08 Oct TV Subscriptions Down in 11 of Last 12 Quarters

TV Subscriptions Down in 11 of Last 12 Quarters, Netflix Up 73% Over Same Period

About two years ago I managed to finagle myself into a lunch that included Sumner Redstone sitting next to me. During a break in conversation, I leaned in and quietly asked Mr Redstone a pretty wide question: “What is the single greatest truth you have learned in business?” He then told me of his start: a returning GI taking over his families’ movie theaters. Within the very start of this new career he told me he learned something that he has stuck to ever since: “-that people and Americans specifically, will pay almost anything to be entertained.” Not that this is new news now with all our entertainment essentially at the swipe of our fingers. But pretty revolutionary fro the 1950’s. I would say that entertainment in general is UP. -My kids have more access to more channels of entertainment right now than I could have ever dreamt of. But yet CABLE, the initial deliverer of all this amazing content to us, got caught in the classic business case study of forgetting what business they were in. They are NOT in the cable business. they are in the entertainment delivery business. Like many other analogues: AOL, My Space, YAHOO, Amtrak, The Yellow Pages, etcetera, Cable became bloated, non-innovative and stopped looking forward in anyway. Drunk on the money being made and thinking that because they were attached to a physical box that delivered content, they would essentially go on forever in this golden moment. Obviously, the truth is: yes, people will pay to be entertained. The way they get that entrainment is where the rub is. Next stop: your home phone company. 🙂

Data images sourced from:

http://www.samuelwbennett.com/netflix-vs-cable/