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News, Journalists & Citizens...
Posted in Citizen Journalism, Publishing, Reports, News on March 13th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
According to the State of the News Media report (Via Micro Persuasion), the news industry needs a new economic model. Last year’s decline in newspaper circulation seems to confirm this. Some newspapers are doing better than others, for example the Financial Time’s integrated newsroom seems to be paying off and the USA Today new website is attracting thousands of members. All in all, out of all the traditional media outlets, and as we reported before, it’s the publishing industry who is leading in innovation on news. Journalists themselves, Cyberjournalist reports, are starting to make TV.
On the other hand, Citizen Journalists, or at least French Citizen Journalists, seemed to have it harder: France approved a law making it illegal for non journalists to capture and distribute videos of violent acts. Later on, upon reading the actual text of this law, Lost Remote reader confirmed the law was limited to acts of violence done in order to be filmed and broadcast. It’s surprising though that of all countries France passed a law that proposes a “certification system” to label “government approved sources of information”.
Below the line TV...
Posted in Television, News on March 13th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Last Halloween, Fox let their Simpsons fans build their own Treehouse of Horror special episode from a collection of short clips and a simple video editor online. Maybe inspired by this idea, last week the Sci Fi channel gave their “Battlestar Galactica” viewers tools (Via Digg) to create their own short Battlestar Galactica Film. Instead of having to edit their clip online, fans download sound effects, music and images from the series and edit their short clips on their own software.
As Lost Remote and Digg commenters noticed this great idea has been cut short by one condition from the Sci Fi channel: that clips can’t be uploaded anywhere but on their own site, effectively killing any chance of this becoming a great (and free) viral marketing campaign.
Meanwhile, the NBC keeps doing a great job with “Heroes” spreading the buzz and involving their audience beyond each episode, their so called 360 Strategy.
The Snack Culture...
Posted in Long Tail, Internet, News on March 13th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
On it’s March issue wired published a manifesto and and several “Bite-Size” examples of what they call “The Snack Culture“:
We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips - in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed. This is snack culture - and boy, is it tasty (not to mention addictive).
Because of it’s short length, “bite sized” contents naturally tend to be very niche oriented. Maybe it the concept of “Bite-Size” media creation and consumption is the way some media contents are adapting to the Long Tail.
Interesting links from last week...
Posted in Television, Internet, Radio, News on March 13th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
GigaOM: Last.fm, Pandora Ko-ed by new royalties?
The Copyright Royalty Board increased Internet radio royalty rates adopting a rate proposal that according to webcasters (such as Pandora or Last FM) will put them out of business.
Meet EZTV the leading TV contents distributor group via Bittorrent. Interesting for it’s views on piracy as a positive force for the TV industry.
Lost Remote: The Future of Media
… a series of one-on-one video interviews with local technology thought leaders about the future of media. (…) Also, a great example of how a local broadcaster can carve out a niche online.
Camilla Engman (Illustrator)...
Posted in Visual, Art, Illustration on March 12th, 2007. By Ona Vinyamata.
From Göteborg, Sweden, Camilla’s illustrations are emotionally intense: her characters seem to struggle communicating a complex story. The viewer has the illusion of a secret intimate connection, something (more…)
What if Google dealt with content producers?...
Posted in IPTV, Television, News on March 5th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Robert Young published and excellent article at GigaOm about YouTube’s recent relationships with major media companies. In it he wonders, right in the second paragraph, how long would it take for some media brand to cave in and strike a deal with Google. Just a few hours later a deal between the BBC and YouTube was announced.
The really interesting part of the article came a little later, when Young compared the current business model of broadcasters with what YouTube could one day do. Broadcasters own the distribution channel, they take a risk by buying contents from producers, hoping to profit by selling advertising against their programming. Right now Google is in a very similar position, they own the distribution channel (YouTube) and they are trying to buy the network’s programming upfront (by making money guarantees). Like the networks themselves, they hope to profit later on through advertisement.
Robert Young comes up with the following question: how long until Google decides to skip the networks and directly buy from the producer? From Google’s business model point of view, networks add little value to actual contents.
