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Viodi View Newsletter – September 20th, 2006
Click here to learn more about the Technology of Local Content Workshop
By Ken Pyle, [email protected], Managing Editor, Viodi View
- Speakers for Technology of Local Content Announced
- AT&T/MobiTV – A New Direction
- TIA Advocates Video Franchise Legislation Reform
- To Franchise or Not to Franchise?
- Who Isn’t Doing Over the Top Videos?
- HD-OnDemand
- Overwhelming Over the Top
- Video Over the Internet Killed the Cable Stars?
- Networking & Conference Opportunities:
- The Korner – We’re the Young Generation……
Déjà vu all over again. It seems appropriate to be thinking of Yogi Berra’s famous saying given that baseball is in the midst of several hot pennant races. And just like any other season since they moved to San Francisco, it appears as if my beloved Giants’ envelope is about to fold once again. In some ways, it seems like nothing is really new. Yet, there is the spark of excitement, caused by a sophomore slugger named Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies, suggesting that baseball may be entering into a new era scrubbed clean of recent scandals.
Similarly, with all of the excitement and buzz over video over the Internet, are we really just partying again like it was 1999? The Current TV people certainly think that some of the video over Internet sites, like YouTube are a lot of content with no business model. In an article in the Multichannel News, Joel Hyatt of Current TV likened these upstarts to free web hosts, like Angelfire, that were able to generate lots of eyeballs, but little revenue [note, Current TV just announced a distribution deal with Yahoo!]. Still, with all of the announcements from upstart video over the Internet sites, there is certainly something that is different this time.
Technology of Local Content Speakers Announced
I am thrilled that Mary Wilder, General Manager of HBC Productions and Tim Mahoney, founder of Mahoney Media, will be speaking at the Technology of Local Content. Mary and her crew bring a real world perspective on the steps independent telcos need to take to produce local content. Tim Mahoney will bring the viewpoint of a producer who has produced commercials and documentaries that have aired all over the world. We have extended the early bird pricing until Friday, so be sure to register for this event which is a perfect complement to OPASTCO’s Tech Symposium.
One of the things I am looking forward to at this workshop is learning how to create animations like Roger Bindl. Check out the promotional video he put together for the workshop.
ViodiTV DVD Included with Registration a $99 Value
One big “over the top” announcement was AT&T’s deal with MobiTV, whereby AT&T is redistributing a version of MobiTV’s video product to broadband subscribers. For $19.99 per month, one gets a mix of brand name and new channels. It is available on any broadband connection (although some of the channels can be seen only exclusively on AT&T Broadband – hmmm, is that a net neutrality issue?). Is this “over the top” approach a sign of AT&T’s video direction, especially if their current IPTV approach has schedule delays? One thing missing from this service, at least for now, is a franchise fee; more on that in a bit.
TIA Advocates Video Franchise Legislation Reform (pdf)
Alan J. Weissberger attended a TIA press briefing last week, where reform of the video franchise process was center stage. The TIA, represented by executives from Anda Networks, Corning and Tellabs, argued that U.S. competitiveness is in jeopardy if franchise reform is not undertaken this year. The FTTH Council, another organization with a strong vendor influence, made a similar plea before Congressional staffers earlier this week. Click here to read what the TIA had to say about franchising, as well their comments about how wireless can be used to fill in the broadband gaps.
To Franchise or Not to Franchise?
A streamlined franchise process may be a good thing, but I doubt it will be the panacea these vendors hope it will. I was reminded that telcos and others have had franchise alternatives for a number of years (e.g., in the form of Open Video Systems) when I listened to a presentation from Howard Shapiro, a lawyer with Washington D.C.-based Bennet & Bennet. This was a presentation he gave at the Viodi co-produced IP Video @ Telecom03 conference. He makes an interesting case that it may be possible for a telecom provider to offer video services without a franchise, much like AT&T has started to offer. You too can listen and view this informative and classic presentation by clicking here.
Click to View Presentation (requires Internet Explorer)
Who Isn’t Doing “Over the Top Videos”?
Actually, the Who are providing streaming video as part of their, “virtual ticket membership.” Membership gives access to chat boards as well as video that features vintage and current Who concert footage. This sort of affinity marketing of video will probably become more of the rule as it becomes easier for anyone to distribute video. The video announcements by Amazon and Apple are more evidence of the continuing fragmentation of the content distribution business. Their well-established brands and large customer bases should put them in a good position to sell enough to justify their foray into the movie download business.
