Technology360

When It Comes to Video, Integration Is Integral

Ian Schafer writes:

... The more online video is discussed purely in terms of inventory, the more it becomes commoditized. But instead of focusing on creating more inventory to sell more, I'd like to see the focus put on premium, integrated video. That's where advertisers might be willing to pay more, and consumers may even want to watch more.  ¶  I've previously written about how simplifying online ad buying processes could eventually lead to inventory and creative commoditization that could set artificial limits on this medium's maturity. Video is no exception.  ¶  Video importance online is growing. It's moving away from an also-ran content tab toward the center of some sites. The most effective, engaging, and efficient video campaigns wind up, not coincidentally, as the most integrated with the content surrounding it. Sure, pre-roll ads are seen. But when it comes to ads that get responses -- and keep audiences responding -- integrated placements get the job done. ...

Link:  ClickZ Network.

As Verizon moves to compete with cable, it offers broad carriage to pubTV

Steve Behrens writes:

Verizon, whose fiber optic video service competes with cable TV in parts of seven states so far, has agreed to carry all freely available local public TV stations.  ¶  The deal, announced June 16 by APTS, PBS and the phone company, covers all DTV multicast channels that local stations choose to air, including Create, Explore, PBS Kids Go, PBS HD and stations' other programming. ...

Link:  Current.

Also see Verizon to Carry PBS Multicast Channels. Link:  Broadcasting & Cable. 

This deal was negotiated by the Public Broadcasting Service and the Association of Public Television Stations.  Disclosure: I'm a former PBS board member and current APTS board member, and represented the latter on the joint committee that worked on this.  --Dennis

Michael Goldhaber, "The Value of Openness in an Attention Economy"

In a summary (recommended) of the presentation, Ed Batista writes:

Michael Goldhaber has posted "The Value of Openness in an Attention Economy" (PDF, 198KB), which he delivered last month at First Monday's "FM10 Openness: Code, Science and Content" event.

Link:  AttentionTrust.org.

Here's the HTML version at First Monday.  And the abstract:

Virtually all forms of openness can be motivated by the scarcity of attention, the lynchpin of the Attention Economy [link added]. This term, which I introduced previously, is often misunderstood as simply a variant of the money economy. Instead it is an entirely new system, which, I continue to argue, is fast becoming the dominant economy on the Internet as well as in the world as a whole.  ¶  A theory of how we pay attention to other humans suggests why receiving it is both desirable and difficult. Humans can absorb as much attention as can be obtained, which differentiates it from other sorts of scarce goods. The theory also suggests a typology of openness, permitting an analysis of the different forms addressed in this Conference, along with others, both existing and potential. In this context, it seems reasonable to speculate on how attention–economic activity manifested through openness may help lead to further dominance of this type of economy. Groupings based on and espousing openness eventually may come increasingly to replace profit–making firms and even non–profit institutions such as universities, while making the pursuit of money largely irrelevant.

Update 6/18/2006:
Just discovered that Goldhaber has a new weblog.  His old web site still has links to a number of his works.  --Dennis

Pinko Marketing Manifesto

Wow, does this "new power pyramid" diagram ever say a lot!  Click for a larger view.

It's from a "manifesto" that Pinko Marketing has published on its wiki.  Recommended reading along with the article, Pinko Attention, by Ed Batista that pointed to it at AttentionTrust.org.  --Dennis

Your video vs. big media video

Bambi Francisco writes:

... Compared with videos of whimsical one-off moments in time, big media productions just don't seem to matter in the online world.  ¶  Take a quick scan at the top 100 most popular clips viewed on Google Video, and you'll note that a large majority are far from professionally produced. Many appear focused on what happens when you combine Mentos candy with carbonated beverages. The No. 1 video, at this juncture, is a 13-second clip, titled "Girl caught cheating." ...

[And later,]

... So, for now, we have to settle for video viewing stats that are decent at best, or entirely inaccurate at worst. The result: misguided conclusions.  ¶  Consider one piece of data from comScore shows that in January, Microsoft's (MSFT) MSN Video was the No. 1 video site ranked by unique visitors, followed by Video@AOL, YouTube and then Google Video. According to comScore, MSN Video had 14.9 million unique visitors in January 2006, or 5 times more than YouTube, with 2.7 million visitors.  ¶  Yet over at Nielsen//NetRatings, YouTube's audience figures were nearly twice as high, and MSN Video was doing worse. YouTube had 4.9 million unique visitors in January while MSN Video had 9.6 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.  ¶  For those watching traffic data over the decade-long commercial life of the Internet, it's not a surprise that the numbers vary since the methodology at the research companies is different.  ...¶

Link:  Always On.  Lots of good contextual information for online video.  --Dennis

New Open Media Network client

The spiffy new "Beta 3" version of the Open Media Network client is available at omn.org.  The download is under 3 mb.  Even though it's in beta, there's a wide selection (some 62,500 pieces) of public service audio and video available.  --Dennis

Martin Preparing To Revisit Fight Over Carriage Of Digital TV Signals

David Hatch has a story about who's supporting and who's opposing FCC chairman Kevin Martin's plan to move forward with digital must carry. Link:  National Journal.  --Dennis

Bruce Jacobs on HDTV (reprise)

Bruce Jacobs is one of the most thoughtful technologists in public broadcasting.  His 7/30/2004 post in this weblog, How To Buy A TV, is by far the most popular item ever posted here and still, thanks to search engines, getting read every day.  About five years earlier, Bruce wrote an essay for the public broadcasting newspaper, Current, called High-def: too-high quality, too-high cost.  Today, in a comment to a post asking if we were "hostage to craft" that I made a few weeks ago, Current editor Steve Behrens reminded me (thanks) of a follow-up essay from Bruce that Steve published in April of 2004, Stop squinting! High-def is ready for prime-time.  With a minor exception or two, the essay holds up well today.  Nice to get the links all in one place (especially since I'm sitting in a Minneapolis hotel room at the moment enjoying his television station).  --Dennis

Coming Soon (Maybe): Even More TV Channels

Richard Siklos writes, in a story on DTV multicasting:

... Unfortunately for broadcasters — and, arguably, for viewers — that 15 percent of households is not a big-enough market to make these new niche channels economically viable. For the model to work, broadcasters also need to make the new channels available to people with cable and satellite services — and they want the channels to be distributed free, in the way federal law currently obligates cable companies to carry their primary local channels. ...

Link:  New York Times.

CBS 'Sunday Morning': What you can learn

Steve Safran writes:

Warley has written here before about how CBS Sunday Morning could be a model for breaking out of an old broadcast mold entirely. Let me offer a quicker lesson on how it can fit right into your current model: just watch it. ...

Link:  Lost Remote.  I've long thought that CBS Sunday Morning was one of the best public television programs around.  Or maybe I should say it's public television as NPR would do it if NPR did public television.  Of course, it runs in the Sunday a.m. smart programming ghetto, but with TiVo, that's OK.  --Dennis