Adrian Smith of IPTV Evangelist moderated a panel at Streaming Media West on the subject of how independent filmmakers and content producers could reach a wide audience and perhaps even monetize their efforts. Featured on the panel was award winning independent filmmaker and founder of The Webbys Tiffany Shlain, Director of Video Programming for AOL Miguel Monterverde, and Antonio Otalvaro COO of Barrio 305 (an ace at the corporate branding of independent content). The panel was well received and featured much lively (and at times passionate) conversation on the opportunities of promoting independent work online.
What I really like about the new Amazon Kindle is not that it may boost my stock shares in the company (I would certainly welcome that) but that they seem to have but together a winning platform that fits the users and not the other way round.
What is the connection to ITV/IPTV? Read on...
The device integrates many different sources of reading materials (books, newspapers, blogs, and your own documents) which can be downloaded on the fly without additional charges over a cellular network and not Wi-Fi. Its other killer feature is a screen that is said to resemble the printed page without eyestrain.
Moreover, while this is not the first or last e-book, also see iRex, Amazon has the muscle, inventory and distribution network to make a go of it.
So what does this all mean for Internet Television/IPTV as video playback is not supported? It is not about this device, it is the story of convergence and a device that people can use without having to conform to it.
Wide scale Broadband deployment is a result of speed and costs factors that made the argument against it null for most people and it is this growth, which has enabled ITV to accelerate at the pace it has.
When simple to use ITV/IPTV platforms are coupled with ease of navigation to content, as is the case with the Kindle, we will be on the road to systems people will embrace in larger numbers. There is always a tipping point or inflection point that occurs from geek novelty to mass-market product; it is when this happens the next chapter in Internet Television will be written.
It is a time of massive transition in the television and on-line space and whatever name you want to call it, be it iTV, Internet Television, etc.. There is one truth facing anyone who thinks they are going to make money with ad supported revenues alone...
"Twenty-Five percent of what you see on TV are tune in ads for more Televsion"
Doctor, there are 5-million programs on and I cannot find what I want. Do I know what I want to watch? I cannot watch it now, but would like it to download to my portable for the subway ride home. What about programming I do not even know about? Well Nurse, do not expect to find a listing in the New York Times any time soon :-)
In his article, I want my iTV, Mr. Edwards’s cites companies who “are unwilling to let go of their control in the way things work” so as not to jeopardize their power and revenues until the business of iTV is figured out has missed an important point and over-simplified the landscape. Unlike the television standards set by the National Television System Committee (NTSC) in the U.S. in the 1940’s, there is no specific roadmap or governing body for Internet television integration, let alone IPTV over closed providers or even mobile devices.
If a CEO of an internet software or hardware company is making money with
their product, it is naïve to think they are in a position to open their
code or share their technology in the hopes of creating an industry
standard for that market segment; only the Government under the FCC could
mandate such a process. After all, a company that makes a software
encoder cannot be equated with Facebook, which recently opened its
platform in hopes of creating a community standard towards mass adoption.
In addition, no one product can “complete the picture” as it is currently
far too diverse and fragmented an audience to know how even to tackle the
problem.
Aside from the technical challenges there are many other social and
monetary implications which where not mentioned either. For example, in
the current writers strike members want a share of the revenue from
programming destined for Internet delivery. The problem, however, is that
most of the current ventures by large media outlets have yet to make any
money, which makes it veritably impossible to assign profits on
non-existent or future revenues. It is questions like these that will
require a new set of definitions as to what is iTV programming, how are
people compensated, what do consumers want and on what platforms and what
will they pay, let alone the technology challenges.
Those of us who have been in the business since the mid-nineties when
postage-stamp-size streaming media was just being deployed understand the
industry is in a time of fast-moving change, not unlike the Wild West.
That we are faced with a myriad of technical and social questions as to
how people will use Internet television over fixed and mobile platforms
requires patients, perspective, and not misrepresentation.
The Future of Television Conference got off to a not so auspicious start from a blogging perspective as there was neither mobile broadband reception nor Wi-Fi. Of course, in fairness to the organizers the conference venue, a museum was not ideally suited for this type of event and lower Manhattan is not only very windy this time of year, it is notoriously poor for wireless broadband reception.
Ned Sherman, whose company Digital Media Wire has seen significant traction in the space set the stage for the two-day event to a full house of television and media specialists. Questions texted from the audience over their mobile handsets were displayed on a projection screen feed from a laptop and served as questions for the panel.
The upstairs hosted a number of companies such as Limelight Networks, KickApps, Level (3), Bluefrog Media, Blinkx and Prospero among others. I spoke with the folks from Prospero, their space for creating widgets and applications for social networking sites, which they would host and usually administer for media clients.
Of special interest to me was their platform was created on .Net and one would certainly expect tight integration with Microsoft Silverlight distributed content in the future as MFST seeks to ramp up interactive rich media experiences.
Of the two panels I sat in on, the first “What’s Next: The Top Give Digital Media Trends to Watch and Why” was the most interesting. Shelly Palmer spoke of a lack of inventory of ads for the on-line space. As he said, “the largest advertiser on television is television”.
Tim Herbert, Sr. Director Market Research, CES spoke of the rise of screens in the home from nine in 1990 to over 25 in 2006 and Evan Neufeld Vice President & Senior Analyst m:metrics mentioned the over abundance of text messaging all struggling to get the attention of readers.
I audio recorded today's conference and will post select comments from the panelist.
There has been a lot of press in the rags and on-line about the writer's strike, but much of what I have seen has not been in industry sites or blogs, but rather mainstream press aimed at consumers.
Should writers be compensated for residual work sold by the studios for use on ipod's, sling, and cell phones and on-line? Should writers be paid only after the studio has recouped it is investment in a project?
That on-line content is not likely going to be effected in the short term does not mean there are important implications for creative’s who put a value on their work across different platforms.
On the other hand, the audience and viewing habits have changed. Media outlets are seeing a fragmentation of the audience and many have yet to make money from on-line ventures
Aside from the obvious, there will be an impact felt across the industry as rental houses, catering and all the ancillary services are affected.
A showdown could occur around the holidays as most scripted shows only work about a month in advance and their stockpile will then run out.
