"Content is King" Again?

Over the past several decades, lots of observers have debated whether "distribution" or "content" is "king" of the ecosystem. Earlier in the history of the cable TV business, when networks were more limited in capacity, shelf space was limited, cable had few competitors and so "distribution" seemed to be "king."

As capacity has ceased to be such a choke point, and as competitive distribution mechanisms have flourished, though, one might have argued that "content" once again grabbed back some of the power.

That of course has lots of implications for distributors, but it would be very hard to find many examples of "distributors" having the upper hand in the professional video ecosystem. On the other hand, one might well argue that user-generated content remains an area where distributors such as Facebook and Google continue to have significant power, compared to content providers.

Studio executives seem to recognize in ways they did not generally seem to believe a couple of years ago that online distribution is a valuable channel they will use. They just don't intend to allow distributors to take a disproportionate role in the ecosystem, and that also includes protecting existing cable, satellite and telco distribution channels from cannibalization.

Netflix spooks Hollywood more than ever | Media Maverick - CNET News