http://www.odeo.com/channels/18038-Inside-Digital-Media no Discover tomorrow's Internet Business leaders today by watching and listening to our regular podcasts. We interview Digital Media industry experts. Inside Digital Media brings you an insider look at important topics such as digital music, Internet video, online video, podcasting, digital media, and streaming media. In addition we take a look at the future of television, radio, Hollywood, video, advertising, and newspapers. Discover tomorrow's Internet Business leaders today by watching and listening to our regular podcasts. We interview Digital Media industry experts. Inside Digital Media brings you an insider look at important topics such as digital music, Internet video, online video, podcasting, digital media, and streaming media. In addition we take a look at the future of television, radio, Hollywood, video, advertising, and newspapers. Interviews with Tomorrow's Internet Business Leaders en 40 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:00:39 -0800 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:00:39 -0800 Internet http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25416195-Will-Consumers-Pay-for-Hulu-com-Videos Phil Leigh Will consumers pay to watch TV shows and movies at the hulu.com website? Hulu.com’s website hosts popular TV shows and movies after they have been released normally. Owners include Disney, NBC-Universal, and News Corporation (Fox). Viewers can watch shows for free but in exchange must also watch commercials since the videos are streamed and not downloaded. Last month, Chase Carey who is the President of News Corporation said that Hulu should start charging fees sometime next year. Presumably he envisions a premium subscription service providing more content or viewing time in exchange for a monthly fee. There are two reasons to be doubtful about the success of such a plan. First, as author Matt Ragas put it, “We all love the information highway, but we don’t want to pay a toll every five miles.” Second, incumbent media companies may be overvaluing their own content. Matt’s remark led me to examine my own subscriptions which are summarized in the accompanying table. Alread... Phil Leigh Will consumers pay to watch TV shows and movies at the hulu.com website? Hulu.com’s website hosts popular TV shows and movies after they have been released normally. Owners include Disney, NBC-Universal, and News Corporation (Fox). Viewers can watch shows for free but in exchange must also watch commercials since the videos are streamed and not downloaded. Last month, Chase Carey who is the President of News Corporation said that Hulu should start charging fees sometime next year. Presumably he envisions a premium subscription service providing more content or viewing time in exchange for a monthly fee. There are two reasons to be doubtful about the success of such a plan. First, as author Matt Ragas put it, “We all love the information highway, but we don’t want to pay a toll every five miles.” Second, incumbent media companies may be overvaluing their own content. Matt’s remark led me to examine my own subscriptions which are summarized in the accompanying table. Already I pay over $220 monthly for telephone, Internet, and video entertainment. Other services under consideration would advance the total to about $265 monthly.  Such an analysis makes me look for ways to cut, instead of add, services. Phil's Monthly Subscription Fees Naturally, I’ll focus on the bigger numbers first which come from the cable and wireless providers. However, if The Wall Street Journal (owned by News Corp)   editorial viewpoint prevails, the carriers will likely increase ISP fees even higher. That leaves consumers with thinner wallets to buy additional services from Hulu or anyone else. Even if cable and wireless charges don’t go up, consumers may calculate that they’re already paying enough in service fees. Readers of the Baltimore Sun seem to be strongly opposed to paying for hulu.com access. A polling button on the newspaper’s website reveals that they voted 20-to-1 against it. You can see the results and review reader comments here. As for content value, the recent success of Paranormal Activity might serve as a reminder to media producers that we characteristically undervalue the works of people who are not like us. It’s reported that the movie was set in a single San Diego home and produced for $10,000. By the day after Halloween it had grossed over $80 million in box office receipts. Much like Internet publishing demolished the value of the printing press, low cost video cameras combined with computer-based film editing and an abundance of people seeking stardom and film-crew careers, necessitates an introspective reassessment of Hollywood’s self worth. Paranormal Activity is more than an isolated echo of The Blair Witch Project. Years from now we’ll look back to see it as data point in a connect-the-dots trend line pointing toward a future of content abundance. