Name: Harry Grapenthin
Email:
Bio: I’ve been in sales for over 18 years, the last six of which in the communication solutions industry focusing on the media/entertainment market. Today, as the BurrellesLuce vice president for media/entertainment, I continue to work closely with media/entertainment conglomerates. If there is one thing that I am passionate about, professionally, it’s developing long-term relationships with my clients -- understanding their business and the industry in which it operates. The goal: offering the right solution to help them reach success. Personally, I am what you might call “a travel junkie.” I love to meet new people, experience different cultures, and try unique foods. My most recent travels include Tokyo; Kyoto; Madrid; Hong Kong; Buenos Aires; and Morocco. I enjoy independent and foreign films, books on philosophy, music, and Florida State football (my alma mater). I’ve been told that I remind people of Jerry Seinfeld (impersonations by request only). Twitter: HarryGrape; LinkedIn: Harry Grapenthin; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Harry Grapenthin:
Will Media Become Like Fast Food: Cheap, Readily Available, and Lacking Substance?
September 23rd, 2009
Sunday’s Emmy Awards brought some of TV’s biggest challenges front and center. It was filled with subtle and not-so-subtle quips and jokes about the direction TV is heading. Emcee Neil Patrick Harris summed up some of the challenges. He sang, urging viewers not to channel surf or DVR the show: “Don’t jump online cause this fine mug of mine needs a huge high def screen,” sang the star of How I Met Your Mother. (Read more about the Emmy’s here.)
As much as we hate to acknowledge that entertainment isn’t just about glitzy red carpet award shows or lavish movie premieres, when the cameras are off it’s like any other business. And in a year where we would rather rely on entertainment to distract us from the onslaught of gloomy economic news, business-related stories from content providers have been dominating the headlines. We’ve all heard about how the Internet has wreaked havoc on the newspaper and record industries. Well, the game has also changed dramatically for the television industry, as executives try to figure out how to monetize their content online while the growing popularity of TiVo and DVR technology eats into advertising revenue.
At last week’s Goldman Sachs Communicopia conference, TiVo’s CEO Tom Rogers said “Commercial avoidance is the issue that the media industry wants to avoid.” NBC Executive Jeff Zucker countered with, “We can’t put our heads in the sand and pretend that people aren’t using DVRs – and that people aren’t consuming content online… We don’t want to become the newspaper business. We don’t want to become the Record Music Business.”
A lesson can certainly be learned from the newspaper industry. The drop in advertising revenues caused huge budget cuts, depleting the funds necessary to continue proper investigative reporting. As an example, the Balco/Barry Bonds steroids story took two years and cost the San Francisco Chronicle millions of dollars to investigate. These types of stories may become a lost art. (HBO’ Real Sports Report: Woe is the Newspaper).
Similarly, as noted in the LA Times, TV’s scripted comedy and drama shows are becoming scarcer due to royalty fees and higher production costs and are being replaced by talk shows and reality programs which are much cheaper to produce.
So are we in for a steady diet of low quality, cheaper content that lacks creativity, authenticity, and most of all substance?
There is a bright side for television: Product integration may start to play a bigger role in combating the DVR’s effect on TV. NBC’s Jeff Zucker promised to make the Jay Leno Show “as TiVo proof as possible by incorporating lots of product integration.” Also, content providers are looking to reversing the flow of their content.” In a business still looking for a workable business formula – a new “windowing strategy” –taking material online and eventually sending it to television and DVD – has shown signs of offering a bright outlook.” Warner Brothers’ WB.com and Sony’s Crackle.com are already exploring windowing opportunities.
Newspapers aren’t going down without a fight either. Last week Variety announced their plans to put some of its website content behind a “pay wall” that will require a paid annual subscription.
As much as I enjoy a juicy Big Mac, I certainly wouldn’t want it for dinner every night.
Entertainment Companies Step Up: Online Video Watching Now More Popular than Social Networks
August 17th, 2009The good folks at Facebook and Twitter can rest easy, the fact that online video watching edged out social networking in a recent survey by Pew Internet and American Life Project is just a testament to how wildly popular online video watching has recently become. According to the survey 62 percent of American, adult Internet users said they watched online video on sites like YouTube compared to 46 percent who said they were active on social networking sites.
