tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41927144346250200282024-03-13T10:19:54.410+00:00mediavladskiPosts and discussions about the world of modern convergent media from a Brit in California.Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-36758895385542352972009-05-09T01:01:00.007+01:002009-05-09T01:48:54.479+01:00Just See The Difference<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">My very good friend Dominic (Vallely), a well known name in the UK TV market came up with a stunning idea for a project that will simply change the face of charitable giving not just in the UK, but worldwide. It puts the notion of communities, peer networks and social interaction, together with story telling and emotional connection into an area currently more associated with young students accosting you in the street for your bank account details.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">I've had the honour of spending time with Dom as he conceived and evolves the concept; pulling together an amazing team of individuals and companies, that includes some of the most influential names in the UK, all of whom give their time and resources to pull this momentous project together. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Over the year the concept has become a heavyweight organisation that has every single major UK charity backing it. I partly want to congratulate Dominic for his work, but more importantly I want to spread the word. The project is now turning into reality, but See The Difference is still not a done deal. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Take a look at this video that full explains the concept, and if you can, join in and help get this project off the ground - most especially if your company or organisation is in a position to offer support.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GrFCh7ldhfA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GrFCh7ldhfA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="392" height="238"></embed></object><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://www.stdifference.com/">See The Difference website</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/See-the-difference/66087274447">See The Difference Facebook group</a></span></div>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-58404070449634946182008-10-08T19:46:00.005+01:002008-10-08T20:19:56.035+01:00I've just given birth..<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So its one week short of 9 months since I arrived in California to work on the launch of launch of </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://lp33.tv/">LP33.tv </a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">which finally went live a few short hours ago.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'm kind of at a bit of a loss what to say after such a tumultuous, fun, difficult and draining experience. I think today is the lull before we have to dive back in to the perhaps more complex task of getting our site out there, and adjusting and finessing the site.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We have a lot to do, but I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved, the team we've built and all the amazing programming and bands we have on the site. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The press has generally been really, really supportive although the economic crisis, which already delayed our launch by a week in the hope of a clearer news agenda, still managed to knock out some of the set piece interviews we did with major dailies. Hopefully they'll get used soon, but I wanted to highlight a couple.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Firstly, the Guardian in the UK, mainly as it was an</span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/oct/08/netmusic"> interview with me</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, that I did a few months back. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Techcrunch </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/07/lp33tvs-innovative-music-site-launches-to-the-public/">did a lovely piece </a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">within an hour of our launch and we've been in several other specialist and general publications - as well our release being all other the wires.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I've posted some more video and updates on the </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://helloblog.lp33.tv/">work blog,</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> and we've got some video and photos of the launch and our BBQ going up there in a few hours too if you fancy a look.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Thanks again to everyone for their support and kind words.</span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-33287071569058115562008-08-28T17:54:00.011+01:002008-08-28T22:41:50.029+01:00New name and its all go, go go ..<span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >I<span style="font-size:100%;">t's been a weird few weeks between homes sickness and having 2 website launches coming up in the very near future.</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">To top it all, it was becoming increasinly apparent that maybe we needed to change the name of the business.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />A while ago, whilst we were already in the middle of setting up the business and preparing the site AOL went ahead an launched myAOL - 1 letter away from our myAWOL.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The fact that google always kept asking 'Do you mean myaol?' made us realise our name was becoming increasingly 'un-ideal'.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So the hunt started for something new - and it was a real struggle as one might expect. Most 'interesting' domain names are taken for starters and we decided we needed something, as a music entertainment business was a little cool, and felt like it fitted - and also something bands would feel they could associated themselves with. We wanted short (so when a band puts their 'page on our site URL' up on a poster, it's not the w</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">hole alphabet), easy to remember and if you say the name, you know how to spell it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It became obvious we shouldn't go down the 'made up word' route - the names just seemed like we were just another technology site, and it was problematic to even find 2 word combinations. Like many bands themselves, we even wrestled with the question of 'The' before our name - we very nearly became 'The Push' which summed us up quite well - but trademark issues made us shy away from that. We w</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">ent through thousands of names, all checked on godaddy.. I got fed up with people who would get into heated discussions with me about their new favourite names but couldn't then answer ' but is the URL available?'.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Then w</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">e started playing with names and numbers, and 'LP33' came into the world. We could get the URLs and trademark's didn't seem to be an issue. Short, easy to remember - and if you're old enough or more of a serious 'muso' or vinyl freak yo</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">u'd get that the name hints at old vinyl records, and the speed they play at. You don't need to get the connection, but its nice that its there.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbP_ILq7vBORF5fp4yzhZ4j05ArDRAX5p2EJrNduN3vYa45f4PY64A7d65Q6wPTel5qWLNRx4Vk_-EpzFmgq7UWEtBwqjuaqmOe2heXOjw9I4bwRea1qDUFxGABq7v74Gpem9D7rDoePBi/s1600-h/GP_BR_LP33_pinkBlk_B.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbP_ILq7vBORF5fp4yzhZ4j05ArDRAX5p2EJrNduN3vYa45f4PY64A7d65Q6wPTel5qWLNRx4Vk_-EpzFmgq7UWEtBwqjuaqmOe2heXOjw9I4bwRea1qDUFxGABq7v74Gpem9D7rDoePBi/s320/GP_BR_LP33_pinkBlk_B.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239686737549039346" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So, there we h</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">ave <a href="http://www.lp33.tv/">LP33.tv</a> - perhaps fairly controversial, but when we did market research most people either liked it, or thought it was OK. That said, the people who hated it, REALLY hated it.</span> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://tinyurl.com/56jsum">news came out last night</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> and today we're busy changing URLs and all our entire web presence over to the new name.</span> <a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbeJNuiJDobYOQBTOIj4Vo2_pafuFt_owTOyB8nMTgumR03DjsJ10YXFEP0GyteoOTusgs5gF4vLxOwqYjBNiS2hlTQ_wZaZAIV1XSiSh_Lr__tDT-eDBXAFEo5wXzJdup6-kSz8gGvk4/s1600-h/midbss.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbeJNuiJDobYOQBTOIj4Vo2_pafuFt_owTOyB8nMTgumR03DjsJ10YXFEP0GyteoOTusgs5gF4vLxOwqYjBNiS2hlTQ_wZaZAIV1XSiSh_Lr__tDT-eDBXAFEo5wXzJdup6-kSz8gGvk4/s320/midbss.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239620060396940338" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br />Just to keep like interesting, today also sees the password come down on our Music Industry services site, </span><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://themidb.com/">theMIDB.com</a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> ahead of its launch next week. We are also actually getting really close to letting the world finally have access to the 'big deal' LP33.tv itself. It's a corker of a site, even if I do say so myself.</span> </span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-2491846025558632562008-07-11T00:40:00.006+01:002008-07-11T00:55:41.530+01:00Stealth Mode is broken ....<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Off the back of my recent trip to San Francisco the new busienss I've been helping launch, myAWOL has started getting press - thanks to the previosuly mentioned, and still lovely, Susan.<br /><br />Its always weird doing press, but we took the attitude that we'd just be ourselves, and like the whole business, be upfront and transparent about what we're doing, our hopes and aspirations.<br /><br />Looks likem it paid off, both articles we're highly complimentary, even if one of them scored some negative feedback. <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/09/myawol-a-music-label-for-the-digital-age/">Techcrunch</a> with a distribution of 791k got the scoop, and did a great article, but I have to be honest and say I loved the <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/10/myawol-a-music-company-that-grasps-reality/">VentureBeat article</a> - and not just because it gave me a lovely namecheck and write up - the guy really go the business. What I never realised was quite how widly these articles get syndicated - our sign up of new artists rocketed in the 24 hours since the first article appeared.<br /><br />We've even been written up in other press (but hey, this isn't meant to be a list, so I'll stick with the Silicon Valley biggies), but here's hoping my skeltons don't get disturbed by bitchsite valleywag!<br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-53680950319251201362008-07-09T02:53:00.003+01:002008-07-09T03:42:33.239+01:00Telling Silicon Valley how it is ....<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I'm just back from a trip to San Francisco, hosted by the very lovely Susan MacTavish Best - who's er, best known for her work with Craigslist and the Silicon Valley tech crowd.<br /><br />We met the great and good - all of whom were intelligent, impressive people. I had one nagging little thought that kept reoccuring to me.<br /><br />No matter how impressive everyone was as an individual, they all came from the same kind of top notch universities and background - and all from a tech background. No plucky people who have fought their way up despite educational background. Which means brilliance at most levels, but their were some obvious gaps.<br /><br />It's all about software, widgets and tech solutions. What seemed secondary was consumer hunger, or consumer use - and this was really obvious in my field of music and TV. Some people see the tech, but kind of forget that that is just a vessel, a method of giving the public a service. They're focusing on the delivery -at the expense of whats in the package.