Archive for PBS
by Rob Paterson
April 14, 2008 at 3:54 pm · Filed under
Apple, PBS, Public Media, Public TV, iTunes
It’s happening - Bits now but I bet soon the real deal. Here is the announcement on Apple’s site. iTunes is a natural for PBS programming. Worried about loss to stations - use this as the place to go a month later after the broadcast.
Enjoy PBS programming on iTunes U
From The War: A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick to The Jewish Americans: A Series by David Grubin to Meet the Author, featuring more than 40 interviews with top children’s book authors and illustrators, WETA — Washington D.C.’s Public Broadcasting Station — delivers a rich assortment of educational programming for students, teachers, and parents alike. And they’re not alone. Educational programming from four other PBS stations, including KQED, WGBH, thirteen, and ideastream can also be seen and heard on iTunes U. Take a look. And enjoy.
by Rob Paterson
February 2, 2008 at 6:59 am · Filed under
Apple, Business Model, Enterprise 2.0, Microsoft, NPR, PBS, Public Media, Relationships, barriers, iTouch, iTunes, podcasts
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?
by Rob Paterson
January 21, 2008 at 8:07 am · Filed under
HBO, PBS, Public Media
HBO will launch a new feature on Tuesday this week - Subscribers will be able to download its shows.
Targeted at younger subscribers and travelers who watch TV shows and movies on laptops, HBO on Broadband will offer 600 titles each month, with 400 of those available at any time, as well as a live stream of the main HBO channel.
HBO on Broadband will also suggest titles based on viewing habits. Programming will be available for at least a month, but will be erased from users’ libraries at its expiration date.
The application can be programmed for up to five users and downloaded to five devices that use Microsoft XP or newer operating systems. An Apple version is in the works.
Each month, an HBO original series such as “Entourage”, “The Sopranos” or “Sex In the City” will be available in its entirety.
Apple now rents and allows downloads. Netflix delivers online as does Amazon.
TV is moving decisively in 2008 to an online delivery.
If I want to see a show again on PBS, I have to order it on DVD by mail and it costs $19.95.
I imagine that a block for public television delivering online is the Station Issue.
I would love to have a PBS/Producer subscription that allowed me access online to content. I would have no problem in indicating in my subscription my “home” local station. So the revenue could flow both to the producer and my home station.
Time for an experiment folks - 2009 may be too late to learn.
There is more to profits than simply offering content online - I will talk more on how making the show a social object can add even more soon.
Update - please see comments below where Jen kindly brought it to my attention that PBS announced a few days ago that it will launch a new arrangement with YouTube
by Rob Paterson
January 16, 2008 at 8:17 am · Filed under
Andy Carvin, CPB, Emergent, NPR, NPR Music, PBS, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Objects, TV, Trusted Space, Web 2.0, Wisdom of Crowds
Wouldn’t it be something if Public TV and Radio got together to cover the election? Would it be great if the local stations got together with the big producers to cover the election?
Well it’s more than a dream now - CPB is funding just such a Mashup - The beginning I think of the key new force in public media - a Real Network of Many to Many.
Many of us had had a problem wit the term “Network” in Radio and TV. What it really means is one powerful producer using a system to distribute its product. Of course a real network is a diverse multi node system that where many nodes add value to the whole.
This is what is being “born” in Public radio and TV. Our hope a year ago was that the Election would be a powerful enough incentive to help the current large players to grit their teeth and really share and work with each other. This is working.
Here is Andy Carvin with the story.
Earlier today, NPR and its partners announced that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is awarding more than $1.3 million dollars to a consortium of public media organizations to expand our coverage of election 2008 across multiple platforms. The consortium, led by NPR and including American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio, Capitol News Connection, KQED, PBS, PRX, PRI/Public Interactive and The NewsHour, will work together to produce election-related content and interactive tools available to the entire public broadcasting system.
“By pooling content produced locally and nationally — for radio, television, and online — we will discover new ways of doing business to better serve the public,” said NPR CEO Ken Stern in a note that went out today to the public radio system. “We are pleased to have succeeded in coming together to deliver on the commitments made at the 2007 Annual Meeting.”
“This grant underscores CPB’s support of innovative projects that move public radio and television into the digital future so they can help individuals better connect with their communities wherever they are,” added Pat Harrison, CPB President and CEO. “This ambitious project will provide us with new ways of looking at how we serve the public on existing and emerging media platforms.”
