The world’s future in Bermuda shorts

On a June morning — thousands of miles away in beautiful Sun Valley where population is as scarce as pollution is practically absent — I wonder how and when the struggling little Philippines was ever going to certifiably get out of the social, political and economic rut it has been for too long a time now.

In the presence of the biggest, most successful people and companies the world has ever seen coming together to discuss the brightest ideas on the planet, it is a painful realization that majority of Filipinos still seem to be too far from bolting from self-inflicted misery and catatonia — like an adult who couldn’t get out from under the shelter of an abusive parent.

But, alas, there is inspiration to derive from the pain.

From the last time I had the great fortune of attending the annual Allen Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, USA, this year was even more stimulating and provocative.  The speakers were the leaders themselves. The almost simplistic way in which the multibillion-dollar ideas were presented and sold leaves you wondering, “Why didn’t we think of that?” Well, the answer to that probably spells that multibillion-dollar difference between the personalities I met and listened to — and the rest of us earthlings.

The future of TV

Jeff Bewkes is president and COO of Time Warner — the owners and producers of last summer’s Harry Potter.  He spoke about The Future of TV. “I’m happy to report to you that Time Warner made $43.7 billion last year. Yes, we are the biggest,” Bewkes declared matter-of-factly with no judgment passed on him felt in the room.  It was irrefutable. “Digital Transition is good,” Bewkes said, “and this is obviously the direction.”  In a nutshell you can imagine the enormity of the prospects and the possibilities way beyond it: Movies will be released on-demand, at the same time as DVD sales and rentals. This means you don’t have to physically drive or walk to the rental store anymore because you’ll have the convenience of pay-per-view of the latest movies right on your TV screens.  Every TV network — and not just show per show, will also be available on-demand.  So, guess what?  If I can’t be home for the season opening of Grey’s Anatomy or Heroes? No problem.  I can watch that episode whenever I want.  In fact, I can even get to watch a pilot episode ahead of the regular television broadcast.  I can also watch all the episodes I missed, one after the other, whenever I want.  In fact, I can even rewind or fast-forward the scenes.  Audience preference for what is called “time-shifting” was studied and proven.  Cable companies are to provide advanced advertising.  Yes, that’s how the money’s to be made.  You can watch whenever you want, you rewind and fast-forward, but you cannot touch and you have to watch the advertisements.  Brilliant?  Brilliant.

Anyone who says that all other sources of information and entertainment have overtaken television is in for a surprise.  In America, TV buying registered the highest in history last year and 50 percent of all TV sales are screens 50 inches or more.  Time Warner has compartmentalized the strength of the Internet as superior in providing control — while cinema and television provide the “experience.”  But Cable TV, Bewkes said, is superior to the Internet for watching and monetizing. Give more control added on to that experience then television remains the foremost source of whatever it is we want to know and watch.

Content is King

The speakers were Barry Diller — head of Interactive Corporation (IAC), a new media conglomerate specializing in e-commerce; Jeff Bezos — billionaire champion of on-line bookselling and founder of Amazon.com; Howard Stringer — president of SONY; and 34-year-old multibillionaire Sergey Brin, one of the founders and president of the worldwide search machine Google.  The money made last year surpassed the numbers from the year before.  There was every reason to celebrate as they came together in the powerhouse panel. But the Big Boys of information and entertainment are worried. 

Content can always be digitized.  Whereas, before, leverage was on control and scarcity — now the basis for decisions made is on availability.  While moving technology forward ultimately and inevitably brings the world to each and everyone’s fingertips (and the drivers of the vehicles have made a ton on the newest products), the captains of this industry are looking five to 10 years from now.  “Someone is going to crack open the product of scarcity and leverage and abuse the tools. It’s going to be anarchic,” Stringer predicted.     

Already, the young and cockyish Brin dodged bullets and arrows, scuds and patriot missiles from the audience.  One of the conference’s presenters is a representative of the US and Allied Forces soldiers indignant about the fact that the Google property YouTube “is used by the enemy showing snuffings and beheadings for their fear propaganda.”  The US Army is combating this content. Certainly, in the age where even Americans have begun to embrace the idea of giving up part of their civil liberties for the anti-terrorism effort to protect America, it is politically correct to join the bandwagon and question the YouTube for allowing in such entries and terroristic material.  It is not politically correct to say, “We have material that is good as there is the reprehensible. Google cannot make those decisions. It is ultimately about free choice and free press and government should make the laws to tell us what we can and cannot do.” 

The nastier criticisms against Brin’s bottomline attitude wasn’t as much while he was onstage as it was in whispered lunchbreak attacks among most of the participants’ tables.  The consensus was: while Google exercises its freedom on the premise that people “have the right to express and to know,” the perilous times in the age of terrorism have required more responsible news judgment and editorial prerogative to censor damaging content. Brin, for either money or simple indifference, left the conference not any less a multibillionaire but, certainly, less respected.   The YouTube, with its widest reach yet in providing anyone who has something to show or say about the venue, is now officially neither a friend nor an enemy but what the Big Boys amicably agreed to call “frenemy.”

On a less noble platform is the other concern that presents itself in the face of access and availability of material. One would immediately think that it is the creative group that is most threatened.   Their movies and TV shows are showing for free all over the net.  Again, the Big Boys are looking beyond the present, which they figure is a temporary predicament.  On the contrary, “money will now flow to the creative people and not to the distributors and vehicles,” Stringer warned — after he probably did the math on the possibility — that, more and more, content as, indeed, king will inevitably call the shots. Barry Diller asked, “How do we translate to sustainability?” talking about the titan industries that are the receptacles and deliverers of the creative products.  The new dictum: user-generated videos are IT.

The Men of Vision were driving at full speed knowing what the destination is yet they do not like what they see in the horizon.  While the drivers figure out how to step on the brakes while keeping the car in motion, one other conclusion to the discussion is that “people won’t change the way they think — it’s a matter of options, accessibility and presentation.”  Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is the most reluctant of the billionaires’ boys club. “I just want to show people what’s out there and sell the books.”  Bezos happens to believe that “the narrative is a fundamental of human nature. Good story-telling is a universal, timeless strategy.” But Bezos poses his own concern on the manipulation of tools in distribution, which “threatens the good story-tellers.”  The conversation on-stage becomes personal among the panelists as if forgetting all 400 people were all there at arms’ length.

Howard Stringer asked, “Would we ever find the audience for something serious? Worldwide stats have always proven it’s what’s popular that makes it.  Audiences declined with anything serious.”  Diller mused and allayed all anxiety, “People don’t change as quickly as technology so it’s okay if we relax a bit. Yes, content is king. But good content is supreme.”

(To be continued)

(E-mail me at korina_abs@yahoo.com)