Pravda on Media, Technology, and Rebel Filmmaking

Sitting on the couch at blip.tv’s offices in Manhattan, chatting with Dina Kaplan, the company’s COO and Mike Hudak, CEO, I realized that one thing that Dina said was the true story behind this small company - that probably their content and distribution is the biggest and most unnoticed threat to TV networks.

Blip.tv is a video distribution and monetization platform. it offers distribution services to its customers, such an embedable player, distribution to main video sites, twitter notifications, and cross posting to blogs. The company also cut sponsorship deals for its customers with brands, as well as using basic advertisement technology to provide CPM/CPC of deals.

Their uniqueness is in their business strategy - focusing on independent producers of online shows:

- Independent producers are in most cases the ones who are not linked to major TV networks, the guys who just go out there with their own money (or, in some cases, investment money) and produce their own shows.

- Shows are not the dog on skateboard videos you see on YouTube, but an episodic content, just like regular TV shows.

Blip is hosting different kinds of shows, such as cooking shows, drama, comedy, technology and news.

Here’s an example of such a show, Political Lunch:

So, what’s the big news?

Well, couple of weeks ago, Mike and Dina showed me one cool thing - their integration with Sony Bravia. Sony Bravia has an Ethernet socket. And what I saw at blip’s offices is their content on a large screen TV with blip’s menu and interface.

Though Internet and TV integration is not a huge news, blip’s move into this area is significant.

Till now, independent creators had to face two challenges:

- The limited user experience web video offers

- How to promote their shows without the huge marketing budgets the networks have.

Now, blip’s player is no longer confined to the limitations of web video viewing experience. If users can just as easily see Political Lunch or The Closer, the competitive landscape is fundamentally different that the traditional separation of Internet video and TV experience. And again - the key here is that the content we are talking about is not the regular UGC low end content, but well produced shows, that are not a part of the TV industry.

In this new deal, blip.tv challenges the TV networks as they are providing new kind of content, from a new kind of creators, but on the same display vehicle - TV. By breaking the walls around web video user experience, and increasing the exposure to independently created shows, blip.tv are on a heads on attack on TV networks. Sure, they don’t have the money the big guys have - TV advertisement models and price range are much more profitable than what blip.tv and other online video communities can get today. However, like every innovation, things might take time, but they are definitely changing the landscape in a fundamental way.

It is yet to be seen if blip.tv will be around 3 years from now. I believe that they will be successful and snatched by one of gorillas in this market.

However their success or failure will not only indicate if they are good business people. It would be a clear sign for things to come in the market niche of independent content creators.

Image by Brnboy313 via Flickr

Good morning,

- Boxee, an open source OS for the living room, goes to Alpha this Monday. Good luck for this group of brilliant guys

- HBO bought 10% of Funny Or Die - another move of TV brand towards the Internet. Rafat wrote a great post about it, and a video here.

- An insightful and funny presentation about Final Cut Server, the new media management product from Apple, by Richard Townhill, Apple’s Director of Pro Video Product Marketing, can be found here.

- Chris Hambly and his social media gang from the UK are organizing another great Media Camp, focused around industry and academia relations.

Have a great day!

Om Malik anounced a new venture today called NewTeeVee Station, an editorial driven guide to online videos:

...NewTeeVee Station is your guide to online video, pointing you to hot new memes, following the emerging stars of the web, and just generally indexing this new entertainment medium. Whereas in the past we covered online video shows like Ask a Ninja, Obama Girl andWallstrip from a business perspective, now we’re also reviewing content for content’s sake…

….NTV Station features editorial reviews of online videos written by a team led by Liz Shannon Miller, who comes to us from Variety and the Daily Reel. We eliminate the static and bring to you videos that are actually good — but also the stuff that’s so bad it has everyone talking… When you visit the front page of NTV Station, you’ll see in one glance what’s hot at that very moment. Our editors monitor the online video universe and refresh the site with new videos throughout the day. A special widget developed using the VodPod API allows you to scroll through all of our past video picks….

I am a big fan of sites trying to make some sense of all the videos out there. In a past, I wrote a hotly debated post where I asked when would someone create an online HBO equivalent, and gang all the best video shows to one site. This is a form of content discovery in my opinion - a way to bring the best videos to my computer screen. Would Om answer my prayers?

Challenges ahead

Value

There were several initiative in this area, one of them was Jeff Pulver’s Network2.tv. While N2 was aiming at being a definitive guide to all episodic video on the web, it seems that Om’s effort is a mix of being IMDB and an editorial driven site, that does some filtering for the audience. What I am missing here is a clear value proposition, or, in other words, what exactly should I expect - the best videos? The hottest videos? All the “good” videos?

Definition of Quality

One of the trickiest issues in the world of online video is the definition of quality. How can the editor in NTV know what’s good for me? Though philosophical in nature, it is a major challenge, that I’d love to hear Om’s opinion about.

