“It is a Shift from Habit to Choice”
January 31st, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Media |
NBC’s Jeff Zucker made his opening keynote speech at NATPE’08 yesterday.
He made one clarifying remark: “It is a shift from habit to choice.”
Traditional media companies that produce movies, TV, cable, and radio, for that matter, are discovering that they’re going down faster than an ironic Titanic reference. With decreasing (overall) viewership and expanding costs and overhead, their business is just one big risk machine. When the American public had far fewer options for entertainment, those risks could pay off because they set the rules; they determined the habitual activities of many generations.
But with a shift to Internet-delivered content (either to TV, mobile, computer screen, e-paper, space, whatever), the consumer has choice… and all the power.
NBC announced a shift away from traditional pilots and upfronts, signaling a move away from an expensive and slow process. It can only mean more opportunities for people like me to work, but you can say goodbye to big paychecks.
Hollywood is about to become a meritocracy, where results and actual viewership engagement matter. It will still be a “who you know” game, but at least it will give an opportunity to all those that don’t know anybody, but can do amazing work.
