Comments on: Murdoch shows he doesn’t understand how content works

By: Richard Wingard

Richard Wingard — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:58:33 +0000

I believe that technology more than law will solve the video piracy issue facing content and distribution companies. There will be technical capabilities in new video compression algorithms that will control access of video content to only intended users.

By: invisibleinkdigital

invisibleinkdigital — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:21:26 +0000

Just to add another angle to Murdoch’s position, there is a fantastic 5m video on his background by the documentary maker Adam Curtis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfCDHPc9ySQ

The main point of the clip, is that Murdoch was the Google of his day in wanting to monitise information by liberating it out of the hands of the UK establishment.

I’m no fan of Murdoch, but an interesting perspective emerges of Murdoch actually being a freedom fighter for giving people the news they wanted but couldn’t get (or dumbing down depending on a person’s perspective)

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:57:57 +0000

Okay, to make you understand how Google profits from YouTube with stolen content, I’m taking your article, removing your name and replacing it with mine, uploading it to another website, replacing all your links with links to other material I stole, and inserting all my own advertising content. Please write more articles next week to help support my new site.

By: William Mougayar

William Mougayar — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:49:49 +0000

Fred replied to him on Twitter, “I’d love to come talk to you about online piracy. your tweets suggest that you misunderstand some things.” https://twitter.com/#!/fredwilson/status/158338041688236033

Btw- did you notice Murdock was at the Golden Globe Awards last evening?

By: Rhythm King Warriors

Rhythm King Warriors — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:53:56 +0000

Everything you speak is the simple and plain truth. Anyone who doesn’t agree with this post should go ahead and buy stock in tower, news corp, and all those other ancient worthless garbage production and distribution company’s and see how long it takes to go bankrupt.

By: JDL

JDL — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:37:40 +0000

Dave – radio does pay royalties to play songs, research ASCAP

By: Chase Garbarino

Chase Garbarino — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:36:56 +0000

Thanks Matthew, and you’re right about switching costs and the complete lack of friction in the digital content space. The complete economic structure of the industry is quite fascinating – production costs are at an all time low and value per unit of output is arguably also at an all time low, however the potential for advertisers in how/when/where they reach consumers is at an all time high. Biggest challenge I’d say is holding a consumer/users attention as, like you said, with the click of a button they can “switch.”

It is also interesting that in the face of supply side surplus, co’s like GigaOm have found a way to work in paid models – though you are not charging for news, the research content is differentiated enough people are willing to pay and the news is essentially a marketing cost that can also make money through advertising. Would be interesting to explore the different emerging business models in the news space.

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:15:48 +0000

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised any longer that content owners don’t know how to adapt. They’ve demonstrated it since 2000 or earlier.

By: Shayn Baron

Shayn Baron — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:12:26 +0000

Neither does the rest of Hollywood, epic fail.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:53:01 +0000

That’s a great point about supply and demand, Chase — and another great economic maxim is that it isn’t the competitor who is better than you that represents the greatest risk, it’s the one whose product is good enough (or convenient enough) for people to switch. And switching costs in a digital age are minimal, if not non-existent. Thanks for the comment.