At the end of this week CNN+, the tv station partnered by CNN and Spanish media giant Sogecable will be shutting down after 12 years on the Spanish tv grid. The rumor is that it will be replaced by a 24-hour Big Brother show. Bad news, but a reality of the kind of crap that the average Spaniard watches on tv. The big bucks are on gossip.... really sad.
This decision comes in the context of the Telecinco-Cuatro (owned by troubled Sogecable) merger, a large corporate transaction that will be bringing some changes to tv in Spain. Telecinco has now significant decision power at Sogecable and the CNN+ shutdown is one of the first decisions so far.
A little over a year ago the Spanish tv migrated from analogue to digital. Following the analogue blackout, the new TDT model promised lots of new channels and more options for viewers. The reality, after a year, is that we have lots of shitty channels with virtually no content. Plus the big audiences - the ones driving the $$ - keep focusing for the most part on the Spanish networks, which are exactly the same thing they used to be (simply broadcasting in digital now) . The result is that there is no room for niche quality channels such as CNN+, which will say goodby with less that a 1% share.
Spaniards are not used to paying for tv content. Not even for high-quality one. In fact, some years ago the government passed a law declaring some events (mostly sporty ones) "of general interest", making it mandatory for them to be on free-to-air. Likewise, less than 10% of Spanish population is subscribed to some kind of pay-tv package. This prevents relevant international players (ESPN is the most obvious one) to enter the Spanish market.
The current model with just a handful of domestic players is here to stay. I virtually watch no tv. I can find 90% of the content I find relevant online. I could get rid of my tv tomorrow and nothing would change. Maybe some kind of disruption - to come from the online world - is needed to shake things up a little.
December 27, 2010
December 22, 2010
The power of regulation
A simple model will tell us that the media space is largely driven by three forces: regulation (what can and cannot be done at some point), consumer (what user want) and technology (how can users' wishes be better served).
Yesterday a couple of big legal events took place:
(1) in Spain, the so-called "Sinde Act" or "Ley Sinde" (named after the current Minister of Culture) was not passed by the Spanish parliament.
This legislation has been referred to as the "anti-piracy" one, since it would have allowed to shut down streaming/downloading sites - let's not forget that Spain tops the world rankings in piracy practices.
The parliament's decision has been widely celebrated among internet users, who regard the act as an instrument to limit users' freedom. On the other hand, content creators complain that their IP rights will continue to be breached and have stated that they will go to European instances to protect their rights.
It is obvious to me that piracy - not freedom - is what is at stake here. Piracy is a damaging problem to the Spanish media industry and measures must be taken to limit it. That being said, it would also be useful to re-regulate the way content creators' (writers, musicians, etc.) are compensated as it is a big "mafia" at present. And if the Spanish media industry acknowledged that it is a new era for content distribution and made a decisive move to become more up-to-date with the current state of play (i.e. changing or modifying traditional business models), that would also be beneficial and quite eye-opening.
(2) in the US, the FCC has voted in favor of net neutrality (subject to future actions by Congress and courts), which is a step towards an open and freer internet for all users, preventing big players from discriminating specific services and controlling "pipes" as they wish.
Regulation matters in any industry but in a fast-changing space such as TMT, its importance becomes exponential.
Yesterday a couple of big legal events took place:
(1) in Spain, the so-called "Sinde Act" or "Ley Sinde" (named after the current Minister of Culture) was not passed by the Spanish parliament.
This legislation has been referred to as the "anti-piracy" one, since it would have allowed to shut down streaming/downloading sites - let's not forget that Spain tops the world rankings in piracy practices.
The parliament's decision has been widely celebrated among internet users, who regard the act as an instrument to limit users' freedom. On the other hand, content creators complain that their IP rights will continue to be breached and have stated that they will go to European instances to protect their rights.
It is obvious to me that piracy - not freedom - is what is at stake here. Piracy is a damaging problem to the Spanish media industry and measures must be taken to limit it. That being said, it would also be useful to re-regulate the way content creators' (writers, musicians, etc.) are compensated as it is a big "mafia" at present. And if the Spanish media industry acknowledged that it is a new era for content distribution and made a decisive move to become more up-to-date with the current state of play (i.e. changing or modifying traditional business models), that would also be beneficial and quite eye-opening.
(2) in the US, the FCC has voted in favor of net neutrality (subject to future actions by Congress and courts), which is a step towards an open and freer internet for all users, preventing big players from discriminating specific services and controlling "pipes" as they wish.
Regulation matters in any industry but in a fast-changing space such as TMT, its importance becomes exponential.
