Is the internet disrupting entertainment?

Do you have any local bookstores left? SF has gone from having 3 Barnes & Nobles and 3 Borders to having none - and as a result the local bookstores are thriving again (at least the few that managed to survive this long). So I'd actually count it a positive thing to see the big retailers struggling, although I realize that outside of a major metropolitan area like this there may not be many small bookstores that have survived so it may be specific to here.

You're right. I'll survive if they go. :P The little stores will be there and perhaps actually grow to fill the space left behind. And Amazon is awesome. But I love me some giant mega bookstores. If I remember right, back when they built the first Barnes here it was supposed to be the second largest Barnes in the nation. I know that some people dislike or even despise such large chain stores. But I've always thought these big Borders and Barnes stores were beautiful wonders of the world. Not without feeling sorry for the little operations that fell before them. Oh well, yeah, maybe things will come back around for those little, local stores.

Make no mistake, we are in a golden age for television. It's arguably better than it's ever been, and it probably won't ever be as good as it is now. This is being driven largely by cable subscriber revenues and the licensing fees cable systems pay to carry channels, but we've probably got less than a decade before the combination of rising rates and non-cable options fragment the market enough that licensing fees will have to drop.

Amen. Just keep making us those Games of Thrones and the rest. Not looking forward to that golden age ending. Let's hope new avenues for great content creation and distribution emerge to take its place.
 
Intel tried to get into internet TV, and it lost big time. So the internet may be a way to showcase your talents, but, as of now, it's not the way to make big money, unless you get noticed by the movers and shakers of traditional media.
 
"The Interview", which was removed from distribution because of online threats, has been put online by Sony Pictures. Before it was pulled from circulation, it made $2.8 million in theatres, and, once online, it made $15 million. Of course, if it had remained in theatres, it may have made far more than online, so more information is needed, but the evidence is clear that at least some money can be made.

In any case, the internet will not do away with the cinematic experience, just as TV did not. People will want to go out for the evening, with friends, and this will mean going to a common place of social interaction, which would, of course, be the cinema.
 
The New York Times has an article on how some artists have put comics on Youtube, but, while that is generating views, it's not making money. The creators, however, are hoping the show will bring attention and generate sales of print comics.

These online comics are not animated features, because they are just art panels, and the characters do not move. But I like comics, and I definitely want to pursue an internet strategy, so I will keep a watch on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm7iBPmWdcE&list=PLjv4VUZVxOCCx2deOdFv-vHdQFujs_HM0
 
VIMEO

IS anyone making money off Vimeo be it through the tip jar or the pay to view option.

I only ask because while I see youtube as a reasonable way to release things, having it in HD
on vimeo is obviously the way I want people to view it. Ie in HD.

Is anyone doing both maybe?
 
Most Def!!

I think the internet is the next big thing, especially in regards to movies. Americans are not flocking to the movie theaters anymore, unless it's a Hollywood big budget film, (The Sniper, Spiderman, Batman, etc.) The internet is the best place for indie filmmakers. It gives you the opportunity to reach your viewers directly, no middle man!
 
VIMEO

IS anyone making money off Vimeo be it through the tip jar or the pay to view option.

I only ask because while I see youtube as a reasonable way to release things, having it in HD
on vimeo is obviously the way I want people to view it. Ie in HD.

Is anyone doing both maybe?

I don't know if anyone is making money off Vimeo, but I know some are doing so via Youtube.

This kid makes millions opening toys on his channel, and he created the show by himself, with no help from company executives.

Meanwhile, Apple is launching its own TV channel, but no one knows anything, so no one will know how it will do.
 
Well, YouTube does have some streaming movies for rent. I've rented one or two, but no more. Maybe if they pushed it more? I'm under the impression that they haven't tried too hard yet to compete with Netflix or Amazon. Will they one day? Aren't they already, presently, though, fighting the EU which charges them with being a monopoly? Does that matter?

This came across my monitor the other day.

