Controlling distribution models

A couple of recent articles highlight the question of who gets to control the business model for content developers and owners.

Via a tweet by Barry Sookman, I noticed that an argument raised by music sharer Joel Tenenbaum was that it was “fair use” for him to get songs for free because at the time, the record labels didn’t release the music in his preferred format until 2007. As Ben Sheffner writes:

I know of no legal support for such an argument; copyright owners have no obligation to offer their works at all (let alone in a particular format), on pain of losing their exclusive rights.

Then, I was pointed by a tweet from Michael Hennessy to an article about TV Everywhere, a US cable service similar to Rogers On Demand Online (RODO). The article responded to criticism of TV Everywhere by elements who seem to want everything digital for free.

TV Everywhere, like RODO, relies on a model that provides access to content on internet connected devices to consumers that already have a subscription to those TV services delivered over more conventional vehicles.

As it happens, many programmers rely on the subscriber-based license fees they receive from cable operators and other distributors to remain economically viable. In order to sustain that model and continue investing and creating, many content owners may want to ensure that they are compensated for the viewing or use of their programs online. There is nothing nefarious or mysterious about this: Programmers invest tens of billions of dollars a year to produce high quality content; they have the right to experiment with different business models and determine how to recoup that investment in terms of distributing their content on different platforms.

Yesterday’s posting spoke of CEOs that lost sight of the need to generate sufficient revenues to cover costs – what a novel approach to stay in business – make money!

Who will get to determine the business models for digital content?

National digital strategies will be the theme for sessions on June 8 at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit. Have you registered yet?