Sony Purchases Video-Sharing Site Grouper for Market Research?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060824.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060824.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Grouper has 1-2 percent of the video sharing market, so it isn't like Sony is making some grab for market share like Rupert Murdoch did buying MySpace. Sony is actually doing something a lot smarter than Murdoch: the studio is buying market research. Something is wrong with the movie business. Its core market of boys and young men have stopped going to the movies and are, instead, surfing, texting, SMSing, gaming, and making and watching these stupid videos. Time and money previously spent at the multiplex is being spent at home and online and Hollywood is hurting as a result -- hurting not just because of revenue and profit shortfalls, but because the industry no longer has confidence that it knows for sure what its core market wants to see on-screen. Sony Pictures, like all the other major film studios, is afraid it has lost its mojo and will never get it back."</i><br /><br />An interesting article from Robert X. Cringely about why Sony purchased the video sharing site Grouper, and what they plan to do with it. His take? Sony wants to sit back and watch to figure out what those "young folks" are watching and why. My take? Sure, it's cool to see some random bass player <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ylLi3Aipg">groove out with the Charlie Brown theme song</a>, but that has no relation to me going to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 last week. Does Sony think that rather than going to see a movie in the theatre, people are going to gather around the computer and watch Internet videos? "After dinner, honey, let's watch crappy karaoke routines on YouTube for two hours, m'kay?" If anything, online video sharing sites (and computer use in general) is pulling people away from TV. Or maybe I just don't "get it" because I'm in my early 30's now and don't grasp what the "young" people are up to. ;-)

[Felix Torres]

Sony and the other studios are in a panic.

They see digital video publishing replacing broadcasting but they're not sure how it is going to play out. So they're latching onto everything that *doesn't* look like the traditional business model, thinking they can control things that way.
Trouble is, they're looking at the PC space instead of the STB space.

The real money in digital video is going to be made delivering HD, not amateur VHS-grade clips. That requires broadband and a living room presence. Disney may actually have a leg up on the other studios here, if they can move movie-beam into the HD arena. CISCO is also well positioned, now that they bought Scientific Atlanta, and so is Microsoft if they choose to take Live Marketplace or Zune Live into that arena.

So, unless Sony plans to tie Grouper into the upcoming PS3 almost-live system they haven't unveiled (quite likely, actually) market research is all Grouper can provide to the rest of Sony. Its a cheap buy one way or another.