6. Web

Tales of Balloon Boy: Front and Center at a Media Circus

On October 15th, the big “Balloon Boy” incident involving the quirky Heene family took over broadcast and cable news. By now you know the story – a boy named Falcon went missing in a UFO-shaped weather balloon flying across the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Miraculously, he turned up safe and sound in the family’s attic.

That should have been the end of the story. It wasn’t. Covering the story for a national media outlet I thought that once the Larimer County Sheriff announced Falcon was found everyone would wrap things up and go home. Instead I was surprised to find a media monster consumed by the story and even more committed to covering each and every angle.

After we found out that the Heene family staged the entire event to get a reality show deal I’m even more embarrassed to admit I was part of the media circus. Maybe I shouldn’t beat myself up. Turns out that I’m part of a long, sad history of the media falling for the latest hoax. From the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938 to the drama surrounding Jon & Kate Plus Eight today, we live in a world where bread and circuses sells. We might not have all the facts (or even know if it’s a true news story at all) but if we have stunning visuals or eye popping drama we’re going to cover it.

Everyone wants to be in the news nowadays, figuring that those 15 minutes will give them riches and fame beyond their wildest dreams. That’s why you see these sorts of desperate attempts to get famous. Rather than deal with the anonymity most of us have in our normal, cash-strapped lives, we’d like to be the next Richard Hatch, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth or Jon Gosselin. These personalities have cashed in on whatever public prominence they have gained to become a media star, however briefly.

Should we expect to see the Heene’s dream of becoming stars become a reality even as they face criminal charges for orchestrating a hoax that got the fame in the first place? Although they’re pariahs this week, there will be a cable outlet that will take a gamble on them. That’s a tragedy for the Fourth Estate.

No doubt, this won’t be the last hoax perpetrated for publicity. But if the media keeps indulging such people we might start seeing these ‘events’ almost every day; or maybe every other hour. “Balloon Boy” you’ve floated into our lives and reminded us of a powerful message traveling across our land. America has a new moniker — land of the free and home of the reality television star.

Online Video Sizzles This Summer

Anyone whose got a link sent to them of Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent or Jill and Kevin Heinz’s Wedding Dance Video knows that online video has been burning up the data streams. Now we have the numbers to prove it. The Nielsen Co.’s July 2009 “VideoCensus” states that online video is way up on all metrics.

The measurement firm recorded a 14.2% year-over-year increase in unique viewers to nearly 136 million. Total streams climbed 31.4% to more than 11.2 billion and average streams per viewer were up to 82.4, a 15.1% gain. Viewers spent an average of about 3.5 hours watching online video in July, a jump of 42.2% over the prior year.

The top site for watching video, according to Nielsen, was YouTube—way out in front with more than 7 billion streams and 104 million unique viewers. Hulu ranked second in number of streams, but was surpassed by Yahoo!, MSN, CNN and Fox Interactive Media properties in unique viewers.

In June 2009, comScore reported record online video viewership, at 157 million unique viewers. Again, Google sites were on top, followed by Microsoft and Fox Interactive Media.

Let’s put those numbers in perspective. This means there are Super Bowl-sized audiences for online video each and every month. Companies would kill to reach an audience of that size… and it’s out there for a lot less money than a commercial during the Super Bowl. By the way, more than 157 million viewers watched an average of 135 videos during the month of July. Talk about growth!

There are some qualifiers to these numbers. ComScore attributed massive June viewership to unusual media events that became online video phenomena, including the memorial service for Michael Jackson and the civil unrest in Iran. Such major events have been important for online video viewing in the past, with many users checking out news videos during the workday, notably the January presidential inauguration.

Even with those qualifiers it’s obvious that the computer is becoming the new TV. Sure it has a smaller screen but as computer monitors get larger and more mobile, its only a matter of time before the computer is just as important for media distribution as the TV. If you don’t start developing online video for your product, service or pleasure now, you might find yourself falling behind in the marketing race.

* Info courtesy of eMarketer and Nielsen

Are Paid Content Models the Future of Online Video?

There’s been a lot of in the media business lately about paying for content online. With Disney, Fox and NBC’s investment in Hulu earlier this year, paid content models are all the rage. Chances are it’s not going to happen anytime soon. A new report from eMarketer says that consumer’s willingness to pay for content online is about as likely as J.D. Salinger writing another novel… that’s not going to happen.

“It is difficult to imagine the public tolerating a return to paid content for video genres that are currently ad-funded,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report.

There are some areas where consumers will pay online. They’ll pay for feature films, which is not surprising considering it’s a transaction-based business. You want to see a film, you enter your credit card number into iTunes or Netflix and voila… instant movie. Consumers will also pay for live sports programming with baseball on MLB.com and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) matches being two notable examples.

The most likely evolution would be that Hulu and YouTube charge a fee for premium content (movies and sports) and leave the rest of their videos (TV shows, news, humor, user-generated clips) in ad-supported formats. But given that most consumers believe the old adage, “Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free?” don’t expect the change to happen that quickly.

