Communication & entertainment – traditional & modern differences

With changes in markets there will always be opportunities for those that embrace the differences.

If you step back from the traditional way that things have been done, and objectively look at the situation you can recognise those opportunities.

I’d like to use newspapers and television as two examples of possible opportunities, there are similar changes happening now in many industries.

Newspapers
Step back – is it reasonable to take yesterday’s news, print it out and then go to the expense of distributing it to locations where people can collect it? The people buying the newspaper will also have their own expenses of time and money in going to the shop to buy it.

When you look at it that way it seems crazy, yet this is still taking place.

The opportunity – it’s only the delivery mechanism that needs changed, we still need journalists, photographers, editors and others. Perhaps if someone can come up with a way to collate all the stories that are of particular interest to each reader and distribute them to a tablet or smartphone then the service can be effectively monetized and individually customised?

Television
Step back – is it reasonable that the program makers will dictate when you will watch a programme, both the day and time? Is it also reasonable that the type of programmes are dictated by the network, with their choice of what you will watch and what is created?

The opportunity – thankfully we have already seen some changes with services such as the BBC’s iPlayer, which is giving control to the viewer. Where we are seeing great opportunity is in the use of YouTube by people to watch shows.
There are already TV shows created exclusively for the Internet and released on YouTube. They have regular launch days, and can be viewed whenever is convenient. The choice of programming is also vast, with videos to cover virtually any interest a person has.
The web video series producers still have need of the same professionals as traditional TV, writers, camera people, lighting and sound engineers, etc – again it is only the delivery medium that has changed.

These are just two examples, what opportunities do you see in other industries?