Payment Apps: A Starbucks Case Study
3/25/2011 - Keeping the Madness In Your Pocket With Live Mobile Streaming

The Changing Landscape Of Online Video - What's Next?

With Hulu’s pending launch of their premium service, let’s take a step back and theorize how the video content industry is changing.  It is incredibly hard to get people to start paying for something that was previously free.  While Hulu’s idea is to provide access to older episodes as part of the premium model, they are still asking people to pay to consume video online.  In my view, the only way you can charge for content is to have access to some type of exclusive content that is not available on every other video aggregation site.  Rather than trying to change consumer behavior to pay for online content, the more likely structural change will need to be on the advertising side of the equation, since consumers are already used to seeing ads. 

Right now consumers create value in 2 ways: they pay a cable/satellite TV bill (the access fee), and they view ads. Online, they pay no access fees for video, and they significantly fewer ad spots. So of course more people are moving online, it’s basic consumer behavior!  However, as this deteriorates the industry’s value, the structure of the business will need to change.  Think about the value chain players:  content creators, providers, distributors, and consumers.  Providers ultimately get paid for ads, but those ads need to be seen by people, thus, the newfound power of the cable distributors to command higher fees from the networks.  While there is a shift in consumer usage from the TV to a variety of online devices (PCs, gaming consoles, mobile devices), at some point content creators need to continue to be paid to actually be incented to create the content.  But if people continue to cut their cable cords and too much value is taken out of the traditional distribution model, more expensive or higher volume advertising inventory will need to be created within online video streams.

HD Movies At Home Shortly After Theatre Release?: Make It Happen FCC!

An interesting battle is going on in the movie industry.  The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has recently filed a petition to have the FCC waive its restriction on using selectable output control (SOC).  SOC is used to restrict which output is used to transmit content out of a device. 

The MPAA is advocating for the FCC to remove its waiver of these restrictions in order for theatrical movie releases to be distributed in high-definition to homes prior to their availability on DVD, which is generally 120 days after theatrical release. By removing the waiver, the MPAA can be assured that digital outputs utilizing copy protection would be used to transfer this content to displays, ensuring that illegal copies are not created and distributed before official DVDs hit the market. The MPAA is saying that removing this waiver would only affect content that is distributed prior to DVD release.  After that, there would be no restrictions, similar to what happens now.  Thus, there is little change in what the customer experiences, except that now consumers get to watch new releases at home much earlier than before.

Is Internet TV On TVs Starting to See the Light?

These days, you can't open a digital media newsletter without reading about a newly launched Internet site trying to figure out how to finally take serious timeshare away from the TV. Usually these are me-too type sites but having finally spent some time on Hulu (the JV between News Corp and NBC Universal), I can finally see the "convergence" (sorry, I am tired of the word too, but it fits so well) of Internet and TV. Anyone who has gone to Hulu will be pulled in by the vast amount of TV and movie content in a very user friendly design that makes it very difficult to pull yourself away from the site. This is what a true On-Demand service needs to look like on the TV set.

The Comcast On-Demand service I have is adequate, but with so many categories and different types of content, a user can tend to get lost looking for content. Also, the depth of the content offering is pretty thin, at least when it comes to network TV programming. Now there is no doubt that this is not purely Comcast's fault since it takes two to tango and it's up to the networks to distribute their programming. But if broadcast networks are driving the Hulu model, we should be able to get the same level of content on our cable systems. Surely cable companies must be recognizing that a good chunk of their ad and subscription businesses are in jeopardy as more people view Internet content vs. the broadcast programming they are distributing.