The horse is out of the barn. I guess we’d better slam that door shut. In yet another example of why business change and the way you manage it matter, Fox Television has shown—again—a clear misunderstanding of the business they’re in.
Recently, Time Warner Cable released an iPad App that lets its subscribers watch some of the channels they’re already paying for on their evil little media consumption devices. In the last few days, Cablevision has done the same thing. Fox Television (and to be fair, others as well, but picking on the lack of business acumen at Fox and their parent company NewsCorp is just so easy!) think that’s a bad thing.
The iPad/Cable-TV-without-a-cable App from Time Warner only works if you’re at home, connected to the same network on which you have your Time Warner Cable service running. In other words, your service is no different from what you already had, except you’ve been freed of the need to have a “TV”, connected via a wire.
Fox has requested that Time Warner stop allowing this. Which is odd, right? Why does Fox care whether you use a television, iPad, computer, or whatever? They aren’t selling you any of those devices, so it’s not like they’re losing revenue, at all.
Of course, the reason Fox Television cares is that they perceive a loss of control, simply because the business they’re in is changing. Bottom line: a business change had made them uncomfortable and Fox TV is trying to reverse that change.
This, of course, isn’t possible.
What’s funny about the situation is that Fox is wasting time and money as well as annoying their customers (cable companies) and their customer’s customers (you and me) on a subject that is A) truly beyond their control and B) has become so beyond their control that it means literally nothing. Aside from the fact that the App Fox is objecting to works only when you’re at home, there have been many ways of getting your TV service to stream to and work anywhere for years. Look up Slingbox, for example; a couple of hundred dollars, an hour of time, and zero technical know-how and you can “watch your TV” anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Control is a beautiful thing if you have it. But chasing control that’s become illusory only shows how little you understand your own business and the business changes that effect it.
Need help managing your business change? Contact The Answer Guy.
