Why did I just pay $20 for a transcribed 7-minute TV episode?
Or why Content/IP/Characters will always matter..
At bedtime tonight, I realized I’d bought a transcription of a 7-ish minute TV episode for over $20.
My daughter insisted we buy her a book - I’m a sucker for both reading in general and her insisting on things generally, and since it was the first time she’d insisted on going into a bookstore, I promised her we’d buy a book she wanted.
She picked this one. It was beautifully illustrated and while I haven’t watched Bluey I do know the kids watch it, so I went along with the purchase.
It made me think about value and how creative people can capture it. This isn’t new in anyway. There’s plenty of franchises where merchandise revenue exceeds revenue from the media properties itself (e.g. Pokemon, Star Wars etc.) and for years for successful music artists, concerts have exceeded the value of what they make directly from making music.
Increasingly, I expect these differentiated, high-margin, lower-availability means to serve and monetize different fan needs to continue to grow. In some ways, AI will make this easier even as it spurs more content in itself.
But for today, short TV episode to high-margin bedtime children’s book, wasn’t on my bingo card. :-)