[TankGirl]

After reading through the story twice I still fail to see anything but hype there.

Richards' [Robin Richards, Vivendi's CEO] plan would radically alter the business landscape that online entertainment companies have been gearing up for, namely, the advent of subscription models. In its place would be a recycled advertising-based model that would keep consumers from paying for movies and music online.

Great... does that mean that we will be free to share movies and music with each other as we wish, with the price of an ad banner on the client? Well I guess not as Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster are already doing that and Vivendi among others is sueing them for providing such an excellent media consumer service. If buying out Music City and pushing Vivendi's ads through Morpheus is not an option (it still might be), how does Vivendi plan to bring about the 'radical alteration of the business landscape'. Let's hear further...

"The goal is to build a network of media consumers and tie them all together," said Richards. "Once we do that, we'll hang applications off that network. Applications are the next war where everything will be won."

Applications are software programs that add function to a computer. Napster -- one of the most popular applications in recent memory -- attracted over 80 million users by allowing people to share digital music files.

As average 'media consumers' already know how to hang applications to their computers - also known as installing software - I guess the keyword here is 'network'. What kind of network does Robin Richards have in mind? A p2p network with additional plugins to hang off the client? Well, p2p networks are known to 'tie' us 'media consumers' together so in theory his first goal could be achieved with p2p. But not with just any p2p. It should not only be free in price but also unfiltered in content and support the existing unprotected media formats (mp3,divx). Would that be ok for Vivendi and other 'media conglomerates'? Right, that's what I though.

And here comes the real beef:

Richards said within the next six months, Vivendi Universal Net USA would have all of Vivendi's online properties connected together. While consumers wouldn't be aware of the seamless network, the technology would allow Vivendi to sell and promote its properties across its entire network.

That's a huge step, Richards said, because record labels, movie studios and other businesses would then have immediate access to Vivendi's five digital music companies: MP3.com, Emusic.com, GetMusic.com, InsideSessions.com and RollingStone.com.

So that's the flashy corporate idea of a network that will radically alter the business landscape. Don't you love to read lines like "While consumers wouldn't be aware of the seamless network, the technology would allow Vivendi to sell and promote its properties across its entire network." Hopefully Robin Richards is not too surprised if his media consumers don't tie together quite as planned. The bloody consumers might even have already developed an elementary awareness of alternative networking options that bypass the 'seamless' control of the media conglomerates altogether.

- tg