A Meaning for the Yahoo bid by MSFT

February 2, 2008 at 6:59 am · Filed under Apple, Barriers, Business Model, Enterprise 2.0, Microsoft, NPR, PBS, Podcasts, Public Media, Relationships, iTouch, iTunes

As sure as the sun rises in the morning - the web will become the primary delivery platform for all information.

Many in public radio and TV, have told me that my feelings about how fast the shift would take place from “air” and cable to web are exagerated. My argument is this. “Weight of money”.

When you pay $45 billion dollars you are not fooling around.

MSFT wish to get ready NOW for this new reality for when the bulk of advertising revenue and action are on the web. Ad revenues are $50 billion right now and are expected to rise to $80 billion by 2009/10. This is the prize. When the ad money shifts out of traditional media, you will hear the sucking sound of a mortal wound. It will be too late to reinvent your self then.

All the supporting parts of a web based radio and TV will have to accelerate their plans

• The viewing platforms such as the iPods and the large screen TV’s are ready now for a direct link. The Early Adopters are watching the bulk of their video online.
• Many listen to radio online at the office or on their iPods on their commute
• YouTube is bursting with great content both from traditional sources and from new entrants
• Channels such as iTunes and Miro are building capacity - it will be the ease of use that these channels offer that will pull in the Early Majority.
• Major Networks have their toe in the water and are offering some content online

The Yahoo bid will accelerate all this work.

So what is the work that Public TV and Radio have to do in this context of no time? It is to solve the business model problem. How to offer the best content from TV and Radio AND keep the stations whole. How to do that? I think the answer is to make the offer direct with the forced choice of the show and the station.

I am not saying that people will not listen to radio nor am I saying that people will stop watching TV. People will still buy SUV’s and Trucks. But the bulk of the people, especially people who are naturally curious will make the switch.

Remember Mikey - “Give it to Mikey - he hates everything. Well my wife Robin, is the tech Mikey.

Robin is very very resistant to gadgets. BUT …….. She now listens to all her radio online - loading the podcasts onto her MP3 player which she uses when she is doing stuff around the house and walking the dogs. And in her down time, I hardly ever see her anymore - she has discovered YouTube. She has discovered that it is packed with content that she wants to watch - content that is “serious” that is just what a good Public TV member would want to watch. She has discovered that it is easy to watch and listen to what she wants when she wants and that there is tons and tons of great content out there.

She is closer to 60 than 50 and is in the centre of the demographic for Public TV.

So Robin’s desire for interesting content that intrigues her has been met already. Just imagine how easy it will be for her to have access to even more and what her choices will be soon.

Don’t you want her and the millions like her as your audience?

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Twitter and a New Kind of News

January 27, 2008 at 7:32 am · Filed under Andy Carvin, Business Model, Community, Grooming, NPR, Public Insight Journalism, Public Media, Social Computing, Social Media, Twitter, User Revolution, Wisdom of Crowds, iTouch

This is a slice of time last night on my Twitter. I am watching TV but I have my iTouch in my lap. When the ads come on, I mute the set and go back to my Twitter feed. here I have a real friend - not a Fake Friend - Andy Carvin covering the South Carolina Primary. I also have a Twitter friend worrying about how to cope with teen boys - her son is out late.

As Andy twittered his coverage, others that I know, pitched in too.

This was not strangers talking to strangers but Friends Talking to Friends - much much much much warmer.

Add the back channel of a parent asking for help about how to cope with your teens being out late and this is an entirely new Media Experience.

I am inside a system - inside a system that is deeply human and that I feel a part of.

BPPDiner - the Twitter inner circle for Bryant Park Project is also adding this warmth to the show. Already we are seeing program ideas being discussed in real time with the listener. Over the weekend even contact is still there between the crew and each other and their inner group.

My intuition is shouting out that somehting that I don’t fully understand yet is happening that will turn out to be momentous.

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The Future of TV - iTouch

December 2, 2007 at 7:20 am · Filed under Apple, Enterprise 2.0, PBS, Social Media, TV, User Revolution, YouTube, iTouch, iTunes

I have really been enjoying my new iTouch - can’t get the iPhone here in Canada - it’s not just that music but the other features.

In particular, the YouTube feature. It is very very easy to use and the video comes through on the small screen with almost a TV quality.

Here is I think part of the future - the very small screen is here to stay and producers that offer and iTunes or YouTube delivery will get viewers.

The New York Times had this to say today:

INEXPENSIVE broadband access has done far more for online video than enable the success of services like YouTube and iTunes. By unchaining video watchers from their TV sets, it has opened the floodgates to a generation of TV producers for whom the Internet is their native medium.

And as they shift their focus away from TV to grab us on one of the many other screens in our lives — our computers, cellphones and iPods — the command-and-control economic model of traditional television is being quickly superseded by the market chaos of a freewheeling and open digital network.

According to Move Networks, a company based in Utah that provides online video technologies, more than 100,000 new viewers jump online every 24 hours to watch its clients’ long-form or episodic video. During the first two weeks of November alone, more than twice the number of Americans were watching TV online than in the entire month of August.

The shift is proving quite inspirational to digital media entrepreneurs…….

But what happens to the television industry when the traditional way for content to find its audience becomes obsolete?

“There’s a lot of rewriting of the concept of windows in the TV network world today — the timing of when and where shows appear,” said Allen Weiner, the managing vice president for media and consumer technologies for the Gartner Group in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In the old days, after something appeared on TV, its release to other distribution channels was carefully staged — from the timing of reruns to the DVD release to when it would be available on-demand. “We’re seeing all kinds of new windows occurring, and no one knows what the magic formula will be,” he said. “A lot depends on advertiser reaction and on user behavior.”

One closely watched approach is the new online series “Quarterlife,” by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who produced “My So-Called Life.” Episodes first appear on MySpace TV, then are available the next day on Quarterlife.com, and a week later on YouTube, Facebook and Imeem. There is talk that they may even appear later on network TV — but as the last window, rather than the first.

As far as ON is concerned, Mr. McClanahan intends to put his programs in every single window he can find. Unlike other companies, ON optimizes all its shows for viewing on any video-capable device, a feature he calls “lifestyle distribution.”

That’s why he has deals with partners like iTunes and AT&T’s Television, Broadband and Wireless Services, both of which can deliver video programs to multiple devices, from plasma TVs to computer screens and cellphones.

“You can’t expect to control consumers and force them to come to prime time at 7 p.m. on a Monday night,” said Mr. McClanahan. “If the consumer wants it on their phone at 3 p.m. while they’re on the golf course, then that’s where we have to deliver it.”

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