Technology and trends tend to move and change at alarming rates.  No industry is impervious to evolution. The only way to stay relevant is to make sure you are looking toward the future landscape and anticipating changes within your business before they happen. If you don’t have a functioning crystal ball, research and analysis are the best way to predict the future. 

A strong indicator of how technology and trends are changing in real-time is to pay attention to how you currently consume television and video content at home. Gone are the days of spending a Friday night at Blockbuster buying or renting physical copies of movies to bring home. It also seems the days of cable and satellite solutions are quickly on their way out. Streaming services are the future of in-home entertainment consumption, but that leaves broadcast TV searching for a new way to create revenue or else risk becoming just as obsolete as video rental stores.

Broadcast channels rely on retransmission fees on top of advertising revenue to make money.  With fewer customers paying for live TV, whether through cable or a streaming service, these retransmission fees are not proving to be as sustainable a source of income as they had been previously. Since more people watch their shows after they are initially broadcast in a commercial-free format, this is also true regarding advertising.

By looking at the data and understanding the commercial readiness of a technology, companies like these can predict future paths.  For those who need immediate solutions, technology scouting will identify near-term opportunities.  For those looking beyond today, technology landscaping will identify future opportunities. Don’t become obsolete because you didn’t research current trends, future opportunities, and the subject matter experts who want to become partners. 

Technology scouting and landscaping together offer insight into both today and tomorrow. No crystal ball is needed.     

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