<br /><br />Kind of good news my me and my crew though, who had cynical journalists raving about our proposition - one even said finally here was someone who could take on MySpace.<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-67689646961697035452008-06-11T20:28:00.002+01:002008-06-11T20:59:36.079+01:00Well it's been a while...<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I've been beyond slack on site, but I'm slowly exiting my 'beyond mind blowingly' busy stage.<br /><br />This blog is going to change tone from before, reflecting both my new job (more below), and the fact that I'll also end up blogging in my corporate role at myAWOL.com<br /><br />So, rather than being a London based consultant working in convergent and Digital Media, I'm now a Los Angeles based Exec, part of the founding team building and launching myAWOL.com, best descibed as MySpace meets old school vh1. OK, it's a bit mroe complex than that, but I love the simplicity of that message.<br /><br />As our site heads out of Alpha into a private Beta as I'll be talking a little more about the business, as well as my experiences of Digital Media over in California.<br /><br />I love London as a dynamic, vibrant city, both creatively and in terms of business, but their is, dare I say, a pardigm shift when you come over here. I'm working with people associated closely (yes, I'm being frustratingly vague) with some of the highest profile and well connected people in Silicon Valley.<br /><br />You do genunenly, as I did earlier this week, bump into the founder on MySpace when you go for drinks, or deal with those people who invested or set up the biggest of digital busineses. Needless to say I've met a lot of stupidly successful people.<br /><br />MOre soon ...<br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-55908318987234711172008-05-16T02:20:00.006+01:002008-05-16T02:27:11.619+01:00Part of my new project, a Music Industry News show<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If you work in the music industry, you may be interested in a new bi-monthly podcast I'm producing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's called myAWOL's Music Insider NewsTalk and it premiers every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">You'll shortly be able to subscribe via iTunes and whilst this first episode had a few tech issues, it's well worth a listen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">You can find it here: <a href="http://myawol.podbean.com/">Music Insider NewsTalk</a> as well as via <a href="http://myawol.com/helloblog">myAWOL's HelloBlog </a>where you'll also find other vlogs about what I'm helping set up.</span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-44327628022111537792008-04-02T00:09:00.005+01:002008-04-02T00:15:59.900+01:00News<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Hello Again</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I was hoping that this blog would be updated with my Twitter, but alas it seems to have failed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">I'm now also blogging at <a href="http://myAWOL.com">myAWOL.com</a> and I'll just be posting here occasionally with my more personal commentary.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Right now though that is difficult as I grasp with the challenges of turning a piece of paper into a multi-national social networking site. That will launch at the end of the Summer, so I may be a little quieter than I hope until then.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">In the meantime, here's a note I mailed to some of my friends and contacts:</span><br /><br /></span> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Hey All<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">This is an update to my friends and colleagues who I thought would be interested in the new start-up business I joined.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">It’s a Social Networking based music site called <a href="http://myAWOL.com">myAWOL.com</a> and it will launch at the very end of the Summer this year. It’s got a great pedigree, our CEO used to run chunks of EMI Music, and we’ve been backed by members of the band Genesis (although that is kind of a secret).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">We’re not a record label per se, but we’re not a million miles away from it either. Think of the best bits from iTunes, mySpace, Facebook, imDB and VH1 all rolled into one.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">The 2 cent intro is: We’re a service aimed at helping music artists help themselves in building a career and an income, we’re a place where music fans can discover, enjoy and learn about new bands and music, watching great TV shows. This is all underpinned by an Music industry section that allows professionals to connect, to collaborate and to help in their daily lives through a suite of tools and services.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">So, the point of the email is, as we head towards our site’s Beta (test) phase we are looking for friendly faces to start populate our site, tell us what works, and who knows, maybe even make some business connections. We’re especially interested in finding music artists with talent, who write or have access to the copyright of their music who we could promote and turn into ‘featured’ artists.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">I’ve created a ‘brochure’ about what the website will be at <a href="http://myAWOL.com">www.myAWOL.com</a><span style=""> </span>and tells you more about what we can do for you, and what we are looking for.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Let me know what you think!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Best<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Vlad</span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-17553630370546546032008-01-21T21:27:00.000+00:002008-01-21T21:39:03.121+00:00Personal News<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I have to apologise, but I've been rather quiet on this blog the last 6 weeks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'm very happy to say that I'm now part of a dynamic, music focused start-up that has an amazing pedigree. That has meant my focus has been elsewhere.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'll also be blogging as part of my role: You'll be able to find out more about the upcoming launch of this exciting new service our <a href="http://myawol.com/helloblog">HelloBlog.</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a href="http://myawol.com/HelloBlog"></a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This means I'll be in California a fair amount over the next few months, so whilst I'll carry on posting occasionally here, it'll be more as a European discovering the US Digital Media scene. </span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-78485901480360231692007-11-28T00:01:00.000+00:002007-11-28T11:53:31.936+00:00Kangaroo on the loose (in the Marketplace)<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Yesterday the UK market defining broadband 'player' Kangaroo was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2007/11_november/kangaroo.shtml">announced by the BBC,</a> ITV and Channel 4 (but noticeably not five) and <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/11/alert-kangaroo-on-rampage.html">I posted </a>about the service. There’s been <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/11/kangaroo_a_giant_leap_for_tele.html">talk what this might mean for the future of the BBC Licence Fee</a> as the service is being launched by the Beeb's commercial subsidiary BBC Worldwide. The future of the licence fee is an area I touched upon <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/11/paying-for-bbc-channel-4.html">last week</a> and no doubt will do again, but today I want to look at a different side of the Kangaroo story.<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p><br />This Kangaroo will be fairly dominant in ‘re-arranging’ the make-up of the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> ‘TV’ market, until/unless he’s joined by another big kangaroo along the lines of one called ‘Hulu’ (due to its Mommy and Daddy being News International & NBC Universal) or some creature as yet unborn..<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">So where does Kangaroo leave the other players in this new market:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Social (Media) Networks<o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The other Nu-TV Aggregators (Joost, Babelgum etc)<o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">IPTV Distributors (BT Vision, <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Orange</st1:city></st1:place>, Sky Anytime)<o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Other current TV Channels<o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Future brands<o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Well, here are some headline future gazing thoughts based on the limited information released as of Tuesday evening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Social (Media) Networks <o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">All the major mass market social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo) are becoming more open to 3<sup>rd</sup> party content and are actively looking at having either their own content (Bebo & MySpace have both commissioned shows) or promote other media, be that TV shows, music, films or other entertainment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">I reckon the Social Nets will be one of the winners from Kangaroo. Content owners need marketing and ultimately eyeballs on their content, which Social Networks provide; your friends tend to like a lot of the shows you like so it’s the perfect marketing medium. Equally Social Networks need content to hold onto their audiences which provide eyeballs for advertisers. Who hasn’t regularly asked friends – did you see XX last night? It's a mutual back scratching situation. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship like that of the Radio Times with TV Channels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="2" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Other Nu-TV Aggregators<o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The most high profile new broadband TV aggregators are Joost, Babelgum, Sky Anytime and Hulu. Now Hulu I’ll take out of this equation as, no matter what their long term objectives are, it’s looking to be something akin to the Kangaroo of the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> market.<o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Joost & Babelgum are in a more complex situation. Their first player advantage, in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> at least, has pretty much gone up in smoke. Even if, via non-exclusive deals with content owners they get to have a decent library, the incumbents will just be too dominant to challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">If I was those guys, I’d be having sweaty palms right now, but they are young, nimble, well funded businesses and I’m sure they’ve predicted these changes and are adapting their business plans.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Firstly, these guys are international players: As with many international media brands, you can be a major player in one territory, ticking along elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Secondly, get enough ‘tier 2’ content and you can still be an effective player. Sign up other major content players (MTV, Nickelodeon, Discovery, Virgin Media TV) and you can still have a reasonable profile and be an effective player. Kangaroo is essentially a ‘national’ player, international media companies may like to do pan-regional deals, especially if that is in conjunction with international advertisers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Now I know this industry is so new, pretty much all the players are still on the Beta learning curve. However, my third point is, don’t try and be all things to all people. Work out what out which market niches you can exploit most effectively and become a more focused proposition. Babelgum might be more of the ‘South Bank’ or Indie cinema of the industry, Joost might be a more youthful proposition with Music, Extreme sports, ‘underground’ programming.