NBC Universal/News Corp Online Video Deal Demonstrates That The Content Creation Business Is Dying

Did NBC Universal and News Corp cut a deal to create content for the web? New production capabilities? New armies of web-only content creators? No. This is about creating a platform for aggregating and distributing existing content, which they already have too much of.

You’re looking at the new media business. It’s not longer about creating content — we’re drowning in content. No, it’s about creating platforms for content on the network, then letting the network do its thing.

Everyone is of course focusing on whether NBC and News Corp are going to allow “user-generated content” or just “premium content” — but the reality is, IT DOESN’T MATTER. It’s just one big mass of content along a spectrum from great to crappy. And there’s more of it than anyone knows what to do with.

No, the business here is about platforms and distribution.

From the conference call:

Extending offer to other distribution partners, wants to work with everyone.

we want ubiquitous distribution

this is a web distribution venture

When there’s an overabundance of content and not enough consumer attention to go around, the value creation opportunity is in connecting consumers with content — it’s in aggregation, distribution, and filtering. Google gets it. The big media companies get it.

So when I say the content business is dying, I don’t mean you can’t make money off of content creation anymore. I just mean you can’t make a lot of money.

Want to see the future of media? Follow the money.