The founder of Shotformats Digital Productions weighs in about the repercussions of net neutrality adversely affecting digital content consumption
Certain platforms are creating a monopolistic environment on internet and online advertising and similarly, mobile operators, because of their distribution reach, are playing a game of power with their over the top services. This will, of course, help their sister company apps or specific associations. At the end of the day though, a good product that engages consumers wins acquiring them. Neutrality has been a core democratizing principle of the Internet since the day it was born. Internet service should be like electricity service: the electric company can't throttle the supply/connection if they don't approve of the appliance or gadget you are using. Most mobile operators have almost all types of content available with them and therefore their consumers will not suffer.
But this impacts the content industry directly, be it acquiring consumers or their negotiation strength. It’s quite simple really. Huge minimum guarantees are offered by video and music app companies to ensure that their product is viewed and streamed without a hitch. If the streaming on their videos and apps suffers, they lose consumers and consumers lose content they may enjoy. They will, in turn, reduce their minimum guarantees and eventually mobile operators will be market leaders tipping the negotiating scale in their favor. This where Net Neutrality comes in the picture for the benefit of the end consumer. Content developers need to realize that their distribution is being slashed and therefore take a firm stand with Net Neutrality.
This article is authored by Niyati Shah. She has over 16 years of experience in the entertainment business across mediums ranging from record labels and satellite to Internet and mobile. She has worked with entertainment and digital giants like Tips Music, Universal Music, Zee Television, Sify and Yahoo! India. In 2007, she formed Shotformats Digital Productions and recently, launched Biscoot -- the World's first offline applications store that distributes digital content such as movies, music, games and apps across over 7,000 mobile accessory stores.
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