Category: Business

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Business & Marketing Distribution Item of Interest Media Consumption New Media

Here’s The Truth About The Future of the Media Industry

Here’s The Truth About The Future Of The Media Industry http://tinyurl.com/2627upb

The presentation takes a very liberal view of media – essentially anything that is presented with ads beside it to support it (and I’d disagree with that definition but whatever) – but makes the point that “new media” companies are as large and important as “old media” companies.

Slide 8 of the deck shows the relative sizes (market cap) of new and old media and the companies that are included.

Slide 12 introduces the question of “the next battleground: Video” and shows that the trend to IP-delivered video entertainment is “real”.

Good stuff – hard to copy and past images of graphs but clicking through is worth the effort.

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Distribution Item of Interest

Hey Hollywood: Netflix Isn’t the Enemy.

Hey Hollywood: Netflix Isn’t the Enemy, Old Thinking Is http://tinyurl.com/3xasbo7 Netflix wants to pay “Hollywood” good money but no….

The studios and networks helped create this monster by selling Netflix streaming rights to their content, and now they’re finding that they can’t control it. The feeling from content owners — that Netflix is going to eat their lunch if they aren’t careful — has got many rethinking their dealings with the company, and how they distribute digital content in general. But instead of blaming Netflix, movie moguls need to figure out how to make money as their industry moves online, just as moguls in the music and media industry are trying to do today with varying levels of success.

Categories
Item of Interest Monetizing The Business of Production

McRibs and the Art of Artificial Scarcity

McRibs and the Art of Artificial Scarcity http://tinyurl.com/2ebms7v

I loved the Disney example in the article – it’s a perfect attempt (a good one) at creating artificial scarcity. It’s easy to take a physical good off the market – like the MacRib – but with Snow White, I wonder if the artificial scarcity will be as successful when beautiful digital copies get “out there”.

And that’s the problem with artificial scarcities on digital goods: they don’t work. DRM is an attempt to force artificial scarcity and it’s cracked time, after time, after time. If your customer and hear and see your product, it can be reproduced infinitely for little cost.

So the ultimate question is: what are the real scarcities surrounding a film or TV project and how do we monetize them?

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Business & Marketing Distribution Item of Interest Monetizing

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 14

The Terence & Philip Show Episode 14: The future of PBS & Alternate Distribution. http://tinyurl.com/39am779

The discussion starts with KCET’a exit from the PBS network and the implications – including loss of revenue to PBS – does it signal the end of PBS. Will there be a PBS of the Internet?

Will direct producer-viewer connections drive the future. Remember too, that independent production is a business and needs the business model being determined before production starts. How do we fund production?

Categories
Item of Interest The Business of Production

The Walking Dead produced for about 50c per viewer

The Walking Dead produced for about 50c per viewer http://tinyurl.com/28er76d So why a 99c rental? Should be no more than 70c to be fair.

The advantage in producing six episodes in a row was continuity, Ms. Hurd said, keeping cast members in character and the same crew members employed. “It was also, to be hones, far more cost-effective,” she said.

The episodes were filmed almost entirely on location in and around Atlanta, where a roughly 30% tax credit cut down costs. AMC declined to comment on the show’s budget, but two people with knowledge of the production said each episode cost $2 million to $2.5 million, a price that puts it in line with other high-end dramas on cable, though still below the equivalent prices on broadcast television.

It seems like 50c per viewer is right in the middle of current production costs, and right in the middle of typical ad revenue per viewer per show.

Categories
Item of Interest Media Consumption New Media

Four Ways Social Media Will Change Television

Four Ways Social Media Will Change Television http://tinyurl.com/25zp6ar

Instead of the metaphorical “next day” water cooler of history, which was a social component to Television even then, we’re moving the conversation online and into Twitter (and other social conversations). I tend not to watch sports events – it’s just not my thing – but I’m rarely uninformed about the progress of games because my friends tweet constantly about the progress! Social media changing Television.

NewTeeVee identifies Social Viewing, Measurement, Curation and Commerce as the dominant trends in social media support for Television. I tend to agree: I discover new show from recommendations from friends.

