The announcement of the planned Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros, one of the last remaining major studios, is shedding light on a key issue we often overlook when thinking about culture, creativity and creation.
Carriage is the term for the method that books, movies, TV shows and other media get from the producers to the public. It’s about who controls user access to the medium.
Until recently, bookstores were a largely open system. Any publisher had a chance to get any book into any bookstore, sometimes with prime placement and promotion.
Radio stations offered carriage to record labels. When labels tried to bribe the program directors (‘payola’) the power of this carriage was clear and the practice was banned. Even so, major record labels had power because they, and they alone, had a chance to get a record heard and played.
Throughout the 1930s, film production in the US was controlled by about eight studios, and five of the studios had their own movie theaters. With this advantage, they could force the independent movie theaters to take a block of movies, exerting control over what got seen.
It’s this control of carriage that amplifies power. With just three major TV networks, an independent producer of shows had almost no chance to have their shown seen without their participation. Middlemen control carriage, and that gives them the key to the gate.
The internet was supposed to change the way creators dealt with carriage issues. If you wanted someone to visit your website, no one could step in the way. This was a breakthrough, the first in a century. Songs, books, videos–put them up and bring your own audience.
Of course, once Google gained traction, they offered to engage in thinly veiled payola–pay Google for search ads, and traffic would come to your site. Don’t pay, no play.
Amazon started out as an everything store, treating all books–and then everything else they sold–evenly. If an author or publisher could get the word out, Amazon ensured that the item would be found. Widespread and open carriage of ideas and products. Alas… if you’ve noticed that the Amazon shopping experience has gotten a lot worse, it’s because they’re maximizing their ad profits (payola) and burying (taking efficient carriage away from) those that won’t pay or partner.
And Netflix?
Hollywood is petrified. If Netflix further integrates into production, as well as buying another large library of previously produced content, they fear that there will only be one streaming platform, and, with control over carriage, one company will control what gets made and what gets seen. It doesn’t really matter how many studios there are–it’s not hard to start one–what matters for the future is that carriage, and the profits that go with it, are available to anyone with a studio.
The solution, one that Netflix would probably benefit from, is to offer to adopt more of a YouTube approach to carriage–allow anyone who produces video content to show it on Netflix. Pay them based on views. As we’ve seen with YouTube, creators don’t mind if there’s just one place to be seen, as long as carriage is available fairly.
Creators of everything–from Linkedin posts to podcasts to documentaries–need to think hard about carriage. Attention is one of our precious resources, and our culture benefits when it’s not centrally controlled.