The basic premise of the project was built around a simple reality - many public broadcasters were planning to create on air content and interactive modules for their websites, but we didn’t have a structure in place to work together during the election cycle. Around a year ago, NPR and PBS began conversations around editorial partnerships for the election, including the creation of an interactive map that would work on both of our websites, as well as on the TV show NewsHour. While that conversation was taking place, I co-organized a group discussion at the February 2007 Integrated Media Association conference for public broadcasters to talk about the Election 2008 social media plans and how those activities might be replicable across the system.
The conversation kicked into high gear at NPR’s annual meeting last April, where you may recall I blogged about some of the ideas that were brewing among those of us present at the event. We organized breakout conversation in which we laid out what was at stake and how we might collaborate. It didn’t take long to realize that we had an opportunity that might quickly slip through our fingers if we couldn’t get our act together. We needed to pull together a SWAT team and get to work……….
Now with NPR Music - we are seeing a real network emerging. With a real network, there will come the network effects for all concerned.
by Rob Paterson
January 10, 2008 at 7:33 am · Filed under
Business Model, CPB, PBS, Relationships
Gillette pioneered a business model that still works well in many areas of modern life. Sell a complex tool for a very low price and make your money on the refills - in this case the blades.
Most cellphone makers partner with the networks who in effect “give away” the the phone for the service.
All of know now to be careful when we buy a “cheap” printer. It’s the Ink that will cost us.
So now the same guys who make the phones and the printers are working to create the same model for high end expensive Plasma and LCD screens.
“We already all have beautiful HD televisions. How do you differentiate?” said Bob Scaglione, senior vice president for marketing of Sharp’s American arm. “One way to provide some really unique differentiation is to provide new content.”
“That’s why we’re fighting to find the right content providers.”
The world’s biggest television makers announced a series of partnerships with media companies that will allow delivery of Internet content like videos, news feeds, weather and sports directly to the TV, without the intervention of a PC to complicate matters and confuse consumers.
Sharp unveiled deals to provide weather, stock quotes and comic strips. Samsung Electronics has a deal with USA Today to provide news, weather and stock information straight to its TVs. Panasonic showed how its TVs will pull down YouTube videos and images stored on Google’s Picasa service.
The companies also announced a handful of new televisions capable of receiving Internet content — over Ethernet or wireless connections. But to the insiders here, the electronics show 2008 was less about the products than the partnerships.
The deals are just the beginning, the TV makers hope. They say they are a hint of what could become a new and intimate relationship between the heretofore isolationist hardware makers and upstart creators of Internet content. (NYT)
This is what the Netflix/LG deal is about that I wrote about here a few days ago.
In a small meeting with journalists, Toshihiro Sakamoto, president and senior managing director of Panasonic, the American brand name for the home electronics of Matsushita Electric Industrial, said the company must do a better job of working with content providers. “Without them, we can’t make a big TV,” he said.
In other words, his television sets, no matter how big (and Panasonic displayed a 150-inch monster), will not compete unless they are better integrated into the content food chain.
In the longer term, a more direct relationship with content providers could give them a little more strength in negotiating with cable companies that are still the main pipeline of premium content.
In the immediate term, it might give them a cut of revenue from the delivery of content. Jeffrey Cove, vice president for technology and alliances at Panasonic, declined to discuss the financial terms of the company’s deal with Google’s YouTube and Picasa. But he did say: “We’re the collectors. We are providing an outlet for eyeballs.”
If I was a senior person at PBS and CPB, I would be wondering what I could do in this new context.
by Rob Paterson
January 8, 2008 at 6:29 am · Filed under
Business Model, Comcast, PBS, TV
The end of the world of the fixed schedule and the monopoly of geography gets closer every day. Comcast CEO will announce today Comcasts plans to deal a blow not only to local TV stations but also to the cable approach of restricting choice. (NYT) Maybe Mr Roberts may talk today at CES about “Project Infinity”? which they plan to offer more than 1,000 titles.
In an interview last week at Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters, Mr. Roberts said his goal was “to give consumers the ability to watch any movie, television show, user-generated content or other video that a producer wants to make available on demand.”