<span style=""> </span>As with MTV or Coke, you change the mix you present for each market.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Sky Anytime is a slightly different proposition as in essence it isn't a stand alone service, its free to those who already subscribe to a Sky package. It has great content, but in the medium term I think its about future proofing Sky's main business and decreasing churn by providing an appreciated value add -and it does that well.<br /></span></span></p><ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="3" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">IPTV Networks<o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">For the likes of Tiscali, BT Vision and Orange TV Kangaroo is, I would say a mixed blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Kangaroo has said they’d like to deliver their content direct to TV’s, which infers they’re likely to work with the current crop of well funded IPTV Network pioneers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">On the upside, these pioneers don’t need to scramble around doing deals with every company that owns 20 hours of content – you do one deal with Kangaroo and I assume get the bulk of interesting top of the range TV content, all pre-cleared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">On the downside, these competing platforms, and other platforms in the market place will all have the bulk of the same content and differentiators within their offerings become harder to achieve; differentiators which are effective marketing tools will be even harder to find.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="4" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Other TV Channels<o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The one question that hasn’t been answered just yet is just how open, or closed the Kangaroo platform will be. My guess a ‘bloated’ proposition will be harder to navigate and won’t be in the best interest of the founder partners, so I think they’ll definitely be a limit to which channels are invited, or allowed to join. So, UKTV and Viacom may get a yes, but Chart Shows’s Bliss or True Movies channels may find it harder. The only certainty I have is that the ‘shake-out’ of smaller TV players (<a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/06/shake-out-multi-channel-in-uk_22.html">which I discussed back in June</a>) will continue as the crowded multi-platform marketplace makes it harder for small players to achieve and keep a commercially viable mass. I do expect Channel 5 to be part of the Kangaroo deal eventually, unless their parent RTL has something up its sleeve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0pt;" start="5" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Future Brands<o:p></o:p></span></span></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">So how easy will it be for new media brands to break through, or will the major players, now that they generally have their act together, be just too dominant to be challenged. I think people will always find ways to break through, and if its not through Kangaroo, the Social (Media) Networks and Google’s Open Social networks will be the new route to market.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-61317076764007688702007-11-27T11:55:00.000+00:002007-11-27T14:45:29.213+00:00ALERT! Kangaroo on the Rampage<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">So a while back I was <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/07/laptop-tv-unscientific-reviews.html">moaning, sorry, commenting</a> about how in this wondrous age of Video on Demand I had to download so many program’s to watch my regular UK TV shows (iPlayer, 4oD, Joost, Babelgum). I commented how it’s like having to have a different set top box for each channel, which was unsustainable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Now we are about to see disruptive Digital, disrupted, oddly enough by the old skool ‘traditional media’ with the official announcement of project ‘Kangaroo’. Nice summary <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/27/bbc.itv">here from the Guardian</a>, but essentially it’s the <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/22/beeb_week_iplayer_comment/">BBC</a> and Channel 4 dumping (sorry, building on the success of) their current (Kontiki based) players, and joined by ITV who had been using an ‘in-browser’ player.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Now this is massive, it’s an ‘iPod’ moment for TV in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> market. Kangaroo is already being compared to Freeview in its capability to cut through to a being a fairly instant mass market proposition. It will have all your favourite shows and soap operas – it will have such a massive position in the marketplace other (mass market) rights holders from US Studios, through to indie production companies, to ‘new’ players in the market (such as newspaper’s who make video content) will all want to be represented on this platform. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">I have 0% doubt in the success of Kangaroo as it will have the content... and not just in a ‘name the 3 hit shows we have’ and expect people to use our service way, it will have the vast bulk of hit UK TV shows/brands and I expect a lot of the international ones. I wonder whether <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulu">Hulu</a> will snowball like Kangaroo to dominate the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> market as much.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The service will no doubt hit some bumps, but ultimately the nature of the content will mean it will prevail. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Some bumps that immediately come to mind include:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="">-<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The ISP’s moaning about the P2P networking clogging up their systems (and I expect it will be P2P)<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="">-<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">The BBC Trust wrestling with the restrictions they’ve imposed on the iPlayer, probably after public confusion when ITV allow series stacking of shows like Emmerdale, but the BBC won’t allow you to stack (series record) Eastenders. (The BBC Trust put some fairly random restrictions it to supposedly stop the BBC stifling the commercial market)<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="">-<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">TV Broadcasters and Rights Holders having to bring their Rights issues more into line across the market place<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="">-<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Working out ‘comparable’ price points and attitude to how to include advertising<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="">-<span style=";font-family:";font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Ofcom reaching out to regulate ‘NuTV’ after the next ‘phone-in’ type scandal<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Some other questions raised straight away are what about Five,<span style=""> </span>Sky, what about Endemol and Fremantle and their respective strategies. What about then for that matter, Nickelodeon, what about <st1:personname st="on">Information</st1:personname> TV and movies 24??<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Will Kangaroo be an open access system, or a way of the incumbents and big players protecting their dominant position from news smaller players?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">Kangaroo is no doubt fantastic news for the average viewer who just wants their favourite shows.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">I don’t see this being a problem for the social networks per say as their nascent media services and shows would be complementary – and I’m sure deals would be done to encourage the average Bebo or FaceBook user to go to Kangaroo and download the latest episode of the Mighty Boosh or Entourage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">I don’t think the situation is so clear for the likes of Joost or Babelgum who, in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> at least are seeing their first mover advantage slip away.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Verdana;">More on this tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-3771280212897306602007-11-21T14:50:00.000+00:002007-11-21T15:38:10.276+00:00Paying for the BBC, Channel 4<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I'm asking a question rather than making a comment.<br /><br />There has been some <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jun/14/channel4.broadcasting1">conversation</a><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jun/14/channel4.broadcasting1"> </a>recently in the UK, about how Channel 4 - a commercial business that is re-finding it's 'mandated by law' function of being a Public Service Broadcaster.- will fund itself in the coming years. The business has been harping on about at it will have a funding deficit in the mid-term and has made a bid for a £300 million found 'top-spliced' from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">BBC's</span> Licence Fee funded budget.<br /><br />Articles like <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article71334.ece">this one</a> suggest some of the ways forward for Channel 4, but to me there is a massive flaw in the arguments put forward so far in the press, and that is the matter of market context. More specifically, I mean the BBC.<br /><br />Now the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Beeb</span> not long ago got it's <a href="http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/">funding formula (Royal Charter) renewed</a>, but just for another 6 short years until 2012/13. However, I think it's fairly likely that this is the last time the BBC will get a budget set in its current way; revenue form the TV Licence, a tax paid by every TV household in the UK.<br /><br />I don't think you need to be too much of a futurologist to guess that defining a 'TV household' in 7-10 years might well be a toughie. Granny may still have a TV in the corner of the room hooked up to a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Freeview</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">digibox</span> but for large swathes of the population today's trends of having 'TV' screens hooked up to computers and home networks will have continued. Mobile phones, laptops and other 'screens' will more commonly be used to watch 'shows' and shows themselves will increasingly delivered by downloaded and streaming over the web by the likes of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Joost</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Bebo</span> and the like, many of which will be non UK 'broadcasters'.<br /><br />In this world, the current TV licence just doesn't make sense and will be harder to collect. I think the BBC is well aware of that, which is why it's commercial arm BBC Worldwide has become quite so <a href="http://www.bbcworldwide.com/aboutbbcww.htm">aggressive</a> is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2007/10_october/lonely_planet.shtml">buying</a> and setting up new businesses as part of its strategy of creating and growing new revenue streams internationally. They've set up <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2007/10_october/polish_channels.shtml">new stations</a>, launched production businesses, added advertising to international sites and become much more astute in <a href="http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/10840/11864/toysrus-goes-doctor-who-mad.phtml">exploiting their brands</a> commercially.<br /><br />So, back to my original point. How can we have a constructive conversation about the future funding of a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">PSB</span> (Public Service Broadcaster) Channel 4, without having some realistic idea - or at least opened a wide discussion -about how one of the world's biggest media organisations, the (Public Service Broadcaster) BBC will be funded too.