Hollywood Reporter columnist Diane Mermigas points out that the focus on creating quality content has taken a backseat to the push to connect absolutely every device in the world via the
Internet. Nearly every major media company in the world is focused on the "take-anything-anywhere explosion," as she calls it, rather than on creating content for specific devices, which vary greatly
in terms of interface and what they are capable of technologically. The major companies involved in this great race, she says, must work together to be relevant and competitive in the broadband
revolution. While Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! are odds-on favorites to provide the navigation and management tools to facilitate use of these devices, it's unclear where the quality content will
come from. Consumers have shown they will pay for content, but they have also shown there is a limit to how far they will go, which places a great emphasis on value. Copyright protection is also
another major concern; a recent NBC Universal study shows that content providers lose some $250 billion annually in piracy, a number which could grow, as technology always seems to move faster than
intellectual property protection. Since 40 percent of domestic private GDP growth comes from intellectual-property related industries, this is a huge concern.
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