The plan, which Brian L. Roberts, the chairman and chief executive of the Comcast Corporation, will describe in a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is aimed at making a nearly limitless supply of movies and television shows available on television, where Comcast subscribers could view them on demand, and through the Internet, where anyone with Web access could watch them.
Although the television component is still at a nascent stage — Comcast’s existing video-on-demand service has about 300 titles, compared with the 6,000 it eventually hopes to offer — the Web portion is further along.
Comcast has set up a site called Fancast.com where viewers can watch more than 3,000 hours of television shows from NBC, Fox, CBS and MTV and where they will soon be able to remotely program the digital video recorders in their homes. The shows on Fancast are available free. Comcast has yet to say how it will price the rest of the content as its plan moves forward.
My prediction is that in 2008 we will see a Tipping Point. Mainstream viewers will be offered ways of having TV on demand. Currently Innovators and some Early Adopters already have this - they use Torrents and YouTube. It helps to recall what happened to Music. For a long time the Innovators and Early Adopters also had to work to get their music. But then the iPod and iTunes made the process easy.
The mainstream are prepared to pay for convenience.
They will pay to have a convenient way of accessing high quality TV on demand. Not a lot but in aggregate the dollars will be a lot. For instance a copy of a Nature film on PBS is $19.99 plus shipping plus all the time it takes to get to me by mail. Few are going to make this transaction. The PBS Nature page already allows me to get a preview streamed online - why would anyone wait for a DVD?
What are some of the emerging business models?
On iTunes there is a small charge per transaction. In Canada I can get an episode of South Park for $1.99. I would pay more for an hour of say Nature or Nova. How much more? Maybe $5.0. If it was easy to find and easy to get.
On XBox with 10 million members there are 2 levels of membership - one is free and one is pay. We are all very used to this idea by now. The Free Flickr service gets you a taste, the Pro gets you the goods. I can see this working too.
At the moment most of the new suppliers of content on demand are still in the transaction world. At5 the moment, the traditional suppliers of content - our local TV stations both private and public are in deep shit. For On Demand Content for the mainstream is just around the corner.
What can be the best possible approach for a TV station and why might there be a business model that can put them and us the consumer back into a valuable relationship with each other?
More later
by Rob Paterson
December 19, 2007 at 10:10 am · Filed under
NPR, OPB, PBS, Public Insight Journalism, Public Media, Relationships, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking
Oregon Public TV is starting a TV version of Public Insight Journalism. Here is a link to a neat video that they are using as the invitation - it makes it all come alive for me.
My own bias is that I want to be connected to people that know a lot about things that are important to me. Knowing what my friends had for breakfast is important - one of the reasons I like Twitter. But I still value expertise.
The web enables me to get connected to individuals who really do know a lot. For instance, the man who runs the music department at Nicholas Hoare’s Book Shop in Toronto is a genius who seems to know everything about serious music - I would love to have him talk online about what he knows and to be available to host a chat.
by Rob Paterson
December 13, 2007 at 9:37 am · Filed under
Apple, CBC, Enterprise 2.0, PBS, Public Media
Finally TV is here in Canada. The CBC are making a push in the iTunes space. You can download Rick Mercer for $1.99 a pop.
What I would really want to see however is largely on Public TV in the US. I want Masterpiece Theatre, Nova, Ken Burns…. I will pay.
It could be so easy - split the fee between the producer and my designated station.
Try it guys - try one good show ….. Please!
by Rob Paterson
December 7, 2007 at 5:49 am · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, NPR, PBS, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media, WOSU
As I talk to many public TV and Radio stations, I hear the same fear - “If we allow the bloggers in, we will lose the trust of our audience - How can we control them - We have to control them”
The issue is of course Trust - on both sides. So using Open Space, a good invitation, and pizza, WOSU is working to establish the trust that is required. It’s working and their peers are seeing that they are making progress. The Current is THE industry magazine who have just run a lead on this process.
The two parties are formally dating now - next week they decide where to live and how with each other
Current, the industry newspaper for public radio and television, has devoted an extensive article in it’s most recent edition to the first Columbus Social Media Cafe.
For a full size view, go here for the 1st page and here to continue reading the article.
