Skift Take
Consumers don't want to be constricted on their own devices, even if they hold these devices 10,000 feet above ground. Charge for access, sure, but content or commerce behavior above ground will mirror their behavior on the ground.
To cover a future-driven sector like the digital media industry, it helps to know history, to ground you in perspective to see not just the future, but also historical trends and bigger picture. Even though lots of things are changing, and the pace of these changes seem to be increasing, some things indeed do remain the same.
Among those things that remain the same: Media moguls -- and indeed wannabe and ex-moguls, too -- dream of owning all of the media value chain from content to distribution. It didn't start with AOL Time Warner, but the dream reached its apogee with it, and became emblematic of the monumental failure of such hopes.
And yet, they keep trying. A new company called Golden Eagle Entertainment, founded by ex-Hollywood biggies Harry Sloan, the former CEO at MGM and Jeff Sagansky, former president of CBS Entertainment, has acquired two companies with the intent of combining acce