<br /><br />Many of the suggestions put forward for Channel 4, like say giving ownership to a not-for-profit trust (as the The Scott Trust owns The Guardian) might actually be what we want for the much larger BBC. Do we want 2 such Trusts? What would happen if we made both organisations all ad or subscription funded? Do we privatise one or both and how might that affect the purely commercial Networks?<br /><br />I'm not making suggestions today about the right funding formula - I'm just saying we can't effectively discuss Channel 4, until we have a better knowledge how the market place is likely to look in a few years - and the BBC is just too rich and too dominant in terms of budget and in terms of audience reach to ignore.<br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-9044499770628336662007-11-13T14:33:00.000+00:002007-11-19T15:08:53.402+00:00Hyper local globalisation: In the Starting Blocks<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Today’s post is prompted by my recent romp around NBC, Universal, and Fox ‘professional’ web video content site, <a href="http://www.hulu.com/">Hulu</a>. From what I could tell it looks lovely, but after 5 minutes of clicking around I realised whilst the site let me join, it won’t let me actually use the service and watch a show.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I have a deep appreciation of international rights issues, and no matter what your future business plan might be (and I admit this is a beta site), how hard can it be to have a disclaimer at the front saying that this is a US only site and content can’t be viewed outside the country. Showtime for years won’t even let you take a good look round their website if your non-US based.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">This, in fairness, seems to be a common problem with sites that show ‘real’ TV shows. Pretty much all the sites will let you access their library catalogue, but only let you watch what is cleared for your territory (which quite often is not a lot if you are non-US). <span style=""> </span>That’s outstandingly sloppy and short sited – it just makes me think they don’t understand how to respect their audience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">My simple request would be - if you have the technology to track IP addresses and work out where in the world I am, and therefore not play me an episode of Bionic Woman – why don’t you just use that technology to dynamically only serve me the content I can access. If you think about the functionality when you start building a website it’s a fairly easy thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">This really opens up the discussions about brands and regionalisation (not just in terms of countries and regions, but also cities and towns). It’s something TV, and especially multi-channel brands have been dealing with since the early 90s and now that the web is video heavy finding a fine line between sites localised to maximise footfall, featuring cost efficient quality ‘networked’ programming, but dealing with rights issues as that networked content is also sold to 3<sup>rd</sup> parties for the numbers to stack up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">That’s a big question, and I’ll be exploring the area in future posts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-37037202037927550412007-11-07T14:54:00.000+00:002007-11-07T15:11:41.581+00:00Why are we so in love with (linear) TV Channels?<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Recently Sky announced that it was now was <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/05/bskyb.business">calling a halt to new channel launches on its platform</a> as older digiboxes wouldn’t be able to handle the extra EPG info. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">What really surprised me was just quite how many channels were on the ‘stack’ to launch – 2 a week for as far ahead as the eye could see.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">My first reaction was who are all these people launching channels – and how do they expect to make any money?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Having been involved in many a channel launch in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> and in multiple other countries I’m well aware of the cost bases, and the kind of money one can expect to make. <span style=""> </span>Now I’ve touched on this subject several months ago when I questioned whether the <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/06/shake-out-multi-channel-in-uk_22.html">‘Great Channel Shake-out’</a> was coming. It seems that shake out time is coming. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">So my point today is, why do so many new players try and launch channels on Sky with the aim of making money (as opposed to be a marketing cost of a wider business)– and my answer is these are often ill thought out vanity products with no chance of cutting through and little chance of even breaking even. The old maxim was ‘the best marketing for your channel is the EPG’, but that just doesn’t cut it why an EPG, which with radio stations, has about a thousand channels names on it. Many of these players are ‘squatters’ hoping not to lose too much money before they sell their one escalating asset – the EPG slot.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Only the big boys and legacy channels can seriously expect to make any money from ‘subs’ (money the platforms pay the channels to have quality content on their platform, that they then can charge customers for a ‘package’). There is still money to be made from advertising, but that’s getting increasingly hard even if you do make a blip on the frankly Dickensian rating’s system that is <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/">BARB</a>. Personalised advertising from the likes of Google will shake up the market no doubt, but I don’t see it bringing masses of new money into the general marketplace. The other money is direct revenues via phone lines, shopping and premium services. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Niche business owners need to work out what they want to achieve with their business, work out who they want to reach, how to market to them, how to build a market presence and then work out if being on the Sky platform is worth it – or if even being a linear channel is worth it. My view is concept, revenue streams and brand first- then work out if you’re a linear channel (either now, later, or ever) and what markets you can and should work in; new ‘TV ’businesses will flourish, but what constitutes a TV business has changed. There’s a multiple of platforms out there – but the real crux of the matter isn’t the platform, it’s how you go about gaining and keeping an audience which you can monetise. The platform of choice should flow from that question first. That's why wiser players like Simply Media, and others like London TV have moved off the platform and onto the web -it's right for their business.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Sky obviously think (and I agree) that there is too much ‘junk’ cluttering up the finite EPG resources as they up the amount of original content needed to maintain an EPG slot, dissuading those who block up the EPG with channels existing on a few hours of looped lo-res content shot in a suburban living room.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I do believe a TV platform like Sky and linear channels have a future in the medium to long term. I’m intrigued to see how <a href="http://www.astra2d.com/freesat.htm">FreeSat </a>(Freeview equivalent on satellite) will affect the market. However, what I’m most intrigued about are new forms of <a href="http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=1415">EPG </a>which are more than channel guides, but include programme search facilities, especially ones based on tagged content.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">What I’d really like to see are ‘open source’ digiboxes where I could chose to download new, perhaps even personalised forms of EPGs, together with widgets and robots that turn my TV into a more connected experience <span style=""> </span>- and that allow (linear) channels to exist in harmony with limited content niche brands. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">If the platforms don’t do it, someone else will as TV’s move towards being another monitor on a household network as people decide they want to combine their Sky with their Joost , Babelgum and/or (video) iTunes<o:p></o:p></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com121tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-57484371136328834842007-10-10T12:21:00.000+01:002007-10-10T12:33:28.024+01:00Music Old Skool takes on the future<p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I took part in a really interesting Round Table about the future of the music industry yesterday, hosted by <a href="http://www.sellaband.com">Sellaband</a> <span style=""> </span>and run by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Platt">Tony Platt</a>, the famed producer who’s worked with people like Bob Marley and AC/DC. It also featured names like David Arden who whilst being Sharon Osbourne’s brother is<span style=""> </span>also a Music Manager working with the likes of James Brown and the stupidly good looking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Maclaine">Mark Maclaine </a>from Sellaband success story <a href="http://www.secondperson.net/">Second</a> Person.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Without being too rude about age, that was a few centuries worth of music experience - and whilst the guys occasionally lapsed into how good it was in 'the old days' they really do know the business and the talent side inside out and can see how to chart the way forward in this new paradigm. I do feel sorry for the legacy businesses - but equally they need to embrace the new world order, rather than trying to stop it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Now I’ve discussed Sellaband before, and I’ve now had the honour of meeting both of the founders, Johan and Pim. To summarise it’s a way of bands and artists with demo’s to get a following and more importantly gain investment from members to record a professional album and hopefully ‘break out’. I guess it’s a cross between a social networking site and a boutique record label. I like the concept; whilst I don’t see the site being the new Facebook (and I doubt they do to) and I do see it being like the Hacienda, The Cavern Club or Rough Trade – a source of great music, and new talent incubator.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I guess what I really like about is that it completely understands as is riding the dynamic wave of change sweeping pretty rapidly through the music industry as it changes from an industry where choice was controlled by A&R and money was made by selling records, to being increasingly a music entertainment business where the ‘business’ is being more of a ‘thin client’ middle man between artist and consumer helping with professionalising, marketing and mentoring talent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Big commercial artists and slick marketing won’t go away, but the mix will change and the business dynamics delivering those will change too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">For artists, the great thing about the web is it allows them to learn and develop away from overt commercial pressures that insist on quick fire hits. It allows niche artists to find audiences that like you across the globe, and also enough interest from around the world to give you an income that allows you to devote yourself to your music. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Now those who get involved with Sellaband get very, very evangelical about it –but do you know what, I think they have the right to. Nice concept, and the fact that they’ve already had a number of ‘break outs’ in mainland <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place> is a very positive sign. I’m guessing the Round Table is part of their push into the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> market, and I wish them good luck.