The TV market seems to be the most confused industry on earth at the moment, and with good cause. Just as the internet disrupted publishing and advertising, it is now, finally, impacting on the TV industry in a meaningful way. I have little doubt that there is TV ad spend that has gone to YouTube, but the real issue is all the budget that has gone what ad agencies call 'online'.
Everyone is trying to define and predict where this is all going.
I spend a fair amount of my time in meetings, round tables and conferences pondering this.
Which is frustrating.
And it's all my fault. You see I am dreadful at one thing. Being in the right place at the right time. I have a horrible tendency of being in the right place at the wrong time. This gives you the consolation of being able to write blogs like this with the epithet of 'I told you so'. But it just makes you right, not rich. And my experience is that people who are rich get a lot more respect than people who are right.
So, I sit in meetings pondering questions that are sooo 2002 and realise that I am getting old and cynical.
But one thing really angers me. Few people really cater to what people actually want in the brave new world of TV. They cater for what they want them to want, or what they want to give them.
Television's power is its ability to manipulate, but, speaking as a consumer, my inability to watch everything that I want to watch on one screen from one interface is confounding. TV Everywhere should be a consumer concept, not a way for the incumbent networks to make more money from us.
So, where are we going. Well, have a look at the companies TV Everywhere has invested in: a low cost delivery network, a distribution company, a rights management platform and social TV technology,
Once again, I'm standing in the right place at the wrong time, muttering to myself...