NY Times: Under Regulators’ Scrutiny, Comcast and Time Warner Cable End Deal

By the sound of it, was that a bullet dodged by the "ascending" internet companies like Netflix and Amazon?

A major shift happened this year with the adoption of new so-called net neutrality rules that defined high-speed service as download speeds of 25 megabits a second or higher, up from four megabits per second. That redefinition — a recognition that people needed faster Internet for activities like watching video — led to a significant change in the size of the market that a combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable would control, to about 57 percent of the country’s broadband Internet service coverage from about 35 percent.

Regulators feared that an even bigger Comcast could use its heft to prevent innovation. Their rationale was that the company would have controlled a majority of the country’s broadband pipes that streaming outlets like Netflix, Amazon and others rely on to deliver videos to viewers. At the same time, most customers would have had little choice if they wanted to switch to an alternative Internet service.

Maybe a bullet dodged by we consumers, as well?

However, it may not be over.

LA Times: Comcast, Time Warner Cable scrub $45-billion merger under federal resistance

Meanwhile, Charter Communications Inc. revived its interest in acquiring Time Warner Cable and its crown jewel markets of Los Angeles and New York, according to a person close to the situation who asked not to be identified discussing the situation.
 
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I don't think the internet is disrupting entertainment, I just think that its a new way of accessing entertainment, every show has website, twitter, Facebook Instagram or w/e, previously before where we might write into a tv show and get a mention a week later, or phone a show and talk, now we can quickly interact and even instant snapshots of opinion are available, plus it provides a way for us to watch tv on the move.
 
No matter the skyrocket valuations of digital companies, and the hype and press — much of it coming from digital media itself — people still spent more time watching television than they did on the Internet, and more time on the Internet was spent watching television. Indeed, the period since my conversation with Mr. Murdoch — a period in which almost everyone in media has uttered the words “digital is the future” — has been one of the biggest growth periods in the history of television.

Online-media revolutionaries once figured they could eat TV’s lunch by stealing TV’s business model — more free content, more advertising. Online media is now drowning in free. Google and Facebook, the universal aggregators, control the traffic stream and effectively set advertising rates. Their phenomenal traffic growth has glutted the ad market, forcing down rates. Digital publishers, from The Guardian to BuzzFeed, can stay ahead only by chasing more traffic — not loyal readers, but millions of passing eyeballs, so fleeting that advertisers naturally pay less and less for them.

Meanwhile, the television industry has been steadily weaning itself off advertising — like an addict in recovery, starting a new life built on fees from cable providers and all those monthly credit-card debits from consumers.

That's an interesting perspective, but I seem to remember reading several articles on how cable is losing subscribers.

Does anyone have any info in regards to the TV market?
 
The latest pseudo-crisis is the flight from the box — cord-cutting — but more people than ever are consuming television, and paying for it as they please on whatever screen. Well-produced, highly structured narrative video entertainment is so profitable that everybody in digital media — frustrated by tumbling ad rates and rising traffic demands — wants to be streaming premium video (i.e., television). Yahoo just cut its first big sports deal. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook says that his company’s future is video. Just last week, BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post announced their new TV plans.

Ah, here it is. Cable is shrinking, but the new alternative seems to be streaming video, Netflix style.
 
That said, I've been saying that the internet will disrupt the entertainment business,

So the internet isn't disrupting the entertainment business. It's changing
and expanding the entertainment business. More and more people are
consuming TV entertainment. More shows are being produced and more
people are watching. Far from a disruption the internet has been a huge
advantage to the entertainment business.
 
Can't say much about YT revenue as I don't have a channel, but the other day I got so sick of tv I cancelled my Sky subscription and was left with no way to access tv. This was planned. I then bought a 10 metre hdmi cable for $20 and linked my laptop to the tv.

I can honestly say a month or so in I don't miss tv at all because I am now getting all of the content I want, none of the content I don't, all through the internet, and all at zero ongoing cost.

For me, and a few of my friends who are following suite, the traditional broadcast tv system has been effectively made redundant by doing this.
 
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