Not that Amazon and Apple have it right yet, as pointed out by Mike Langberg in the San Jose Mercury. Langberg has a good summary of the limitations of these services; and there are still significant limitations. Ironically, while he was testing those services, I was revisiting Movielink and Comcast’s VOD offerings. What attracted me to Movielink’s offering was the 50 free emusic downloads (as an aside, emusic seems to be a much better deal than iTunes). What attracted me to Comcast was I could rent a movie with an Oscar-award winning actress and not have to pay a dime extra. Combining the ease of navigation and the sharpness of promotion of Movielink with the couch-potato friendliness of Comcast’s VOD would result in a winning product.
Moviebeam provides an interesting high definition, on-demand alternative that has great navigation together that interfaces to a standard television. I had a chance to catch up with Mark Langford of Moviebeam a few months ago. What is amazing is this service will be offering day and date release with DVD of certain high definition titles from major studios. You can check out this video interview with him by clicking on this video that is hosted on revver.com. Watch the videos all the way through the end and click on the advertisement and they will actually pay Viodi a small sum.
That Revver pays their producers makes them somewhat unique (eefoof.com and http://www.addictingclips.com/ are a couple of other examples of sites that pay for play). Revver just converted to Adobe Flash 8 from Quicktime, which is significant as most of these over the top video services seem to be using Flash. Based on their beta site, even Microsoft’s new “Soapbox” service uses Flash8 instead of its own Windows Media product.
Video Over the Internet Killed the Cable Stars?
The YouTube announcement with Warner is amazing because it offers the potential to allow users to legitimately create their own music videos using songs from their favorite artists. I am sure this won’t be a cake walk, as getting the necessary agreements could be a challenge since some artists (John Fogerty comes to mind) will not want their music associated with advertising. I suspect it will be a revenue generator for artists with loyal fan bases. It offers an entirely new future for the MTV generation.
Networking & Conference Opportunities:
Summer is definitely over and the fall conference season is in full bloom. Here are some upcoming conferences that may be of interest:
- NTCA’s Fall Conference – Always great educational workshops at these events. I am especially looking forward to the local content workshop!
- iHollywood’s IPTV Forum – I am looking forward to participating in this event as well as hearing from the executives who are intimately involved in the rollout of IPTV.
- OPASTCO’s 4th Annual Tech Symposium – This should be a good event, as it will focus on the challenges and opportunities of IPTV as it relates to independent telcos. What makes this event even better is that attendees to OPASTCO’s Tech Symposium receive more than 25% off the price of registration
- S2 Data is producing the Digital Home Developers Conference on October 12th in San Jose. This should be of interest to anyone who wants to know where convergence in the home is headed.
- Digital Hollywood – October 23rd to 26th – these are always very informative and provide a great education on the convergence of entertainment and technology.
Local Content Workshop Alumni
Watch your email inbox over the next few days for some special announcements.
The Korner – We’re the Young Generation…..
Given the large amount of press about video over the internet, it is easy to start to look at all announcements as part of some self-fulfilling, Kool Aid dispensing, hype machine. We certainly don’t want to be fooled again. As such, I skipped the articles regarding the Warner-YouTube deal, figuring it was more of the same. After seeing the headline for probably the fourth time, it hit me that I had seen this a long time ago, when cable was but a pebble in the pop culture landscape.
It was a picture in a trade magazine that I recall from so many years ago. It is that picture that made me realize that cable television could be a fun business. The picture was of Mike Nesmith shaking hands with an executive from Warner-Amex. The caption indicated some sort of agreement between Warner-Amex and Nesmith. Now, many of you may remember Nesmith as the son of the single mother who, in the 1950s, invented Liquid Paper. What many of you may not know is that he was a Monkee – the tall one with a beanie and the one with a big independent and creative streak.
After the Monkee’s dissolved, Nesmith became a solo artist. During that phase of his career, he pioneered the music video as an art form. I first saw his music videos in the late 1970s on a San Francisco-based, UHF television show, Videowest. Videowest featured an eclectic mix of alternative news, views and a new form of entertainment; the music video. It was a version of MTV before there was MTV and the music videos featured bands like Devo, Lena Lovich and Mike Nesmith.
As it turned out, Nesmith and the record company he owned, Pacific Arts, came up with the original concept for MTV around that same time and sold it to Warner-Amex. While MTV came to dominate youth pop culture for the next 25 years, Videowest went the way of the bouffant hairstyle. So, as I look at the YouTube deal, I wonder if Chad Hurley of YouTube will be the Michael Nesmith of his day. I also wonder which of today’s services and companies will follow the path of Videowest.
One last note, Michael Nesmith is alive and still producing good stuff. His latest CD sounds like it has some good tunes for listening to while working or relaxing. It can be found at:
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