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SkyBOX: DISH, Disney & 2025
SkyReport
SkyBOX: DISH, Disney & 2025
By the year 2025 all distinction between television and the internet will be gone.
So says Cisco ... and the Global Business Network ... and top economists from both organizations who teamed up to spin our heads like "Rosemary's Baby" as they offer a wallop of future shock via a little number called "The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces; Uncertainties; and Four Scenarios to 2025." (Look here.)
Of course, if you've been paying any attention at all in media, you really should know this. Not the learned paper; rather the "TV = internet" equation. Or you should at least know it's a pretty good bet. (Remember AOL? The shining knight of the internet age until it imploded and nearly took Time Warner down with it? That kind of thing tends to put the emphasis on "bet.")
But back to paying attention: Peek under the spin of any of the really big fights in media these days – well, 9 out of 10 anyway – and you'll find the same exact issue. How will the internet and it's apparently inevitable merger with TV change all our businesses? And, of course, who will win and who gets gored?
Of course this is the centrifuge in the fight over net neutrality. It's also an overriding concern in the proposed Comcast/NBC-U merger. Look at any of the recent filings against the merger and you'll see the same worry: How Comcast, with the deep content resources of NBC-U, might control the pipeline.
This is also a pivotal point in the fight between Time Warner Cable and Disney. The Disney guys reportedly want 10¢/month/customer for ESPN3.com and TWC (quite rightly, I suspect) sees a world in which powerful content providers can hijack the Road Runner.
We could keep going on this theme but, at this point anyway, there's really no clarity on how the battles might shake out. It's just something to brighten your Monday.
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