The Coming Three Screen Convergence
Monday, 07. 27. 2009 – Category: Enversa Companies
“The times, oh they are a changing,” sang Bob Dylan decades ago as the 60s ushered in all kinds of radical new changes. One of the most radical of these changes was the shift in telecommunication technology, which eventually evolved into that vast entity of webs and tubes known colloquially as the “Internet”. The Internet has caused a major upheaval in the way that the consumers, media outlets, and people everywhere communicate. And according to Andrew Lack, the former president of NBC News, it’s going to keep changing – and for the better.
Today is the era of Google, of YouTube, of Facebook and of Twitter; an age in which all the consumer dictates a vast majority of the content, rather than being spoon-fed stories, articles and videos. The decentralization of media is becoming so prevalent and so user-content-based that mainstream structure of reporting and news coverage may be rendered completely and entirely obsolete. In the view of the new CEO of Bloomberg’s Media Group, we are now living in what we dubbed a “three-screen” world. And these three screens are now converging into one conglomerate, unified mass.
Heavy emphasis is being constructed for consumers around the need to be continually wired and constantly updated on anything and everything. Culture shock, information overload, and the fancies of cyberpunk writers do not seem to be able to accurately describe the dispersion of the control network of media and the emergence of user-based media.
In this “three screen convergence”, the media outlets of television, internet, and the mobile phone will be brought together. Being able to be plug into the neural network of mass media and informative internet confusion at any time through the use of a mobile phone is a powerful way to put information into the consumer’s hands. Andrew Lack is confident that businesses and advertisers will be able to cash in on this new change. Mobile phones are the perfect medium for advertisers and in theory such technology combined with the mass-permeability and diffusion of personalized content should equal equate to vast sums of money for those companies ready to capitalize on this medium.
Currently, Bloomberg’s Media Group is one of several companies working on perhaps the most important facet of the whole venture: that of content. Of what use is capital, a wide open market, and massive media hype if you have nothing upon which to build upon? Having seen the need for an evolution in business, Lack has ordered his team to find video and media content for mobile phone viewers and users. Not only advertisers, but newspapers and news networks stand to profit by this change. One will now be able to access news stories relevant to the consumer on their most personal, portable device – their mobile phone.
Marc Pickren is the President of Enversa- a performance-based marketing agency.
Tags: advertisers, Facebook, Google, Marc Pickren, mobile phone, Three Screen Convergence, Twitter, wireless, YouTube