A DPAA Q&A with Rahul Telang of Carnegie Mellon University

Barry Frey: What media do you consume on a daily basis?

Rahul Telang: I love reading newspapers and watching sports on TV.

Barry: What are the biggest changes you foresee for the advertising business over the next five years?

Rahul: It will become more precise and merge more seamlessly with the content. I also foresee more and more content going behind paywalls as traditional ad driven models will falter.

Barry: Tell us a bit about your book.

Rahul: The book, “Streaming Sharing and Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment,” provides an intuitive explanation as to why the industry has always been dominated by a few large firms, and identifies the key challenges faced by the industry and why are these challenges are different than in the past and where the industry is headed.

In particular, we argue that platforms (like Netflix, Amazon, Google) not only have deep customer level data and the skills and culture to make data-driven decisions, but also are increasingly getting into content production and will pose significant competition to traditional incumbent players who lack the skill and access to such rich data.

Barry: What is your favorite new app?

Rahul: I am an avid golfer and use “swing by swing” quite a bit.

Barry: Tell us a bit about your upcoming speaking appearance at the Video Everywhere Summit.

Rahul: This will be my first time and I'm very excited to learn and talk about how users, firms, content and ads interact and where the future is headed.

Barry: The Presidential election winner will be...?

Rahul: I hope America chooses the better candidate (Hillary).

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