Charlie and the Chocolate Home

Maybe it was Gene Wilder's acting or perhaps the odd set-up (even for a child with a wild imagination) of a household where four grandparents never seem to get out the same bed, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory always struck me as a great morality play. My particular favorite scene came when the bratty Veruca Salt is dropped down the "bad egg" shoot. In the end of course, it's the humble and grateful kid that inherits the keys to the joint.

In the modern version of that film that opens this week, the message is basically the same but somehow the lesson seems to be lost. Demanding oompa loompas, golden geese and all other forms of entertainment is something now celebrated. In fact, there are entire business models built solely on the on-demand environment.

For carriers getting into the video fray that is home entertainment, there's an important lesson. Giving consumers hundreds of channels isn't the golden ticket to success. Instead, they need to take their cue from the Qwest commercial that ran during the height of the telecom boom. It was the one in which a bedraggled motel clerk tells the road-weary traveler that every room has every movie ever made in every language and time.

Currently, most people in the know on the issue say technology now allows carriers to offer just such a service but it's lawyers for content owners who keep getting in the way. Maybe that's true, but I also suspect telco bean counters might throw their own hissy fit complete with the lyrics of "I Want it Now" if their companies decided to invest that much money in a service that is still unproven.

Indeed, carriers need to find the right balance between what is feasible and what consumers are willing to pay.

E-mail me at vvittore@primediabusiness.com