</span></span></p><p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >Oh, and do check out the 'post-trip-hop' <a href="http://www.secondperson.net/">Second Person</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-27843158326821578942007-10-02T11:22:00.000+01:002007-10-02T12:48:27.600+01:00Disruptive Digital kisses the movies, flirts with the theatre<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">People are by nature social beasts and whatever happens with the net and TV there is always going to be a place for mass social entertainment, or 'going out'.<br /><br />As disruptive digital technologies become more pervasive they are starting to more than just nibble at today's area of interest, cinema and theatre. We all know about one man and keyboard replacing orchestras in the West End, and we're all really used to CGI creating amazing effects in Hollywood movies.<br /><br />But the underlying fundamentals of these industries will and are changing. Now cinema is a lot more advanced than anything happening in theatre: Piracy and global media have combined to create 'Day and Date' releases - movies like Harry Potter or Spiderman that get released pretty much on the same day globally. More interestingly on the distribution side, we are slowly moving from being served by film projectors (incidentally I started my work career as a projectionist) to being served by digital projectors - in effect very posh, high powered TVs. Cinema owners even have the same kind of hi-def discussions as home consumers pondering whether to go for 2k or 4k projectors.<br /><br />These projectors are now becoming more ubiquitous in the states, and in the UK a combination of government pump-priming and commercial alliances are getting these digital beatss into our multiplexes. There are three main results of these changes. Firstly, clearer, crisper and cleaner pictures that don't degrade as the massive rolls of film chundle through cogs and spinning things, which is very nice for the audience.<br /><br />Commercially, one of the things that always restricted movie releases, like non-blockbusters and especially art-house and niche fair are 'P&A' costs, that's prints and advertising. Now we all know advertising can cost lots and how viral and net marketing can now help bring down costs. The cost that couldn't be changed, were copies of film prints, it cost around £1k for each a copy of a movie for each screen it played in - and as movies may open say in the UK in 750 screens - that's a big upfront cost. With digital, you can put a movie on a hard-disk and that's under a hundred quid - eventually you might send the movie to the cinema over the net.<br /><br />Also remember that the projectors are essentially really big TVs. It means they can show boxing matches, gigs or the season finale of Heroes. Equally it might be a movie you've shot on a high def camcorder, edited on a laptop (and that equipment might cost less than £1k all in) and then get it projected at screen 4 in your local movie house. With this kind of technology the cinema could actually be the local pub with a 60 inch plasma or a church hall/youth centre with a cheap video projector - you can see the economics and type of content played might change somewhat.<br /><br />In the UK, you are beginning to see the effect: Places like my local cinema taking part in a season of classic British movies re-released for the summer - it also has small festivals and plays 'niche' low budget movies aimed at the big local Bangladeshi community. Some cinemas have a couple of screens dedicated to the current Rugby World Cup. It's also my mate who made a movie with some massive TV stars, shot relatively cheaply on HD cameras and soon to be released in cinemas and on DVD - those economics just wouldn't have stacked up 5 years ago.<br /><br />The result, well who knows. I imagine a lot more specialised niche content - more choice and more opportunity to see things that speak to you. Blockbusters will still be there though. The cinema itself will be less of a place to see movies, and more of a venue for all kinds of entertainment - maybe your 10 screen multiple will have 4 screens of 'blockbusters', 2 screen showing a variety of 'niche' movies, 2 screens having play-offs for an X-box championship and another 2 showing sports events. <br /><br />Now whilst the cinema is increasingly being fundamentally changed by Digital, the theatre is taking its time. That's cool, its a grand old dame who's currently flirting with online marketing and computer controlled lighting.<br /><br />But think back 2,500 years ago and theatre was a bunch of greek blokes wearing non-expressive masks pretending to be women going on a sex strike. 400 years ago theatre was still a bunch of blokes -t his time in expressive make-up with pretty young boys playing the ladies, still acting in a stilted, artificial style.<br /><br />Nowadays, pretty much anything goes - its an audience mainly, but not exclusively looking at some kind of stage and being entertained, stimulated or perhaps bored. <br /><br />There is a lot of discussion about theatre being out of touch with a mass market audience and some people are trying to shake that up and redefine what theatre is for a new age. That could be by the choice of content (Shopping & F****ing); by how they interact with the audience, say having the actors outside the theatre and in the lobby being in character and getting the crowd in the mood (The Old Vic) or its even a whole bunch of experimental theatres taking plays on walking tours, or using multiple rooms in industrial spaces as their stage and auditorium.<br /><br />I'd like them to start moving to the next stage, taking hints from Alternative Reality Gaming, and online dramas such as Bebo's Kate Modern. Imagine booking a play ticket, but the performance starts a week beforehand with a more immersive experience: maybe love emails from one of the characters; You Tube'd clues ahead of a whodunnit; background articles for a political play; or playful text messages or vlog entries ahead of a comedy.<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">It might be as simple as having a lyrics sheets emailed ahead of a musical. Imagine a school show for teens where they can text their advice onto screens on stage and have actors react.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Maybe the performance is 'flashmobbed' where the audience get texted an hour beforehand and get told which venue/space to show up in - now that would be a great unsettling start for a creepy Macbeth, or a ghost story.<br /><br />Now that's just a bunch of random ideas, and I know some Directors will throw their hands up in horror, but I think its a great creative tool and I'd pay money to have my comfort zone played with.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-66321598386855275952007-09-26T15:09:00.000+01:002007-09-26T16:00:54.799+01:00Nice boys: The last.fm entrepreneurs<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Last night 2 of the founders of Last.fm, Martin Stiksel and Felix Miller made their first public appearance since they sold their website to CBS for a rather lovely chunk of cash ($280 MIllion). I'm not going to attempt to give a blow by blow account when <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/09/second_chance_tuesday_lastfm_t.html">The Guardian's Jemima Kiss</a> does such a great job.<br /><br />Its' great seeing a bunch of conviction entrepreneurs (and for me , local boys) creating success by staying true to themselves, rather than becoming the oxbridge/ silicon valley chino clones that the investment community feels more at comfort with.<br /><br />Tie-ing in with my last post about <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/09/music-20.html">Music 2.0</a> it was interesting to get their take on how the music industry is being disrupted by digital technologies. Whilst everyone agrees the music majors will survive (in some form at least), the message coming over loud and clear is that now the average person has more choice of music to listen to, and that is stimulating music appetite as people are more likely to come across songs that 'do it' for them.<br /><br />The industry is changing with more 'bottom up' fanbase led music success slowly competing with the traditional 'top down' model characterised by the majors with their heavily marketed internationalised stars. Thus the much vaunted 'long-tail' business model is having its first major real world success with music - note Elvis dominating the charts in the UK recently.<br /><br />To me, its part of the new paradigm where successful digital businesses need to be 'porous'; consider themselves more like just one of the stakeholders in their business, skimming off the cream not gulping down the whole pint. Ultimately these businesses are 'owned' buy the people who use them ( create the content in them, </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">therefore make them</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">) and the trick is to make money by helping them do what they want to do, not by simply working out how to extract cash (please note GMTV).<br /><br />The one piece of 'gossip' they hinted at quite clearly is the (frankly obvious) notion that TV network CBS will take the underlying technology of last.fm (audioscrobbling or working out who likes what based on actual behaviour) and apply it to TV. I think Sky will be looking on with interest, and I think BARB should take note too; yes 'video-scrobbling' will be great for audiences in finding new shows - it may also help CBS create a competitor to the dominant Google in personalised advertising.<br /><br />Finally, I want to thanks my mates Judith and Michael of <a href="http://www.theglasshouse.net/content/sctlondon">Second Chance Tuesday</a> for putting on such a great event; they just keep adding to their long list of the biggest names in disruptive digital businesses who talk and share with those who attend.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/09/second_chance_tuesday_lastfm_t.html"></a></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-48508265966732135522007-09-05T13:43:00.000+01:002007-09-06T10:25:11.524+01:00Music 2.0<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">End of the Summer break :(</span><span style=""></span><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Today’s post is inspired by a conference I went to last night marking the London return of the seminal internet networking event, <a href="http://www.firsttuesday.org.uk/">First Tuesday</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The keynote came from my ex bosses boss, <a href="http://www.wmg.com/about/biography/?id=contact700004">Patrick Vien who is now the CEO of Warner Music International</a>. I found the breakdown of Warner’s future plans both clever and disappointing: He spoke wisely about experimentation and education as they look at new business models, new revenue streams, taking more control of artists ‘multi-platform’ strategies (including live performance) and re-analysing revenue streams including advertiser funded music. Warner will survive and remain a big player in the future, and might even get there with less pain that the other music majors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">But equally at the end of the speech I felt disappointed; partly because the topic of the moment, DRM wasn’t touched upon. <span style=""> </span>More significant was that whole thought process behind these clever actions was that of a controlling, top down organisation working out how to leverage value from content they have ‘created’ and decided to market.<span style=""> </span>In fact majors now maximise their efforts on a very few international artists – so weirdly the internet has created less choice, from the majors at least. Like I said, Warner and the others will be around, making nice profits, but I still see pain for them as they contract and change– and it does also seem like they are cutting out the ‘nursery slopes’ where the new 50 Cents get exposure and learn their craft.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Who I found much more exciting, were the new ‘bottom up’ players that were about enabling and helping consumers discover music they like, as opposed to convincing them to purchase through marketing and advertising. These are disruptive industries that are changing the face of the industry, the ones taking a positive lead and forcing the majors to change their models.