Looking at today's BBC 1 morning programmes, we have “Homes under the hammer” (a programme about auctioning houses), “To buy or not to buy” (a programme about selling houses), “Car Booty” (about selling bric a brac from your house) and “Bargain hunt” (a game show about selling at auction). Can you see why I might suspect that poor quality content is a MASSIVE issue for the big media companies? And the BBC is nowhere near the worst offender.

Content companies have thrived for years on rehashing the same formats, over and over again. The problem is that people are bored to death of them. Is it any wonder that people would rather play scrabble online with their friends than watch yet another programme about doing up your house? Or that millions of people worldwide would follow something like Ford's innovative “Where are the Jones?” interactive comedy (http://wherearethejoneses.com/ – created by an independent production company in collaboration with an ad agency).

You're right that there's increased competition. And in a landscape of increased competition for people's time, if you want to win their attention, you had better start producing the best, most inventive and well-produced work you've ever done if you want to be in business.

I disagree that fortunes would reverse if the quality of shows would improve. What makes a show good or bad is subjective. While some would argue that shows, movies and music suck today, others would argue the opposite.

The woes can be blamed on increased competition for the almighty spending dollar and the failure of record companies, movie studios and TV networks to adapt to that additional competition.