Leslie Grandy is a consultant who blogs at The Consumer Matters. Previously, she was an executive at T-Mobile, Apple and RealNetworks and a member of the Director’s Guild of America.

Last week at the Wall Street Journal’s digital conference, D8, content creators, distributors and the Chairman of the FCC all shared the stage with iconic technology journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, and discussed the changing landscape for media in the post-econalypse, wireless age.

From Steve Jobs declaring the “balkanization” of television by cable providers who give away free digital video recorders, to Julius Genachowski’s realization of the national broadband plan, there were numerous proof points that consumers remain a long way from easily purchasing content once and viewing it anywhere, anytime, on any device. But if you are a tech savvy content creator like Steve Levitan or James Cameron, that’s not all bad, for two reasons: money and quality.

Levitan’s Modern Family integrates technology into storylines that embrace how real consumers use gadgets in their everyday lives. However, forays into web extensions of the half hour network comedy have been distractions for the show-runner, who approaches the creation and execution of direct-to-web content with the same expectations of quality and time commitment as he has for his broadcast television product.

Levitan also says he wonders if original web content dilutes what makes the television show “special”, and as a result reduces viewers for the broadcast episodes, on which his compensation is based. “I do ask myself, ‘is that going to drive more people to our show, or is that going to just drive more people to the website? Is it going to make it a little less special when we go back on the air?’” He described the web content as “sort of half efforts, [because] they can’t be the full effort. That’s the show.”

Additionally, there’s the matter of “credit” for the re-run of Levitan’s episodes on sites like Hulu or within the ABCPlayer.  Counting viewers on these digital properties could likely change the ranking of the show from its position in the top ten of television programming to a slot in the top two or three, he maintains.  And that translates into higher rates for advertisers and more compensation for the show’s creators.  Until the digital work is integrated not just from a story line but also from a whole product packaging perspective, the revenue and the quality of work will be a rounding error at best.

The story is much the same for Avatar director James Cameron, who has created content for the biggest screens around, 3D IMAX.  The quality of the experience is something people are willing to pay for, Cameron maintains, and the evidence is the scale of the revenue his film still derived from consumers despite being the most pirated film of all time. He believes technology has finally brought consumers – and producers of content, as well – to ask themselves, ‘do I want it now, or do I want it great?”

The blockbuster director and auteur of classics like the Terminator series, Aliens, The Abyss and Titanic, suggested at D8 that consumers are now at a crossroads, where, thanks to the Internet and technology, they can decide how important it is to preserve the theatrical experience that was originally conceived or access the content immediately. Cameron described the act of pirating “Avatar” as a devaluing of the quality user experience, and not just a moral choice to illegally copy the film. The fact that Avatar has become the highest grossing movie of all time shows that value can still be created in the user experience. Illegal downloads, by definition, can only be enjoyed in 2D on smaller screens.  Even if there was money left on the table, he insisted, “good narrative, good story, and good acting scales.”

What’s evident from my three days at D8 is that the opportunity to fully diverge and define home and theatrical entertainment experiences through digital technology does not rest merely with the creators of content, but also with those that deliver it.  Well maintained theaters that offer quality seating, screens and sound systems will not be enough to compete with increasingly capable home entertainment systems that offer semantic search and access to rich Internet meta-data.  For instance, theater owners might want to consider accompanying 3D content with synchronized physical interactions in the theater environment like a rush of wind or a spray of moisture, which can “sell” a film’s immersive experience.

The future of home media may be in social search and converging television with user generated media on the web, but the opportunity for multiplex movies will likely be in preserving a high-value proposition for the ultimate in physical and immersive location-based experiences.

Technorati Tags: D8, James Cameron, Steve Levitan, Avatar, TV Everywhere

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