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to thye future of media, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Phil Leigh Will consumers pay to watch TV shows and movies at the hulu.com website? Hulu.com’s website hosts popular TV shows and movies after they have been released normally. Owners include Disney, NBC-Universal, and News Corporation (Fox). Viewers can watch shows for free but in exchange must also watch commercials since the videos are streamed and not downloaded. Last month, Chase Carey who is the President of News Corporation said that Hulu should start charging fees sometime next year. Presumably he envisions a premium subscription service providing more content or viewing time in exchange for a monthly fee. There are two reasons to be doubtful about the success of such a plan. First, as author Matt Ragas put it, “We all love the information highway, but we don’t want to pay a toll every five miles.” Second, incumbent media companies may be overvaluing their own content. Matt’s remark led me to examine my own subscriptions which are summarized in the accompanying table. Already I pay over $220 monthly for telephone, Internet, and video entertainment. Other services under consideration would advance the total to about $265 monthly.  Such an analysis makes me look for ways to cut, instead of add, services. Phil's Monthly Subscription Fees Naturally, I’ll focus on the bigger numbers first which come from the cable and wireless providers. However, if The Wall Street Journal (owned by News Corp)   editorial viewpoint prevails, the carriers will likely increase ISP fees even higher. That leaves consumers with thinner wallets to buy additional services from Hulu or anyone else. Even if cable and wireless charges don’t go up, consumers may calculate that they’re already paying enough in service fees. Readers of the Baltimore Sun seem to be strongly opposed to paying for hulu.com access. A polling button on the newspaper’s website reveals that they voted 20-to-1 against it. You can see the results and review reader comments here. As for content value, the recent success of Paranormal Activity might serve as a reminder to media producers that we characteristically undervalue the works of people who are not like us. It’s reported that the movie was set in a single San Diego home and produced for $10,000. By the day after Halloween it had grossed over $80 million in box office receipts. Much like Internet publishing demolished the value of the printing press, low cost video cameras combined with computer-based film editing and an abundance of people seeking stardom and film-crew careers, necessitates an introspective reassessment of Hollywood’s self worth. Paranormal Activity is more than an isolated echo of The Blair Witch Project. Years from now we’ll look back to see it as data point in a connect-the-dots trend line pointing toward a future of content abundance. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to thye future of media, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-11-07,25416195 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:00:39 -0800 no Inside Digital Media fox, Podcast Audio, News Corp, hulu.com, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Hollywood-Studios, Internet-Movies, future-of-advertising, Chase Carey http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25389203-How-to-use-Google-AdWords Download to iPhone or iPod If you want to learn how to set-up a Google AdWords account and start placing ads to sell merchandise from your website, this video is for you. Perhaps the best way to teach others how to use Google AdWords is by concrete example. Thus, today’s video shows how we set-up an AdWords campaign to sell copies of our market research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising . First, we show you what the report for sale looks like. Second, we illustrate the difference between Google AdWords links and Google Organic search results. Third, we demonstrate how to set-up a “landing page” as an entry point at your website for those who click on ads deployed thorough AdWords. There are three features to the page. One is a video summarizing five major conclusions in the market research report offered for sale. Another is a link to a free prospectus requiring those clicking on it to first provide name, email address, and phone number information. This transforms th... Download to iPhone or iPod If you want to learn how to set-up a Google AdWords account and start placing ads to sell merchandise from your website, this video is for you. Perhaps the best way to teach others how to use Google AdWords is by concrete example. Thus, today’s video shows how we set-up an AdWords campaign to sell copies of our market research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising . First, we show you what the report for sale looks like. Second, we illustrate the difference between Google AdWords links and Google Organic search results. Third, we demonstrate how to set-up a “landing page” as an entry point at your website for those who click on ads deployed thorough AdWords. There are three features to the page. One is a video summarizing five major conclusions in the market research report offered for sale. Another is a link to a free prospectus requiring those clicking on it to first provide name, email address, and phone number information. This transforms them into sales leads. Finally, a text summary of the video is available for those who chose to read a synopsis of the report as opposed to watching a video summation. Fourth, screen capture software provides step-by-step video instructions describing how to set-up an AdWords account and organize your first campaign. Factors covered include (1) geographic targeting, (2) network selection, (3) device inclusion, (4) key word selection, (5) pricing, (6) ad construction, (7) calls-to-action, (8) budgeting, (9) weekend exclusion, and (10) landing page targeting, among others. Google’s third quarter financial results document