Interestingly, the Future of Media panelists keep citing how their kids are using media to make points about the future of, well, media. But I'm wondering how representative their progeny truly are.
Hilary Schneider's hockey-playing son, aside, Union Square Ventures Co-Founder Fred Wilson just cited the behavior of his kids, who now "buy" most of their television content.
"What I see my
kids doing is buying a lot of television," Wilson shared. "I'm not suggesting that television is going to become a totally paid product," he added, "but I also see my kids just going and buying shows
on iTunes and Netflix. And they're paying for that."
Well yeah, if my dad was as rich as Wilson is, I'd have no problem paying for all my media choices too, but you know, there's a bit of a
recession out there, and some folks still scrimp on media content, and more or less want the free stuff. In fact, and I'm not mentioning anyone kids in particular (note to Feds), but some kids are
still using BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer platforms to access premium content without paying for it.
Then again, some big media companies are offering what would otherwise be paid content
for free.
In fact, NBC U's Lauren Zalaznick, amazingly just disclosed a seemingly secret big media strategy that I've never heard articulated quite this way before. Tell me what you think
about it. Here's what she had to say about big media companies marketing content to kids:
"These kids are addicted to choice and if you can capture an addiction to something you are the pusher
man," she said, and I'm not kidding. Right now we are testing giveing them a little taste for free, but then they have to go buy it on Hulu or Netflix. This addiction to choice is the new market."
That's verbatim. I kid you not.