The Rise of The New TV Guides (and congratulations to Pluto.TV)

When I was young, back home in Britain 'The Radio Times' was every homes essential guide to what was coming up on TV the following week. The reference to radio was an historical throw back. I never knew a house that didn't have a copy. That way you could plan your viewing ahead of time and we would all circle our favorites in advance. But then that was also when families sat and watched TV together. Halcyon days for many, including myself.

As more of our entertainment gets delivered to us via streaming services so I predict a new generation of 'TV Guides' that consolidate and help us chose between 'stations'. In 2017 Americans spent 158 hours searching for content. Of those 73% end up following friends suggestions. Anyone who ever tried to navigate Amazon Prime video knows this to be true. So it was with great interest that I came across Justwatch.com . This amazing website consolidates every streaming service globally. I remain astonished at the way they have gathered so much data and that they keep it live from so many sources. Its really super.

As it appears to have been widely reported previously I am late to the party in admiring the work that has gone into the website. But since I also work all day in this industry and after asking around it seems the Justwatch.com is not was well known as it should be. I have no affiliation with the site and do not know who it belongs to.

But as the start of a trend I do believe that we will see much more of this. What is interesting will be to see the reaction of the current and newly announced streamers. I cannot imagine that they particularly welcome being consolidated since they so far have you captive when you use their service. But that might only be true for the bigger 'stations'. Independents might welcome the chance to be discovered.

Pluto.TV was a neighbor to Ryff at the Pacific Design Center and we watched them grow and expand almost day to day. So it was with great pleasure that we saw that they were snatched up by Viacom yesterday for $340M. Congratulations to all involved. Interesting days ahead for this exciting new world of entertainment.