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The Shrinking Stage of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
“Short-sighted at best.”
I believe I said this in today’s New Media / New Marketing segment on TheTVNews.tv (embedded below) and Marc Andreessen, one of the originators of the Mosaic web browser that ignited the Web in 1995 and co-founder of Netscape, says it also, further below.
Big media companies just don’t get it. Being truly successful on the Web means being practically ubiquitous. They still want to control things. A shrinking stage is easier to control, and in some cases may be easier to monetize; but ultimate success comes from reaching your audience and your potential audience with as wide a reach as possible. At least that’s my expansive view.
Yes, sure, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are GREAT shows. I’m a fan, especially of Stewart’s; BUT Comedy Central’s decision to pull these hot programs off of the commercial TV, online video hub site Hulu.com is a short term mercenary move that shows that Viacom (old media company & owner of Comedy Central) doesn’t know how to leverage the popularity of these programs in order to really build their brand in an even bigger way. They are limiting the size of their stage in order to harness what they think is the best possible payday.
Yes, their network may well capture more advertising dollars in the short run, but how many more clips would end up being spread virally if they let them run free on the web? How much would this exposure be worth on an on-going basis, in terms of good will as well as exposure amongst the web hordes? We’ll never know because rather than decentralizing distribution and going wide, they have opted to “centralize” availability of online video of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report exclusively on the Comedy Central website in order to optimize return on their advertising avails.
Here’s my video opinion from the TheTVNews.tv, and more Marc Andreessen comments are further below:
To further illuminate this perspective, here are Marc Andreessen’s comments on TechCrunch, entitled Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats.” Among other things, he said:
No matter how many iPads the Apple sells, the Web will always be the bigger market. “There are 2 billion people on the Web,” he says. “The iPad will be a huge success if it sells 5 million units.” Despite trying time and again, Andreessen’s observation is that media companies have no aptitude for technology, nor do they really understand what technology companies do. The one thing technology companies do really well is deal with constant disruption…
(Andreessen) believes that all the talk once again from big media companies about erecting paywalls or somehow charging for news, articles and video online is shortsighted at best. He comes back to the simple fact that the open Web is where the users are.
Bottom line, as far as I can tell for the foreseeable future, the Web is where the real audience lives. We are global. We are the Web. We visit many, many websites. No one site, not even Google, can control the flow. Some can dominate for a while.
So, if you have a red hot property, like Mr. Jon Stewart for example, you can make some bucks by demanding the video viewers come to you, rather than putting your program in as many places at once as possible. But, how can I say it? That would be short-sighted, at best.
What would you do, if you were Viacom?
Tags: colbert, comedy central, jon stewart, the daily show
Posted in TV Industry, online video, television, video | No Comments »
Online Video, the TV Everywhere Buzzword & Where It’s Going
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Online video continues its seemingly never ending expansion. Now, it’s everywhere.
According to the latest NielsenWire report:
The number of unique viewers of online video increased 5.2% year-over-year according to The Nielsen Company, from 137.4 million unique viewers in January 2009 to 142.7 million in January 2010.
Among the top Web brands ranked by unique viewers in January, Disney Online was the fastest growing month-over-month, increasing 23.3%.
As I discussed in the Tuesday, 2/16 edition of TheTVNews.tv (my New Media / New Marketing segment is at about 2:42), amongst the TV industry, the term “TV Everywhere” is starting to achieve such high visibility that it’s almost confusing. As you probably know, Comcast has attempted to own the term as a brand; but TV Everywhere really stands for much more.
I realized that this issue needed to be addressed when I saw it achieve TLA status. In case you don’t know the joke, TLA stands for three-letter acronym, and TV Everywhere is starting to be used so commonly that it’s starting to be referred to as TVE. Brightcove (see below) even has a product called TVE-SP or the TV Everywhere Solution Pack.
But before I say a few words about why I think Brightcove may be useful to some of you, I just have to say that TV Everywhere is becoming another “buzzword du jour.” So, be careful how you use it.
