more on Great experiences at the Mooooveeees

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tim Onosko <onosko () gmail com>
Date: October 3, 2005 9:00:46 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Great experiences at the Mooooveeees
Reply-To: tim () onosko com


There has been much tea-leaf reading in an attempt to explain "the  
summer that audiences stayed home," including movie studio executives  
actually acknowledging that some of the films they released were less  
than brilliant.  But I'd like to add a modest number of my own  
observations.

* Every new film being released competes with every other film that  
the studios have produced.  There has never before been a time in  
film history when audiences have had so much choice, including the  
ability to see almost any film ever produced, via the boom in DVD  
releases, and unprecedented numbers of cable and satellite channels  
(multiple HBOs, Cinemaxes, Showtimes, Turner Classics, et al) devoted  
to film.  Even though cable and home video have been widely available  
since the late 1970s, there's never been such a glut of moviegoing  
opportunities.  It is a buyer's market.

* The so-called hundred-channel universe is now finally real, and the  
number of homes with access to them has never been higher, with  
multiple iterations of high-viewership networks for news, sports and  
entertainment.  There have never been greater reasons to stay home  
and see what's on TV.  The cinema business may be impacted by stay-at- 
home audiences and theater owners lose, but the movie studios win,  
since they own and operate the broadcast and cable networks.

* Audience tastes are changing, and the younger, Internet-aware  
audiences are less attracted to traditional fare.  More young people  
are sharing self-made media -- digital "movies," music, photographs,  
etc. -- than ever before, and much of this kind of programming is  
higher quality than ever before, due to the availability of digital  
video and editing systems, digital audio recording and editing, etc.   
It's never been easier for individuals to express themselves in  
words, sounds and pictures, and all of this is small but steadily  
growing competition for the studio fare.

* Media companies are cranking out record amounts of product -- TV  
series and other network fare, feature films, home videos -- but time  
to consume these products isn't expanding nearly enough for audiences  
to take advantage of the boom.  Competition, not just for moviegoing  
dollars, but for sheer attention among various divisions of the Big  
Six media companies -- Sony/Columbia, Viacom/Paramount, Fax, Warners,  
Disney/ABC and NBC-Universal -- is almost cannibalistic.  For  
example, Time-Warner's film division wants you to leave the house and  
go to a movie, but CNN, Warner Home Video and AOL wants you to stay  
home and devote yourself to their offerings.

Everybody's making more movies.  Nobody's making more time in which  
to see them.



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