User Interface

Last but not least, user interface is one of the biggest challenges in online video today. Looking at the current interface of most video recommendation sites, one would see the same scroll down page with x amount of videos. This interface works for YouTube, but in my opinion should be improved. NewTeeVee is built as a blog, and as such it is well designed. As a video interface - not so good IMHO:

1. Almost one-third of the screen is dedicated to promotion, ad space, and other money making machines.

2. Viewers need to scroll down in order to see recommended shows.

3. Video player is covering a small amount of the screen - while it is supposed to be the dominant experience

4. Users need to click at least twice to start playing a video

My belief is that online video interfaces should be, well, video interfaces. I’d like to see a site with a dominant video player, where users could navigate and find the best videos for them. This way, the video experience is the dominant one, and not the textual interface.

I hope that Om will be successful in this project - the web certainly needs one!

Surprisingly enough, my call for action against US networks, asking them to allow me to pay for downloading their content from my country, didn’t result in a Million Man March to Washington.

So, I chose the other path - hacking the system

Part One - Breaking The System

I am using iTunes a lot. Though I can’t use my  credit card to purchase content, I found a simple way to use iTunes:

a. Find an American address (could be a hotel or any other establishment) and use its address for your iTunes account.

b. Buy iTunes gift cards in Amazon or an Apple store if you are visiting the US.

c. Redeem the card in iTunes - and you are on!

Part Two - Enjoying The Experience (While Spending Money…)

Now, this is cool. A true VOD experience on my computer, with class A content that I love to watch. And the biggest plus - no uncertainties.

You see, one of the things I hate most in downloading P2P content is that I don’t really know what I am getting at the end of day - is it really the movie I wanted to see? Is it in high quality? And when will I be able to see it? With iTunes I know exactly what I am getting. Episodes are downloaded fairly quickly, so I can decide that I want to watch a specific show, and half an hour later start watching it. Not perfect, but better than P2P experience. Also, I easily find shows iTunes store, so I am not wasting time. I bought $50 worth content in two months. Not bad isn’t it? The only annoying point is that rented movies are viewable for 24hrs - which is very lame. I am working long hours, so is my significant other, and we tend to watch films at night, sometimes falling asleep in-front of the computer. Therefore, we sometimes see movies over several days. This limitation is extremely annoying - and I hope Apple will change it soon.

Part Three - The Moral Dilemma

Then I fell in-love with Californication. After downloading the pilot and couple of season 1’s episodes fI became a fan. When I told my friend about it, he looked at me as if I am a loony - ” Why don’t you download it for free?” well, I said, I like the speed and simplicity of iTunes. “Ok, so I would download for you, and you could watch it whenever you want”.

So, this is the essence of the whole story isn’t it? iTunes’ value proposition is providing legal content, ease of use, and certainty in content quality. Would I pay for this service, when a free alternative exist?

I can speak only for myself - and say that yes, iTunes service is worthwhile paying for, even if I can download content illegally with almost no chance of legal action against me. It is a fact that in two months I paid iTunes more than I paid to my cable or satellite provider in two years. This is because iTunes is providing me the content i want to see in lower rate, and smarter business model, than my local VOD provider.

TV networks are shooting themselves in the leg by not allowing me to buy their content in a simpler way. They are losing money because of that. I can understand why they are doing that - but I can’t agree with their views.

Guys - let me pay you - at the end of the day you will make more money and happier customers.

And for the cable operators and VOD providers, here is a tip - price your service in comparison to iTunes, and not other VOD packages. This is the future - and if you won’t wake up - you would not be a part of it.

 

Image via Wikipedia

- Jeff Pulver gives advice to college graduates

-Cult of Mac has new details about the new iPhone - or not…

- blip.tv hosts some of Revision3’s shows

- MacVideo has an amazing interview with Walter Murch, The Godfather editor, about Final Cut and Avid

Have a great day!

If you see an interesting story that I should refer to, please email me

Recommended Reading

Avid’s product manager, started to blog, a move towards transparency from a company that is facing many challenges in the market place. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.

LA Times has a great piece about Michael Eisner’s new web series, Foreign Body (a prequel to Robin Cook’s book) and the company behind it. Here are more details about Eisner’s philosophy

Futurescape has an interesting post about interactivity in online video and its effect on the creative process.

Jeff Pulver thinks I’m wrong.

New In My Feedreader

Jamima Kiss’ blog at the Guardian

Have a great week!

Stay tuned! Subscribe to my RSS feed or get email notifications of new posts

Shel Israel and Loren Feldman are fighting. Yep, a good old, ego driven, social media fight.

This clip started it all:

and Shel responded by saying

Now Matt, let’s talk about GlobalNeighbourhoods.tv, which you deemed “unwatchable” because of my ineptitude as a videographer and because you think my interviews are unfocused and boring.I think you are being a bit harsh on the interview skills. I have lots of experience over a good number of years interviewing all sorts of people and my work has been historically well received. But what is true is that I suck as a videographer and my worries about that have so far hurt some of the five video clips we have posted.

The fact is that FastCompany.TV is being treated as start up, which is exactly what it is. That means low budget. While FastCompany is talking with several companies, there is no sponsor yet. The top priority for what we will do with a sponsor is to get an AV professional to work with me on a format for the show and to be with me for all my interviews. This will allow me to focus on the interviews themselves, and area where I am pretty confident.