Remember, the next Columbus Social Media Cafe is this Monday, December 10th at 6:30PM at WOSU@COSI.
by Rob Paterson
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.”
by Rob Paterson
November 12, 2007 at 4:05 pm · Filed under
BBC, BBC Manchester, COSI, Enterprise 2.0, Flickr, Hyper Local News, Jeff Jarvis, NPR, Ning, PBS, Public Media, Robin Hammam, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Objects, Twitter, WOSU
This Wednesday, Nov 15th, the guys at WOSU will meet with may of the leading local bloggers in Columbus to see if they can find things to talk about and to do with each other. Here is the invitation:
We at WOSU and COSI have been wondering how we could do more to help our community cope with some challenging issues. We asked ourselves:
What if we — your local public broadcaster and science museum — and those of you who are the local blogging experts got together and learned how to use Social Media to bring back that great American tradition of the community taking charge of its own problems?
Here’s what we’re wondering:
Could we use social media and our many talents and resources to breakthrough the bureaucratic barriers that seem to block so much local reform?
Could we gain enough support and understanding to shift our education system so that our children are equipped to face the sometime harsh realities of the world?
Could we start to make sense of what our aging population, our health care system and even our food system may mean to us?
What other issues should we be discussing with an eye toward change?
Many local bloggers have deep subject knowledge and are also part of existing communities that also care and know a lot.
We have a big megaphone—radio and web site—and some great resources—a centrally located facility with cutting-edge technology (studios and a mediaLab) that we could add to the mix.
Can you imagine what we might be able to do together?
Interested? We would like to invite you to the first meeting of the Columbus Social Media Cafe — a “Town Hall” Open Space Meeting — on Thursday, November 15 at 6:30 pm, to see if we can find an agenda that we can all get excited about and to see what will emerge if we get together.
The meeting is at WOSU@COSI inside COSI at 333 West Broad Street in downtown Columbus.
Tim Eby, retiring Chair of NPR, will be blogging here - see the picture above - and he will be Twittering here. Scott will be vidoing some of the participants and WOSU will put the clips up on their site soon.
There will be pictures here on Flickr
This is a look at part of the amazing space at COSI.
The hope is that this may be the beginning of a new approach to Hyper Local Coverage - where the bloggers and the public TV/Radio - can combine their talents and efforts.
Many thanks to Robin Hammam at the BBC and to Jeff Jarvis for inspiring this efort.
by Rob Paterson
October 29, 2007 at 9:15 am · Filed under
Blue Monster, Chris Anderson, Enterprise 2.0, Fox, Gaping Void, Hugh McLeod, Hulu.com, Long Tail, NBC, NPR, News Corporation, PBS, Public Media, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Objects, Web Advertising, Wired
Hulu.com is an important experiment for how TV will shift from being available only when the broadcaster schedules it to when we want it - Having it My Way!
(From the NYT) Hulu is the new-media creation of two old-media rivals, NBC, which is owned by General Electric, and Fox, owned by the News Corporation. Since March, when the broadcasters announced their joint effort to bring free, ad-supported television shows to the Web, critics have pounced, predicting the venture would be doomed by diverging agendas, technical challenges and an all-powerful enemy: YouTube.
Skeptical bloggers even slapped Hulu with a derisive moniker: “Clown Co.”
Now the defense is ready to present its case.
Today, Hulu, now an independent company with more than a hundred employees and its own offices in Los Angeles, will begin privately testing its new service with select users at Hulu.com. It will also begin sending its videos to the sites of five distribution partners, Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast.
Hulu is presenting select episodes of some 90 television shows, including new and old programs from NBC (“The Office,” “The A-Team”), Fox (“24” and “The Simpsons”) and an assortment of smaller broadcasters like USA Networks. It has also added two new partners, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which distributes programs like “Chapelle’s Show” and “Reno 911,” and Sony Pictures Television, which will make selections in its archives like “I Dream of Jeannie,” available on Hulu.com.
All the shows are viewable inside a Web browser and festooned with advertisements.
However Hulu works out - they are on a track that is clear - people want video as they ant their music:
- Easy to find
- Available in chunks
- Available ON THE WEB - when they want it and usable on a variety of platforms such as an iPod and a 50inch HD LCD screen
Who pays and how will still be settled.
Also what I think Hulu has missed is the value of creating community around a show - this is Hugh’s great insight about Social Objects - it is the Conversation around the object that is more important than the object.
3. The Blue Monster wine is also part of the “Smarter Wine” conversation. The main thesis is that it’s not the wine per se that is interesting, it’s the conversations that happen around the wine that is interesting. And that is true for all social objects. People matter. Objects don’t.