As it is right now, YouTube is beating all network sites combined, even without Viacom’s contents. The audience is here. This year, thanks to technologies such as this or this, or this for the mobile, Internet video contents can be watched on any TV. The technology is in place. Maybe then, it just takes one successful deal with a professional content producer and a sensible advertising strategy to start a new era for television contents broadcasting.
iTunes & Indie content...
Posted in IPTV, Long Tail, News on March 5th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
There was some buzz last week about iTunes opening up to indie filmmakers. It all came from a Variety article reporting how iTunes features “That”, a 40 minute snowboarding production, the first outside their current studio system deals.
Until now all independent content in iTunes was limited to the podcasting section of the store, and independent content producers could not charge for their content. As NewTeeVee reports though, this is far from an open venue for indie producers and filmmakers to sell their contents to. “That” owners had to bargain for 10 months with Apple, there is no DRM negotiation possible, and even price to the public is non negotiable and has to comply with current Apple rates.
Steve O’Hear, who is linked and quoted in the NewTeeVee article summarizes very well how we feel after learning a little bit more about Apple’s “open” venue for Indie distribution:
The thing that frustrates me is that Apple could pretty much own the long tail content market. If you look at what happened when they added podcasting, they — overnight — became the default podcast directory.
The BitTorrent Entertainment Network disappoints...
Posted in IPTV, News on March 5th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Last week we reported the launch of the BitTorrent Entertainment Network. Today we can report on the reviews of BitTorrent’s new venture. The general feeling is of disappointment, and the cause of it is the way DRM has been implemented and their price choices.
To fight piracy iTunes sells convenience: trouble free, easy to find & download contents. Even though iTunes contents have DRM, they seem to be flexible enough for most consumers. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network makes it easy to find and buy contents, but offers more trouble than convenience to the consumer: DRM failures rendering purchases useless, compatibility limited to Windows XP, having to be online to confirm your license before watching anything, and a painful authentication process.
On top of this, the pricing scheme they decided to implement is clearly overpriced when compared to buying a DVD. It also offers little incentives compared to renting a movie offline. It’s not only that content owners are saving money not printing their contents on a CD or a DVD, like in iTunes. With Bittorrent, they are not even investing in bandwidth costs from the distribution of said contents. Somehow all this savings are not reflected on the consumer’s final price tag.
As it is right now, Bram Cohen is going to need more than soft porn to make this work.
Related: Bram Cohen Interview on his new BitTorrent Entertainment Network (Via Digg)
Selected articles & Joost invitations...
Posted in Internet, Mobile, News on March 5th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Here’s a selection of 3 must-read articles published just last week:
The Attention Economy: An Overview (Via Digg)
…The challenge is not just to protect consumers information, the challenge is to put the user in control of her information… Instead, the user chooses what services he/she wants to receive in exchange for their attention information.
Mobile as the 7th Mass Media (Via Smart Mobs)
…the mobile, as the 7th Mass Media is the youngest, least understood, most dangerous new mass media - one which will soon supercede the internet.
…They then think with a legacy TV mindset, and assume the phone is the dumb little screen, worth only for “snacking” and that “classic” TV content (programmes) should be chumped into tiny bits of football highlights and news soundbytes and little “mobisodes” and this will bring TV to mobile.
…That same argument would suggest we cannot comfortably consume newspaper content on a PC, yet after a newspaper website is cleverly reformated - with a search button for example near the top - the internet is SUPERIOR to the newspaper, even though a traditional full page newspaper does not fit on a PC screen without some zooming or panning or scrolling.
Study: Linear TV on its way out to many (Via Lost Remote)
People in the 18-39 age group will consume 80 percent of their television/video via the internet, VOD, DVR, IPTV or other on-demand platforms in 7 years time
Also, Media Cool Hunting has been a beta tester of Joost for a few months now. We just received 2 invitations and we would like to offer them back to you. If you are interested in joining the Joost beta program get in touch with us through our contact form.
S. Barnes and M. Vettese (Artists)...
Posted in Visual, Art, Photography on March 5th, 2007. By Ona Vinyamata.
Stephanie and Maria live 3191 miles apart. They like to get up early. They post one unplanned picture every morning in their shared project “3191, A Year Of Mornings”. The daily discovery of the connections (more…)