Future of Media Summit Blog

Our Flow Economy framework group chose CBS after much debate. Other contenders were TiVo, NewsCorp, and Comcast. CBS was the most interesting to the group because they are a dinosaur organization that is struggling to maintain relevance in a rapidly shifting market paradigm. As Cheryl Contee remarked, their audience is literally dying off. The audience of 60 Minutes for example has an average of 60+. We examined step-by-step the framework model, which includes six nodes: content, standards, connectivity, services, relationships (customer-focused), and interfaces.

Standards: we determined this category was less relevant for the television industry -- CBS' primary focus currently. We didn't see much opportunity for movement in this area, except for making sure that they are using the most popular standards.

Connectivity: Lisa Frazier defined this roughly as the "pipelines" through which content is distributed. Their recent purchases of CNET and last.fm, plus a new relationship with Yahoo! indicates their awareness of internet distribution necessity.

Interfaces: These are the devices used to deliver content and services, and on which standards reside. Though CBS currently using internet, broadcast TV, cable TV, radio, and publishing, this is a potential opportunity area for innovation and growth. Andrew Page helped the group think through many of the issues here.

Content: CBS hosts a disparate suite of brands including CBS, Showtime and the CW. Yet they lack a strong multimedia interactive mega-franchise such as American Idol, the Simpsons or Dancing with the Stars. Their recent acquisitions point to a desire to diversify their content offerings across many channels to appeal to younger, more net-savvy audiences while bringing new talent into CBS' fold. The quality of CBS' content is in danger and in fact, it's rumored they've considered scrapping their once-dominant news division entirely.

Services: CBS has a service-based model that delivers content and generates revenue through advertising. Their current strategy appears geared to acquiring new properties which they can monetize as new advertising vehicles online, via mobile etc. The group determined that CBS can place more focus on providing new services to consumers and partners to succeed in a changing marketplace.

Relationships: CBS suffers from weakened brand identities scattered among dwindling audiences.
Their website CBS.com has few community features such as blogs, e-newsletters, forums and so on. Their competitors such as HBO and ABC already offer these. CBS.com's videos don't allow you to embed in blogs, share in social networks or even use the now traditional "email to a friend". We saw CBS' relationship with its consumers as one of the biggest opportunities for CBS to grow its revenue. One idea might be to shift some of its content to a Current TV style where viewers provide the content to CBS to share with the world in a more open and interactive framework. David Collin of American Cancer Society had some strong insights to share here.

Thanks to all the group members for their strong insights:

Lisa Frazier (McKinsey & Co.)
David Collin (American Cancer Society)
Andrew Page (Cisco)
Sarah Walch (Chevron)
Cheryl Contee (Fission Strategy)

This blog post was co-written by Sarah Walch and Cheryl Contee.