More fuel will soon be added to this surge in online video watching as more content providers latch on to an already booming space. With more people cutting back on their cable subscriptions, 23 percent who watch TV and movies online are connecting their computers to their TVs and bringing web video into their living rooms. Big name content providers are taking notice and are positioning themselves to take advantage of this trend.
Netflix, through its “Watch Instantly” feature, already offers access to 12,000+ TV shows and movies on a variety of devices from content providers such as Disney, CBS and MTV Networks. Multichannel News wrote a story a few days ago of a rumor that “Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming service will soon be offered on Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices and the Nintendo Wii gaming console.” 1
YouTube recently decided to add a feature called “News Near You,” where they use the Internet address of a visitor’s computer to determine the user’s location, and if any “news outlet partners” are located in a 100 mile radius. If so, news sources that have agreed to become video suppliers display seven days of local videos. The site is promoting videos from ABC News, Associated Press and Reuters.
CBS, HBO, and Cinemax have all recently agreed to participate in Comcast’s “On Demand Online” trial (part of Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” initiative) by providing online content to its subscriber base. “The trial is aimed at testing out authentication technology which asks pay-TV subscribers to identify themselves before allowing access to online content at sites such as Comcast.net.”
In an interview Tuesday, Quincy Smith, chief executive of CBS Interactive said, “The company thinks of this deal as a way to extend the broadcast universe online by marrying the reach and frequency of the broadcast business with the ROI metrics of the online world.” 2 This is a way to extend the TV economics online. The other three major TV Networks, Fox, NBC and ABC, are already providing shows and movies through online service Hulu.
Whew! That’s a lot of online content coming our way (Even BurrellesLuce is getting in on the act — We recently announced the addition of robust online video to our monitoring set). It certainly will be interesting to watch how all of this unfolds over the next year or two. This 24/7 smorgasbord of online videos is sure to cause a little indigestion, so please practice moderation and remember to unplug every now and then and read a book… Sorry, eBooks, using Kindle, don’t count.
Tuning Out The Recession: Entertainment Proves To Be A Great Escape
July 10th, 2009Living in Manhattan for the last 12 years, I’ve come to rely on the movie theater as my sanctuary – and not only as an excuse to leave my tiny New York apartment or to load up on heavily salted popcorn. For two hours I distract myself from my busy job at BurrellesLuce and any of life’s troubles by immersing myself in escapist fare. These days I’m not the only one going to the cinema for a healthy dose of big-screen therapy.
According to Box Office Mojo, year-to-date theatrical receipts in the U.S. and Canada are up 12 percent. More evidence that people are upping their movie dosage this year: Paramount Pictures’ new release Transformers Revenge of the Fallen earned $201 million, the biggest five-day performance ever for a film that 
debuted on a Wednesday.
However, the movie industry isn’t the only bright spot. According to isuppli, shipments of flat panel televisions are up 17.3 percent year-over-year in the U.S. and Canada. While this increase is in part due to more competitive pricing and the recent transition from analog to digital signals, it could also be attributed to people staying home more. Analysts at iSuppli suggest that “amid the economic downturn a new wave of ‘cocooning’ has hit, with recession wary U.S. consumers eschewing travel, staying home and watching their televisions; however they are still finding enough money to buy new flat panel sets that offer superior picture and larger sizes.”
In a Los Angeles Times article, Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a consumer behavior firm, confirms: “Many consumers see a TV more as a necessity than a frivolous purchase. When you ask consumers what item in the house gives you the most enjoyment, TVs will always be No. 1.”
Certainly this is all welcome news not only for the movie studios, cable and network TV, theater owners, etc., but also for all of us that need a little break from reality now and then.
With people eating out less (expected to be down 1 percent in 2009), spending less on new clothes (down 5 percent), and a sluggish housing market (existing home sales down 3.5 percent) – is it fair to say Americans are sacrificing food, clothing and shelter for the opportunity to watch CSI: Miami on a new 55″ LCD model with backlighting? Or Universal Studio’s latest release Public Enemies, where Johnny Depp plays John Dillinger set during the Great Depression? I wonder if in 1933 Dillinger would catch MGM’s Dinner at Eight or Little Women with the hope of getting his mind off the FBI and agent Melvin Purvis.
If the economy has you down – for the relatively low cost of a movie or a night spent watching TV at home, your great escape awaits.
Watch and Learn: TV’s Response to a Paradigm Shift About to Unfold
May 13th, 2009
Anybody who watched late night TV in the late 70’s remembers the words: “this concludes our broadcast day,” followed by a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and finally a steady dose of “snow” (which for many of us acted more like an alarm clock in the middle of the night) until the broadcast finally resumed the following morning.
