We have an "always on" culture where we expect to be able to get any information or entertainment at any time from anywhere. It's that mentality that is killing off newspaper and magazine companies, and is why traditional radio isn't doing as well as it once was. The next logical step is for that progression to hit broadcast and pay TV channels.
In an interview with AFR, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley warned television broadcasters that users will no longer be content with watching programming on someone else's terms. We've already started to see this with the shift with 20% of Netflix users choosing to cut the cord, but Hurley is suggesting that not only will the trend accelerate, but that users don't want to be tied down to programming from their own area either. One of the last things tying people to traditional television services is live sports, but he sees Google being more aggressive in obtaining those rights.
Although Hurley doesn't bring it up, broadcasters also need to be concerned with the fact that their programming is already available online through not-so-legal methods. It will be important to provide a better service, like what Hulu and Netflix are trying to do, or become irrelevant to today's changing demographics. It's also interesting to note that some content creators are beginning to understand this shift; Big Brother Australia, for example, puts all of their episodes on YouTube so anyone in the world can watch the show. Ironically though, they don't allow you to watch video clips from their own website.
Source: AFR | Image via Venturebeat
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