Invisible Crises (of indies)

[C.J.Harvaraj]

'Time Warner appears repeatedly in other corporate combines that would seem to be competitors but in fact have interlocked hands with the dominant giants in variety of combinations. One reason is that corporations like Time warner are dominant in almost every branch of the media, such as having archives of existing programs and control of facilities to produce new ones. Time warner is also the second largest cable company and is dominant in magazines,books, and record. In short, the interlocked world of giants of the present communications scene leaves little opening for new,smaller entries that could dilute the power of the giants and therefore therefore their oligopoly over global information.'


An extracted paragraphs from the book, Invisible Crisis. The book explores crises that range from the local to global,and from the concrete and specific to the ideological. It just struck me to realize that indies (in filmmaking) exist because 'someone' has a total control over information and communications superhighway.

P/s: i am no affiliate with the author or the publication. Just want to share to knowledge in reduser.

 

[Davide B.]

Time Warner is spinning of it's cable division as now it is interested in solely making content not distributing it. They may also spin off their internet branch, AOL, as well. AOL is already shedding its ISP services so that now it only functions as an advertising company and internety portal. And Time Warner no longer owns their major record label: Warner Music Group.

Why is Time Warner doing this? Because those realms are no longer making the same money they used to. Why are they no longer making money? A large part of it I'd venture is because of competition from the "new, smaller entries" that the quote you gave says have no chance. The internet has atomized greatly over the years because of the introduction of so many specialized sites that people don't want to go to giant web portals anymore. And with services like Satellite Television, Internet TV and Netflix fewer people are finding it necessary to spend a high monthly fee for a cable box just to get a couple channels they want and 100s of channels they don't. And record labels are finding a hard time competing against internet sales of music and file sharing.

Yes, having a market dominated by big conglomerates can make it very hard for the little guy to get noticed and break through to the mass market. But they aren't invincible.

davide

 

[Joe Carney]

As far as AOL, you can put the blame squarely on the Time Warner execs that took over. Clueless to say the least.