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">There were 2 very interesting players there, and 2 complete stand outs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Interesting:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.jamendo.com/en/">Jamendo</a> is somewhere between Bit Torrent and iTunes that essentially gives you free music, with ad revenue split 50/50 between the company and the artists. You an also chose to ‘donate’ to artists you like. It doesn’t seem to come with many strings and I can see it filling a successful niche helping new acts gain exposure. It’s got a mainland European tinge to the music, and if you’re not a nationalist snob you can find some interesting artists on it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Another great niche player helping new artists is <a href="http://www.sellaband.com/">Sellaband </a>which in a non-sexy description allows you to become a ‘business angel’ investing in bands you like for $10 a pop and sharing in the bands profits, as well as discovering great music. Again, I don’t see it replacing EMI, but it IS a stepping stone to the big time. It’s fun to use and helps new talent shine without the Pop Idol schmaltz. I think I’ll enjoy this site.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Stand Outs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">There were 2 sites that I thought, yeap, I can see them being big mainstream players.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">One is already established in the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region>, but blocked in the rest of the world, except apparently the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> where it hopes to officially launch soon. I think you may need to make up a <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> zip code though (I used to love watching <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Beverly Hills</st1:place></st1:city> 90210).<a href="http://www.pandora.com/"> Pandora </a>is personalised radio – you tell it what you like and based on algorithms its helps you discover and listen to new music and favourites. You pay extra if you want the to minimise ads and get some extra functionality, and at $3 a month, it seems quite an affordable price-point. Its good fun and me and my partner are hooked already.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">What kind of impresses me is that instead of this being a purely software led operation, they actually have a team of 50 musicians analysing the musical qualities of tracks which then gets fed into the system. It has a nice interface and I like the way they’ve integrated the advertising into the site. Pandora already has half a million tracks already covered, classical coming next – I found to hard to find an artist they didn’t have – and a ‘wiki pandora’ is on its way too on top of their facebook widget. If they can sort out the very complex issue of international rights issues, they’ll go far.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The last site on today’s post is <a href="http://www.we7.com/">we7</a> from music via web pioneer, and music legend Peter Gabriel - he previously pioneered legal music downloading in <st1:place st="on">Europe</st1:place>. Whilst we7 will let you buy music, its main selling point is free legal music, DRM free. The music from major artists and new acts gets paid for by a 10 second advert. The advert expires after 4 weeks, and then you have ad free, free music. It’s a great way of experiencing new tracks and I really see this has a place within the wider marketplace. The CEO Steve Purdham seems to really ‘get’ where the industry is going and I see them reacting well to the changes within the marketplace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Take a look, discover and please post your thoughts by hitting the comments button.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-52976453993279520562007-08-20T15:32:00.000+01:002007-08-20T15:37:40.891+01:00Locate TV; its quite nice really<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I’ve recently started a conversation (via this blog) with the nice people at Locate TV.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Locate TV is in very early stage Beta, but aims to be a kind of TV Show Google/ Radio Times/ Internet Movie Database kind of search engine. Essentially say if you want to see the next episode of Heroes it will give you the times of the next TV screening, connect to a DVD store and tell you where you can download it ,all with a little descriptive blurb. All legal stuff too, which is either good or bad I guess depending on where you stand – student sci-fi nut, or responsible media Rights Manager.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">If you’d like a Beta invite and make your own mind up, send me a mail (link in my profile) and I’ll get the nice lady to mail you a password.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I like the concept of this site, especially as you may be aware of my previous comments about broadcasters pushing premiere showings, making it hard to catch up with water-cooler TV after the BARB (ratings body) aimed promo’d slot.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Locate need to sort out their Genre search for this thing to become truly useful, but that is on the cards. As I’ve talked about before, it would be so useful to (potential) audiences if producers start attaching tags of content and likely interest groups to their shows to aid discovery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The site also has some nice other little widgets and upgrades planned, which I’m loathed to say too much about (Ok, Facebook is a clue for one thing) as new businesses need to keep things close to their chests. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">So, take a look and see what you think.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-60913104661165561862007-08-10T15:07:00.000+01:002007-08-10T16:18:04.291+01:00Web 3.0, the new TV Networks<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I'm picking up and exploring a topic I've touched on before; what will be the shape of TV Networks in years to come.<br /><br />Now I'm not pretending to have the answers, I'm just looking around and seeing what might happen. I do believe that wherever we'll be in 10 years, it'll be a mixed bag of options with the definition of a TV Network stretched out - maybe we should really start talking about 'TV Networks' as brands rather than platforms.<br /><br />So today we have the likes of ITV, BBC, NBC, Fox which are mainly on TV, but also have some life as 'web TV networks' too. I still expect these kind of players to be the big boys for the foreseeable future. But just as happened with Fox in the States, or Sky in the UK, there is a distinct likelihood that a new player will come along that is so significant it'll shift the entire industry landscape.<br /><br />Moving forward, I'm writing today for 2 reasons. One was the official Viral Charts number 1 video which had <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QJmmdw3b0">Eric Schmidt of Google describing what is web 3.0</a>. I<a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/08/guardian_viral_video_chart_32.html">n (mediaguardian style) summary</a>, he's saying that </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">"that Web 3.0 will be seen as applications.... will run on any device - PC or mobile, applications are fast and customisable, distributed virally through social networks and email..."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now we've also just had the <a href="http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=26069">announcement</a> Skype has added a new bit of functionality, video sharing via its phone software. Today you can share the kind of cute clips </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">with your friends</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> you'd expect to see on You Tube. Now when you factor in that the original 'Team Skype' (who still have an involvement with that business) are now the brains behind Joost, the idea of sharing a new episode of your favourite TV show with a friend, and that show getting 'ratings' by being virally spread through friends of friends via social networks doesn't seem like such a big step at all.<br /><br />I've already talked about '<a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/07/is-bebo-new-itv-kate-modern-story.html">Is Bebo the new ITV...'</a> on previous posts, following on from their première of the online interactive drama mystery 'Kate Modern. We have organisations like <a href="http://www.vuguru.com/about.php">Vuguru</a> backed by Disney man Michael Eisner specialising in web only video content. We have all the video entertainment platforms like Joost, iPlayer and Veoh garnering content and experience with longform TV shows on the web. We have the huge viral potential of social networks like Facebook and Bebo; I doubt there is one person on the open platform of facebook who hasn't had an attempt of a Vampire bite, or had a cream pie thrown at them.<br /><br />All in all, my conclusion. Current TV networks will remain big, if not as big production companies like Endemol with big brands will be even bigger than they are today.<br /><br />The likes of Joost and Babelgum will bubble and grow slowly for a few more years. As I've mentioned before, the biggest stumbling block I see with these web TV services is that most people won't want to download and 'run' potentially several of these kinds of programs from everyone like the BBC and Channel 4 through to several new players, each with a few shows that you fancy watching.<br /><br />However, bearing other Microsoft developments in mind, I see the equivalent of your cable box or TV becoming your personalised iGoogle home page, or more likely your facebook, Bebo or even My Space profile, each having 'TV widgets' you've chosen, or the web company has chosen to allow on its network. These widgets will in effect be Joost, iPlayer or Babelgum - the complex viewing and library programs today run as stand alone applications.<br /><br />They'll email you with suggestions of shows, your friends will tell you about shows they've loved - and you can either watch the whole show on the service (with adverts), or be shown a clip and be sent off to the 'broadcasters' station or application.<br /><br />Five years from now we may have production company Vuguru premiering the first web only 'TV format' that has 50 Million 'views'. In 2017 the big hit show, the 'Heroes' of its year may well be premiered on Facebook, get 100 Million views globally in a week, with that audience returning as each weekly episodes are first 'aired'... and don't even get me started on non-linear formats and shows.<br /><br />Happy summer weekend my readers.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></span><a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/07/is-bebo-new-itv-kate-modern-story.html"></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-62428570852380745042007-08-01T11:14:00.000+01:002007-08-03T17:33:22.672+01:00Next generation of viewers? How not to lose them.<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Over the last few years I've spent quality time with friends and relatives at the lower end of the 16-34 demographic that are the 'Holy Grail' for advertisers, therefore the Holy Grail for broadcasters -especially those like MTV or Extreme Sports that sell themselves on that basis.<br /><br />The thing is, I wonder how many of those who are say 16-20 have the 'TV habit' and what that means for 'TV' Stations as years go by and the notion of what is an available audience changes and shrinks. My experience seems tells me that this younger demo will watch TV when its on, they'll be interested about certain shows they hear about, but crucially they aren't in the habit of going on and switching the TV on. If they're bored or have time they always seem to fire up the computer instead and log on.