The advertising money is shifting to the web - so will the content - it will go there faster than we imagine. For the laws of exponetial growth are in force. I think that the Tipping point is here:
I think that Broadcast TV is now in the Titanic Mode - It is large and feels unsinkable - BUT - the ship has grazed the ice - at the moment no one feels anything - but the wound is fatal and it is only a matter of time before the ship sinks.
The Iceberg is the weight of money that is leaving conventional media and going to the web. My forecast is that 2008 will be the year - 2008 will be the year where the web/digital will become where the ad money will go - the work for all providers of all types of content then will be to reset their universe.
Today most people in TV and radio see the web as a growing and important channel. In 2008, the smart people will see the web as the primary channel and that their old channel is now the supporting channel. Of course most will not see this and they will be lucky to find a life boat.
You think I exaggerate? Here is Chris Anderson on the “Music Industry” I quote him in full:
At a speech last week I was asked a question that has come up every day since the Radiohead (and Madonna, NIN, Prince, etc, etc) announcement: What’s going to happen to the music industry?
To which I answered “Which music industry?” You don’t mean just the one that sells CDs, do you? Because it’s a big mistake to equate the major labels and their plastic disc business with the industry as a whole. Indeed, when you stand back and look at all of music, things don’t look so bad at all.
Indeed, it appears that every single part of the music industry except the sale of compact discs is up.
- Concerts and merchandise: UP (+4%)
- Digital tracks: UP (+46%)
- Ringtones: UP (+86% last year, but probably just single-digit percent this year)
- Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies and videogames: UP (Warner Music saw licensing grow by about $20 million over the past year)
- Even vinyl singles (think DJs): UP (more than doubled in the UK)
- And, if you include the iPod in the music industry, as I’d argue a fair-minded analysis would: UP, UP, UP! (+31% this year)
Only CDs are down (-18%). They’re around 60% of the industry not including the MP3 players, but just around 25% if you do include them.
So the problem with the music labels is not that music is an industry in decline, but that they have a too-narrow view of what business they’re in. Madonna’s switch from a label to a concert promoter should be a clue. This quote from an excellent article (it’s worth reading it all) in Entertainment Weekly says it all:
”Soon a lot of these companies won’t define themselves as record companies,” says Steve Greenberg, the former head of Columbia Records who now runs the independent record company S-Curve. ”They’ll define themselves as artist development companies. If you’re involved in an entire career with an artist, then everyone’s interests can be aligned.”
I think most music will soon be free, as artists give away the product as marketing for their performances and licensing, and as a celebrity accelerant that creates more opportunities to make money than just from the sale of a record.
And for those who say that this avenue is only available to artists at the head of the curve, such as Madonna and Radiohead, I’d point out that the other group poorly served by the labels are those at the bottom of the curve, the many thousands of bands who fall below the radar of the hit-driven majors. I’d argue that they, too, have nothing to lose by letting their music go free, nothing to lose but the prospect of becoming indentured to companies stuck in last century’s model of monetizing music.
Most people see TV and Radio like the people who make CD’s. All the forces that are turning the music industry upside down are coming to TV and Radio - for after all - a video and an audio file are the same as music - they are in reality all digital now.
by Rob Paterson
October 28, 2007 at 11:47 am · Filed under
Emergency, Enterprise 2.0, KPBS, Mobile Phones, NPR, News, PBS, Public Media, Social Media, Twitter, University, Web 2.0
Here is a short but informative report by NPR on KPBS’s historic use of Social Media to cover the fire. One of the key Apps was “My Maps” -
The Google map has had over 1.2 million hits and even the fire fighters used it as The Source. Google themlseves have been a huge help and gave support to KPBS as the load on the map increased.
I think that the fire and KPBS’s work has been a watershed for public broadcasting - their work has shown that a small station with few staff can offer the public a huge service in an emergency.
More - it also shows universities who are all struggling to find a process to help their own communities in an emergency such as the recent shootings can do so in an affordable manner.
by Rob Paterson
October 25, 2007 at 5:47 am · Filed under
Emergency, Enterprise 2.0, Mobile Messaging 2.0, Mobile Phones, NPR, PBS, Public Media, Social Media, Twitter
“San Diego’s KPBS-FM lost its main transmitter this morning as a wildfire burned Mt. San Miguel. By 8:30 a.m., its all-news coverage of the region’s multiple fires moved from 89.5 to 94.9 MHz, using a music station’s frequency lent by Lincoln Financial Media Co.” (The Current)
Thank goodness for the loan - but by having a major online presence, KPBS, would still have been in action - so what is your Station’s Emergency plan?
