Hollywood Beware

There is an inexorable move in the control of TV away from broadcasters and towards the viewer.

Steps along the way include timeshifting and playlists.

But, the world of 'My TV' begs the question 'how do I find new content'. When everything is on demand (not that I personally believe this will ever happen) how the heck do you find the next 'West Wing' or 'Desperate Housewives' ? And worst still, how do the programme makers justify the huge investment in making these programmes when they have so little control over distribution.

The music industry shows a precedent, but a poor one. Frankly, people will listen to any old rubbish (you should see my record - sorry, MP3 - collection), but they are much, much more particular when it comes to video or film. Indeed, the trend in Hollywood over recent years has been towards intensive high budget productions involving more and more special effects. The reason for this is apparent - the production values for tv dramas now rival those for cinema a few years ago, so the movie makers have to up the ante.

The wonderful new world we are heading into carries greater and easier distribution, but Hollywood already has pretty ubiquitous distribution through retail, broadcast and cinemas. The question is - will the studios be able to harness the viral and community aspects of the internet which will determines what is a hot and what is a miss in future.

For those aspiring film makers amongst you, time to dust down the 8mm camera and to script the next Citizen Kane..

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