Whether paid or free, the business of online video is booming. Audience levels and stream counts are climbing dramatically, while age range demographic of viewers is expanding. Slowly but surely, the content mix is evolving from short, home video clips to long-form content such as TV shows and feature films, according to eMarketer. That’s good news for everyone.

Twitter Heading to Hollywood?

How do you create a television show when you’re a Web-based communication tool that allows you to send messages of no more than 140 characters? If you’re Twitter, you find someone else to test the waters for you. Depending on who you believe, the popular online network that allows users to send ridiculously short text messages called ‘tweets,’ is either developing a reality series or putting a halt to one. According to Variety, Twitter is working with Reveille (production company known for The Biggest Loser and the U.S. edition of The Office) and Brillstein Entertainment (the huge talent management company) on the series. In a joint statement, the companies said the show would put “ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”

The show would feature players using Twitter to “follow” (aka stalk) their favorite celebrities in an interactive challenge format… sort of TMZ meets microblogging. Producers at Reveille said the show would be the first to bring immediacy of the site to TV. Didn’t interactive television say the same thing a few years ago when they touted how you could vote for your favorite on American Idol or pick the play the coach would run on Monday Night Football?

Before you get too excited about Twitter TV, the official Twitter blog, writes, “There is no official Twitter TV show—although if there were it would be fun to cast!” The company characterizes its deal with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment as “a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.”

Why the quick denial? Turns out two of Twitter’s most prolific users, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, have expressed fear that such a series would mean an unfair intrusion on their lives. “It’s all fun and games until somebody gets stalked,” Kutcher posted Monday on Twitter. “I really don’t like being sold out. May have to take a Twitter hiatus.”

Whether or not the reality series happens, premium content providers have Twitter on their radar. Some of the savvier networks have already been incorporating Twitter into their shows; we’ve seen it on CSI two years ago, as well as MTV and Current TV more recently.

If the microblogger can continue to branch out without actually doing much themselves, relying on third parties to develop applications and formats, then that will leverage the brand as well. That makes it grow. And maybe, just maybe, Twitter will make some money. Wouldn’t that be nice.

What’s MySpace Up To?

The appointment of former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta to replace co-founder Chris DeWolfe atop MySpace has numerous Web pundits buzzing over the same question: What does the social networking site have to do to rebuild its buzz and its business?

MySpace has been losing market share for some time now to Facebook. It’s also getting younger and narrower all the time demographically, as opposed to Facebook’s older users who have more disposable income for advertisers. Although MySpace is hardly small, if it follows the current course it could easily become another Friendster - a once dominant site relegated to an also-ran because it didn’t adapt to the competitive environment.

Given the explosion of Facebook and Twitter, News Corp. must be having a tough time now justifying its $580 million purchase of MySpace. “The company has a potential black hole in terms of profitability,” Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Michael Nathanson told the New York Times. Van Natta has been brought in to turn things around and while not a lost cause, there’s plenty of work to be done.

So what should MySpace do? Audio and video are expected to be even larger parts of the site’s strategy in the future but here are a few suggestions…

Become an Entertainment Company: Two of its most compelling features are social gaming and its well received new music offering, which joins together social networking with streaming tracks. Bring in entertainment insiders to keep the content fresh and buy or build more games so it becomes a destination site.

Focus on Mobile: The future of many online tools is mobile. Social networking is already a largely mobile phenomenon in other countries like Japan. Nobody has really made social networking work on mobile in the U.S. and MySpace could take control.

Build a New Platform: The interface and functionality of MySpace is old by web standards so perhaps a major facelift would do the trick. If MySpace wants to retake the lead, it needs to make a leap beyond Facebook, Twitter and everyone else. The only way to do that is to invest in a cutting edge version of social networking that blows away the competition. This is could be risky proposition since MySpace must maintain (and improve) the current version simultaneously.

Since Mr. Van Natta has not discussed a new strategy for MySpace, who knows what plans he has in store. Our advice – be bold or risk being a 2000-word Wikipedia entry.

Disney and Hulu: The Sorceror’s Apprentice?

Much like Mickey’s magic in Fantasia, studios are filling up Hulu… not with buckets of water but investment capital. This week, The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney joined NBC Universal and News Corp. as a joint venture partner in Hulu, the popular online video site that’s taking market share from YouTube. Disney views the move as a way to reach a new audience that isn’t coming to the network’s own website. The Mouse will provide Hulu with full length, ad-supported episodes from ABC, SoapNet, ABC Family and the Disney Channel. Some of the content will include top rated shows like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Scrubs as well as select Disney films.

It’s not an all-inclusive deal, however. The studio retains the right to keep certain series and does not have to make all episodes available. For example, Disney’s ABC division might put the trailing five episodes of Lost and selected old episodes on Hulu but continue to put the entire show library on ABC.com. And Disney keeps control of its most popular show, Hannah Montana, as well as the High School Musical franchise.

