The week old Hollywood finally died
It&#x27;s the classic innovation implosion:<p>Prior to video streaming progressing to a viable point, there was no reason for anyone in the industry to have the skills to work with it.<p>Netflix comes along with a business model of providing these services to the industry by hosting their content on its platform<p>There is massive success, everyone is making lots of money doing what they are good at<p>The industry, lacking the skills to recognize the value netflix provided them in technical skill, tries to get a larger cut of the pie because &quot;how hard could it be?&quot;<p>Very hard. The competition leads to cannibalization of the market and the industry has a lot of catch up to do just to get to Netflix&#x27;s level. Meanwhile the carpet being pulled out from under netflix allows other, actually technically competent, competitors to pick up real gains.<p>Where before the industry were the customers of the streaming partners, now they are competitors. Both are out of their comfort zone, but there is a lot more free-floating talent from the long term industry than the new niche technology, so the streaming platforms can become content producers faster than the reverse.<p>Repeated botched attempts at competition with the streaming services drains the industry of both capital and morale. Acquisitions happen at an accelerated rate as small companies run out of steam and larger ones need to demonstrate something that looks like success to investors. Innovative but risky projects get axed as the call to cut costs grows and the heads of their benefactors roll. Seemingly safe projects repeating what worked in the past are the only ones that survive long enough to produce results, but their failure to make up for the losses continues the downward spiral of morale.<p>A few players are large enough to shield a division from the worst of it, and they can develop a viable competitor. Others luck out on a convenient merger that actually gets them the resources they need. These become players alongside the newcoming streaming services, but their positions are much reduced in stature. For the bulk of the industry though, there is no recovery - those who can jump ship do, and those who can&#x27;t re-prioritize to stay afloat just long enough to retire.<p>It happened with the rail companies, it happened with cameras, its happening with traditional media. It&#x27;s much easier for a competitor to destroy your empire than it is for you to seize theirs intact.