Broadcast
Loving Apple TV even more
We could debunk every statement Getty-Images
made with regards to its recent earnings
call but we've essentially done so in our
extensive
blogs about the company. Apart from the
negative outcome of the call, we instead want to
highlight the systemic attitudinal problem of
the company.
First off, Getty's success is based on the fact that it believes it can predict how images (or other media assets) are going to be used by the buyer. It continuously re-purposes images and image rights to meet a supposed buying trends it is never going to be able to predict. With massive changes in photography Getty has frequently trailed trends rather than enabled them. The usage of the image should be determined between seller and buyer, with Getty's infrastructure merely supporting that transaction.
Second, the usage and type classification in the earnings call is the kind of double dipping I've seen many companies in trouble do. There is a dramatic overlap between editorial, creative, rights managed, royalty free, royalty ready and a myriad of other popular image definitions. The sole metric of success for the company is number of images sold at what ASP, and at what cost. No Wall-Street investor will be able to make sense of the fog Getty has put up in the conference call to hide the fact that organic growth is miserable.
Third, Getty arrogantly describes their (lackluster) performance as the market trend, as if they are the market. No, Getty, the market of image usage is actually growing faster than you are able to support. The real news is that Getty is losing market-share.
The lack of transparency makes Getty-Images an un-investable business, both from a market and acquisition perspective. The bottom line from the call simply confirms that, forget about everything in-between.
First off, Getty's success is based on the fact that it believes it can predict how images (or other media assets) are going to be used by the buyer. It continuously re-purposes images and image rights to meet a supposed buying trends it is never going to be able to predict. With massive changes in photography Getty has frequently trailed trends rather than enabled them. The usage of the image should be determined between seller and buyer, with Getty's infrastructure merely supporting that transaction.
Second, the usage and type classification in the earnings call is the kind of double dipping I've seen many companies in trouble do. There is a dramatic overlap between editorial, creative, rights managed, royalty free, royalty ready and a myriad of other popular image definitions. The sole metric of success for the company is number of images sold at what ASP, and at what cost. No Wall-Street investor will be able to make sense of the fog Getty has put up in the conference call to hide the fact that organic growth is miserable.
Third, Getty arrogantly describes their (lackluster) performance as the market trend, as if they are the market. No, Getty, the market of image usage is actually growing faster than you are able to support. The real news is that Getty is losing market-share.
The lack of transparency makes Getty-Images an un-investable business, both from a market and acquisition perspective. The bottom line from the call simply confirms that, forget about everything in-between.
Broadcast Media unleashed
Blog readership in the first quarter of this year
jumped 45 percent to 49.5 million people, or
one-sixth of the total U.S. population, according to
a report in Red Herring today. As
potential buyers are looking to learn from
micro-celebrities what to buy and visit the
blogs that gave these micro-celebrities their
status, advertisers have new opportunities to
attach specific marketing messages to specific
content in these blogs. A new Adwords or Vibrant
Media - like opportunity where blog content is
matched with pre-defined and pre-paid
advertising keywords or categories is on the
horizon. Advertising strategies are changing
fast and about to get a big makeover again.
Never before have advertisers been able to
target buyers more precisely. Another reason why
the Internet is becoming such a powerful
distribution channel.