Last week there was a lot of talk of Hulu becoming a subscription service. The reaction to this has been all over the map. Everything from it is a great idea to everyone will go back to being a pirate. Of course no one know anything until the details come out.
If you look at Hulu now, you will see that most of the A-level content only goes back a few episodes. You cannot catch up for a whole season on Hulu. It is there if you missed an episode or if you want to watch episodes on the internet around when they air on TV. The premium content, like the Showtime Show Weeds, you only get clips.
In the best of all worlds the current free content stays free. Subscription content is only for things you would otherwise have to buy the DVD to get or full episodes of premium content. If that was the subscription service Hulu offered, it might be successful.
The problem with this model is clear. A successful pay wall will cause more programs to go behind that pay wall. In part because networks control the shows, there are still lots of hands in those pockets. If someone sees a new revenue stream, everyone will want to swim in it.
This year people have been talking a lot about cutting the cord of cable TV. This works, as long as not many people do it. TV networks and producers count on the revenue from cable subscriptions to make their business work. If enough people stop paying cable bills the whole business model will stop working. Right now cutting the cord works, if you want less content to watch. Yeah, I cannot watch all the networks that get with my cable, but I sure watch a lot of them.
I think that people who are looking at Hulu as source of free TV will be upset in a while. If everyone wants TV for free we will be stuck like crap like I'm a Celebrity get me Out of Here and The Hills as the only new content to watch. That is not really the world I am looking forward to.
Today I have seen two stories about how Hulu is blocking anonymous Proxies. The reason Hulu is doing this is to block international web content. This is a problem that Amazon, Vudu, and TiVo has run into in the past. This is a problem with international licensing. Pick a show, Fringe for example, and look at its international broadcasters. If someone can get this show on the internet for free, these broadcasters will pay a lot less for them.
The said truth is that all content is worth less that it used to be worth. The problem is that the money made by content providers is also going to be reduced. Ad revenue is going down and putting up walls will not help. Getting content in front of people is what will make content producers money. The first content provider who realize this can stake claim in the next world of content. Not realizing this could ruin companies like the ways newspapers have ruined their business model.
I have not read any of Secret Invasion. I only buy comics that are collected as graphic novels or trade paper backs. That means I will have to wait until next year to read Secret Invation. I am impressed with Marvel's Embrace Change Campaign. It looks Marvel Comics is finding good ways to use the web to market their comics. Not only do they have a website with a cool video, they also have a twitter account.
I like the video, but I am a little sad it is only a voice over. It is cool that other people make there own videos about Secret Invasion. I would like to see the humans speak telling us that they embraced change. If I had time and friends who read comics I might make a video about how we have embraced change. I just do not have that kind of time or skills.
There is a new Nielsen study about TV, Internet and Mobile Usage Among Americans. There are two really points in this report to me. The first is a surprise in how little time people are watching time shifted programs. If 35% of people have I would expect more that 5% of viewership to be timeshifted. When I worked at TiVo we conducted studies saying that TiVo owners timeshifted a lot more of their programs than the people with a cable company DVR.
I am not surprised that people are watching so little television on the internet and on mobile devices. Even with big jumps, the numbers are small compared to how many people are watching TV. Every group watches more TV than internet video. Even under 35 is watching a lot of television. Even the age group 12-17 is watching almost 90 hours a week. This goes against conventional wisdom, but it is the truth. It is sexy to think that broadcast television is a dinosaur and will be gone soon. From these numbers I do not expect this to be true. Television is going to be around for a long time. I think it will be longer than ten years. I think content companies will not be willing to kill broadcast television while they can still make money with it.
It's an Internet Party, Don't let it clog your tube
Laughing Squid linked to this video of an internet party. When I say internet party, I mean the party when you personify the most popular sites on the net. It is pretty funny. I really like Ebay and paypal. I also like that the sites are all college age. It says something about who is important on the web.
You should watch the video for the O-Phone. I do not think this video is funny because it is making fun of Microsoft. It is funny because it is making fun of marketing. It is making fun of the way people try to promote products. It makes fun of how people take bad designs and try to tell you the design it good. That is why this video is worth watching.
I have been reading about how NBC Universal and News Corp want to dethrone YouTube and Google as kings of internet video. I think this is pretty funny. I have the feeling that people at NBC and News Corp have no idea what makes YouTube successful. Google did not even have a good idea so they bought them. I think Hollywood thinks they can dictate what will be successful. I think that would be a big mistake. I have some advice for this new site. I know that Hollywood is not good at taking advice, but I will give it anyway.
1) On the internet Short is Big
There is a line from the story that jumped right out at me.
When it launches in the summer, the new venture will feature thousands of hours of full-length TV shows and videos for free on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo shortly after they appear on television networks.
The networks have to remember that there is more than one way to show the same show. When it comes to shows like The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Family Guy, make sure you cut the shows into segments. It is often single joke of segments that people want to see. If there is a really funny skit on Saturday Night Live, let me see just that skit. Don't make me see the whole show to see it. This is why the Daily Show has been so popular on You Tube.
2) Viral is King
To be honest, the networks do not do a good job at getting me to watch network shows. They also do not do a good job of getting me to network websites. Let me do an exchange table for you.
