Wachovia has, not surprisingly, forecast that Radio (or is that wireless?) is not the place to invest if you want to get a return before the new millennium.
This news has awakened an old bug of mine. Do these various, so called, media companies know what business they are in? We have Cinema, Radio, Press, TV (terrestrial, Cable, IP VoD and Satellite) as the principle media industries. But have they asked themselves the question, “What business are we in?”
I was once told that the head of Black & Decker had said “I am not in the business of selling drills, but of selling holes”.
When the aeroplane was developing as a passenger transport technology did the railways recognise that they where in the mass transport business or did they see themselves as train operators. The answer is plain to see (pun intended).
The Cinema industry failed to see themselves in the entertainment business otherwise they would have been in radio. Having failed to make that leap TV was the next obvious leap to miss.
Like most, in all areas of media, they have ring fenced themselves by the technology, instead of being in the entertainment business. In the early days of TV (et al) it is easy to fall into this trap as understanding and using the technology is /was the biggest barrier to entry. One you understand the business the biggest barreir should be that understanding the market and not technology.
Why did ITV, in the UK, buy Friends Reunited? I’d love to see that business case. What were supposed to be the synergies?
News Corp is one of the few companies that has a spread itself across the technology delivery options and also vertically integrated for content production. But these are by no stretch of the imagination truly integrated. They just share the same owner.
If I ran ITV I would: -
• Concentrate on getting exclusive innovative content (deliberately left out quality). Making it in-house would mean I could reap the value from the IPR too.
• Changing the name to something less Television orientated - Granada is one that is easily out of the bag. To develop an international brand then something that described the business/organisation like GBE (pronounce Geebee – Great British Entertainment).
• Launch a radio channel
• Launch expatriate channels in Spain, US etc
• Look at developing a Live Events arm (broadening the entertainment remit and provide a source of content for TV and Radio)
• A coordinated pan GBE website with merchandise sales, streaming, downloads, recommendations etc.
• Develop home grown (low cost) talent pipeline.
• Investigate developing IPR into computer games.
Become an entertainment company ….
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