High Street Media
My friends joke that I came to this world with lots of lofty ideas … and a shopping allowance. This myth started in college, where I managed to have a rather flashy style, while living on about 50 $ a week – courtesy of cheap discount shops unknown to my trust-funded Harvard friends. My flamboyant style fueled a certain mystery, suggesting Russian Mafia ties or a Bond Girl lifestyle – in fact, it was a 70%-off bin at Urban Outfitters. Needless to say, a decade later my “high-street” secret has gone legit. A US magazine ran a feature last month, where some clever editor juxtaposed 2 similar outfits – one costing over 2,000$, another – under 200$. They showed pictures to random women and asked them to guess which getup was the expensive one. Unbelievably, the cheap knock-off won two times out of three.
A few months ago I was invited to speak at on of those “Future of Media “ conferences that pop out like mushrooms after summer rain in windowless halogen-lit conference rooms of anonymous business hotels, only to be replaced the next day by “Haircolor for the 21st century seminar” or the “Annual Convention of Cosmetic Dentists.”
This particular “summit” went on for three days, and most of the participants were on time and surprisingly sober for the first two. The final morning was dedicated to HDTV rollouts, and, for reasons only known to our publicist, my speech was sandwiched between the head of HD distribution of a major TV channel and the head of HD channels of a major telecom. I remember listening to the fist speech and feeling very, very tiny.
The TV channel in question spent hundreds of millions on launching an HD version. Outside of buying the most expensive US series, they produced much of the content themselves, and insisted on delivering it with 5.1 audio. The production costs were so high, that with all the money spent they did not have enough content to broadcast 24/7. The channel went on air for about 10 hours a day, and it would be 12 the next year.
The presentation ended on a bluish picture of Planet Earth, and some reference to a “holistic” approach to creating a global HD brand. There was no mention of revenues or an economic model – I suppose you don’t speak of money when you can afford to approach things holistically.
During the Q&A that followed, I found myself typing frantically, revising the opening of my PowerPoint. I got quite a few shocked glances, not the least one from the first speaker, when I opened my talk to its new title: “ How to launch an HD channel on a budget”. I proceeded to explain how our little startup had managed to launch and operate the first 24/7 HD music channel in Europe for under 200K Euros.
Nothing much came out of that conference. As usual, most of the potential business contacts petered out into the LinkedIn neverland and a scattering of vague proposals. But I still remember the hurt look on the faces of those very important SVPs of very important companies, as I tried to explain to them how with a bit of ingenuity and a few good deals, one can actually create an HD brand that might have a chance to break even.
I had a few hours to kill before my plane back to Geneva, so I went to check out the COS store on Regent Street. An H&M spinoff, COS sells very fashionable clothes for a very low price. It is a showcase for top students of various design schools, so the talent is inexpensive and there is a good chance you will find same trends for ten times the price at Browns or Colette. Browsing through racks of extremely chic and well produced clothes I thought how media world might face the same dilemma as the fashion world did in the past decade. Production costs are decreasing, HD cameras get cheaper, channels are diversifying, and let’s face it, much of the margin on any TV sale usually goes into a well greased pocket of some media consultant or entertainment attorney. So, judging by what happened on the fashion high street, how long will it be before you won’t tell a difference between a channel that cost hundreds of millions or just one?