In the same way that terms like “multimedia” and “digital video” in earlier eras were used as catch phrases that covered too much broad ground to be entirely useful, TV Everywhere is a similarly vague term. Bottom line, TV Everywhere refers to any video content creator’s attempt to publish its video content online, i.e. via the Internet, in addition to publishing said content via more traditional broadcasting and/or cable and/or DVD channels.
That said, we are seeing more and more of this kind of approach and this winter’s two premiere sporting events—the Winter Olympics via NBC and NCAA basketball’s “March Madness” via CBS—provide vivid illustrations of the online video / TV Everywhere trend, but with notable differences.
PaidContent.org’s Staci D. Kramer provides an excellent overview, dare I say “high level perspective” with her post, Vancouver 2010: Watching The ‘TV Everywhere’ Olympics From 30,000 Feet. Of course, video on the Internet also now means video on laptops on airplanes thanks to in-flight wi-fi. More importantly, it’s interesting to note NBC’s huge jumps of 350% in unique viewers and 700% in video streams since they put video of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics on the web.
March Madness is even bigger in terms of unique visitors, and I like CBSSports.com’s more open approach better. Unlike NBC who is keeping all the video on one site, NBCOlympics.com, CBS and their “March Madness On-Demand” (MMOD) plays nice with the other web video kids by sharing its valuable video in a web-friendly way. Their approach is illuminated in this interview by Light Reading Cable with CBSSports.com’s Senior VP and General Manager, Jason Kint. Kint explains that CBS lets the likes of ESPN and YouTube link to it’s content. This not only spreads the wealth of this content and creates good will and increased visibility for CBS as “media host,” but it is also more progressive and aligned with what makes “the web go round” i.e. sharing content is good and ultimately better for media consumers. (That’s us!)
By way of additional perspective, I brought up Brightcove.com earlier for two reasons. First, because I value to views of Brightcove’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire. Mr. Allaire has been a web innovator since day 1, most notably leading the team at Macromedia that made the Flash platform that has become something of a web video standard today. If you want more perspective on TV Everywhere, I highly recommend Allaire’s Predictions for Online Video in 2010 (via AllThingsD.com) as well as TechCrunch’s coverage of Brightcove Wants To Take “TV Everywhere” Beyond Your Cable Company’s Video Website.
Secondly, for small enterprises and sole proprietors of all kinds, I recommend a YouTube channel as the fastest, easiest and least expensive way to aggregate your video clips (a.k.a. your content). But, for larger organizations and particularly TV industry folk like producers, cable networks and others who own their content, more sophisticated ways to publish it on the web is necessary. Online video publishers, for example need a feature set that includes the ability to embed your own advertising sales as well as other features. In this case, an online software platform like Brightcove delivers. Make sense?
Then, with the publishing platform in place, program distributors can get down to creating impactful social media marketing support and multi-screen cross-promotion for their programs. And, that’s just for openers.
In other words, the fun is just beginning. TV Everywhere is now and always. So if you are a significant creator of video content you better get with the TVE program ASAP.
Also, by way of reference, I’d like to share the following Brightcove promotional video. It’s just an FYI, and not because I was paid to post it… although I wouldn’t mind 
I hope this is useful, and as always, I look forward to your comments, feedback and suggestions. Thanks for reading.
Tags: broadcasters, broadcasting, CBS, CBS Sports, CBSSports.com, march madness, NBC, NBCOlympics.com, online video, tv everywhere, tv everywhere TVE, TV Industry, winter olympics
Posted in TV Industry, Video Web, online video, television, video, youtube | 1 Comment »
Super Bowl Ads Still Lack Social Media Marketing Success (Mostly)
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Thanks to everyone who participated in our live, interactive Super Bowl Commercial Rating Party in partnership with TheTVNews.tv, the TV industry’s only daily video newscast. (Watch this space and TheTVNews.tv for details on our Oscars Party.)
