Category: Business

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Apple Item of Interest

Steve Jobs, Circa 1997, Reintroducing Apple

Steve Jobs, Circa 1997, Reintroducing Apple http://nyti.ms/ctAEHP

Steve Jobs, uncharacteristically in shorts, presenting to what seems like a mostly in-house audience in the Campus Town Hall space discussing what Apple stands for.

It’s very, very valuable to understanding the mind of the man who runs Apple and turned it around from near-death to “bigger than Microsoft”. A focus on people rather than MHz and the like, right back then.

He’s leading into the launch of the “Think Different” campaign, which moved me even at this distance.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

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Item of Interest Monetizing

Is Renting TV Shows in 2010 Like Selling Bottled Water in 1970?

Is Renting TV Shows in 2010 Like Selling Bottled Water in 1970? http://bit.ly/cOuese

Jumping right to the conclusions:

From $30 to own a full season outright, to somewhere between $25 – $50 per month to watch and discard as many episodes you can bear to watch. How does $.99 to rent a single episode measure up? At just one episode per day you are already at the similar costs of the alternatives, and that does not include the hidden costs of distribution and storage. So is it then worth it to rent a-la-carte from Apple in convenient individual packages, or is it still much better to just pay for the water hook-up represented by cable and Netflix and drink from the tap whenever you like?

99c for a rental is outrageous for a “half hour” show, where the best the major Networks can get is 25c from advertising revenue. Add Apple’s markup of 14c and the maximum that’s reasonable is 39c for a rental. And that’s for premium, first run content off one of the major networks. Lesser content should be priced *below* that.

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Business & Marketing Distribution Item of Interest Monetizing

Is $10 The Magic Number In Online Publishing

Is $10 The Magic Number In Online Publishing? http://bit.ly/d9NS5x

Now that advertising isn’t going to be the only way to fund film and TV distribution, there are all sorts of ideas on how to fill the gap.

While this article is really focused on news, it’s not that removed from the idea of “1000 true fans” although with the true fans meme it is an average of $10 a month that you’re looking for from some “valuable consideration” – doesn’t have to be directly paying for content.

For example, as Shanahan notes in his blog, where he tries to compare ARPUs of public sites, People’s print magazine clocked a high $409 per customer in 2009 while Demand Media, many of whose users don’t hang around longer than to read a how-to article, notched just $1.60 per reader per year.

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Distribution Item of Interest

Blockbuster plans mid September Bankruptcy.

Blockbuster tells Hollywood studios it’s preparing for mid-September bankruptcy – LA Times http://bit.ly/cktTTb

Coming as no surprise after losing $1.1 billion in the last few years, and after closing 1000 stores, Blockbuster has been caught between business models: streaming and avoiding the store all together, and the Redbox cheap (and in convenient locations) machines.

Blockbuster post bankruptcy plans on increasing “non-store” revenue (streaming and kiosks).

I guess there’s a role for the store in movie rentals? But when Netflix delivers from a selection approaching 100,000 titles, and the average Blockbuster carries just 5000 titles, how can it really compete?

The studios would likely be protected from any significant losses on payments Blockbuster might owe them at the time it files for bankruptcy under the proposed plan. But they would lose revenue from any stores shut down.

The parties most impacted would be Blockbuster’s junior debt holders and the landlords of leases that would be canceled under the proposed bankruptcy. It remains to be seen whether they would attempt to challenge a plan that left them with a fraction of what they are owed.

After delisting the company is worth only $24 million with a massive debt attached.

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Distribution Item of Interest New Media

New Numbers Reveal: Cord Cutting is Real. Or not.

New Numbers Reveal: Cord Cutting Is Real http://bit.ly/920KcM

I’d love to believe that “cord cutting” – dropping a cable subscription in favor of web delivered video – is growing and that Internet distribution is a raging success. Except it’s not. At least not yet.GigOm quote some statistics – and for sure this is the biggest quarterly drop that cable subscription numbers have experienced  – but the reality is:

… much of those losses seem to be attributable to customers who subscribed to pay TV early last year due to the broadcast digital transition. Now these customers see the prices for their introductory packages going up, and quite a few of them have decided not to stick around.

Another GigOm post says that “45% of TV viewers get their shows online,” which makes a great headline, until you read the body of the article:

Almost half of all consumers watch TV content online every week, according to a new study released by the Ericsson ConsumerLab today

Watching a single video on YouTube would qualify you in that 45% so there’s no news there, particulalry when the same article presents:

However, linear TV content still reigns supreme: 93 percent watch plain old television every week.

So, watching online video doesn’t diminish the watching of conventional Television.

There are definitely “cord cutters” out there – ourselves among them – who have dropped cable or satellite (and over the air).

As an aside I couldn’t help noting the end of the article:

Apple, on the other hand, should be encouraged by Ericsson’s findings. 37 percent of consumers are very interested in a touch-screen tablet as a remote control for their TV.

That’s what I said months ago. It’s the logical solution to the problem.

If you want to give it a go (cord cutting) Salone has an article today Cut the cord: A guide to free TV but that article’s point one is to “adjust your expectations”! Right.