that AdWords use is leading the way as a sign of overall economic recovery. In short, it appears that advertisers are first returning to the Internet before incumbent media channels such as TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. This could have profound implications for the future of advertising in general. Not only do sponsors seem to prefer the Internet per se, but they may also become conditioned to the AdWords practice of only paying for ads that users actively select. As applied to future video advertising, sponsors may come to demand that they only pay for video ads that actually get watched. For example, they recognize DVR users often fast-forward through commercials. But if sponsors apply the AdWords convention to video commercials, they’ll only pay for commercials that get watched. This could be the subtle, but most significant, implication of the fact that AdWords advertising is leading the recovery of the entire advertising industry. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Download to iPhone or iPod If you want to learn how to set-up a Google AdWords account and start placing ads to sell merchandise from your website, this video is for you. Perhaps the best way to teach others how to use Google AdWords is by concrete example. Thus, today’s video shows how we set-up an AdWords campaign to sell copies of our market research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising . First, we show you what the report for sale looks like. Second, we illustrate the difference between Google AdWords links and Google Organic search results. Third, we demonstrate how to set-up a “landing page” as an entry point at your website for those who click on ads deployed thorough AdWords. There are three features to the page. One is a video summarizing five major conclusions in the market research report offered for sale. Another is a link to a free prospectus requiring those clicking on it to first provide name, email address, and phone number information. This transforms them into sales leads. Finally, a text summary of the video is available for those who chose to read a synopsis of the report as opposed to watching a video summation. Fourth, screen capture software provides step-by-step video instructions describing how to set-up an AdWords account and organize your first campaign. Factors covered include (1) geographic targeting, (2) network selection, (3) device inclusion, (4) key word selection, (5) pricing, (6) ad construction, (7) calls-to-action, (8) budgeting, (9) weekend exclusion, and (10) landing page targeting, among others. Google’s third quarter financial results document that AdWords use is leading the way as a sign of overall economic recovery. In short, it appears that advertisers are first returning to the Internet before incumbent media channels such as TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. This could have profound implications for the future of advertising in general. Not only do sponsors seem to prefer the Internet per se, but they may also become conditioned to the AdWords practice of only paying for ads that users actively select. As applied to future video advertising, sponsors may come to demand that they only pay for video ads that actually get watched. For example, they recognize DVR users often fast-forward through commercials. But if sponsors apply the AdWords convention to video commercials, they’ll only pay for commercials that get watched. This could be the subtle, but most significant, implication of the fact that AdWords advertising is leading the recovery of the entire advertising industry. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-10-31,25389203 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:00:22 -0700 no Inside Digital Media google, adwords, Add new tag, Podcast Video, digital-media, Phil-Leigh, Internet-Advertising, Future of Video Advertising, Future of Television Advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25302888-Public-Reaction-to-Targeted-Advertising Dr. Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania If you would like to learn what the public says about their attitudes toward behaviorally-targeted advertising, this audio interview is for you. A recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Berkeley concludes that a two-to-one majority of Americans do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. The 1,000-person survey further indicates that nearly 90% of us particularly object to anonymous tracking of our Web-surfing for purposes of creating behaviorally-targeted ads. Our interview today is with Dr. Joseph Turow of the University of Pennsylvania who was one of the authors.   Despite the study’s conclusion it appears that consumers actually respond favorably to such ads. For example, both Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes Store are hugely popular, yet both serve ads based upon our prior purchases and peregrinations within their websites. At Amazon.com the ads are presented a... Dr. Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania If you would like to learn what the public says about their attitudes toward behaviorally-targeted advertising, this audio interview is for you. A recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Berkeley concludes that a two-to-one majority of Americans do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. The 1,000-person survey further indicates that nearly 90% of us particularly object to anonymous tracking of our Web-surfing for purposes of creating behaviorally-targeted ads. Our interview today is with Dr. Joseph Turow of the University of Pennsylvania who was one of the authors.   