Shel - I am all with you. It is hard to do good videos. But, in the Internet, you can make great looking videos with simple equipment. That’s the whole thing with videobloggers. Kathryn did a low cost production which looked great. Galacticast guys are shooting in their living room, and their show looks great as well.

There are some basic things that can help - editing, editing, audio and editing. It can be done with your own Mac. Nothing fancy. So let’s not blame lack of budget for all the things that are wrong with Internet video. I think there are couple of other things there too…

I am writing this post after (hopefully) overcoming my jet lag in San Jose, California. I first came to VON a year ago, and this year, in Spring VON, I am moderating 3 panels:

Over The Top Video
Tuesday 2:50 PM

Using the Internet and IP technology to deliver video services has dramatically changed the end user’s experience in both choice and control. Video options abound, from special interest portals and closed circuit programming to the new intelligent set-top devices that use computer processing to deliver rich digital options. What will these options mean to the access carrier and what does it mean for the future of content delivery?

What will keep them coming to TV, when will they turn to the computer? Will changing viewing habits continue to change the options for video delivery? Will picture quality play a determining factor in the success of these new services?

Speaker(s):
Stephen Dennison Director of CDN Solutions, Content Markets, Level 3 Communications
Maribel Lopez Research Analyst, Lopez Research
Perry Wu, CEO, BitGravity
Moderator:
Kfir Pravda IMTC Vice President of Marketing and CEO, Pravda Media

Online Video and Social Media
Wednesday 4:50 PM

Integrating video into social media applications seems to be a natural fit. New online video sites are beginning to shift more toward community-oriented platforms, where people with common interests can experience video content with complete social networking functionality such as chat, text messaging and interest profiles. This panel examines the viral growth of social networking in combination with traditional broadcast media, user generated content, live broadcast and video chat and how it will affect our viewing future.

Who will be attracted, and what are the benefits of online video to the social networker?
Who are some of the companies today providing online video and social media?
What online video advertising models will take effect in community sites?

Speaker(s):
Matt Gore Vice President of Marketing, Paltalk
Kathryn Jones Co-Founder, Synchronis.tv
Rex Wong CEO, Dave Networks
Moderator:
Kfir Pravda IMTC Vice President of Marketing and CEO
Pravda Media

Deploying Cross-Vendor Implementations in the Real World - a Customer View
Thursday 3:00 PM

A panel discussing the issues in implementing cross vendor communication solutions for video conferencing and unified communication.

Speaker(s):
Mike Brosetti, CEO and Founder, Abovetel
Dan Bruckner Director of IT Operations
Stanford Hospital and Clinics
Anatoli Levine
IMTC President and Sr Director of Software Support RADVISION
Moderator:
Kfir Pravda IMTC Vice President of Marketing; CEO
Pravda Media

I am also participating in the following panel:
Reference Architectures for Content Delivery & Unified Communications
Thursday 1:30 PM

This panel will address how to extract content from enterprise communications and insert content into both communications and collaboration within the enterprise. This covers everything from conference recordings to social network content, and there are a few standards, but this is mostly unknown territory. The focus here is not on solving the problem in the panel, but identifying how critical an issue this is, and what the major challenges are.

Speaker(s):
Mike Borsetti CEO and Founder, Abovetel
David Boyer Chief Architect, Unified Communications Division
Avaya
Cary Bryan, Cisco Systems
Kfir Pravda IMTC Vice President of Marketing; CEO Pravda Media
Moderator: Anatoli Levine IMTC President and Sr Director of Software Support
RADVISION

I am looking forward to hear the following panel:
General Session: Real-Time Social Communications
Tuesday 4:00 PM

This session will explore the state of Social Communications.

Speaker(s):
Jonathan Christensen General Manager for Video and Audio Skype
Brad Hunstable Founder, Ustream.tv
Loic Le Meur CEO and Founder, Seesmic
Robert Scoble Managing Director, Fast Company
Ramu Sunkara CEO, Qik.com
Moderator: Jeff Pulver Chairman and Founder
pulvermedia

And:
Moving Content from A to B: Issues and Options
Tuesday 11:00 AM

In a world of multiple devices with multiple connections to ‘open’ Networks and the virtualization of “The Deck”, multimedia content delivery is no longer about simply getting it there and billing for it later. It’s about dynamically choosing the least cost route and highest margin content sources…transcoding and transcrypting… ingesting from and publishing into multiple destinations simultaneously …intelligently generating and leveraging metadata for making recommendations and targeting ads…making efficient use of thenetworks at hand..and making sure everybody in the value chain gets paid. Come hear experts from Vantrix, Roundbox, and RealNetworks, discuss the challenges at hand and share best practices

Speaker(s):
Jean Mayrand Co-Founder & CTO, Vantrix Corporation
Vinod Valloppill Vice President Product Marketing, Roundbox
Moderator:
Chris Steck IMTC CTO, and Director of Technology, RealNetworks

If you are attending the event - email me at kfir@pravdam.com, or sms me at +972-544-9458066 and let’s talk!