What This Means for Hulu?
Hulu gets a new lease on life with the Disney financing. Even with its incredible momentum, Hulu was on unsure footing financially. This allows them to become more entrenched and provide what consumers really want – a one-stop shop for video content. Should Hulu be able to strike content-sharing partnerships with cable companies, analysts say it could become an even bigger threat.

What This Means for Disney?
Not only does the deal erase NBC’s and Fox’s advantage over ABC, but it requires them to make only certain episodes from a series available on Hulu at any given time. The first taste may be at Hulu, but the full meal will still be on Disney-controlled real estate. It also puts Disney content on a wildly popular destination site where it will capture new eyeballs of those who expect content to come to them.

What This Means for YouTube?
Google-owned You Tube is under mounting pressure to add more professional content in order to attract more advertisers. But with Hulu locking up content from three of the six major studios (Fox, Disney and NBC Universal), they are running out of options. Sony has deals to provide a small amount of long-form, ad-supported content to both Hulu and YouTube. Time Warner has largely kept long-form content off the Web, and Paramount, which provides Hulu with some TV shows and a smattering of films, is unlikely to partner further with the online video site anytime soon. Viacom, Paramount’s parent company has a $1 billion copyright suit still pending against YouTube.

What This Means for Apple?
According to Business Week, the Hulu-Disney deal could test the viability of Apple’s pay-as-you-go iTunes download business. Why buy (or rent) an episode of Lost when you can watch it with a handful of 30-second commercials for free? Since Apple neither creates video content nor distributes it freely, it could easily get pushed out of online video altogether. One small consolation… Hulu is reportedly working on an iPhone/iPod Touch app.

What This Means for the Cable Companies?
Viewers are going to start wondering why they pay for cable at all, when HDTV signals are available as free, over-the-air broadcasts and there’s so much new, premium content available on Hulu. An interesting take was offered by Forrester analyst James McQuivey to CNET: Hulu could actually provide more than a blueprint for cable companies’ own premium video services; it could manage their online content relationships and distribution for them.

Bottom Line
The Hulu-Disney deal should come as a reminder that nothing stays the same for long. If other companies want to make the splash in online video, they need to act fast to keep their heads above water.

Adobe Plays Matchmaker for Studios and Silicon Valley

With a global recession in full force, Silicon Valley and Hollywood are suddenly cosying up to each another. Considering that the two business and pop culture forces didn’t acknowlege each others existence for years it’s a bit of a surprise. But tough economic times make for strange bedfellows. Entertainment companies need the Valley to help cut costs in moviemaking and show viewers it is hip to the latest tech innovations.

The tipping point might be the recent advancements in Adobe System’s Flash, the standard for online video. Flash has been used in websites for the past ten years but is now being employed to display Facebook applications, interactive advertisements and video clips featured on YouTube and Hulu.com.

Adobe wants to widen Flash’s influence even more. The company announced on Monday its latest version of Flash will be on Internet connected TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and other digital home devices later in 2009. TV and consumer electronics optimized for Flash will allow viewers to see high-definition video, interactive applications and new user interfaces right on their TVs.

At NAB, David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe elaborated on the benefits.

“Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions. Consumers are looking to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens. We are looking forward to working with partners to create these new experiences and deliver content consistently across devices whether consumers view it on their desktop, mobile phone or television.”

As part of the announcement, the company revealed a number of partners that plan to use the technology including Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive and Netflix.

The companies involved will trumpet the advantages of Hollywood and Silicon Valley working together. And with the obvious benefits of melding of content and technology together it’s true. They might not always get along but cooperation like this might be the only thing that saves them in these rough and tumble economic times.

YouTube Strikes Deals with Studios to Acquire Content

YouTube’s vast lineup of programming just got a lot more interesting. The company has brokered content deals with Sony, Lionsgate, the BBC, Starz, Discovery, National Geographic and others to offer up full-length movies and TV shows for free on the site. The new content will only be available in the United States.

YouTube needs to do something to become profitable. A recent report by Credit Suisse says that Google is expected to lose $470 million this year on YouTube. That can’t go on forever. So how will YouTube monetize these new deals? Initially, they plan to sell advertising during commercial breaks in TV shows. That model has had limited success so eventually YouTube will have to make the decision whether or not to charge for this ‘premium’ content.

These deals are considered one way for YouTube to compete aggressively with rival video sites like Hulu to attract more advertisers with access to premium content. A large part of Hulu’s success revolves around a focused approach to content. By only providing movies and TV shows, it feels like a free HBO. Contrast that with YouTube whose niche of showing short videos of cats playing pianos, Axe deodorant flamethrowers and waiters spitting on food make it appear to be something akin to a public access channel.

Like many Internet companies, YouTube is growing up. Since Google’s acquisition, YouTube has gone through a makeover, starting with making the service more attractive to big movie and TV companies. The site has upgraded the quality of its streaming video and began filtering content to eliminate pirated material. As the leading video destination on the Internet (with 41% of the online audience according to comScore), there’s plenty of time for YouTube to outdistance Hulu and its ilk.