Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2010 as news: Google’s talks with studios to offer films through YouTube, the launch of Google TV and Apple’s internet TV plans. The original Google TV platform was later replaced by Android TV, and the forecast that Google would help Hollywood recover is a 2010 opinion.
Ever since new technologies took off and any user can make use of the free content we find on the internet, the movie business has gone into a steep decline. DVD sales, meanwhile, have fallen so far that the studios have begun to question whether this business is still profitable.
Cable television, which until now has been popular in the United States despite the high monthly fees subscribers have to pay, is threatened by the imminent arrival of Google TV, since what Google offers is access to all internet content through our television.
That said, Google has lately been very generous towards the businesses its new technologies are flattening. A few weeks ago it gave away 5 million dollars for “killing journalism”, and now it is negotiating with several studios to reach an agreement that won’t choke off the film industry’s revenue.
Google is moving quickly in the negotiations so that YouTube can serve as a portal through which users can access film content, partnering in some way with the production companies and the film industry.
Apple, for its part, is improving its internet television channel, since it also wants to take advantage of the movie business’s decline.
Hollywood is going through a crisis caused by new technologies, but in this case new technologies, and Google in particular, will help the film industry recover.
Further reading
- Social networks focused on specific markets and professionals
- Advantages of starting a business in times of crisis
Featured image: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
