The New Media Frontier

At this point in time, I think it's safe to say that the media landscape has significantly changed over the past few years. We've seen some periods of accelerated change due to the availability of high-speed Internet and the COVID-19 pandemic. Who would’ve thought that being held up inside our homes and being stuck with the internet was a jackpot for internet streamers? However, one thing hasn't changed. Consumers are continually looking for ways to consume content via the easiest and cheapest way possible, which means that the battle is hardly over yet.

Let's take a look at the streaming industry for a minute. It's accurate to say that most streaming services are knock offs, or at least inspired by big players such as Netflix. When companies realize that they could cut out the middleman and serve original content directly to consumers, that was very exciting for them. However, many of these companies were not well equipped enough to handle the ins and outs of the direct to consumer streaming model. CDN infrastructure alone requires an army of enginners to get running right, unless you want to be a pay-to-view slide show. Consumers have caught onto legacy companies reviving older assets in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, or what I love to call “sequel sickness”. As a result, we’ve seen a lot of flops, and some surprising winners.

Remember Quibi? Quibi is a fantastic example of the executive suite completely missing the mark with consumers. The service was created for the production and distribution of short-form original content, which at surface value sounds enticing, considering the average attention span these days is completely cracked out. Then when they launched, it was a catastrophic failure. So much so that the service shut down six months later. So… naturally, what the hell happened? What happened was a failure to gauge the consumer market’s desires, and solving a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. The service was expensive for what it was, it was mobile only, and it came off as overly pandering to younger demographics. Surely, the kids will love it.

Hey kids, want a blatant cash grab?

Quibi aside, let’s look at a surprising winner in recent times.

TikTok.

Yes, I felt the hairs on all of the parent’s necks standing up when I said the forbidden word. The endless nights of dangerous challenges resulting in your daughter burning her hair on the iron. The prodigal son of the family chugging rubbing alcohol. The school friend doing a backflip off of the Hyundai and promptly breaking their nose on the driveway. The family dog cringing as an iPhone camera rapidly gets shoved into it’s face for that sweet, sweet internet engagement.

You can tell I’m an absolute fan of TikTok.

One can’t deny though that they found their niche. Imagine making absolute BOATLOADS of money from content that your company doesn’t even need to produce. Just maintain the infrastructure, sprinkle some new features in here and there, try not to piss off the U.S. Government, and you have yourself a great platform. It’s the same ingredients that made YouTube so successful. People want organic content, not something that passed through twelve executive briefings, a marketing team, a survey, and burnt out comedians doing a Hail Mary throw for their quickly eroding career. The people know what the people want… absolute shocker. Couldn’t have seen it coming.

I could end the post right there, but it would be neglecting the fact that these circumstances largely affect the younger demographic. There is still a very strong middle-aged to senior demographic that is keeping legacy media afloat. So, what is something that they can do to help keep afloat?

If I knew the exact answer, I’d be on the board of directors somewhere making it happen. However, like myself and so many other folks, we can’t shoot from the hip when it comes to judging future tastes and how to shift your company toward accommodating them. The best piece of advice I have is to follow your consumers. What is their biggest complaint? That is a question that isn’t asked enough.

Think of a restaurant. Most patrons that are happy with their meal usually don’t leave a review unless they’ve had a spectacular experience. On the other side of the coin, running a meal ten minutes late to a table can result in an almost guaranteed nastygram. My advice to any media company is this: READ THE NASTYGRAMS! It is the easiest form of market research, and gives you tangible, real problems to solve.

I am telling you this now… any company that comes forward and undercuts Netflix on price and account restrictions will do extremely well. Why? Because their market is based off of the people who have been burned by Netflix, and there are many. Similarly, the next company to give the best creative tools to their younger audience will have a shot at becoming the next TikTok. Be friendly and accomodating to your consumers, but don’t step on their feet and certainly don’t tell them what they should like.

In recent days, DIRECTV and Dish announced that they’re merging. One one hand, it’s a sign that the legacy TV industry is hurting and heading toward mega consolidations (looking at you, WB Discovery). On another hand, it’s simple genius. These companies are waking up and realizing that the market will leave them behind if they refuse to change their playbook. Now, that doesn’t mean that they need to copy the other companies, as consumers will notice that and grow irritated quickly. But, they can realize that these successful companies are successful because they’re solving real issues. If DIRECTV and Dish are smart, they realize the savings of having a combined and robust satellite infrastructure, and deliver better content avenues through their service, with lower prices for the consumer. If they can’t compete in the content space, they can then lease out some of their infrastructure to other companies that can’t afford to run their own. Of course this doesn’t solve every problem, but it’ll stop them from bleeding out overnight.

So, what happens when the morning comes?

Consumers will continue to want fast, cheap, and easy. At the start of every day, that needs to be the focus of these companies. Does your consumer need to run a small datacenter in their house for your service to work? Fail. Does your consumer need to climb on their roof and perfectly align an antenna or satellite? Fail. Does your consumer need to pay $100+ for a content catalog that they won’t consume most of? Fail. Does your consumer need to obligate themselves to a contract? Fail.

Be friendly to your consumer. Address the largest problems they have with other providers, then excel in your own feature offerings, don’t go looking out there to copycat. It’s okay to have certain requirements for your consumer, but reward them in the process. Put some incentive in there. The last thing a consumer wants to do is bust their tail to get your service working, only for you to backhand them across the face. If they can’t sign up for your service in less than five minutes and have something working, you’re missing the mark. If you absolutely need to rely on satellite or antenna infrastructure, help your consumer pick the right antenna that isn’t extremely sensitive. Make your infrastructure tolerant of bad weather. Offer professional installations. Be the one service available for when when the others go down.

For every one thing you want your consumer to do, give three things back to them. Great price, great catalog, great service. But most importantly… read the nastygrams, learn your consumer, solve their problems.