Andreessen on the Writer's Strike
Some entrepreneurs find success due to luck; they're in the right space at the right time. Others come up with a single great idea, which they're able to build into a viable business. Then, there are a handful, who are just that much smarter than the rest of us that they see trends and process information faster than those around them.
Marc Andreessen clearly falls into that last category. When I read his blog, regardless of the topic, I find that his position is sensible and well thought out.
In a new post, Suicide by Strike, he looks at the screenwriters strike and asks what the hell the studio bosses are thinking. As he puts it:
You're faced with a massive, once-in-a-lifetime shift in mainstream consumer behavior from traditional mass media, including film and television, to new activities that you do not control: the Internet, social networking, user-generated content, mobile services, video games.
Andreesen then asks:
Is this really the right time to pick a fight with the writers over royalties from DVD and Internet sales, leading to an industry-wide shutdown and massive economic pain for all sides in the world of traditional scripted film and television content?
The traditional media market is imploding, and, as Marc points out, the studio heads have taken a moment to raise their heads out of the sand in order to pick a fight with the only thing that separates their product from the free offerings on YouTube - professional writing. As this Research Recap post points out, estimates are that a third of the ad dollars spent on broadcast media today will shift to the web in the coming five years. Meanwhile, the ego-driven Hollywood moguls are acting like it's still the 1970s.
In the 2000 US Presidential election, analysts said that the country elected Bush because he was the kind of person they'd like to drink a beer with. I'm not sure I'd want to grab a beer with any of the current political candidates, but I bet I'd enjoy grabbing a beer with Marc Andreessen...
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