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Posts Tagged ‘online video’

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%.

NBC Winter Olympics web screen (partial)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.

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Posted in TV Industry, Video Web, online video, television, video, youtube | 1 Comment »

Michael Moore to Make New Movie Free for Downloads

Thursday, September 4th, 2008


In a move that would make Chris Anderson proud — and in a move that is, to my knowledge, completely unprecedented for a “major motion picture” — Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films have announced that Moore’s new flick, “Slacker Uprising” will be made available via the web for free download on Sept. 23rd. If you’re interested, this link will hook you up to the viral marketing campaign so you can spread the word.

Their announcement also adds, “You can also buy the DVD for $9.95, which will start shipping on September 23 and features extras like: Special Guest Joan Baez – America the Beautiful, Why People Like George Bush?, My Pet Goat, The O’Reilly Factor for Kids, Just Add Water and Heat – More Ramen and Clean Underwear, and more. Or should I say, Moore!”

Here’s the trailer:

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Posted in video | No Comments »

The State-of-the-Art of Sponsored Internet Videos?

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Beet.TV interview about the Bebo internet video channelsThe world of Internet videos keeps getting richer. Yes, there’s more interesting stuff than what’s on YouTube (not that’s YouTube is bad, there are just more channels on the “Internet TV system” than most people know). For example, this Beet.TV interview with Ziv Navoth, VP Marketing & Business Development at Bebo (which is one of the slickest, high quality internet video sites) offers one of the most passionate and somewhat persuasive pitches I’ve seen for a monetized opportunity for video producers. What do you think? Is it time for you (or me) to finally do an online video series?

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Posted in video | No Comments »

OMG, Twitter is like so totally busted! "Twitter Whore" shows all…

Friday, August 15th, 2008

I mentioned below the “In Plain English” Twitter video which actually explains Twitter to the uninitiated or un-techie amongst us. But, on the other hand, if you want to laugh a little, and sorta, kinda experience the frenetic experience of what I believe Twitter to be (and why I’m not a participant… go on, comment below about why I’m missing out!), then OMG! I’m sure you’ll enjoy the Twitter parody videos below, produced by and staring one of YouTube’s rising stars, Lisa Donovan (screen name LisaNova), a self-described “Twitter Whore” (video is in two parts below). As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there.”

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Posted in user generated content | No Comments »

Matt Makes Viral Video Delight & Super-Hit

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Frank Capra used to say (regarding the requisite creative direction to make a movie), “One man, one movie.” In today’s world of viral video distribution, one man (or one woman) can make a super-hit all by themselves… or in this case with the support of one partner and a chewing gum company for a sponsor (no kidding). The story is well-written in this NYTimes coverage, “A Private Dance? Four Million Web Fans Say No” (although as of this writing it’s been viewed 5.5 million times.) The Times calls it, “an almost perfect piece of Internet art: it’s short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it’s open to a multitude of interpretations.” I like it for all of the reasons above as well as the fact that it’s just plain fun and makes you feel good. :) (btw, clicking on “watch in high quality” is HIGHLY recommended, although you have to view the clip here on YouTube to do that.)

I also recommend viewing Matt’s “Dancing Out Takes” at http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

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Posted in user generated content, user generated video | No Comments »

New iPhone Videos Better Than Ever

Monday, June 9th, 2008

I’ll leave the commentaries on Apple’s dramatic announcement of the iPhone 3G to others. I’ll only say that after holding out on buying an iPhone, I’m glad I did. Because now I’m ready! Half the price for double the speed (and all those new applications!) I’m going to get an iPhone 3G as close to July 11th as possible. That’s as strong an endorsement as I can make. And, I think the iPhone is truly the first, the leading and the most important mobile computing platform.

I also noticed that the videos of today’s announcement are better than ever. For example, here’s a nice little hightlight reel from the Wall Street Journal:

I also looked at a little of Apple’s streaming Quicktime version of Steve Jobs’ complete presentation, and the quality of that video looks better than ever at http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/

I also enjoyed and appreciated the excellent live blogging done by the TechCrunch crew. Their live blog posts included videos of key people and commentators pre-event (including a nice scoop that EBay would be announcing an application) as well as great photos during.

