Same Sh*t, Different Screen: The Disruption Myth and Digital TV

[Commentary] Silicon Valley loves nothing more than a little disruption, and the disrupt du jour is in the TV industry. The meme? That digital is driving a revolution in television comparable to the one that upended the music industry a little over a decade ago. I don’t agree. I think that today’s TV is a lot like it was a decade ago. Digital hasn’t changed the TV industry all that much.

While Netflix and Hulu, the new kids on the content block, have created original programming such as “House of Cards” and “Battleground,” the new shows look less like indie productions and more like mainstream broadcast series. And, although many had predicted that most mobile Web viewing would be of less-traditional programming like user-generated and short-form content, the fact is that long-form content comprises the majority of views, and is on the upswing. Mobile long-form video viewing increased 29 percent year over year, growing from 41 percent of total time viewing in Q1 2012 to 53 percent in Q1 2013, and more than half of the video viewed on tablets in the first half of 2013 was premium long-form content. Where are the tectonic shifts in the TV industry’s business model? The truth is, digital hasn’t created a surge of independent producers -- the economics of creating an award-winning program are just too daunting. As in the past, the vast majority of pay TV is still offered as a bundle -- consumers pay a flat rate for a “package” that may include some programs they don’t want. And though we continue to hear consumer groups say that cord-cutting will save viewers gobs of money, the truth is that a la carte TV programming would be more expensive than most pay TV. The one place where digital has driven big change for TV is in the screens people are using. A growing number of viewers are turning to connected devices -- smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs, Roku and gaming consoles -- to watch their favorite programming.

[Jay Fulcher is CEO of Ooyala, a cross-device video analytics and monetization solutions company]