TeleMedia Strategy
The Bleeding Edge of Disruption

Welcome to our first edition of Content is Everything at TeleMedia Strategy! While the subject of Digital Content is not new, it is quickly evolving and we promise to bring you the most comprehensive analysis, thoughts and ideas from the industry’s subject experts and thought leaders.  

So, what first comes to mind when you hear the words “Digital Content”?  Is it a video you get to watch on YouTube, songs you purchase on iTunes and download to your iPhone, a Texas Hold’em game you subscribe to and play on your Blackberry? Is it an article you receive because you subscribe to an online magazine, an alert you get from a news network or maybe a ring tone with your favorite tune?  Well, it is all of that and much, much more.  

Consider this day in the life of a friend of mine or maybe a friend of yours...  

Dick gets up and checks his Blackberry Bold for the Manchester United vs. Chelsea game score, a football game that took place while he was sleeping (real football-not the American version).  Dick gets the score for every game his favorite football team, Manchester United, plays. Finding a score he doesn’t like, he streams several minutes of the second half on ESPN to watch the last goal - again on his Blackberry Bold.

Meanwhile his daughter, Jane, spends 5 minutes checking her Facebook profile and uploading her picture over breakfast while listening to the newly downloaded album of Beyonce on her new 3G iPhone.  She had asked Dick for the new phone since the 2G version was too slow to stream the last season of American Idol reruns real-time.  As Jane gets out the door, she receives a text message from Fox.  The message advises her that the new season of American Idol is about to start.  It also recommends that she go to www.att.com/idol for the latest info on their sweepstakes and to download some American Idol trivia stuff.                                                       

Dick gets to his office and is immediately overwhelmed with all his meetings and anxiously awaits his client’s call; scheduled for later that morning.  He worries that he will be expected to talk about ways he can help his client in 2009.  Just minutes before his call, Dick gets an alert on his Blackberry from FierceTelecom, a leading daily news source for  telecom industry insiders.  The alert informs him that 10 minutes ago his client just announced a new acquisition.

He is elated.  This new acquisition creates great opportunities for Dick and his company to help the client consolidate their operations and save money for 2009.  He quickly capitalizes on this real-time bit of information.  He makes a great impression on his client by being proactive and up-to-speed on the client’s latest state of affairs.  The client is suitably impressed.

All of this before his first cup of coffee.

Does this sound like a normal day for you?  Indeed.  Let’s be honest, whether it is always deliberate or not, we rely on digital content more than we have ever relied on anything else in our lives. Empowered by the vast and fast internet, mere availability and ease of accessibility of digital content is changing the way we receive news, consume products and services, interact with other humans and, ultimately, do business.

Is digital content becoming a part of our lives or is it fundamentally changing the way we live our lives?   Is content becoming everything to us to the extent that we can no longer imagine our lives without it?  Ok. I may have gotten a little overzealous, but have I really? Could we do our jobs, be productive, get ahead, if we did not have the right content at our fingertips when we needed it, when we wanted it, or better yet…before we even realized we have to have it?

Back to Dick and Jane. What exactly happened?  Let’s take a look behind the scenes… 

1.   Dick's ESPN alerts come to him as part of his free ESPN Alerts service and subscription.

2.   Dick's ability to watch ESPN Mobile TV is a result of his monthly subscription with his service provider for Live TV (eg. Sprint TV or AT&T Mobile TV).  

3.   Jane’s interaction on Facebook is one of the most recent examples of social networking where content is published on a daily basis (eg. photos, profiles, events, stories, and live feeds) 

4.   Jane, of course, is able to listen to Beyonce’s latest album by subscribing to iTunes, the world’s largest online catalog of music and video. 

5.   Jane is receiving a message from American Idol because she has in the past voted for her favorite singer on this show (by sending an SMS to a short code). This approach effectively serves as a mechanism for delivering content. This channel is what we often call an off-deck channel where content is sent directly to a subscriber.

6.   Finally, Dick gets his updates from an online news source (FierceTelecom), as a result of his free monthly subscription.

These are just a few of the many ways Dick and Jane consume digital content.  There are many more every single day.  Many more channels, many more types of content, available from many more content providers than anyone ever imagined.    

So we have established that content is a big part of our lives. But what is it exactly?  Is content a product, a service, a combination, or something else entirely?  Who really owns content?  Who distributes it? What makes it all work?  Should it be regulated or should it just be allowed to evolve in one big free-for-all? Who is the winner and who is trying to stay above water?   

This department, our articles, and our writers are going to take you through the entire digital content value chain and all its players. Content is Everything hopes to bring you a unique 360-degree point of view of the issues surrounding Digital Content and explore them from literally every angle: content creators, aggregators, distributors, service providers, and consumers alike. Every month, we will examine the latest trends, issues, and innovations then begin by asking ourselves what makes it unique and necessary.  

If there is a certain topic or a particular  issue that you would like to read about, please let us know and we will gladly accommodate it here in this place.  Stay connected. 

By Greg Lisovoy,

Greg Lisovoy is a telecommunications and information systems consultant with a unique blend of BSS and OSS subject matter expertise. Greg’s career started with helping companies prepare for Y2K and since then Greg had advised some of the largest communications service providers worldwide including AT&T (AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular), Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Telstra, Vimpelcom and Romtelecom.  In his current role as Director for Amdocs Consulting, Greg is leading the Service & Resource Management domain for Technology Management Practice.

Since 2005, Greg has been responsible for launching major solution offerings in the areas of Network Lifecycle Management and Data Integrity Management and has helped further build consulting capabilities for Amdocs. When not delivering large and technically complex BSS/OSS programs, Greg is focused on identifying ways for his clients to create new revenue engines and ways to reduce TCO.  Prior to joining Amdocs, Greg spent 5 years with Accenture as part of the Network Service Line within the Global Communications & High Tech Group. Greg is a certified Project Management Professional and active member of the Project Management Institute.  Greg may be reached at gregory.lisovoy@yahoo.com.