Despite the study’s conclusion it appears that consumers actually respond favorably to such ads. For example, both Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes Store are hugely popular, yet both serve ads based upon our prior purchases and peregrinations within their websites. At Amazon.com the ads are presented as “suggestions”, but they are nonetheless advertisements. Such ads are thought to have some of the highest click-through rates on the Web. Similarly, the newspaper industry reports that the behaviorally targeted ads provided by Yahoo are among the most effective on newspaper websites. Although we sense that Dr. Turow would disagree, we are inclined to believe that the survey results partly reflect a natural human tendency to reject changes that we ourselves do not initiate. For example, a dozen years ago many parents tried to deny, or restrict, Internet access to their children. Today they recognize that the Net is as indispensible as TV. Although concerns remain, parents are unlikely to totally preclude Web access to their kids. Consider also that many terrestrial retailers have been tracking our behavior for years, but there seems to be little objection. For example, I get regular emails from Borders Books featuring special offers. Most of the time I simply delete them, but in a recent instance I was browsing at the store and recalled that I had received a 40% discount offer on any book of my choice. While at the store I read a few pages of Hallelujah Junction which is an autobiography of the contemporary classical composer, John Adams. When I got to the checkout desk, I merely showed the clerk the email discount offer on my iPhone. He said it was good enough, meaning that I did not have to print-out the coupon. In short, I saved 40% on the book. Furthermore, while reading it at home I discovered that I could sample some of Adams’ operas ( Nixon in China and Dr. Atomic ) on YouTube. The YouTube samples led me to Amazon.com’s download store where I purchased the symphonic version of Dr. Atomic. Unfortunately it was only available as complete album, so I had to also buy a second composition that I really did not want.  The second selection turned out to be okay, but I resented the fact that the label forced me to buy the entire album. I feel confident that label executives would similarly resent being forced to buy a $10,000 dealer-applied rust-proofing job merely because the new car they are buying is in short supply. In sum, everybody benefited from the behaviorally-targeted email from Borders Books. First, I got a 40% discount on a book that I would otherwise not have purchased at Borders. Second, YouTube got more traffic and a proselytizer for their Long Tail music videos. Third, John Adams connected with a potential buyer via the free YouTube samples. Fourth, the record label sold the music in the form of a $10 album instead of three individual tracks that would have generated only $3 in sales. (We may have more commentary on this in a later post). In conclusion, the basic premise of behavioral-targeting is to place more value in what people do as compared to what they say. Thus, maybe Turow’s study is more about what people say than what they will do. Dr. Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania If you would like to learn what the public says about their attitudes toward behaviorally-targeted advertising, this audio interview is for you. A recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Berkeley concludes that a two-to-one majority of Americans do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. The 1,000-person survey further indicates that nearly 90% of us particularly object to anonymous tracking of our Web-surfing for purposes of creating behaviorally-targeted ads. Our interview today is with Dr. Joseph Turow of the University of Pennsylvania who was one of the authors.   Despite the study’s conclusion it appears that consumers actually respond favorably to such ads. For example, both Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes Store are hugely popular, yet both serve ads based upon our prior purchases and peregrinations within their websites. At Amazon.com the ads are presented as “suggestions”, but they are nonetheless advertisements. Such ads are thought to have some of the highest click-through rates on the Web. Similarly, the newspaper industry reports that the behaviorally targeted ads provided by Yahoo are among the most effective on newspaper websites. Although we sense that Dr. Turow would disagree, we are inclined to believe that the survey results partly reflect a natural human tendency to reject changes that we ourselves do not initiate. For example, a dozen years ago many parents tried to deny, or restrict, Internet access to their children. Today they recognize that the Net is as indispensible as TV. Although concerns remain, parents are unlikely to totally preclude Web access to their kids. Consider also that many terrestrial retailers have been tracking our behavior for years, but there seems to be little objection. For example, I get regular emails from Borders Books featuring special offers. Most of the time I simply delete them, but in a recent instance I was browsing at the store and recalled that I had received a 40% discount offer on any book of my choice. While at the store I read a few pages of Hallelujah Junction which is an autobiography of the contemporary classical composer, John Adams. When I got to the checkout desk, I merely showed the clerk the email discount offer on my iPhone. He said it was good enough, meaning that I did not have to print-out the coupon. In short, I saved 40% on the book. Furthermore, while reading it at home I discovered that I could sample some of Adams’ operas ( Nixon in China and Dr. Atomic ) on YouTube. The YouTube samples led me to Amazon.com’s download store where I purchased the symphonic version of Dr. Atomic. Unfortunately it was only available as complete album, so I had to also buy a second composition that I really did not want.  