Consumers Should Determine the Price of Media Content According to a Survey

An informal survey of thought leaders attending a forum on "Digital Rights Management" at The Harvard Club in New York City indicates that media industry executives believe that consumers, and not artists, Internet service providers or content distributors, should be responsible for determining the cost they are willing to pay for media content. To underscore this point, when asked, the majority of respondents indicated that the band Radiohead was indeed successful in its efforts to permit consumers to determine what, if anything, they were willing to pay for online access to the band's latest album.

The survey was conducted by Leach Communications for mDialog, an innovator of web video 2.0.

The majority of thought leaders responding to the survey agreed that:

* Ultimately, when and how media content is consumed should be controlled by consumers, and not by publishers;
* Media companies should pursue revenue directly from advertisers as compared to consumers, device manufacturers or websites;
* Innovation & technology does not always render moot any attempts to regulate and/or control content distribution;
* DRM is primarily a legal and technology issue and is less of an educational issue;
* Consumers should be permitted to directly own media content versus only having access to it for a limited period of time;
* DRM-free content ultimately offers the most benefits to consumers as compared to publishers or content creators;
* Digital rights management is necessary; and
* Piracy an intractable problem.

When asked to share their insights, survey respondents provided their own opinions to the following open-ended survey questions:

"What type of digital rights management is likely to succeed?"

* "Subscription-based DRM or a flexible model that allows a certain number of downloads or a limited time period for downloading media content. Consumers may be willing to pay if they feel they're getting some freedom of ownership."
* "One that best balances the conflicting needs of consumers' right to own, use or manage content versus the content owners' right to obtain revenue for the content."
* "Fingerprinting and watermarking."
* "The least restrictive, if any."

"What is the most important issue facing rights owners?"

* "Piracy."
* "Return on investment."
* "To protect the right and incentive to create content in the future."
* "Consumers not understanding the importance of intellectual property."

The panelists participating in the digital rights management forum included:

* Paul Sweeting, editor of ContentAgenda.com (moderator)
* Sandra Aistars, associate general counsel for intellectual property at Time Warner, Inc.
* Thomas Guida, partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP
* David Hughes, senior vice president of technology at the Recording Industry Association of America
* Greg Philpott, president of mDialog, Inc.
* Bill Rosenblatt, CEO at Giant Steps Media and managing editor at DRM Watch

The survey was conducted via a written questionnaire that included multiple choice and open-ended questions. More than 21% of the total 170 attendees submitted completed survey questionnaires. Media executives attending the forum were from companies such as HBO, Viacom, NBC Universal, Time Warner and many other organizations.

The forum was presented by Gotham Media Ventures on February 12 at The Harvard Club in New York City and was sponsored by mDialog and the law firm of Loeb & Loeb LLP.