In my former life, I worked for CIBC a large Canadian Bank. WE knew that if for any reason, we lost a major dealing room, we might go out of business. So we worked with our competitors and set up an emergency dealing room in several key centres. So on Sept 12, CIBC, whose office was in the next door building to WTC and was wrecked by the collapse of the larger structures, was open for business.
We live in a much more volatile world where major weather systems can take out entire states. So what about developing a state wide plan for your state? I assure you that the day after the hurricane/fire/flood is not the time to be thinking about what to do.
Social media will surely play a major role in any such plan?
by Rob Paterson
October 24, 2007 at 8:32 am · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Corante, Debi Jones, Emergency, Enterprise 2.0, Flickr, KPBS, Mobile Messaging 2.0, Mobile Phones, NPR, News, PBS, Public Media, Social Media, Twitter, Wisdom of Crowds, security
If you live where I do 3,000 miles away from the fires, maybe pictures of the fires and interviews with people who have lost their homes might be interesting. BUT what if you live where the fires are? Surely then I would want to know in real time EXACTLY what was going on.
KPBS - a public TV Station is providing this service using Google Maps, Twitter & Flickr. They are also broadcasting on air and on the web! They have all the bases covered. I have suggested to some PBS/NPR stations that they should create an Emergency Plan - they have pushed back saying that they don’t do “News”. Here is a joint license showing that covering emergency well is surely one of the key “Public” tasks of such a station - showing also how by using social media - they can do this really well by accessing their community
Here is the Google Map - all the key detail is there - what is going on and where and when (875,000 views and counting this morning)
Here is the Twitter feed - note that the feed is operating on a minute by minute basis
Here is the link to Flickr
They are using the Comments Section on a blog as a tool to allow people to make local reports - see how it works here
They have got the full suite all cleverly applied
Update - In this kind of emergency - Mobile Phones are now the main link - here is a great post by Debi Jones on how this is playing out:
The disastrous fires burning in San Diego have initiated a service used by the city and county government to inform and update residents. Mandatory evacuation orders have been communicated via reverse 911 on both landline phones and mobile phones. The messages are prerecorded and as I’ve said, three messages have been received on my phone. The first was an evacuation order. The next message was a notice that San Diego schools are closed until further notice along with the instruction to keep children inside and restrict their activity levels (smoke and ash is so thick in the air that keeping it out of your house is impossible during large fires). The third message was information on evacuation centers that were still open as several are already full.
Regulation in the US for Enhanced 911 or emergency service which incorporates location data has resulted in a number of emergency related services that are unique to the US market when compared to other geographical regions like Western Europe or Asia. The reverse 911 system isn’t specifically a mobile service, but that it does include mobile phones is impressive and to see this system work in the case of a disaster saving time and lives is an important development. To this point, 262,000 households have received reverse 911 calls.
It is likely in a very bad situation that cell phone networks will get jammed - what we are learning though is that SMS tends to get through - so Twitter as a feed may be the core of a good plan
Advisories have been announced on CNN and local San Diego TV stations asking people to limit their mobile phone use as the networks are saturated. This is a common problem during emergencies as we’ve seen over and over. The one component that continued to provide communication during the London bombings, post Katrina flooding in New Orleans and now in San Diego is text messaging. Twice today my mobile calls have been rejected with the network reporting, “all circuits are busy”. And yet, I’ve continued to be able to send out SMS.
by Rob Paterson
September 20, 2007 at 6:43 am · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, NBC, NPR, PBS, Public Media
It’s official - the traditional broadcast mass media business model is dead. Today NBC opened its own direct to viewer store. It had no choice. (NYT)
NBC Universal said yesterday that it would soon permit consumers to download many of NBC’s most popular programs free to personal computers and other devices for one week immediately after their broadcasts.
The service, which is set to start in November after a test period in October, comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal said it was pulling its programs out of the highly successful iTunes service of Apple Inc. That partnership fell apart because of a dispute over Apple’s iTunes pricing policies and what NBC executives said were concerns about lack of piracy protection.
