Changing Viewing Habits the Key to Winning the Streaming Video War http://t.co/IDLK7vDg

My first thought when reading that headline was “well, d’oh”, because it seemed like an oversimplification of the scale of the problem. Sure, if everyone switched over to streaming video for their media consumption, then we’d be in a different position. Trouble is, people generally are watching more television than ever, via more traditional channels than internet delivered streaming content. (more…)

Will we be outsourced or automated out of existence? http://t.co/ytsovtbR

In this episode Terence and Philip discuss the outsourcing of editing jobs, remote (a.k.a cloud) editing and automation in production. What’s happening now and how will it evolve in the near future. Philip also sneaks in a preview of an interesting show he’ll be involved with in 2012.

How the long tail cripples bonus content/multimedia http://t.co/PoDriUI7

I have a friend who used to do a large amount of bonus material for one of the major studios as they progressed through releasing their back catalog. He has already noted that, as of about two years ago, that work dried up completely and now is no longer part of his business, which fortunately is still fairly healthy for him.

This is a depressing reality check, and is probably the counter argument to “the year of Transmedia“. Transmedia is seriously expensive to produce!

The same thing that happened to music is going to be true of books. The typical ebook costs about $10 in out of pocket expenses to write (more if you count coffee and not just pencils). But if we add in $50,000 for app coding, $10,000 for a director and another $500,000 for the sort of bespoke work that was featured in Al Gore’s recent ‘book’, you can see the problem. The publisher will never have a chance to make this money back.

Sure, there will be experiments at the cutting edge, but no, they’re not going to pay off regularly enough for it to become an industry. The quality is going to remain in the writing and in the bravery of ideas, not in teams of people making expensive digital books.

The market didn’t really make a conscious choice here, but the choice has been made: it’s not a few publishers putting out a few books for the masses. No, the market for the foreseeable future is a million publishers publishing to 100 million readers. Do the math. Lots of choice, not a lot of whistles. And no bells.

The Death of Television http://t.co/B7PGGnvk While many are writing about the imminent death of Television, Evan Shapiro has a much broader take: (more…)

Technology & Creativity to power TV Brands of the Future. http://t.co/he4wemLs

Since ultimately, it’s been brands that have financed Television from the first, I’ve long wondered why it’s taking them so long to realize they no longer need the middle man – the networks or channels – because they can take their message directly to the viewer. Mark Pesce set out the basic proposition in his 2005 article Piracy is Good? which sets out the basic Hyperdistribution philosophy: create the advertising content in conjunction with the program so it is sympathetic and integrated, then distribute it as widely and as far as you can, by whatever method works because the advertising message is integral to the program, and – presumably – targeting the same audience, avoiding the “irrelevant advertising” problem I have. (more…)

What is the future of the post house? Episode 39 of The Ternece and Philip Show. http://t.co/dXUREMzz

Starting with an article “Hollywood & the Job Crisis” that leads to be a discussion about constantly changing business model. Right now the model seems to be “how low can you go” which is ultimately self defeating. Where do you go from here? Talent and desire are what will sell. How did post houses get to this, and what will the future hold? What is your Unique Selling Proposition?

Hollywood studios busted as torrent-loving dens of piracy http://t.co/a0PseiWh

Now to be fair, what is being demonstrated is that employees within the studios (and it turns out the some anti-piracy organizations) are indeed downloading unauthorized, copyright material via bittorrent. (more…)

Congressional Research Service Shows Hollywood Is Thriving http://t.co/mP0DU8Xc

An interesting research result from a source that isn’t fully bought and paid for by the Studios, that is, a report that may have some chance of relating to the real world rather than the fantasy land that MPAA/RIAA “research” reports come from. (more…)

Will ‘Arrested Development’ Be A Cost Center Or Profit Unit For Netflix? http://t.co/U47hnHCz

MediaPost asks a very good question about the likely profitability to Netflix of reviving Arrested Development, but ultimately Netflix, like cable companies before it, may fund a program that isn’t profitable directly, but indirectly contributes to the bottom line of the whole channel.  Mad Men on AMC is unlikely to be directly profitable for AMC but it raises the profile and perception of the network and is worthwhile as a result. (more…)

10 Signs Internet TV is Ready to Disrupt the Industry http://t.co/OpURKa1o

The ten bullet points from Mark Suster’s talk at The Future of Television. There’s good detail in the text summary, and the full 10 minute talk is available on video.

1. The promise has been made for too long, People are cynical

2. The right factors are finally in place

3. YouTube is the new Comcast

4. The distributed ad platform enabled this industry to evolve

5. Internet TV is following the CLASSIC case of the “Innovator’s Dilemma”

6. Cable & Satellite packages will become music albums

7. Mass adoption of Internet video has already taken place

8. TV is the medium people prefer (whether we like it or not) –

9. Video is different than text. It requires unique, creative skills

10. This revolution is starting in Los Angeles.