Thursday, February 19, 2009

A big chill and gatekeepers

I have been thinking about the Boxee/Hulu imbroglio. While it's unclear what ransom will be extracted from Boxee type companies to gain access to distribute proprietary content, some points are crystal clear:

1. The pace of capital investment towards young companies involved in the 'digital living room' will be vastly diminished.

2. Venture capitalists will be taking turns writing 100x on conference room chalkboards lines of "I will never again invest in industry's controlled by gatekeepers".

3. Hulu's management is in conflict with its parents. On one hand, Hulu has a mandate to build a top destination site, on the other hand, it can't be accomplished by embracing/extending technology to the digital living room; which happens to be an incredibly fast growing market segment.

4. Existing investors in exposed companies have that Free Fallin feeling.

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