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The relationship between traditional media companies and consumer-electronics firms is beginning to look like an episode of The Honeymooners. They can't live without one another--even if behind closed doors, they drive one another crazy.
In the past, media companies steered clear of the Consumer Electronics Show gadgets-fest. But signs of a gradual rapprochement are clear: Walt Disney's Bob Iger and CBS' Les Moonves became the first chief executives from traditional media companies to deliver keynote addresses at last year's CES. This year, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures Television have parked themselves in exhibition halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center to showcase their programming.
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As CES' "official broadcast partner," NBC has a large booth in the central hall, where the network is handing out free memory sticks that visitors can use to download full-length episodes, screen savers and marketing clips from on-site kiosks. A slew of NBC shows and networks will also be broadcasting from the booth, including Today, CNBC, MSNBC, Access Hollywood and, for Wednesday's newscast, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. The General Electric subsidiary even has a CES blog.
Meanwhile, Sony has a pavilion in the central hall to highlight both its electronic gadgetry and its TV programming. It, too, has a blog.
Why are they here? The explosion in online video and the growing business of selling video and music downloads are clearly big reasons, as is the increasing sophistication of cellphones and other video-capable handheld devices. The media companies want to remind us that it's not about the gadget: movies, music and other types of entertainment are all ready to be enjoyed on just about any kind of device consumers want.
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The legend at the Sony Pictures booth: "Anytime. Anywhere. Anyscreen." The legend at NBC Universal's booth: "Consumers. Content. Connection."
Translation: "We're down with y'all."
But despite all the happy talk, tensions between media companies and device makers still lurk just beneath the surface. They've disagreed on the extent to which "digital-rights management" usage restrictions should be used for downloadable media (although the music industry appears to have conceded this battle by agreeing to sell digital rights management-free downloads). They've also clashed on legal strategies to combat piracy.
Media companies, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have advocated stricter federal protections of entertainment copyrights. Gadget makers and the CEA are leery of expanded legislation, because they fear the new rules would limit how consumers can use their products.
Here's what Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association (the parent of CES) said during a Cato Institute conference on copyright controversies a couple years ago:
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"Our nation's leadership in innovation is being threatened by the content industry's campaign to extend intellectual property law so as to grant them the right to dictate the design of technology. The content industry's campaign is to the detriment of consumers, business and the nation's economy. It's time for them to stop."
And here's a trivia question that visitors to NBC's CES booth will see as they select programming to download at the booth's kiosks: "Question: What global business generates billions per year in revenue and is still growing? Answer: Piracy, an enormously, highly organized criminal enterprise that must be stopped. Technology can be the most powerful weapon to fight it."
Media companies and gadget makers--just one big, happy family.