Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

August 10, 2015 · 12:19 pm

Too Much?

You are reading this on some sort of screen.  It may be on your laptop or a tablet or even on your phone.  Hopefully, you don’t consider it to be wasted time.  You do lots of other things on those screens as well: your email, social media, and other forms of staying connected as well as being entertained and informed.  All of that screen time adds up – some estimates have it over five and a half hours each day.  That doesn’t include the four and a quarter hours we spend with traditional TV either.

Apparently, many people feel guilty about it, according to a report in eMarketer:

In a July 2015 study by YouGov and The Huffington Post, 54% of US internet users said they spent too much time using digital devices, including computers, mobile phones, TVs and video game consoles. Responses were even between males and females. However, feelings of too much screen time correlated with age. While respondents from every age group were more likely to agree that they spent too much time with screens, younger consumers were far more likely to say so compared with their older counterparts.

I don’t share their guilt. After all, the tools we use for all of this communication and entertainment are just more efficient ways to engage in activities which we’ve been doing all along.  If anything, I find them too efficient.  We all have access to far more information and to many more entertainment options than ever before.  What were we all doing before these screens (and I realize that if you’re under 25 you probably don’t have any memories of a world without them) to keep in touch?  Phone calls, I know, but they were inefficient.  How many friends could you reach out and touch in a day?  Snail mail? Between the time it took to compose, write, and deliver a letter to a friend or a group of them, a week could have gone by.

I’m not guilty about the hours I spend with my screens.  Too much time?  Not at all.  I celebrate them because they make me smarter, more informed, and better connected.  I might have been anyway but not as efficiently or with such wide range.  You?

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August 5, 2015 · 8:55 am

60

I’m 60 today. In the words of Eubie Blake, who lived to 100, if I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. That said, I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel like, but I certainly don’t feel like 60. That seemed very old growing up but I’m feeling as if I’m just getting started.

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to give you youngsters the benefit of a few things I’ve picked up along the way. You’re thinking “but that’s what you do every day on the screed.” I try, yes. These things, however, are more about you than about your business.

  • It’s ok to be nice. That doesn’t mean you need to be a pushover, but you can make your point and have your way more often than not without radiating hostility, negativity, or arrogance.
  • Listen more than you speak.
  • You’re not an island (thanks, John Donne) so appreciate that you need to work with others. More importantly, sometimes you need to trust them. You are going to get screwed every once in a while but you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised a lot more often.
  • Learn from it and forget it. Unless you have some time machine, you can’t unring a bell. Like Edith Piaf said, Non, je ne regrette rien.
  • Pick your battles, know you’re going to lose a few (but win the ones that count) and learn from the losses.  Stay positive and move on.
  • Be curious, ask questions, challenge answers. Learn something new every day.
  • Most importantly, get a life – something that will be there whatever your job.  You will make many many acquaintances in business.  You’ll find out who among them are friends when you can do nothing for them. On that last point, I’ve been extremely fortunate.  I’ve gone the last 7.5 years doing what my family lovingly calls my “phony baloney made up job.”  Nearly all of the clients I have and have had are because a friend put in a kind word.  Part of my job is to repay their faith.

Thank you all for indulging me today.  It will be back to our regularly scheduled stuff tomorrow.  See you then?

 

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August 4, 2015 · 11:53 am

39 Percent

There are days when I’m really glad that I no longer work in the traditional TV business. I mean, what business (perhaps other than music) has been so thoroughly disrupted? A statistic I came across reinforced that notion:

photo by autowitch on Flickr

photo by autowitch

“Watch a show live when it is first broadcast” placed at #1 among favorite ways to watch TV; and viewing “live when broadcast” accounts for 39% of all time spent using TV content.

That is from a study from GfK MRI called TV Share Of Clock. You can get more information about it here. I came away with one thought: I sure as heck would not want to be a programming chief these days. After all, their mission is to generate large numbers of viewers to their programming. That programming used to have a few major competitors and now there are many more. Even when we exclude niche websites that deliver video, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Hulu, and others comprise stiff competition.  The study reveals that 41% of TV viewers are “Digital Enthusiasts,” who subscribe to at least three digital TV services online, as well as maintain a traditional pay TV subscription.

Think about that 39%.  I wonder what the number would be if you excluded live sports and local news?  Probably quite a bit lower.  When a quarter (28%) of all TV viewing is now done via digital streaming, it’s impossible to think of the TV business in traditional terms.  This quote from a GfK MRI executive sums it up:

We live in a new type of video ecosystem, where online video and live TV co-exist amongst traditional cable offerings, apps, and digital streaming of live TV. These platforms are creating added demand for one another; viewers are checking out more – and different — content, and ultimately watching more. Even digitally savvy viewers still value time-honored TV experiences, like social viewing and second-screen experiences, thus keeping linear viewing strong in today’s digital world.

Read between the lines.  A business model built on selling advertising and charging distributors for the privilege of carrying widely viewed programming is in serious trouble.  Even ESPN is losing subscribers – almost unheard of until you begin allowing people who don’t care about sports the freedom of choice.  If you’re reading this and smirking, don’t.  This will happen to your business as well.  The world’s largest hospitality company doesn’t own a single room; the world’s biggest taxi service doesn’t own a vehicle; and the world’s largest retailer has no stores.

How are you making plans for when 39% of your users are what’s left?

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