Buying a Head Start vs Building From Scratch
Speed costs money. Whether you’re shipping a package or traveling across the country the principle is the same. The faster you wanna go, the more it’s gonna cost. Financially, the question always boils down to, is the extra expense justified?
It’s the same for businesses. Both Apple and AT&T seem to be embarking on some grand media journey. However, they’re taking vastly different roads. Apple bought a bus ticket and is taking the slower cheaper route. Whereas AT&T just punched their ticket on a direct jet flight.
Apple is slowly building their media portfolio one show at a time. This is going to take time as they learn the tricks of the trade and get their shows built from scratch. Apparently, Apple feels that time isn’t an issue because it’ll be a year or more before they’re fielding a credible network.
AT&T on the other hand, is purchasing instant media success. They’re not gambling on whether or not they can pull it off. They’re spending $85 billion on acquiring Time Warner which gives them instant access to CNN, HBO, TNT and a huge back catalog of classic movies and TV shows. In one fell swoop, they’ve just become a major player in the industry.
This is a very interesting juxtaposition of two very different approaches. I wish I could fast forward to two years into the future and see how each party fared. Something tells me that they can’t both be right. Was it worth AT&T spending the $85 billion? Did Apple not have to worry about rolling out a single show in 2018?
Most people allocate a certain amount of their budget for media entertainment. Within that budget they’ll move the pieces around depending on what shows they want to see the most. Will they be willing to drop a current subscription to acquire Apple’s presumably high quality content? Or has AT&T purchased a stable audience of eyeballs who are set in their ways? I suspect that one of these two will be a big winner and the other a big loser. I just have no idea who will be who.
Apple is slowly building their media portfolio one show at a time. This is going to take time as they learn the tricks of the trade and get their shows built from scratch. Apparently, Apple feels that time isn’t an issue because it’ll be a year or more before they’re fielding a credible network.
AT&T on the other hand, is purchasing instant media success. They’re not gambling on whether or not they can pull it off. They’re spending $85 billion on acquiring Time Warner which gives them instant access to CNN, HBO, TNT and a huge back catalog of classic movies and TV shows. In one fell swoop, they’ve just become a major player in the industry.
This is a very interesting juxtaposition of two very different approaches. I wish I could fast forward to two years into the future and see how each party fared. Something tells me that they can’t both be right. Was it worth AT&T spending the $85 billion? Did Apple not have to worry about rolling out a single show in 2018?
Most people allocate a certain amount of their budget for media entertainment. Within that budget they’ll move the pieces around depending on what shows they want to see the most. Will they be willing to drop a current subscription to acquire Apple’s presumably high quality content? Or has AT&T purchased a stable audience of eyeballs who are set in their ways? I suspect that one of these two will be a big winner and the other a big loser. I just have no idea who will be who.
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