Categories
Item of Interest Media Consumption

Comcast app turns Apple devices into remote controls

Comcast app turns Apple devices into remote controls http://tinyurl.com/2cmsxyc I called it back in June! http://tinyurl.com/29l53d8

From my June post:

And the it hit me: Apple and Google (et al.) are going about it the wrong way. The program goes on the big screen. Period. The interface is on our laptop, or iPhone, or iTouch, or (the killer one) an iPad. All have a keyboard for easy entry of urls and search; there are social applications that work just fine on those existing screens.

Trying to put the interface on a screen 20′ away without a keyboard (and wireless keyboards aren’t really an option) is just wrong: not only is it the wrong place, I don’t want to clutter my program communally (which presumably I’m watching because I enjoy it) with social media that’s personal.

The two screen approach makes much more sense. Put the program on the screen – uncluttered like  the program’s director intended – and put the control and any desired interactivity on another screen. An iPad would seem to be perfect for this, but since I don’t plan on getting one, an iPhone or iTouch or Laptop could also run the interface anywhere on the same local area network.

And that’s what Comcast have done: put all the searching and program control on an iDevices application:

The browsing and search functions do much of what a traditional remote can do: You can browse through listings, choose a show and watch it on your TV. You can also change the channel and sort through content based on genre or keyword. If you’re busy, the app also lets you program DVRs to record shows and movies.

It may just sound like a snazzier version of a remote control now, but Comcast is promising some added features to amp up the appeal. Soon, updates to the app will allow users to share what they’re watching through access to social networking sites. Other promised add-ons include the ability to stream video content directly on your Apple gadget (coming in December) and enhanced search functions (coming soon).

Categories
Item of Interest Media Consumption

Nielsen – Small Minority Of Viewers watching True HD

Nielsen – Small Minority Of Viewers Watching True HD http://tinyurl.com/3xghhq6

Nielsen are not saying – as you might think from their headline – that only 13% of those with an HD set are watching HD, but overall the number of views in HD is still only 13%.

Only 13 percent of total day viewing on cable and 19 percent of viewing on broadcast television is “true HD” viewing, the audience measurement company said. That means, despite the billions of dollars that was spent buying HD sets, more than 80 percent of television viewing is still a standard definition experience.

The short article then goes on to explain the reasons why the time viewing HD is so low compared to total viewing.

Categories
Business & Marketing Distribution Item of Interest The Business of Production

Who Needs TV Networks?

Who Needs TV Networks? Mattel Grabs Whitney Port and Goes Right to Hulu http://tinyurl.com/2ej52pz

In what I think will become the dominant trend, Mattel are creating their own programming and going public with it via Hulu. Traditionally Advertisers/Brands rented the eyeballs that Networks and Cable aggregated (in a neat bait and switch to the viewer).

But why should Brand “rent” an audience when they can buy their own? It’s generally cheaper and more effective.

The real story here is the end-around the brand is playing here, bypassing a large spend on traditional TV with a non-trivial spend sent right to an online network (Hulu) for an original web series. Hulu and other online networks like YouTube have proven they have the scale of audience to deliver on what the brand wants to reach. So why bother with bloated TV budgets? The significance of this isn’t lost on Hudsun Media’s CEO Michael Rourke.

“What we are doing with Mattel and Genuine Ken is a complete game changer, ” said Rourke. We have created a wildly compelling, network-quality reality show that, for the first time, can be distributed directly to the viewer in a non-traditional but very effective way.”

All those charts that get marched out in board meetings about how ad spending for online video is shooting up, have projects like this to thank for such lofty forecasts. With some $70 billion spent by brands on Television, the measly $1.4 billion or so in online video seems marginal, but the shift is on.

Categories
Distribution Item of Interest New Media

Broadcast Networks – On Death and Dying

Broadcast Networks – On Death And Dying http://tinyurl.com/2w3dcfo

For Broadcast Networks, the end is coming and it’s time for them to Accepttheir fate.

Kind of premature because Broadcast Networks(and cable) are still dominant,still making the money and still have the premium content, but it’s also equally obvious that status will not remain static in the future.

According to a model developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying”, there are Five Stages of Grief.  
Over the past 20 years or so,Broadcast Networks have bounced around the First Four Stages in an effort to fight off the inevitable: