You know an industry is in trouble when members of said industry can’t grasp the concept that change is a constant. Sanford Bernstein & Co. media analyst Tom Wolzien thinks DVRs (TiVo) should be regulated in a way that make it impossible for consumers to skip commercials because it threatens to kill the $60 billion television advertising industry.
There are two very important things Wolzien should realize and he spews this idiocy: people hate commercials and they hate to be forced to do anything. A far better approach to the inevitable growth of DVRs is to adapt to the change. Don’t force old models down new throats. That will cause failure quicker than if the television did nothing to combat the growth of DVRs. There are far better ways to preserve the advertising model than to force consumer’s hands. TiVo already has an interesting model with is Showcase product and interactive television will see the light of again if marketers gain consumer’s trust so that a beneficial swap of demographic information for razor sharp advertising messaging can be achieved. New forms of advertising such as “headvertising” and other forms of viral marketing have been proven successful.
The possibilities for future advertising models are endless. To think the current television model will be around forever is ludicrous and makes me cringe whenever I hear blowhards like this spew this dinasauric blather-speak.
