We’ve just returned from Las Vegas and the always amazing Consumer Electronics Show. It was a different experience from last year, from a PK perspective, and it all had to do with attitude and outlook of the content providers.
The theme of last year’s CES was what I dubbed, “The Year Content Showed Up.” Hollywood was very involved and spoke to the crowds of analysts at keynotes explaining how they believed there was a symbiotic relationship between content and technological innovation. It was a great message, but this year’s messaging was different, and for the better.
The theme of this year’s CES is “The Year Content Got It.” The two big keynotes played that out. You’ve heard from Gigi’s report that Disney’s Robert Iger talked about competing with piracy by providing to consumers a quality product, on multiple platforms, at a reasonable price.
read on to see the videos below
Later, CBS head Leslie Moonves presented us with a different and even more progressive take on content distribution. He said there really is no old media, new media, digital media, or analog media; it’s just media. He described CBS’s business model as not a broadcasting company, but an “audience company.” In the year that CBS had been split off from it’s parent VIACOM, CBS has experienced a renaissance, not just by producing great content, but by involving and embracing the opinions and creativity its audience. Mr. Moonves explained that a CBS study showed that through blogs, web portals, message boards, providing video in ways consumers want it on sites like YouTube, and encouraging mash-ups of CBS content, that ratings and viewership have gone up. Let’s take a look:
[NOTE: I’ve submitted the video to YouTube, but I think since I included “CBS” in the title, YouTube may have filtered it to check for copyright violations. Once it is live, I will post it properly here. If that’s the reason, how ironic—as this post is all about breaking down those protective walls! You should be able to view it here, thanks to the Internet Archive.]
CBS also introduced a partnership with our friends at SlingMedia, that Gigi referred to in her post. Their upcoming product is called clip + Sling that allows users to clip video segments and share them online (ahem, wouldn’t that, if done digitally, be prevented by the broadcast flag?). Here’s a look:
Although neither Iger or Mooves specifically reference it, they both refer to key points made Gary Shapiro during his keynote, where he talked about the Digital Freedom Campaign. Here’s a look:
The folks at CEA should be proud of another tremendously successful year. Their events not only bring out the best technological innovations, but clearly, they highlight the progress that’s being made to bring out the best in what Hollywood has to offer. We’re not even two weeks into what 2007 has to offer, hopefully CES 2007 is a sign of positive things to come.
And remember, if you want to see all the videos that PK posts, here are a few ways:
-
Check out our YouTube page.
-
Subscribe via RSS to our media feed.