In the private sector, one assumes that the temptation of higher revenues and wider appeal would fuel rapid yet sensible adoption of new technologies. The reality of business today is either outright reluctance or a constantly rapid but half-hearted adoption of technology. Short-sighted business leaders strive to keep the status quo, protecting their out-of-date business models.

Cable TV Providers and Movie Studios
In the traditionally tremendous market of the US, pay TV providers are shedding hundreds of thousands of subscribers on an annual basis. For how long will they argue that it’s the economic crisis to be solely blamed?! Subscribers forced to pay for dozens of extra channels that they never watch. In fact, many would be content with only a handful of channels. These customers are not coming back and they’ve gone pursuing cheaper, online alternatives. Pay TV providers still don’t take the threat of video over broadband seriously enough while they downplay the effect of Netflix, Hulu and other online video content (YouTube). Soon the competition against cable television will be more ferocious with upcoming TV services by tech giants, Apple and Google.

Movie theater ticket sales have long been declining and so have sales of DVDs. The tactics of entertainment executives will not entice customers to buy the overpriced and outdated DVDs again. In panic, Hollywood studios dedicate too much of their resources waging a futile campaign attempting to police content on the web which will ultimately fail. With the aid of the US government and other governments, they fight piracy by shutting down websites (megaupload.com is a recent example) and peer-to-peer networks (Napster, Audiogalaxy and Limewire) in addition to planting fake and corrupt files on existing P2P networks. They frequently sue individual downloaders and file-sharers, and demand Internet Service Providers to take action against their own customers. With the take-down of every file-sharing website or network, another one springs up in a far-flung place, away from the US jurisdiction.

Image via Sandia National Laboratories

Examining the ingenious Netflix solution of online movie rentals, it seems that film makers have a future when they partner with online … Read More