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Mike Berkley  //  Product Strategy @ Comcast's Social Technology Group. Formerly CEO of SplashCast Media. This is my personal blog. My writing and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Comcast.

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Oct 13 / 9:57am

The future of TV and why Comcast & TimeWarner need to find their own Jason Kilar (Hulu CEO).

"TV Everywhere" is the future of TV.

But it's being driven by consumers, not by cable companies.  The cable companies are reacting, not leading. And that's a good thing. 

I've tried to isolate what consumers are demanding from TV, in a tidy package called "The Four C's": Convenience, Control, Choice, and Cost.

  • Convenience means access to content on any screen: TV's, computers, netbooks, tablets, Kindles (?), and smart phones.
  • Control means consumers can create their own lineup of favorite shows and share the TV experience with family and friends.
  • Choice means consumers can access the full library of TV and movie titles, on demand.
  • Cost means getting the above at what consumers perceive as a  "fair" price.

These 4 C's encapsulate the vision of "TV Everywhere".

90% of all American households already subscribe to an MSO (cable, satellite, broadband, or broadband wireless).  That's an unbelievable stat.  And as such, I believe MSO's are naturally best-positioned to fulfil this consumer demand.  That does not mean they will get it right, however.  MSO execs are smart and realize that getting it right and winning the hearts & minds of consumers is critical.  This time around, the MSO's can't rely on monopolistic positioning to strong-arm consumers. MSO's now face competition for audience from many directions: Hulu, Boxee, Netflix, piracy, etc... each of which have very loyal and passionate audiences!  As I have argued, horrendous consumer brand-image is the MSO's achilles heal.

MSO's can't afford to screw this up.  If they do, they risk losing their customer base.  Not only will they need to coordinate amongst themselves, they  also need buy-in from the TV programmers (NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, HBO, ESPN, etc) and the distributors (web site publishers and app developers). 

It's the web publishers and app developers who know and understand the consumer the best.  They must be included in this process to ensure the MSO's and TV programmers "get it right" with consumers.

NBC and Fox were very smart to get a consumer-focused web entrepreneur (Jason Kilar) to design and run Hulu.  Comcast and TimeWarner need to do the same.

 

Filed under  //  Branding   Comcast   Hulu   TimeWarner   TV Everywhere  
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Oct 7 / 10:09am

Hulu's best weapon against Comcast & "TV Everywhere" is its BRAND power. Consumers love Hulu, hate Comcast.

The best competitive defense a web publisher has is its brand.  A web site’s brand power is directly responsible for user loyalty and word-of-mouth distribution, two critical factors in building a large, high-quality user base.

 

It’s interesting to consider how brand power will influence the Hulu vs. TV Everywhere battle that’s emerging.

 

While Hulu has been building a generation of passionate loyalists (similar to Apple), Comcast has a brand its users are trying to escape.  Over the last 9 months there has been a lot of buzz in the press about “cord cutters” canceling their cable subscription in favor of Hulu, the free-to-watch model. 

 

Advantage, Hulu.

 

But to be fair, it’s not entirely Comcast’s fault.  Consumers love to hate their carrier, be it Comcast, TimeWarner, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, you name it…  I think the source of this hatred stems for the sense of powerlessness.  Cable co’s operate in a semi-monopolistic environment: consumers usually only have one choice for cable operator in their region.  On top of that (or because of that), cable subscription prices are very high for what many consumers feel is a marginal quality content product.  Lastly, the TV broadcast model now feels like “force-fed content” in our Internet culture.  All of this strips consumers of their sense of power.  And that has huge influence over the Comcast (or TimeWarner, AT&T, Verizon…) brand.

 

I believe this is the primary challenge for the cable companies in the Online TV battle, where it will be largely a battle for the hearts and minds of consumers. 

 

Brand matters.  Big time.  More on this in future posts…

 

How important do you think brand power will be in the Online TV battle?

 

UPDATE: case in point, look at these strongly opinionated comments from the June Wired.com article on TV Everywhere:

 

 

 

Filed under  //  Branding   Comcast   Hulu  
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