Jordan O'BrienPfizer is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and as such has its fingers in many pies, but having the potential to kill the home cinema industry? Surely not. Well, according to Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, the future of entertainment could simply be delivered through a ‘pharmalogical’ – so basically, a happy pill.
No, Reed Hastings doesn’t think that Netflix’s users should ditch its streaming service and replace it with ecstasy – but, speaking at WSJD Live, the CEO realises that consuming media as we do now is likely to change in the future. It wasn’t too long ago that humans went into a Blockbuster store to rent a DVD, a business model that Netflix helped destroy.
The home cinema industry has had to adapt to the constantly changing landscape of entertainment. The death of analogue media meant that installers had to ditch VHS players and install DVD and Blu-ray players instead, and the death of physical media means many installers are now specifying media servers and streaming-friendly hardware in their projects. Unfortunately for custom installers, in a future where users consume media through a pill – they’re not likely to be needed.
The so-called ‘Happy Pill’ has been a real possibility for human civilisation since the start of the 20th century and the invention of MDMA in 1914. Scientists realised that through the use of pharmalogical drugs people could simply pop a pill and feel happy – in fact, it’s believed that happiness is simply just an electrochemical sensation. That means a future ‘entertainment pill’ is entirely possible.
Being possible and being widely accepted is another matter however, according to a 2006 survey in the UK, 72% of those who responded would reject a legal drug that induces happiness and had no side effects. Despite that objection, Reed Hastings believes that in the long-term there will be substitutes for traditional media consumption – and offered up a pill as one solution.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Reed Hastings is hard at work developing such a pill, it is simply the CEO highlighting that streaming may not be the only future of media – and there’s likely going to be other solutions that we haven’t even thought of yet. Netflix has already shown its willingness to adapt to new technologies; adopting VR support with the Oculus Rift is just one example.
The home cinema industry is likely going to have to adapt in the same way Netflix is. It’s already showcasing signs that it is learning to change, with CEDIA recently discussing VR as the future for the custom installation industry – but dying from a happy pill developed by Pfizer? That’s probably one thing the industry doesn’t have to worry about just yet.