By way of follow up, Jeff and I did a segment on tomorrow, Wednesday 2/10’s show (my New Media / New Marketing starts at 2:50) discussing my view of the winner and loser Super Bowl advertisers in terms of social media marketing. We referenced Reprise Media’s Search Marketing Scorecard on the Super Bowl (a free PDF download) which points out a surprising fact: While 93% of the advertisers—who shelled out a reported average of $2.6 million for each spot—do have an official Facebook profile, (get this) only 5% promoted their social profiles in order to leverage or take better advantage of their massive investment (a.k.a. marketing expense).
The single biggest social media marketing loser was Denny’s. Here’s the link to Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
The viral marketing buzz winner was the Audi Green Police spot below which got the most Twitter buzz according to Trendrr (via a chart referenced in the Repris Media report):
Bonus Category: My “nominee” for the Super Bowl TV spot with “Best Script,” at least the script that hit closest to home for me had to be this creative “Man’s Last Stand” spot for Dodge Charger:
Too bad I don’t relate better to the product.
Bonus Just for Fun Video Link: Business Insider’s 10 Best Tech Super Bowl Ads Ever
Bonus Link #2: USA Today’s Super Bowl “Ad Meter” (pretty slick, including green screen video intro)
As always, your comments, suggestions, rants, and any other insights you care to offer are welcome via the comments space below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Tags: audi, dennys, gary vaynerchuk, social media, social media marketing, super bowl, super bowl ads, youtube
Posted in TV Industry, facebook, internet marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, television, twitter, video, youtube | 6 Comments »
TV Industry News, Talkin’ New Media, part 2
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
I’m continuing to have fun as a video contributor and New Media / New Marketing expert on TheTVNews.tv. Today was the “world premiere” of what will now be a weekly appearance every Tuesday and more. I wrote a press release for the occasion, “New Media / New Marketing Consultant Joins the TV industry’s Only Daily News Show with Weekly Segment.”
This press release also introduces the “Super Bowl Commercial Rating Party” which will be offered via Twitter and Facebook during the big game. FYI, we’re still looking for peeps with TV industry creds and experience. If you’re interested in being part of our Twitter list of luminaries, please give me a virtual “shout out.” Here’s today’s show. All feedback and suggestions are welcome. Thanks!
Posted in TV Industry, internet marketing, social media marketing, television, twitter, video, youtube | 2 Comments »
Talking to the TV… Industry
Friday, January 15th, 2010
I am very pleased to announce that I have joined the team at TheTVNews.tv as their New Media/New Marketing expert. The guest appearance in the show embedded below was handled via Skype, but I’ll be recording my weekly reports, starting Tuesday 1/26, with my new camera. These new media/new marketing reports will appear each and every Tuesday. And, because they will be stand-alone segments (not like this one), I’ll be able to post them directly to this blog.
The lead-in to my segment in this show begins at 3:19 with statistics on the explosive growth of online video consumption via a report by Nielsen Online. My segment proper begins at 4:00.
The full Nielsen report PDF, “The Shifting Media Landscape: Integrated Measurement in a Multi-Screen World” that I mentioned is available FREE via the link above or at the bottom of their page which discusses “Integrated Measurement and the Pathway to Internet Profitability.” While this page and the excellent report, in my humble opinion, is talking to Internet companies about a TV strategy, I found it equally relevant to use it as a strategic recommendation to TV industry players who want to leverage their media assets with an effective multi-screen strategy.
Of course, all of this is easier to say than to do and requires a significant long-term, risk-taking strategy to be truly effective. Just the same, I hope that my rec0nnection with the TV industry via this video show will yield some opportunities to use my expertise as well as my broadcast and cable industry experience to make a valuable contribution to the internet marketing and online media development efforts of some select TV industry clients.
If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And, if you want to be updated whenever I post to this blog, including the upcoming New Media/New Marketing TheTVNews.tv segments, please use the “Subscribe via Email/RSS” links at the top of this post. Thanks!
I look forward to your comments and feedback.
Posted in TV Industry, Video Web, television, video, youtube | 1 Comment »
Fox Gets It: Free TV Shows on iTunes
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
While I find their news shows offensive, it’s not ironic that Fox should show up as progressive on the new media front (Murdoch bought MySpace after all.)