<br /><br />Now this isn't new info. However I believe that all TV 'brands', and especially those aimed at a youth market need to up their game and stop thinking of this as TV with bits on, and re-assess how they look at serve their target audience.<br /><br />Outside the terrestrials, I see only half-hearted attempts to engage with, and prepare for this new paradigm. I'm not sure if its lack of understanding and/or of vision by those who make the decisions. From my experience I think a big factor is the short-termism of the bottom line that ultimately is bad business as it halts companies from growing, or even being able to stand still. I know very few TV businesses that will invest in anything that doesn't have an immediate return on investment - hence the amount of revenue sharing deals going on with more of the risk falling on smaller suppliers who have to take risk to survive. I think the same is true of the bigger players, but they're just a bit more cushioned from those harsh realities.<br /><br />Multi-channel is a harsh, place and stations can fall off a ratings cliff over a season, but rebuilding an audience is tough like building a pyramid single handedly.<br /><br />So my few suggestions of the day:<br /><br />- Money people; realise that you are no longer in a stable, mature business. You're more like a bubble that might burst. You need to be fast moving, entrepreneurial and closer to your grass routes. If you want to survive you need the equivalent of an R&D department, ideally with a bit of an incubator investment fund attached. Risk is part of the game.<br /><br />- Stop using the word viewer and start thinking of them, for want of a better word, as customers. TV stations are entertainment brands nowadays - and stations aren't that big you can't be in a 'conversation' with your audience<br /><br />- In fact, stop thinking of yourself as a 'Broadcaster' with its inference of a paternalistic scattering of 'we know better' grains of entertainment gold. You're a service industry, like restaurants, holidays and back massages and its always worth keeping that in mind.<br /><br />- Stop nibbling at the edges of the 'new dynamic' by playing lip service for example by adding a 'spray painting' of interactivity to your current product. If your going to do something, do it properly if you want your audience to connect to, and respect your product.<br /><br />- In traditional TV you make a product, then advertise it. But in this landscape, we don't need to be, or in fact should be such a 'distant' entity. Here, your media brand is better able to reach out and touch your customers through social networks, e-mail outs and web presence. Talking to your audience needs to be a dialogue not a speech, and more importantly the 'core' (production side) of the business needs to be talking to customers and potential customers- not a separate advertising and PR department. Lessons need to taken from areas like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) about knowing, understanding, communicating and retaining your customer.<br /><br />-The current media landscape is moving towards areas where implicit TV specialities such as 'discovery' are more explicit, 'I'm doing this for you', 'check this out'. Music channels - who may (or may not) have your own websites, but you also need to 'let go' of strict notions of ownership and gain a presence on other websites like Facebook or My Space with useful widgets and info. Get your producers and talent to start blogging. Be seen to be fully engaged with the whole media landscape.<br /><br />- People are still people, they still want to be entertained, to learn, to have something to talk to their friends about, to wind down or be excited. They WANT to interact with brands they trust and that speak to them and their lifestyles - this isn't that scary.<br /><br />- Your channel brands are multi-platform. You need some more show formats that are too, that build a returning audience across platforms.<br /><br />Ok, that's enough for today. want me, I'm available as a reasonably priced consultant.<br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-71311946264156801522007-07-27T14:06:00.000+01:002007-07-27T14:19:41.321+01:00A response: What IS missing?<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Today’s blog is a response to an article by Keith Stuart in Wednesday’s Guardian Newspaper called <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/26/games.comment">‘Just who is playing who in ARGs?’</a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">ARGs or Alternative Reality Games are the hot new entertainment format right now. In short they are ‘experiences’, games or I’d argue ‘shows’ that are played via websites, text messages, phone calls and other platforms.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">I’ve discussed these broad areas before in posts including <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-is-next-big-brother.html">“What is the next Big Brother?”</a> and<a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/07/follow-me-entertainment.html"> “Follow Me Entertainment”</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">To roughly paraphrase Keith’s argument, ARGs are hot right now, and they are being used by companies to create or initialise communities, and then advertise to them. However they are often doing so crudely and so in turn, turning off a potential audience who simply chose not to engage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">The solution is simple and I can be blunt. It’s me. Well, me and people like me.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">This is a new and exciting arena, but it’s now breaking out from the ‘underground’ with an increasingly mainstream audience, using recognisable formats (see Kate Modern on Bebo, my post: <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/07/is-bebo-new-itv-kate-modern-story.html">Is Bebo the new ITV?; The Kate Modern Story)</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">ARG still, as a generalisation are made by people who come from some kind of technical background, with a few who come from conceiving games. I was actually shocked when I went to websites associated with 2 companies in this field who boast about their technical prowess. I can’t imagine going to an ITV productions, or an RDF website where they boast ‘we’re good with cameras and edit suites’. Is it too harsh for me to say I feel like they are slightly off target?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">These ‘entertainments’ are also often commissioned by Advertisers, and the projects likely go through business development, straight into the hands of the ‘craftsmen’ without the help of those used to creating hit entertainment.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">The link that seems to be missing to me is that of the ‘Producer’ (or even creatively led production houses/studios) – the creative visionary that is not just the person who oversees the projects, but someone who has knowledge and experience of the audience, who understands multiple forms of disciplines; narratives, resolutions, mainstream engagement, advertiser needs and concerns, the art of balancing and prioritising criteria etc. That to me says TV, theatre, radio, cinema as well as web. Ultimately web has been a 'flat' 2d environment, but web 2.0 is a lot more like, well TV.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">I don’t believe X Factor, the current Doctor Who or Buffy would be the hits they have without the steering hands of their Producers, be that Simon Cowell or a Russell T Davies.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;">Just because old hands like me have worked in ‘traditional’ TV, a lot of us do ‘get’ the new paradigm and have the skills, knowledge and experience that will help these new genres flourish. Ultimately we are all talking to the same audience. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:10;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="font-family: verdana;font-size:85%;" >Maybe I should set up a new cross-platform creatively led studio. Anyone fancy joining me?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com77tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-58605913728626582032007-07-26T15:03:00.000+01:002007-07-27T14:20:49.851+01:00What's next for Kids TV?<p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">There has been a lot of talk about the state of Kids TV in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>. It’s the most competitive market in the world, with over 20 stations operating in this mid-sized country, so it’s always tough to operate in. Recently the sector has been hit as ITV, still the biggest commercial broadcaster winds down its kids programming. More significantly, the ban on ‘junk food’ advertising has hit the bottom line of all the stations (with the exception of the dominant BBC).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">There is money to be made, hence the number of stations. The best place to be right now is a producer in the likes of Chorion and Ragdoll who own large chunks of the value chain via well known and loved characters – and associated merchandising.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">But what about the broadcasters future, and perhaps more importantly what about the kids and our society; we need to ensure that they receive culturally and educationally rich programming that reflects the world and diverse society around them, that helps build the kind of values we find important within the context of the local world they inhabit and relate to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The BBC will be there, and people like Nickelodeon are providing ‘quality’ shows mainly international, but also some local. My worry is about the mix we have for our kids. Being able to name-check one or two shows won’t cut it if there are 20 out of 23 channels pumping out merchandising led brain candy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">So, here are some ideas and thoughts:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="">-<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">ITV! WTF?? Prove to us that you’re not just about grabbing our money through dodgy phone-ins. You’re a big organisation, you still make lots of money, have some corporate responsibility and community spirit. From a commercial viewpoint, think about investing in building some channel loyalty in your younger viewers, who’ll then consider you one of ‘their’ channel brands they tune into to see what’s on, as opposed to Channel 4 or even the Beeb. The BBC via Doctor Who have shown how you can leverage strong primetime brands for a younger audience, so why not look there too. At the moment ITV, you look like you just get interested in youth when they are old enough to vote on the X Factor.<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="">-<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">The Government: Ok, so you don’t want to give tax breaks to the next Transformer style franchise, but you have a responsibility to make sure our kids grow up with the right kind of values. You can ‘hit them’ at school with your concerns, but its obvious surely to all that you need to take a more holistic approach. We all know kids bring their values from home, and it can be hard for school to have an effect. <o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: 18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Give culturally and educationally valuable programming tax breaks, top slice the licence fee if needed. Hey, why not even get the Arts Council to invest more in youth, and perhaps wider sways of the public will feel connected to their work in later life. Consider the non-commercial aspects as part of the solution of issues like social inclusion, citizenship and avoiding ASBOs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: 18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="">-<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;font-size:7;" > </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Broadcasters: Well, whatever help you get, you know it’s up to you – morally and of course commercially. Take a little but more of those expansive marketing and on-air budgets and invest more in ‘brownie point’ programming, even if its cheaply made. Some shows are fun, but also ensure that you have a balanced schedule, and use your commissioning power to make sure that our kids really do get a ‘balanced diet’.