It's all in the content

At the risk of being accused of hijacking old adages, content is proving once again that it hasn't fallen off of its perch as the most important future element in the battle between carriers.

Sony's nearly $5 billion deal to acquire MGM couldn't have been accomplished without the participation of Comcast, which will be in a position to exclusively distribute MGM's library as owner of MGM-developed networks. The deal also takes out MGM as the last remaining independent production studio not owned by a larger corporate entity. And this morning, Yahoo! made a similar, albeit significantly smaller move in acquiring music portal Music Match.

If telcos are serious about getting into the entertainment business, one has wonder why not one was even rumored to be remotely interested in taking part in either deal? Wouldn't the 4100 titles in the MGM library (most important from any male's perspective: the James Bond collection) have made a nice addition to DSL service that will soon blur the line between PCs and TVs?

Admittedly, previous attempts at tying content together with distribution have been scattershot. TeleTV and americast immediately come to mind, as does AOL Time Warner. But at the same time, one reason DirecTV consistently does well in the third quarter is its exclusive access to the NFL Sunday Ticket programming. Technology also has improved to the point that blends of content and distribution don't face nearly the same obstacles as before.

Kasenna earlier this week showed up at the IBC show with a cool application that lets users go back in time and watch shows that were previously broadcast but not recorded by the user (see story below). All the technology appears to work, but the gating factor will likely be getting content holders to agree to such uses. Getting those content holders under the control of a corporate parent would eliminate such issues. Telcos are making a mistake by sitting on the sidelines while competitors divvy up the content game.

E-mail me at vvittore@primediabusiness.com.