It’s 2017 and the future reached us. The idea that all content is only transmitted on television has lapsed: so says Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi to CNN, an expert in business and strategy. This is already known by companies like Facebook, Twitter and Apple who considered the idea about creating content that represents a direct competition for television.
The TV does not capture the public’s attention at 100 percent. While it is on, people do other activities, such as checking their phones or mobile devices with internet connection. Their interests have been divided into two screens: the one which is in front of them and the other one which they hold in their hand, this has been called “second screen”, literally two screens.
Based on that information, these companies thought if for the current generations, television went on to a second term and their attention is mostly on their phones, then they would have to develop content to retain their attention while using their mobile devices.
Steve Jobs had in mind to revolutionize the television just as he did with computers, but he could not execute it. The apple company spent a $1 billion this year for development of television series. Something similar happened with Facebook, who bought the copyrights to some shows to place them on their video tab and Twitter started with their live streams.
With the information that we know until now we can analyze this issue from different angles: it’s a fact that television has been affected by the emergence of new platforms and the internet, but nothing guarantees that putting entertainment content on social networks these will have big audiences.
Already said Alejandro Ruelas it, with more applications there will be more offer. That is, the user will have access to more screens, but which of these will win the battle? Each company will develop their own content; all are interested in generating a phenomenon like Game of Thrones, one of the most expensive series in history and also the most successful. We cannot know if they will succeed, however of all this arise some ideas:
- Television is not dead, it just needs to adapt to the current context. Running multiplatform programs has been well accepted and little by little the method will be perfected;
- Companies interested in the entertainment business should know that copying formulas is not a good resource, therefore they are obliged to develop original content with high quality, and finally;
- The business of Apple, Facebook and Twitter is constantly updated and content development should not interfere with it. Let’s hope.
Finally, it is necessary to consider the target of these companies: the millennials, the generation that does not know to be without internet, the one that is more distracted and the most demanding. There are many challenges that media companies will face. Let’s hope it’s clear that quantity is not equivalent to quality. Spectators are expecting a future with more screens and more entertainment. At the end, they will decide which all of these deserves their full attention.