[心得分享] It's Not TV: The Rise and Fall of TV Industry

 

It's Not TV

The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO

Author：Felix Gillette & John Koblin
Recommendation：⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Preface

Too many people came into meetings at HBO asking what kind of show the network was hoping to make - precisely the wrong answer. HBO was looking for writers who knew what they wanted to create and are willing to approach a topic with strong points of view. I think this mindset differentiates it from Netflix or Disney+. The book talks about the rise and fall of HBO and how it survived through merges by merges.

Being the first cable channel which saw the opportunity of using satellite to broadcast box match across US of the legend, Tyson. HBO has very bold vision on how it can build up its brand. Since then, it starts to develop its own original series such as Sex and the City and The Sapranos, which touch very sensitive topics during that period. After these high peaks, HBO was merged by Warner medias and then AOL(a tech company which I never heard before), and slipped heavily by the AOL merge.

It turned conservative and missed so many opportunities such as being the trail blazer of online streaming, Netflix's acquisition, being merged by Disney instead of AT&T(can you imagine the world of Marvel & DC?!), but also still able to produce remarkable films such as Game of Thrones. Although its online streaming app HBO MAX is still struggling to defeat other competitors like Netflix, Disney+, but I believe as long as it keeps on producing creative films, HBO MAX will now or then be stronger and bigger.

Audio-Visual Industry

Recalling the time when there are only four channels on TV. Then we have cable channels that brings us more than hundreds of options to watch. Then we have videotapes and Blookbuster, and it didn't last long till DVDs and the boost of online streaming. For children in current generation, it's so hard for them to imagine a world without that many contents and streamline providers, and it is the trend that is unavoidable.

Why is this industry so important? Think of the reason why Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter. Although Twitter is quite different than HBO or Disney+, but they all have a common point that they "provide" contents to audiences. You can provide anti-vaccine contents when you own such a company and people will be impacted even they used to believe in vaccine. Because media has strong impacts influencing people, current discussions about how governments should intervene the contents had increased and was debated by different advocators.

The point here is we can foresee the traditional cable channel -> cable -> TV business model will collapse someday in the future and online streaming will become the main part of this industry, but what's next? Currently we are all talking about human made films, but as ChatGPT and AI illustrator growing maturity, maybe we can watch a film written by data driven code, directed by computer and draft by AI illustrator. What's the cost? A strong computer.

Working Environment

You don't need to read this book to know that Hollywood is mainly controlled by male, and in HBO, despite that it's trying to be more diversify in recent years. The history that built up this brand still seems to have a long road to go.

The incident that Chris Albrecht assaulted Sasha Emerson(link), a talented colleague who worked at HBO, shows how a big company can change the narratives and kill someone's career. On the other hand, the main actor of House of Cards, Kevin Spacey, was accused of plenty sexual assaults in early 2000's(link). After that, females started to stand out and things appeared to be like reality House of Cards and collapse.

I feel disgusted about these things. Because they are public figures in media industry, it is way more important for them to maintain authentic integrity, what they do may influence millions of people around the world.

Cultural Difference

Talking about stand up comedy, you can't ignore the importance of HBO originals The Larry Sanders Show. Although I didn't watch this show before, I believe the stand up comedy history in US had strongly impacted how other countries put on their own shows.

What I want to talk about here is what happened in 2022 Oscar awards, when Will Smith ran up on stage with full anger and slapped Chris Rock in his face. Why did people in the West have extremely different reactions compare to people in the East? The same thing happened in current stand up comedy produced by STR Network when the host was making some fun about Taipei City Councilor and the public just can't bear it.

I can understand why we (people in the East) think that Chris Rock or STR Network made an "inappropriate" joke about others, but what we have to think is that it is really just a show. Just like will you take Jon Snow back from the dead seriously in reality? No, because it is just a show, when you take it personally, you lose. Think it as a silly joke, and laugh it out when confronting this kind of situation.

Conclusion 

Data science was immensely useful for certain tasks like marketing, customer retention, and optimization of budgets on a broad scale. But great television would never come from listening to the customers or mining their preferences on the Internet. The thing about testing is it tells you about the past, not what the future is. -- Casey Bloys

We all know data is important on how you make forecast, explain trends and support your opinions, and Netflix is definitely one of the top company that drives its business based on data. I'm a person who also believes that data is very important, but it is also the unknown that makes impossible things possible. Just like 20 years ago, who would know you need a smart phone? Or 40 years ago, who knows you need Google to search the information you want? These are the destructive innovations created by human dreams, not data. Being able to imagine the world you dream of is the unique power we have and is something we should never give up practicing.

"It's Not TV" 2023/02/26