This past week, I discovered an excellent British comedy called Coupling. While it was only on the air for 4 seasons, it is easily one of the best telelvision shows I’ve watched in a long time.
In order to watch the series, I had the following options:
- Rent it on Netflix
- Watch it on Netflix via ‘Watch Instantly’
- Buy it on Amazon.com
Although the show is available via Watch Instantly on Netflix, it is only available until December 1st. Had I discovered this show a few weeks later, I would have to rent the DVDs through Netflix or purchase the series on Amazon.
However, as someone who commutes to work for more than 10 hours a week (1 hour each way), I prefer to watch content on a mobile device.
Unfortunately, very few pieces of mainstream content are available in mobile format, leaving consumers with 2 options — rent and/or purchase physical media.
With both these options, there is a production cost to the distributor and a middleman. By providing content in digital format, the distributor can eliminate production costs and reduce middleman fees. In this scenario, the consumer wins by having instant access to content and the distributor is more profitable by eliminating a cost structure.
So, why isn’t more content available via mobile channels? While licensing is one issue, the bigger issue is mobile technology.
Microsoft and Apple both make fantastic, large screen, prortable media devices. However, the capacity of these devices is fairly limiting and expensive for many consumers. While they both have ecosysytems built around content, they haven’t been able to convince all media companies to supply video content. They’ve been fairly succesful with music and audio programming, but video continues to be a battle.
Since music and now, books, are available on demand, it’s just a matter of time that video is available via mobile broadband. However, are mobile networks capable of handling on-demand and over-the-air video? No, not today. With the release of the iPhone, AT&T has failed miserably in trying to deliver a usable experience. And, video will negatively impact this even further.
Will these issues be solved in the next few years? Absolutely! Will it require a new company? Plerhaps. However, today, Netflix has the most potential. Similar to their ‘Watch Instantly’ model, if they were to develop something that works with existing mobile devices, it would change the entire mobile video landscape. And, while they don’t have to make mobile content available for free, many people, including myself would be willing to pay a small surcharge to view something on portable devices.