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Posted in cell phones | No Comments »

More Very Useful Explanations in Plain English

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

I’m going to claim this might be the best resource for explaining Web 2.0 communication platforms to newbies ever! See my post below about CommonCraft, and if you’re someone who would like a better understanding of stuff like blogs, RSS, social networking, podcasting, Twitter and more, there are easy to understand and remarkably clear and enjoyable CommonCraft videos about each of these subjects on the CommonCraft YouTube channel. Enjoy!

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Posted in internet marketing, social media marketing, video | No Comments »

YouTube Video Quality & Flip Video Illustrate Latest Dynamics on The Video Web

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

One issue we’ve been dealing with that I think many people struggle with is how to get better quality video on YouTube. Here’s the most useful insights I’ve seen to date on this subject:

>> Read: “Hi-Res YouTube Hacks”

Some of you know that I’m impressed with the amazingly simple, little video camera called The Flip. Here’s why another thoughtful person thinks The Flip is important and perhaps indicates meaningful web video trends pointing toward our future:

>> Read: “Video Flips for the Future”

And while we are illustrating what’s cool about the rapidly expanding world of video on the web, here’s my son’s newest favorite short video, which clearly would not have been possible without “the video web” both in terms of production as well as distribution. Pretty cool, eh? Enjoy!


People in Order

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Enhancements to the Video Web: The Mini-Camcorder Du Jour & Intelligent Video Conversations

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

A couple of quick blog bites (vs sound bites) from the NYTimes website which indicate continually brighter days ahead for what I affectionately call The Video Web:

First of all, my fave tech writer David Pogue not only reviewed my Christmas present (see posts and demo video below), The Flip Ultra, but his latest “State of the Art” column, “Camcorder Brings Zen to the Shoot” pretty much nails it. It also informed me–and I had no idea about this–that the Flip is now garnering a rich 17% of all US camcorder sales and “has been the best-selling camcorder on Amazon.com since the day of its debut. For Pogue’s finely articulated perspective, click here.

The other item is what appears to be a new feature on the NYT website, which is Bloggingheads.tv “diavlogs.” Language-wise this is a double-derivative term. I’ll bet most people don’t even know that the term “blog” is derived from “web log” let alone that a “vlog” is a video blog. Just the same I welcome this combination that creates a new kind of conversation. (kind of rolls off the tongue) I’ve been thinking and occasionally saying that the use of webcams and the ease of the current state of video conferencing should be put to more use. Little did I know that this kind of video dialog, oh OK, diavlog was being so widely distributed. And then imagine my delight when I found at least these two commentators talking about the Barak Obama race speech being more articulate and interesting than most of those duds on cable TV news shows. Right on. It was also nice to see the NYTimes editing down and providing a solid 4-minute excerpt of what appears to be an almost hour-long original conversation on BloggingHeads.TV At least the whole thing is there for you if you want it.

Click here to watch the NYTimes-BloggingHeads edit: “Obama’s Grandmother” which asks the scintillating question: “Is everyone missing the whole point?”

I have to add that the intelligence of this BloggingHeads conversation is in stark contrast to my experience experimenting with the Seesmic.com video “conversation” website which is mentioned in the Davos post below. That turned out to be an interesting attempt from a technological point-of-view, but extremely boring overall. Even Seesmic’s specially produced (and apparently funded) posts were disappointing (to say the least). Sorry. I liked their bushy-eyed enthusiasm, but there’s good web video and a lot that is not so good. Like everything else…

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Quality Video Programming is On Now

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

On my less optimistic days, I feel like we’ve gone from “nothing on” crappy TV programming, to “too much on” kitchen sink internet video programming. But fortunately those days are few because of how much uplifting and inspiring stuff is out there.

Recently, rather than bottom feeding, I’ve been top feeding with some of the best online video programming anywhere.

Tonight I was browsing some great Talks at Google on YouTube (from obvious Google execs, to fascinating authors, to presidential candidates). And earlier this weekend, I caught a link (on an Amazon author blog no less) to yet another amazing one of the extraordinarily inspiring TED talks. Truly great stuff. These are also available via iTunes and, for me, has made having a video iPod worthwhile.

Here’s the latest TED talk that blew my mind. If you’ve ever wondered the meaning of all the left-brain, right-brain talk this will clear it up and uplift you as well, at least it did me:

By the way, if you’re interested in getting a full taste of the TED conference, I highly recommend the DVD, The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED. It’s a kind of greatest hits, behind the scenes look at the 2006 TED conference. Also, inspiring and uplifting.

See there’s lots of good stuff to watch. ;)

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Posted in video | No Comments »