NBC’s move comes as companies throughout the television business search for new economic models in the face of enormous changes in the business. Networks continue to lose audience share, and viewers — especially many of the highly prized viewers under 30 years old — are increasingly demanding control of their program choices, insisting on being able to watch shows when, where and how they want.
At the same time viewers are finding more and more ways, like TiVo machines, to avoid watching the commercials that have long provided the bulk of television revenue.
Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, said, “The shift from programmer to consumer controlling program choices is the biggest change in the media business in the past 25 or 30 years.”
NBC makes many of its popular shows available online in streaming media, which means that fans can watch episodes on their computers. Under the new NBC service, called NBC Direct, consumers will be able to download, for no fee, NBC programs like “Heroes,” “The Office” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on the night that they are broadcast and keep them for seven days. They would also be able to subscribe to shows, guaranteeing delivery each week.
But the files, which would be downloaded overnight to home computers, would contain commercials that viewers would not be able to skip through. And the file would not be transferable to a disk or to another computer.
The files would degrade after the seven-day period and be unwatchable. “Kind of like ‘Mission: Impossible,’ only I don’t think there would be any explosion and smoke,” Mr. Gaspin said.
The programs will initially be downloadable only to PCs with the Windows operating system, but NBC said it planned to make the service available to Mac computers and iPods later.
In a second phase of the NBC rollout, customers would pay a fee for downloads of episodes that they would then own, and the files would be transferable to other devices. NBC hopes to offer this service by mid-2008, depending on how quickly the company can put in place the secure software necessary to allow payment by credit card.
The latter system is what is already available through iTunes.
Like Wile E Coyote, the affiliates have not hit the canyon floor yet - but gravity has an inevitable force. So the local stations in commercial and in public media are going to die or create a new model for themselves. It is no longer possible to make money by having a local monopoly on content. Nor can the affiliate depend on the national producer like NBC to protect them.
Both the National Producers and the Affiliates are going to face a crisis before all of this works it way through.
I work with and talk a lot to public radio and TV stations that have long been aware of this inevitability. They have plans well under way along the lines that I have described here. But many have had their head in the sand and may find that they are too late. The real challenge is first of all ‘Mindset”. It takes time to imagine an entirely new way of being.
Think of a habit that you have in your life - one of mine is indolence and sloth. I knew for ages that I was really over weight and weak. My Dad died at my age partly because of this. But in spite of my wife pleading for me to take care, I refused. It took over a year for me to take charge myself, and then only because a dear client, who is in the business of helping the unwilling, took me by the hand. Now, my new habit has taken hold and I feel so much better. I can now experience the improvement and I think I am on my way. It has taken small steps and lots of encouragement and lots of time.
Most stations have none of this. It takes special circumstances to change your whole way of life - even if death is a consequence. Many stations will not have the benefit of a loving and capable friend to help them change. Now they do not have the time either. It’s going to be ugly for many but the aware will pull away and do well.
It’s going to be very rough as well for the national producers. Will their revenue from selling direct, keep up with the losses that they will experience as stations push back on the price for programs that are no longer exclusive?
The fact is that there will still be traditional viewers and listeners but not enough to pay either the station or the producers way.
My bet is that NPR is especially vulnerable here. NPR fees are a very significant cost to stations that will be starving for revenue. NPR’s costs are high. They are also in need of a new building just when the crunch will hit. I think that there is a way though of NPR and PBS and the local stations all starving to death.
What if NPR and PBS had a central site that sold you their content for a very small fee. I click to buy a Nova Program or Morning Edition for a month. I pay a small fee on my credit card as on iTunes or 1 Click on Amazon. My IP forces a choice immediately - which station I will support. The national producer and the station get fed. I get what I want - my content “My Way”.
The affiliates and the producers in Public Media have to get together and do something like this soon. If they don’t the entire system of Public Media will die, leaving only a few local stations.
What will you say when your children ask you why America lost its last place where civic discourse could take place? What then will be lost? Whose fault will it be? It will be the fault of every station leader and NPR and PBS executive who thought that someone else would do their work. It will be the fault of every person in Public Media who refuses to see crisis that confronts them. It will be the fault of every leader who thinks that they can do this on their own.
I beg you all to act together. It just needs a few of you to take the lead and the rest will follow.
