Online distributie van Digitale media

This research paper focuses on the digital distribution of media products. The main hypothesis is based on the theory of The Long Tail by Anderson and the Resource Dependency Theory by Pfeffer and Salancik et al. Digital distribution makes it possible to offer more diverse products on demand and lowering distribution costs. When using digital distribution strategies are developed to ensure independence from other companies while creating a bond with the consumers. Three media sectors have been selected: newspapers, movies and games. For this research project, three major companies have been chosen to act as case-study’s within these sectors: the NRC Handelsblad, a newspaper which has the first digital newspaper called the iLiad eReader, iTunes Movie Rentals by Apple Inc. poses a the second case to be studied and Valve’s Steam Platform, a piece of software to distribute pc games created by Valve and other independent game developers. These three cases offer insight in the way producers are using online distribution to innovate and set up new business models for the future. The most relevant results of these case-study’s are that the NRC Handelsblad is using digital distribution mainly to profile itself as an innovative and modern company. The company doesn’t see this development as an alternative for its regular distribution channels. Apple however is using digital distribution to create a solid group of consumers who use all kinds of Apple products for their multimedia needs: listen to music and watch movies on iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, Mac computers by using Apple software and buying movies and music through iTunes. Valve, a computer game developer, uses digital distribution to be less dependent of major game publishers. Besides this, the software, called Steam, gives the company an effective weapon against software piracy. The consumer side of the story is based on a survey research conducted through internet. In this survey the respondents were asked several questions about their current use of digital distribution channels followed by questions and statements concerning their vision and attitudes towards digital distribution. The goal of this part of the research project was to find whether the consumers were in line with the producers and how the acceptance of these new technologies. The use of digital distribution by consumers is based on the fact that most of the time it is more convenient then regular distribution. However, when the costs of digital distribution exceeds the costs of regular distribution the consumers pull out. Investing in technological product to make it possible to use certain digital distribution channels, like video on demand, are hard to be justified for the consumer. In the future, technologies will develop to make it more affordable to use digital distribution on a very broad scale. At that time it will be possible to replace certain other products by digital variants. It is most likely that the game industry will be the first one to fully adopt this. Newspaper corporations will hold on to their expensive and intensive way of distributing papers through the existing distribution channels. The company that has the most to gain by switching to digital distribution will most likely be the last one to actually do so.