Mobile disruption in the living room in 2014

1. Summary

The pay-TV business has shown itself so far to be remarkably resistant to the sort of disruption that the music and other media industries have experienced at the hands of new technology. Over-the-top services like Netflix and Hulu have introduced new competition for viewers and subscribers among service providers, leading to some cord-cutting. But they have not changed fundamentally the value chain for content owners and distributors, which is built on licensing fees from service providers.

The increased use of mobile devices in conjunction with the TV, however, along with the development of communications protocols for connecting and syncing mobile devices with the TV, particularly the ability to “fling” content from mobile devices to the TV, is gradually pulling TV viewing and TV content deeper into mobile ecosystems. The shift from fixed to mobile platforms has the potential to disrupt the TV advertising economy by enabling new ways to aggregate, measure and engage with audiences beyond the exclusive control of TV programmers.

Key highlights in this report include:

• The use of mobile devices to source TV content embeds that process in a much richer and more personalized data environment than traditional means of sourcing content can provide, giving marketers for the first time the ability to marry TV advertising with behavioral targeting.
• Unlike distribution rights, the TV networks do not control access to the data trail produced by mobile devices. As a result, mobile platform providers will be able to offer marketers value around their TV ad budgets that programmers and networks cannot provide.
• Ad budgets will eventually follow the data, disrupting one of the TV industry’s two critical revenue streams.

Thumbnail image courtesy of AndreyPopov/Thinkstock.