The latest deal is covered here: Fox strikes deal for free shows on iTunes
I particularly liked this comment by GGGlen: NBC vs Apple+Fox:
NBC content- loaded with commercials,
Apple+Fox- commercial free.
NBC content expires in one week,
Apple+Fox- keep it as long as you like.
NBC content excludes 25 million Mac users,
Apple+Fox-viewable on any platform capable of running iTunes.
NBC content excludes the #1 MP3 player on the planet (it’s not
compatible with the iPod line)
Apple+Fox- iPod friendly.
Apple+Fox? Find a way to expand on this, and let NBC join the
ever-growing list of failed “wannabees”.
Tags: itunes, tv shows
Posted in television | No Comments »
Whoa! Netflix to Offer Free TV Shows to Members
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
The battle for the distribution of broadcast programming via the Web is heating up. Apple’s iTunes Store has made big waves by selling TV shows at $1.99 each. Now NetFlix is rolling out what is essentially a perk for membership. Free downloadable TV shows.
Here’s the TechCrunch overview of this announcement and the official NetFlix press release and the NYTimes perspective.
Tags: apple, internet video, itunes, netflix, online video, tv shows
Posted in television, video | No Comments »
Cisco’s Suit of Apple Over iPhone Name May Be Playing into Steve’s Hand
Friday, January 12th, 2007
Many folks are mystified by Cisco’s suit of Apple over the name of Apple’s truly sensational, hot new iPhone. And, by the way, I agree with many that this is a true “leapfrog” product that is literally years ahead of the competition and will have a huge impact on the market like the iPod.
I think I know what’s going on with this lawsuit. It’s just a hunch, but it rings true at least to me. Bottom line, I think Steve is one step ahead of Cisco.
First, think of all the free publicity Apple and Mr. Steve Jobs are getting as a result of the Cisco lawsuit. Second, remember that Apple’s new AppleTV product was originally named “iTV.” Get it yet? Third, remember that Jobs likes consistency in product names. For example, now and only recently, all the Mac portables are MacBooks.
So my educated guess is that Jobs knew he’d get sued. He anticipated the publicity boost. And, they will change the name of their awesome new product to the ApplePhone! It’s got nice alliteration and they’ll use the same Apple logo-included name treatment that they are using on the AppleTV product.
You heard it here first! Anybody else think this is true?
Tags: apple, appletv, cisco, iphone, ipod, iTV, lawsuit, steve jobs
Posted in cell phones, e-business, television | 3 Comments »
Microformats: The Future of Microcasting?
Friday, September 8th, 2006
I’ve been around long enough to come from the cable TV daze when narrowcasting was a revolution. When I was at USA Network, MTV, CNN, ESPN etc were breakthroughs as channels for what we now call vertical audiences. I like to call the web’s quantum leap into far more finely defined audiences “microcasting.”
Technorati’s Chairman, Peter Hirshberg (shown here) thinks that the organized tag technology called Microformats will provide important accessbility to the millions of video clips on the web… via tagged indexing. As you might expect, there’s a video clip to explain it.
What do you think?
Tags: television
Posted in search marketing, technology, television | No Comments »
Al Gore Attacks Big Media & Gets Funnier
Monday, August 28th, 2006
I was pleased to see that the Associated Press reported today from the Edinburgh International Television Festival that Al Gore told it like it is (IMHO) about the damage that big media is doing to democracy. (I can’t help but wonder if you have to NOT be a candidate in order to talk truth to power?)
I also recently watched the TED video of Mr. Gore which was apparently a follow up (2nd appearance) to the “Inconvenient Truth” presentation he does in the movie of that name. I’ve never seen Gore this funny. He can actually be entertaining!
FYI, there’s also an entertaining interaction between Gore and none other than Tony Robbins in the Tony Robbins TED video. More on the free TED videos below.
Tags: politics
Posted in politics, television | No Comments »
