Who you Gonna Call? Law Enforcement and Artists’ Rights Amanda Williams, Songwriter, Songwriter Advocate Detective Superintendent Peter Ratcliffe, Police IP Crime Unit City of London Police Carlos Linares, VP Anti-Piracy Legal Affairs RIAA Ellen Seidler, Filmmaker, Writer, Producer, Digital Citizens Alliance Kevin Phelan, Senior Supervisory Agent, FBI Palo Alto CA 1:15- 2:15 PM Chris Castle of MusicTech Policy […]
Category: Artist Rights Symposium
How Artists Can Fight Internet Monopolies: UGA Terry College Artists Rights Symposium Keynote By Jon Taplin — The Trichordist
Readers of this blog know that that Terry College of Business at University of Georgia hosted the inaugural Artists Rights Symposium Jan 23 2018. All the panel videos are now available on the Terry College of Business YouTube Channel. Here is Jonathan Taplin’s Keynote. It’s fantastic. Funny, concise and likely to make your blood […]
@mikefcable: Taplin: Facebook, Google Amazon Are ‘Coming After You’
[Editor Charlie sez: Professor Taplin gave a thought provoking keynote for the Artist Rights Symposium hosted by David Lowery at the Terry College of Business January 23. Based on his book Move Fast and Break Things, many in attendance got a new perspective on the influence of Big Tech and particularly Facebook and Google in our lives and in the careers of artists. ]
With a new focus on acquiring content that was previously relegated to pay TV services, social media and tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google are focusing more on disrupting traditional pay TV, director of USC’s Annenberg School of Media Innovation Lab and author Jonathan Taplin told an audience at theopening keynote of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference here.
Taplin, whose book Move Fast and Break Things traced the monopolization of the internet by Google Facebook and Amazon, noted that while over the years those three companies focused on other business segments, they are increasingly honing in on the video business. Facebook’s $610 million bid for streaming rights to Indian Cricket matches – it lost out to Fox – is just one example of how serious the tech giants are becoming about video.
The largest corporations of the world — Google, Amazon and Facebook — are going to be the new gatekeepers, Taplin said.
In addition to Cricket rights, Facebook has tried to incorporate its GUI into set-top boxes as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s “Unlock the Box” initiative back in 2016, which has since fizzled in the new administration but could surface again. Taplin said giving Facebook access to set-tops cold decimate pay TV’s local ad business.
“They’ll keep trying that,” Taplin said. “So, you’ve got to be careful.”
Adding to the pressure is that the next generation of TV viewers have grown up with 100-Mbps broadband connections, creating their own media systems without cable.
“You have to be aware that this notion of cord-cutting is real,” Taplin said. “These companies are coming for your business.”
Taplin said operators can fight back in several ways, offering skinnier programming bundles in response to competition and reliable, high-speed data connections. He added that the traditional method of delivering and buying programming also will change in the future.
The current ecosystem where distributors are forced to buy large bundles of programming from content providers, even those shows that have little viewership, has to change, he added.
“A lot of those channels don’t pass the ‘who cares’ test,” Taplin said. “You have to stand up to the channels that nobody is watching.”