<o:p></o:p></span></span><!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Ok, but broadcasters also need to make a buck. I’d stay speed down the route to being almost platform agnostic brands on TV, web, phones, publishing, even the high street and sports centres. From Alternative Reality Games, Second Life style worlds, through live events, tie up with schools and embrace full social networking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;">Now social networking: If you’re of a certain age in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>, you would have been a Blue Peter kid or a Magpie kid –you had your tribe. Now you might be Jetix, Nickelodeon, or even CBBC kid. Build on that and keep them within your (branded) virtuous circle. Hey, kill 2 birds with one stone and have parents/carers sign up with linked accounts say for the under 11s. This way they can keep an eye on their kids, network with other parents and then you also have the opportunity to advertise direct to the ones with the real cash in their wallets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10;"><span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >I’m off to baby-sit now.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-25984892009159389492007-07-23T12:44:00.000+01:002007-07-23T14:57:47.316+01:00Plagarism on TV<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This post is in reply to mail from John, who wanted to delve deeper into the discussion here about honesty in TV, and more specifically plagiarism in TV.<br /><br />Well, that's a much more complex and subtle argument that I breaks down into 2 major areas, plagiarism within a programme, and plagiarism of show formats. Further, this is an argument that has 2 levels, best described as a 'moral' one of nicking other people's hard work, and the other is the much harder to define and act on, which is the issue of Intellectual Property (IP) and what is copyrightable, what is not, and perhaps more importantly what kind of action you can take if concepts are stolen.<br /><br />First of all, this isn't an argument about things like blueprints with hard technical information. In this post, we're talking about the creative field and this really is an area that's like a 3 (or 4) dimensional puzzle, all in really similar shades of grey - no black - no white.<br /><br />As with stories - it is a often said that all stories follow the same basic forms and basic stories (eg, redemption, travelogue) and I think the same can be said of any kind of show. The basic building blocks of any story or format exist in society in some form, and what is unique is how you take those elements, interpret them, mix them up and develop them. But Zeitgeist also plays a big part, with the same elements in society quite possibly influencing multiple people in a similar way. Think of it as society as a kitchen - what is unique is which ingredients you chose, and how you create your cake (or other food) from them, and say bread exists all over the world, developed separately.<br /><br />So, to be clear, I'm saying this is a fuzzy issue. Its about subtleties, and its difficult to draw a clear line between <span style="font-weight: bold;">taking</span> someone's successful idea, and being <span style="font-weight: bold;">inspired</span> by the same thing and evolving an idea- which is life basically. This said, this does not excuse the people who have no ideas, who's sharp business practices involve just taking an idea, doing no work and taking profit from it - clearly wrong.<br /><br />John, who posed the original question was most interested in examples in TV. This is where it gets more complex. Have I worked at places where teams were asked to come up with our take on Show x or Show z? Yes. But TV is a fashion thing, and its like saying one designer can't be inspired by say a trend for day glo colours as someone else is doing it. Copy some one else's whole design, and you are in dangerous territory.<br /><br />TV is a business, and just as when the crucial issue when I was raising finance for a business, the crux question was the team and the ability to execute that concept. The same is true of the production world. When I worked at an ITV production company in the 90s they were trying to move into more 'youth' programming as their forte of shiny floored Saturday night Light Entertainment fell out of fashion for a short while. Whilst we came up with great ideas, 'new' ideas, a commissioner isn't going to hand over a million quid to a company that makes shows featuring cats doing cute things and Barrymore doing fart jokes - they'll go to the cool 'yoot' company that also makes shows for genre market leaders like MTV.<br /><br />So commissioners get pitched 500 concepts, half of which have similarities. You, the commsisoner make your choice based on concept and (or sometime solely because of) expected delivery and favoured status... and then you meddle in/finesse the production. That's when the more of the 'original' tweaks from your format, or whole chunks of format might make it into someone else's production, sometimes knowingly and without guilt, or sometimes simply that the info has soaked into the commissioners sub-conciousness.<br /><br />My attitude? This is business, life is tough. Suing people puts them off working with you again. Salary (or potential salary) tends to win over proving a point. Some you loose - but if you keep having good ideas one will fight through. It's your job to get feedback and work out if its the concept, or any perceived doubts about ability to deliver - in which case you need to improve our business. The commissioners may be wrong, but whoever said life was fair.<br /><br />As a final thought, I'm one of those rare people that has tons of totally original ideas, all hits too!<br /><br /></span></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192714434625020028.post-90859102098572264092007-07-20T13:25:00.000+01:002007-07-20T14:45:28.741+01:00Is Bebo the new ITV? The Kate Modern Story<span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Earlier this week I attended a really enlightening chat by Michael Birch, the <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:city> based Brit who's created a number of websites: <a href="http://www.bebo.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bebo</span></span></span></a> the social networking site is the most notable, its the third 'runner' in this sector claiming victory in certain territories over My Space and </span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" class="blsp-spelling-error" ><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Facebook</span></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >.<br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />He briefly skirted around one topic that really piqued my interest. He called <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bebo</span></span> a 'Media channel' before semi-correcting himself. With the launch of <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Irji03K0UkU">Kate Modern</a> (explained below) it hints at a future where Social Networks don't just give you peer or friend created info, it's also the place where you'll 'discover' new music and entertainment, but also find 'formatted' shows - drama, games, quizzes, as well a reality, documentary and news.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Kate Modern, is essentially a drama with a who-done-it, what-is-going-on? game built in. Think Miss Marple crossed with Lost, crossed with The OC across multiple sites, and with no central hub other than one you create yourself.<br /><br />I was genuinely engrossed In Kate Modern's story for too long whilst preparing this post; viewers are encouraged to interact and whilst perhaps not directly controlling events, it is obviously being written as it progressing responding to the audience's feedback. It's obviously very raw, and a very new format that has a touch of a 'school play' feel to the acting, but that can't dent its power as a new force in entertainment. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />This new segment is also being explored by Alternative Reality Game producers like <a href="http://www.mindcandy.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Mindcandy</span></span></span></a> and touched upon in my post <a href="http://mediavladski.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-is-next-big-brother.html">'What is the Next Big Brother?'</a>. It's also worth noting that this kind of interactive programming/event that engages more directly with its audience is also much of a buzz in the advertising world where there is a trend to get an audience to participate with a brand's values, rather than being given a message via a <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">traditional</span></span> advert.<br /><!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The fact that the likes of more obvious entertainment providers like <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Joost</span></span> , <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Xbox</span></span> Live or even Channel 4’s Big Brother also have social networking aspects further highlights where people believe the industry is heading to; convergence to an extent not seen before, and barely envisioned by those in traditional formatted entertainment.<br /><br />So these online formats are in their early stages, barely out of the starting blocks but an important trend nether-the-less. Whilst popular, <span class="blsp-spelling-error">LonelyGirl</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">15, Kate <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Modern's</span></span> predecessor racked up 50 Million views, <span style=""> </span>it's not quite had the cut-through of a Buffy, Lost or American Idol. But I believe that will change quickly, as more advertisers move into this space (such as Kate Modern's Neutrogena), <span style=""> </span>working methodologies are finessed and these shows move into the mass market mainstream.<br /><br />Its worth noting that whilst <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Bebo</span></span> commissioned Kate Modern, the show plays out across <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Bebo</span></span>, You Tube and other websites. So despite whatever deals they have in place I would expect adverting ‘leakage’ <span style=""> </span>of advertising revenues to other businesses.<br /><br />So I say hats off to <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Bebo</span></span> for exploring this genre, and I look forward to seeing Kate Modern develop, and other formats developing and exploring this space too. They’ll commissioned by 'platforms' like <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Bebo</span></span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">FaceBook</span></span> or You Tube as well as ITV.com, or even by the Nike's, Coca-Cola's or The Guardian each promoting their brand values through entertainment.<br /><br />My advice - well its a learning curve for everyone involved as this new area is pioneered, but as an Executive Producer on a number of shows of multiple genres across multiple formats, it is worth remembering that whilst things change, they also stay the same. From Homer, through Shakespeare, Cecil B <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">de</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Mille</span></span> and P <span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Diddy</span></span>, it's always been about knowing your audience and having a good editorial judgment. Yes, <span style=""> </span>its ultimately about bums on seats and business, but you get there through the subtleties of creativity and a strong creative vision with engaging, considered content and a knowledge of where you are going. That holds true whatever platform - from books, through theatre, TV, and now online.<o:p></o:p></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">So is Bebo the new ITV? Well, maybe not today but the media landscape is definitely getting more complex by the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span>Vladskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623512427799708843noreply@blogger.com62