December 21, 2010
BBVA a explotar su patrocinio de la NBA
Cifras las anteriores poco sorprendentes para las maquinas de hacer dinero que son las ligas profesionales americanas y para un experto como David Stern, comisionado de la NBA, acostumbrado a estirar al maximo los dolares para la liga. Tampoco se puede decir que la mareante cifra sea algo insolito en caso de BBVA, que ya es el patrocinador oficial de La Liga.
Parece que ahora es el momento de sacarle jugo al patrocinio y para ello BBVA ha preparado una campanha publicitaria importante - denominada "Team Works" - en colaboracion con la NBA, que ojala resulte tan espectacular como algunas de la liga tipo "where amazing happens".
EE.UU es un mercado clave para BBVA, sobre todo en la zona oeste y suroeste del pais, caracterizado por gran presencia hispana. La minoria hispana se ha convertido en la mayoritaria en EE.UU y se caracteriza por su mayor poder adquisitivo que otras minorias. Es un "demographic" con mucho potencial y de ahi que el intento de BBVA de ganar notoriedad parezca tener sentido.
Dicho esto, el hecho de ir adelante con una campanha tan potente, a nivel nacional, y en un deporte que la poblacion hispana que vive en EE.UU no sigue tan masivamente como el futbol, por ejemplo, me sugiere que pueda haber algun movimiento corporativo por parte de BBVA para ganar presencia en el pais, no solo entre la comunidad latina en todo EE.UU sino a todos los niveles. El tiempo dira...
December 15, 2010
Telefonica y "su" Tuenti
Parece que esos planes pasan por crear un operador movil virtual (OMV) homonimo que permita a Telefonica atacar a un segmento de poblacion con (generalmente) un menor poder adquisitivo y lanzar un dardo envenenado a otros OMVs nacionales que se han hecho, gracias a sus tarifas mas bajas, un hueco en el mercado nacional.
No uso Tuenti, me ha pillado mayor. Ademas, con tener Facebook, que me cumple la misma funcion, me vale. Pero al final, se trata de que mis amigos estan en FB y no en Tuenti. Si no, seguro que cambiaria...
Tuenti tiene una amplia implantacion en Espana y su usuario tipico es, me atrevo a decir, bastante mas joven que el de Facebook. Al menos, yo lo encuadro dentro de la categoria de teenager. Con una cqpacidad de gasto y usos diferentes (musica, video, internet, sms, etc) al resto de la poblacion. Y es ese target al q Telefonica quiere seducir.
El otro dia pensaba en como sera capaz de sobrevivor Tuenti al imperio FB. Algo parecido a lo que le ocurre a Google con Orkut en Brasil. Por un lado, creo que siempre existira el riesgo de que los usuarios de Tuenti en algun momento en que se hagan mayores se pasen a FB (o dejen de usar las redes sociales) - no veo riesgo en la otra direccion - y, por otro, la posibilidad de que algunos de esos teenagers dejen de considerar Tuenti cool por pertenecer a Telefonica.
Telefonica tiene que ordenhar a la vaca mientras sea suya y la idea del OMV me parece a priori bastanta buena. Crear un servicio movil que se ajuste a las necesidades de un colectivo muy especifico y contribuir a su fidelizacion en el uso continuado xe Tuenti parecen a priori pasos adecuados
December 14, 2010
Mobile blogging
After more than two months I am back to my blog. For quite some time I had been able to honor my mid-year resolution about recurring blogging... But once again I got trapped in work and lazyness... As I say, more than two months.
I was flying back from Lisbon today after a day of work and I was reading the last issue of Fast Company. Damn, a lot of cool stuff, and once again, I told myself "c'mon, try harder!"
Thus, i am going to try something new: mobile blogging. I have just downloaded the Blogbooster app to my iPhone and it should help me boost my number of blog posts. On a train, at the gym, anywhere... Should work better than just sending emails with an embedded post to my blog email address.
I am using it for the first time to write this post and it seems to work fine. It sync'ed quickly with my Blogger account and let's see if it works fine when I click on "post". And, more importantly, let's see if it helps me be more productive!
I was flying back from Lisbon today after a day of work and I was reading the last issue of Fast Company. Damn, a lot of cool stuff, and once again, I told myself "c'mon, try harder!"
Thus, i am going to try something new: mobile blogging. I have just downloaded the Blogbooster app to my iPhone and it should help me boost my number of blog posts. On a train, at the gym, anywhere... Should work better than just sending emails with an embedded post to my blog email address.
I am using it for the first time to write this post and it seems to work fine. It sync'ed quickly with my Blogger account and let's see if it works fine when I click on "post". And, more importantly, let's see if it helps me be more productive!
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