Versatile Amphibian

My unexpected ‘life redesign project’ is still in progress, but - with a little trepidation - I’m going to start blogging again. So here we go.  I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this (short) post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye in the last week. This week: rumours of cut cords greatly exaggerated, Wii U fail, Ofcom cost taxpayer billions and only 30% of executive decisions are good ones (says McKinsey…) Media Cord cutting didn’t really happen in the US last year. No shit. This shows how a badly worded survey can totally mislead unwary observers. Common sense needs to be applied in the future… http://allthingsd.com/20130320/how-6-million-cord-cutters-disappeared/ Good analysis here of multitasking behaviour amongst the TV audience. It’s always gone on, which is why second screen et al are no threat to TV – we’...

This year I was invited to speak on the topic of second screen at the International Broadcaster Conference in Amsterdam. Since it’s an interesting topic, I thought I’d share the summary points I prepared for that session. The term “second screen” implies different things to different people. At one extreme it represents the wholesale replacement of the TV screen with a personal, portable, connected device. At the other it is the use of a computing device as a glorified TV guide. In between is a full spectrum of richness and interaction that tantalises with new creative possibilities and new business models. I like to classify that spectrum in three ways: the means by which consumers will enjoy second screen experiences; their motivations in doing so; and finally the ways in which those experiences can be monetised. Of these three, the means are easiest to talk about authoritatively. Although the category is only three years young, 12% of UK households already have access to a tab...