Dan Lovy

And so, it happened. In May 2025 streaming media surpassed linear television (broadcast and cable combined). All the pundit concerns of a few years back, that the internet itself would collapse under the weight of all that video traffic turned out to be chicken little thinking.

The urgent questions are, “What should we be doing now? What is the big picture? What is really different? What are the big opportunities?”

It is so easy at times to get bogged down in what you can create rather than what should you create. In this installment, I hope to lay the groundwork for those answers with deeper explorations to follow.

State Of Play

I believe we are caught in a cycle of small incremental improvements with little change in the business and viewing experience models from the last century. Every few decades, we get to think big. Now is the time for fresh thinking.

In the mid 1800’s the industrial revolution was, in part, fueled by putting enormous steam engines in factories. These engines connected to machines with shafts, belts and all manner of mechanical trickery to power the tools that made things. Along came the electric motor with the promise of greater productivity. Swapping out the steam engine for an electric one had little effect. However, by rethinking the context and putting an electric motor at each device, productivity soared. Factories could be configured and reconfigured to match the workflow. The world changed.

We are at the same point in media. We have relied on large networks to deliver content on a massive scale. We are switching to a model where content distribution does not require the efficiency of a signal aggregator and people are reachable one person at a time.  Much like the initial transition to factory electric motors, we are framing the use of new technology using old contexts. We can try something new. Large central engines gave way to small engines at workstations. The same opportunity is here in digital media.

A New Network Paradigm

We need to start from the beginning and take a fresh approach to a media network could be.

I propose that we move the center of gravity, make it about people.

• Not about physical assets
• Not even about content
• And certainly not walled gardens

What does network center of gravity mean?

Networks bring scale and create their own intrinsic value.

To get a little mathematical here, a network is a set of nodes and connections. The nodes are the organizing unit or center of gravity as I’m calling it.

The internet center of gravity is a set of interconnected servers.

The first 40 years of television, that center was a collection of broadcast stations with content controlled by a small number of content aggregators. In the 1980’s more content providers (MTV, ESPN etc.) joined the network and wires for distribution were strung, but the center was basically the same, organized around distribution pipes.

What happens if you shift the center from distribution pipes to people? At the same time, make the connections between these nodes highly flexible. A person’s identity is not inferred but declared.

Imagine a network of these people-nodes

• All opt-in
• All nodes controlled by individuals not organizations
• Information is not shared, but permission is granted

In this network, everyone has a unique identity that they control. Each Individual decides when to participate, what information they would like to share and when they would like to stop. You can join and unjoin groups and collections if they give you value. For example, if you would like to see more advertising based on information in your LinkedIn profile, you can give that permission. If you would like advertisers to directly add discount offers directly to your CVS account, that is completely under your control.

There are companies attempting this with closed, controlled and siloed strategies. They view this information as a business asset. That’s the wrong approach. The key is to completely turn control over to people. People will participate based on value. In my second installment, I will propose how to build this.

What Becomes Possible

Change without purpose has no value. This strategy can drive innovation on many dimensions. There are many ideas, products and features that this enables. Here are a few.

Advertising

Targeted television advertising has always been about statistical inferences. A people centric network enables all the fun things we have been talking about for decades.

• True Targeting
• One-to-One Messaging (just sprinkle in some AI generated content)
• Preferences Based
• Hyper-local
• Fraud detection
• Commerce connected. Finally, accurate attribution

How to implement these on a people-based network is a topic for deeper discussion.

New Content Models

Streaming has already changed how content is created and consumed. Arc based dramatic content has become the norm. The term binge watching has replaced appointment TV.

There is a next frontier around AI generated media and interactive opportunities.

Film created a separate language from stage. Television developed a different vocabulary from film. Streaming has the potential to create its own form of expression.

More Connection

Television streaming is an internet creature, yet it is mostly walled off from that world. Imagine what becomes possible if you break down those barriers. There are companies yet to be created that will create value from these new connections.

There is an old saying

• A bad investor asks how big is your market?
• A good investor asks how fast is your market growing?
• A great investor asks how many businesses will this create?

Reimagining new media is about creating new opportunities.

Next Installment

In my travels I have met many that agree with this approach. If you are still with me, even if skeptical, some of the next questions are

• How do you build this?
• Who owns what?
• How do you get to scale?
• What are the economics?
• Can you really disrupt and coexist?
• Any examples?

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I can be reached directly at dan.lovy@simc.tv