1 conversation about a clip on the internet = 10 emails about that clip 1 email from a friend = 10 friends blog posts 1 Friends blog post is = 10 Strangers blog posts 1 stranger blog post is = 10 mentions in the media 1 mention in the media = 100 promos on TV.
As much as the promos during the Daily Show tell me to visit their web site, it takes people telling me about "The Internet is not a Dump Truck" for me to visit it. A friend telling me I will like something carries a lot more weight than some network shill telling me it is really cool.
The other important thing about Viral Marketing is that the public decides what is good. The site just puts the clips up and people get to make up their mind. The problem with network TV is that people feel they have no input into the programing. The site just needs to give the users the tools to decide what to watch.
3) Give me Something Special
Since you own the show you can give people extra content. A site like this is the perfect place for special features. Behind the scenes, director commentary, extra content, deleted scenes, alternate endings. All of those things you can try out here. As a bonus you can reuse this footage for the DVDs later.
4) User Control is Important
If I was to run one of these sites, I would give the users a lot of power. The ability to link to the content is really important. That is my biggest problem with the Comedy Central site. I cannot get to specific content.
You also need to give users the ability to embed content on blogs and other web sites. This will help your users find and share content. The long tale is all about users helping users find content. Hollywood should not look past that. This is a great way to leverage content.
If I was running one of these sites, I would give the users the ability to upload content. They should be able to upload their content and parody content. Content like Nobody's Watching would be perfect. It would be great to see Nobody's Watching 24 parody next to actual 24 content.
I would even give users the ability to upload my content to the site. If I was running a site for the Tonight Show or Late Night, I would let the users decide what clips should be up there. Let them be part of the action and they will market for you. I think this is one of the keys that makes You Tube compelling.
I know Hollywood will not take any of my advice. I know that the average marketer will not agree with any idea that is not their idea. Knowing all that, I am still willing to give my advice for free.
Last night I was watching Frontline episode News War Pt. 1. I thought about a lot of things when I watched this episode. I thought about why people don't trust the media. I think about what the media has become in modern day America. How did we get to this place? How did the media and government get in a place where it is such a battle all the time? This is supposed to be a four part Frontline. I hope they go over a lot of how we got here.
They talked a lot about grand juries and journalists. There is no federal shield law for journalists. If a federal grand jury asks you a question you better answer. The Attorney General and Department of Justice will have no problem throwing anyone in jail. With the public option of journalist, I do not think the public will come rushing to your aid. On top of these is the question, who is a journalist? Is a blogger a journalist? There is no licenses for journalists. You do not have to pass a test like a lawyer. You do not have to join a professional society to be a journalist. If you go back to when the Bill of Rights was written anyone who could print up a pamphlet was a journalist. I think that is a good reason to say a blogger is a journalist.
In the Frontline episode they talk about Josh Wolf. He is currently in jail for not providing his unused footage to the police when they asked for it. He is now in jail because of this stand. I remember when this case started. I guess I was not too worried about it because I do not like anarchists. Since this was related to an anarchist anti-globalism march, I was not too worried about the results.
According to the episode Josh Wolf has been in jail longer then any American journalist. I wonder what this is not more in the news. I know that many journalist do not like bloggers. It is easy to see journalist painting bloggers all with the same brush. I would think that journalist would be more interested in this because it could happen to them.
I would like to point out Keith Olbermann. He covered Judith Miller going to jail for her source like it was a matter of national shame. He spoke as if her going to jail as our democracy was falling apart. Yet I do not remember one mention of Josh Wolf on his show. Judith Miller knows that she and Josh Wolf are in the same boat.
I met Josh Wolf once. It was a few weeks the whole protest thing happened. KRON held an event for bloggers. We talked about video blogging and if it was really going to take off or not. He was really passionate about video on the web. This way way before YouTube and Google video.
As a blogger I feel that I should be doing more for this case. I am do not see myself as a citizen journalist. I still think it is important for bloggers who do work as citizen journalist are protected. I think that shield laws should protect bloggers.
I am outraged that Josh Wolf is still in jail. I am disappointed with the mainstream media that they have given little notice to this story. I am just not sure what I can do about any of it.
The world of internet video is getting cooler everyday. I think that this video is another example. I just worry that there is no way to find all of it. I am not sure there will be a good way to find any of it. I guess I will have to just count on my friends for now.
I have been playing with Abazab over the last couple of days. Really, I have been playing with shooting video with my phone and trying to post it to Abazab. I have had my phone for a few weeks, but I have only now started taking videos.
Check out my abazab playbox. For right now I have it on my home page. I know what home pages are old ideas. No one has home pages. I am just putting it there until I figure out what to do with it. I am not sure where to put it so people will see it. I might just have to put it a couple of places.
I learned about abazab from MJ. It is in beta right now, we have to give it a little leaway if things seem strange.
I am not sure what I should put up on Abazab. Right now I can only get 15 second clips from my phone. Fifteen seconds is cool, but there is not that much I can do with it. I could post little things everyday. If it cool enough that I am thinking of getting a web cam. It is someplace I could post video content and share it with other people.
Tell me if there is anything you would like to see me publish.
I think it is pretty big news that Google Set to Sell Video From CBS, NBA. I cannot think of anything else that Google charges end users for. I wonder where this is leading their business. Are we going to see a big shift in the way they do business? I wonder what kind of info Google wants to sell to us.
