Internet and TV Industry - Assignment Example

? Internet TV Internet TV The traditional TV industry which consists of cable firms, broadcasters and networks are currently where the print media was 10 years ago. With the internet and TV industry taking over newspaper industry, it is high time that the newspaper companies plan and adopt to new business models in order to survive in the market. It has been predicted by experts that during the next 5 to 10 years, the TV industry will face bigger challenges. For this purpose, the following paragraphs will list down a proposed action plan for a few case companies including NBC, Rogers, Bell Canada and Sony with the emergence of Internet TV. NBC The methods of delivering a video may change due to technological changes with the passage of time but story-telling via videos like cartoons, movies and news will never change. So, it can be predicted that a company like NBC that is a great media content provider will be able to stay in business. The overall trend of watching a greater part of vide content over the internet is not linked to a small demographic sector of the consumers but it is a rather consistent phenomenon across the globe and is popular among all ages and genders. (Fisher, 2007) As part of the action plan it has been suggested that NBC international should continue selling news and entertainment content to the TV and cable companies until the Internet TV industry becomes mature. However, the content produced by NBC should be compatible to Internet TV, hence, NBC must adapt to new business models in order to go through the transition phase from traditional TV to internet TV. The entire infrastructure and the media content should be transformed from traditional contents to digital contents in order to meet the requirements of the future generations of internet TV. It is possible for NBC to broadcast the content over Internet TV in two ways: Live broadcasts and on-demand videos. Using the live broadcasting method, the company can stream its content on their own official website and other internet TV service providers. On the other hand, on-demand video is the preparation of videos in a playlist form which are either hosted by the official website of the company or other channels. Playlists can be planned in different categories in order to cater the needs of different consumer segments like music, business and sports etc. The consumers should be given an opportunity to choose what to watch and when to watch. It has been recommended that NBC should adopt any one of the following types of new revenue streams: Subscription: Subscription fee can be charged either on per video basis or monthly basis, for on-demand videos without advertisements. Free broadcasting: Using the free broadcasting from its official website or other Internet TV content providers, NBC should keep incorporating small advertisements like the present TV commercials in order to generate revenue. According to my opinion there is no loss expected to NBC in revenue streams, though the revenue generation may slow down a bit during the phase of transition from conventional TV to digital TV. Rogers It has been recommended for Rogers to develop and incorporate a cloud computing mechanism for the transition from traditional TV to Internet TV. With the help of cloud computing, not only a tremendous speed can be achieved but also the entire family would be able to stay online at the same time and watch whatever they want. Rogers should send video content to the cloud server where data would be stored and the internet TV providers will access them and display on request. The main advantage of this would be that the company will gain revenue from both the consumers and the Internet TV providers. This would not involve any significant equipment costs to the company. The company would not need to manage and upgrade the servers it would be the Internet TV providing companies who will be doing it. The new revenue generation streams for Roger would be fee charged to the consumers for watching the content whereas the loss of revenue stream would be of course cable and traditional TV viewers. Sony For a giant company like Sony, with such a large customer database, it is important to adapt to necessary changes to their business and infrastructure before losing their existing customers to internet TV providers. Sony should start from a smaller customer segment by delivering innovative solutions for Internet TV. The transition for a multi-national company like Sony would not be easy. Sony needs to take appropriate decisions with respect to the region of operation based on political and technological issues and the availability of relevant equipment required for the transition. It is also important to measure in a way the readiness of the consumers in each market segment to switch to Internet TV. It is recommended that Sony should develop harmonized frequency allocation tables for each region. In case, if the regions do not have a national spectrum management system, the company can use ITU’s spectrum management system, the SMS4DC, can be used as a model. (Noam & Gerbarg, 2004) A new revenue generation stream for Sony would be live broadcasting transmission, which is beneficial due to the reason that if one user reaches, all viewers can reach it without any additional costs involved. Loss of revenue stream would be the traditional TV home viewers in developing regions. Bell Canada According to my knowledge and insight, the action plan for service providers like Bell, should involve two phases: In the first phase the existing home satellite and cable should be renovated to enable web surfing. This is an easy and a very cost-effective way to implement for a company. Bell can easily incorporate an alternative to Internet TV via cable at a lower cost (at least cheaper than Internet TV) But according to my opinion, customer satisfaction cannot be achieved by only offering the Internet TV but the service must support user friendly features and easy navigation or watching TV. The second phase should include strategies for reducing the investments in existing cable instead necessary steps should be taken to lay down hi speed optical fibre. The reason for choosing optical fibre is that they support digital transmission really well. Not only these but necessary investments should be made to cable modems and advanced digital set top boxes. In this way the company will be able to host the client browser in the box with an internal cable modem connection. The revenues from home satellite and cable would be reduced significantly but at the same time the revenue generated from the internet will increase tremendously. Overall I suppose the revenue of a company like Bell will remain unaffected except for the expenses of incorporating new technologies required for optical fibre infrastructure. Major losses of revenue stream for Bell, Canada would be from cable TV. References Fisher, B. (2007). Start a TV station: Learn how to start satellite, cable, analog and digital broadcast TV channel, and Internet TV. Clyde, TX: B&L Enterprise. Gunter, B. (2010). Television versus the internet: Will TV prosper or perish as the world moves online? Oxford, UK: Chandos Pub. Noam, E. M., Groebel, J., & Gerbarg, D. (2004). Internet television. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Owen, B. M. (1999). The Internet challenge to television. 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