This will likely get me into a bit of hot water, but I have never been one to shy away from lively debate. So, here it goes: media companies are to blame for the "piracy" they are experiencing. Not
100%, but at least 50%. And here is why: these companies aren't giving consumers what they want, which means that consumers are getting it someplace else. I say this based on the events that have
transpired over the last 72 hours as an example of why understanding what your consumer wants is tantamount to becoming, well, the master of your own domain.
This tale of content woe begins
Sunday night when, bleary-eyed, I peeled myself off the couch at 11:37 p.m., too tired to finish watching the end of the Oscars. I hit the record button on the remote, turned off the television and
fell into my bed and a deep slumber. The next morning, the front page of The New York Times was promptly put away at the breakfast table so as not to ruin the surprise of who won the final
three awards. After the house was quiet, I made myself a fresh cup of coffee, sat down on the couch in front of my 42" HD television, pulled up the recording and settled in (I had taped the show on
ABC's HD channel because well, why wouldn't you watch it in HD?). Thirty seconds into Forrest Whitaker's acceptance speech, I got the equivalent of the "blue screen of death" -- the set-top box had
only recorded up to the midnight based on the guide information! I hate technology when it is totally unintuitive. But I digress.
So, I called a friend over at ABC and asked if he could get his
hands on a tape. Not likely, he said, but he would try. I sent email messages to friends who still live in the dark ages and use a VCR -- but no one had taped the show. By now I was late for an
appointment, so not being one that can stand too much suspense, I grabbed the paper and ran out the door. My Oscar experience was completed on the A train heading downtown by reading the coverage.
The next day, I sat down to start working but was still thinking about the experience. I hit the Oscar Web site to discover that there actually were videos of speeches. As I started to watch (with
pre-roll ads, of course) I realized that this section of video was from back-stage -- the "thank you cam," not the actual acceptance speech itself. Argh! Then, I found a transcript of the
speech that, of course, was not the way I had envisioned the experience. So, with only one thing left to do, I navigated my way to YouTube, put in my search terms, and pulled grainy, awful, choppy,
and acoustically offensive pirated video clips of Forrest Whitaker, Martin Scorsese, and Graham King's acceptance speeches.
So going back to my original statement, taking responsibility for
piracy means not only understanding what consumers want and need, but also taking control. Would I have opted to watch high-quality video on the Oscars.com site bumpered with ads? Duh! Instead, ABC
forced me to seek the content elsewhere from sources that were not "legitimate." So the moral of the story is this: get it together, folks. Extensions to programming are simply not enough anymore. The
technology is there to manage the delivery, the technology is there to support revenue to at least cover the costs, and the technology is there to create relationships with fans of your content and
your brand. Start using them, please.