The most sane commentary on the subject in the last day or so comes from Silicon Alley Insider’s Judge The Success Of Web Video By Real Business, Not Hype Like “Cord Cutting.” I’m big on “real business results” since that’s what ultimately we judge on. The always sensible Dan Rayburn (president of StreamingMedia.com) concludes a very long and excellent counterpoint to the unreasonable optimism from “online video” proponents with:

Notice almost no analyst talks about what’s taking place today? It’s almost always about the future and three or four years away yet there are plenty of opportunities right now. This industry survived the crash in 2000 because expectations were re-set and consumers, vendors, VCs and others all came back down to reality of what was real and what was hype. Many of us don’t want to see the industry go through another correction like that, even though in the long run, it was the best thing that could of happened at the time. It will sound odd to some, but for those in the industry at that time, they will most certainly agree with me that our industry needed to go through that in order to survive and be where it is today.

Don’t let the hype in this industry become the metrics for how we judge true success in the market.

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Distribution HTML5 Item of Interest

MPEG LA: H.264 Streaming Will Be Free Forever

RT @ccrask: HUGE NEWS via @ NewTeeVee MPEG LA: H.264 Streaming Will Be Free Forever http://dlvr.it/4Gp93 No reason not to be HTML5 as the default but the open source purists will find a way.

It’s late. Read the article. It’s good news.

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Distribution Item of Interest

RIAA: The DMCA Isn’t Working.

RIAA: The DMCA Isn’t Working http://bit.ly/96D0Cg

I just love the insanity that is Carey Sherman of the RIAA who states:

“You cannot monitor all the infringements on the Internet. It’s simply not possible,” says RIAA President Cary Sherman. “We don’t have the ability to search all the places infringing content appears, such as cyberlockers like [file-hosting firm] RapidShare.”

But expects that ISPs can do that which he has just said isn’t possible.  Insanity. Either these people are shameless, shameless liars, or simply totally incompetent. I vote for totally incompetent having grown up on monopoly “rents” they simply cannot adapt to changing circumstances where their role is nearly irrelevant (if there is still a role for Record Companies at all in five years).

As the article concludes:

As it is, the DMCA protects online service providers — especially smaller ones — from living in fear of lawsuits and having to spend money and resources to patrol for infringing material. The most important question, however, is whether private corporations such as ISPs (which can monitor all of your online communication) should really be responsible for figuring out who’s breaking the law.

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Item of Interest Monetizing

What can we learn from YouTubers making “big money”?

What can we learn from YouTube stars making “big money”? http://bit.ly/bcqBxU

Yet another story based on the TubeMogul data I reported last week when it was news. These 10 YouTube “stars” make between $100K and $315K – certainly nothing to be ashamed of and definitely above the goal of “a middle class income for all in production”.

It was the summary that almost made me laugh with its obviousness:

  • Good Content => $$$
  • if you can get enough traffic, you can make money
  • It takes time to build an audience and get to this level.

Despite the fairly obvious remarks above there are some good points in the analysis:

It’s probably not a coincidence that so many of these content creators are teenagers (or were when they started out), as teenagers tend to have less responsibility and more free time than full-time working adults like you and me.  Their common age bracket also tells you something about how many young viewers there are on YouTube, and just how loyal that audience can be.

and

While we may traditionally think of YouTube as a way to market our preexisting business, it might be time to start thinking of it as a possible new revenue stream as well.  The big lesson for us to learn here is this:  you can earn money on YouTube.  Maybe not $315,000 a year like Shane Dawson.  Maybe not quit-your-job-and-buy-a-mansion money… but good content will get views.  And views will provide advertising potential.  And advertising potential will eventually turn into dollars.

Categories
Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata Studio 2.0 The Technology of Production Video Technology

‘Interoperable Master Format’ for file-based workflow

‘Interoperable Master Format’ Aims to Take Industry Into a File-based World http://bit.ly/bvF6Vk

A group working under the guidance of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC is trying to create specifications for an interoperable set of master files and associated metadata. This will help interchange and automate downstream distribution based on metadata carried in the file. The first draft of the specification is now done based on (no surprises) the MXF wrapper. (Not good for FCP fans, as Apple has no native support for MXF, without third party help).

Main new items: dynamic metadata for hinting pan-scan downstream and “Output Profile List”:

“The IMF is the source if you will, and the OPL would be an XML script that would tell a transcoder or any other downstream device how to set up for what an output is on the other side,” Lukk explained.

The intention is to bring this draft spec to SMPTE, but first, ETC@ USC is urging the industry to get involved. “We need industry feedback and input on the work that the group has done thus far,” said ETC CEO and executive director David Wertheimer. “Anyone who has interest in this topic should download the draft specification and provide feedback to the group.”

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Distribution Item of Interest

Red Princess Blues distributes via iTunes App

Red Princess Blues distibutes movie via iTunes App http://bit.ly/a7jzvJ

A long time ago I started a post titled “The future of distribution is an out-of-browser experience” thinking something like apps. This was before iTunes apps were even available. More recently I postulated on how a production could use an App as its central home in a post facetiously titled How do you get Disney to fund your next production that used a combination of iAds for funding and app for video (both pre- and production content) with in-App commerce.

Well, Red Prince Blues have done the distribution side already – see the iTunes App link above. But making an app is challenging for creative filmmakers or TV producers, so maybe we need an Xcode project template like Chris Mayer has provided for publishing a book as an iDevices App.