Thirty years later, we’ve come a long way with TV, but something tells me we haven’t seen anything yet…
With consumers’ media consumption habits seemingly in a perpetual state of change, TV is at a crossroads. To avoid risking a fate similar to other traditional media that didn’t react fast enough, TV executives appear intent on adapting quickly to the changing habits of their viewers.
During my recent trip to England, I came across an article in last week’s UK Sunday Times, “Can You Have Too Much Television in America?,” describing U.S. broadcasters as taking nothing for granted when it comes to viewership. The article goes on to say that, with the average U.S. home tuning-in for nearly seven hours a day, broadcasters are already working on the remaining 17 hours with a range of mobile TV services that promise live broadcasts on phones, laptops and in-car screens.
Upon my return to the U.S., I thought I would check the validity of the UK Times article with some hard facts from Nielsen. According to Nielsen, American consumers are watching more than 151 hours per month – an all time high – another three hours on the Internet and four hours using hand held devices.
Beginning with the official end of analog TV on June 12th, with the conversion to digital transmission, the rest of 2009 is sure to bring some of the most revolutionary changes television has ever seen. Time Warner recently announced they’ve slated the second half of 2009 to begin a trial with several distributors for their “TV Everywhere” initiative (the ability to watch TV anywhere, on any device, at anytime). As of April 30, Disney finally agreed to join NBC and Fox as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu, a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies.
The stars seem to be aligning for what should be an interesting metamorphosis of a medium that has been around for seventy years. It will be interesting to see where television finds its future niche. Will it be in a wave of mobile video, fueled by an explosion of device subscriptions (a staggering 257 million in the US)? Or will it be the home computer or laptop used by those who prefer to watch their favorite shows on something larger than a three inch screen? Or perhaps it will be the good old-fashioned television set, the only household appliance seemingly getting bigger?
For now the numbers support the notion that when it comes to television, the more things change the more they stay the same. Who knows they might even bring back the Star Spangled Banner. What are your thoughts regarding TV’s paradigm shift? The folks at BurrellesLuce and I would love to know.
Emerging Technologies and Platforms are Changing How We Consume News
March 13th, 2009
With the hope of catching a glimpse of what’s coming around the curve with new media and it’s affect on broadcast and online journalism, I attended the first Media Summit hosted by Mediabistro.com this past Tuesday. We heard from members of three panels, including Joe Scarborough, current host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, BBC’s Rome Hartman, Rachel Stern, CEO of the Ground Report, and Michael Meyers, co-founder of NowPublic.com.
Each brought an interesting perspective on how blogs, social networking sites, and the advent of instant, inexpensive distribution technology are turning passive consumers into active producers. This revolutionary period of news reporting is forcing old media to take a look at working with new technology without compromising their reputation and credibility. We’ve all heard how the very first pictures from breaking news stories, such as the plane landing in the Hudson River, were first obtained by Twitter. In my opinion, comparing someone who “tweets” to an accredited news journalist from a major source is like comparing a day trader to an investment banker at a major bank. There’s no denying we live in an age where instant gratification has permeated even the way we consume news. The question: will the consumer have to decide on the distinction between reporting and journalism, or will old and new media morph into the perfect blend of both?
Although opinions differed on how new technology should be used when reporting the news, one point of agreement was that people today are consuming news more than ever. And with the rise of “citizen journalism” and this “Pro-Am” partnership that is developing with media, the panel agreed that consumers will have a stronger need for trusted brands, filtering, and editing to help navigate the media. Michael Meyers from NowPublic, who pioneered the concept of “citizen journalism,” mentioned they’ve begun ranking their contributors with a point system to lend credibility to their “citizen reporting.”
What I learned on Tuesday is that it’s not a zero sum game between old and new media. Most of the panelists concurred that old media is not going away anytime soon. Most of the raw material used by bloggers is still coming from mainstream media. Both sides are sharing best practices with each other to adapt to an ever-changing media landscape. Hopefully in the end they will be able to combine the credible investigative reporting to which our older generation has become accustomed and the instant distribution the younger generation demands – continuing to feed a consumer base with a ferocious appetite for news.
The Online Journalism Blog has some interesting insights into the changing media landscape, as well. Care to share yours with me and the other folks at BurrellesLuce?
