Media players have been focusing on developing new revenue streams to replace the old as others enter their "home" markets - satellite on cable and vice versa, telecoms on the networks, etc. The roll-out of broadband and innovation in search techniques has introduced new competitors, reduced windows of exploitation and increased consumer choice. Now, more than ever, everyone wants to be a media company. The telcos realise distributing content is a core element of their strategy and face new questions: which rights do I buy, for how much and how do I fund them?
We all know that fixed, linear media schedules are evolving into personalised, customised "anytime, anywhere, anyplace" media catalogues, but are the business models keeping up? I am not so sure.
New ventures face the same questions: do they generate incremental revenues or simply cannibalise existing businesses and do they fit the brand? A world of increasing consumer segmentation requires all these decisions to be grounded in sophisticated consumer analysis.
The new media world requires a new paradigm for businesses and advisors. I agree with Don Tapscott, co-author of Wikinomics, that firms should focus more on open partnerships with others to generate and monetise ideas. Broadcasters' partnerships with new media platforms are a step in the right direction.
Successful companies will operate with a degree of serendipity, mixed with selectivity, taking an option for the future, while using a rigorous screening process to separate the wheat from the chaff.
However, clarity on the business models of the likes of mobile TV, IPTV and VoD have been muddied by PR and technology.
The paradigm shift needs to be supported by flexible and transparent pricing models. Those companies that can exploit rich data from the return path will drive this.
There is money in new media - it just requires a new way to answer the same questions faced by old media.