Ben Keen is an independent analyst and board-level advisor in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) space. He has over 35 years of experience helping companies and investors make better-informed decisions based on data-driven understanding of the future.
Who is your digital hero?
My ‘digital hero’ selection is Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
t is hard to think of a company that has had a more radical transformative impact on the film and TV landscape and Reed has been the inspirational visionary driving that change.
Unlike many others, he has shown an outstanding flexibility of thinking that has allowed Netflix to pivot multiple times to successfully ride successive waves of digital business models.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
Initially focused on the digital packaged media business of DVD, Reed engineered a pivot in 2007 into the brave new world of video streaming.
The truly global scale of the market that Netflix eventually built scared the Hollywood top brass so much that they all rushed to roll-out copycat direct-to-consumer services, which resulted in the so-called ‘streaming war’. However, the market dominance achieved by Reed’s company has been such that, by October 2023, I was able to publicly declare the effective end to that war and crown Netflix as the victor.
What is the biggest challenge in digital we need another hero to solve?
In the digital entertainment market, one of the biggest challenges that still needs to be solved is how to guide the consumer through the proliferating array of media choices they are offered. Whilst there have been a number of attempts to aggregate a way through the fragmented streaming market, none have yet become the gateway of choice for the majority of viewers.
Looking ahead, part of this future curation role will need to provide consumers with tools that can help us all navigate a way through the malign AI-generated versions of distorted realities we will increasingly be offered.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I certainly wouldn’t claim any particular heroic achievements for myself, but I hope my analytical insights have helped guide others through an ever-changing media landscape.
