Convergence?… No, Just Evolution

To those of you who thought we’d all be watching TV on our computers (or using keyboards on our TV’s) – the future is coming into focus, and it’s divergence.
Here are the some of the signs:

• Craigslist is cutting into classified advertising revenue in Bay Area newspapers.
• A news aggregator (Yahoo News), not a news gathering organization is the top news website. (Source: Nielson – Net Ratings)
• People are paying to download last night’s TV shows to their iPods®.
• Beginning January 3rd, ABC News will use its Evening News anchors to anchor a Webcast.

And some signs of desperation as entertainment / media companies
scramble to retain share:

• Good Morning America will have a satellite radio edition.
  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1409392
• Everyone and their mother is doing VOD cell phone deals, HBO is the latest.
  http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/cingular/23356/

At one network, the left hand said one thing but the right hand did someting else.

So, just as radio news changed the newspaper business and television changed the radio and motion picture businesses, technology is changing the way we consume media. OK, that’s obvious… but a seismic shift? No, just evolution.