The second selection turned out to be okay, but I resented the fact that the label forced me to buy the entire album. I feel confident that label executives would similarly resent being forced to buy a $10,000 dealer-applied rust-proofing job merely because the new car they are buying is in short supply. In sum, everybody benefited from the behaviorally-targeted email from Borders Books. First, I got a 40% discount on a book that I would otherwise not have purchased at Borders. Second, YouTube got more traffic and a proselytizer for their Long Tail music videos. Third, John Adams connected with a potential buyer via the free YouTube samples. Fourth, the record label sold the music in the form of a $10 album instead of three individual tracks that would have generated only $3 in sales. (We may have more commentary on this in a later post). In conclusion, the basic premise of behavioral-targeting is to place more value in what people do as compared to what they say. Thus, maybe Turow’s study is more about what people say than what they will do. tag:odeo.com,2009-10-17,25302888 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:00:06 -0700 no Inside Digital Media youtube, apple, University of Pennsylvania, amazon.com, Podcast Audio, targeted advertising, John Adams, Phil-Leigh, Online Privacy, Online Tracking, Nixon in China, Dr. Atomic, Dr. Joseph Turow http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25264720-YouTube-Stretches-its-Lead Download to iPhone and iPod. If you want to learn one way that YouTube is extending its competitive lead, even against rivals like Hulu, this video is for you. If you watched last week’s video podcast as a stream from our website, you may have noticed that we switched to the YouTube player from our previous Flash player. The change reflects the fact that iPhones and iPods will not display native Flash streams. However, given YouTube’s popularity, Apple developed a special application enabling the units to display YouTube Flash videos. Since Apple has sold about 40 – 50 million of the devices, we want to make it as easy as possible for users to watch Inside Digital Media on their iPhones and iPod Touches. Prior to the change, Inside Digital Media videos were available on iPhones and iPod Touches as either downloads or free subscription podcasts. Now, you can merely visit our website from such devices via the Apple Safari browser and touch on the videos you want to watch. The rapid gr... Download to iPhone and iPod. If you want to learn one way that YouTube is extending its competitive lead, even against rivals like Hulu, this video is for you. If you watched last week’s video podcast as a stream from our website, you may have noticed that we switched to the YouTube player from our previous Flash player. The change reflects the fact that iPhones and iPods will not display native Flash streams. However, given YouTube’s popularity, Apple developed a special application enabling the units to display YouTube Flash videos. Since Apple has sold about 40 – 50 million of the devices, we want to make it as easy as possible for users to watch Inside Digital Media on their iPhones and iPod Touches. Prior to the change, Inside Digital Media videos were available on iPhones and iPod Touches as either downloads or free subscription podcasts. Now, you can merely visit our website from such devices via the Apple Safari browser and touch on the videos you want to watch. The rapid growth of iPhones and iPod Touches provides a market that we do not want to miss. This is especially so because the units can be attached to TVs with $50 cable assembles thereby providing users a way to watch our videos on their TVs. The implication of YouTube’s privileged status on the Apple portable units extends well beyond Inside Digital Media. About 80% of websites with Internet Video rely primarily upon the Flash format, including such otherwise potentially powerful YouTube rivals as Hulu.com. Their videos also will not play on Apple’s portable units, unless the websites choose to use the YouTube player. But, the chances of competitors like Hulu adopting the YouTube player are about as slim as a Cherokee Indian getting elected Pope. The situation creates a dilemma for the Hollywood studios when they choose to make their movies and shows available on the Internet as advertising-supported streams. If they stick with Hulu, then they forfeit a large part of the portable screen market. If instead they distribute the shows via YouTube, then they pick-up the iPhones and iPod Touches, but they also might find that users of the portable devices attach them to TVs so the videos can be watched in a lean-back viewing environment. Presumably, the studios have instructed Hulu to avoid such a scenario, because they don’t want their Internet-streamed shows to be viewable on the TV. No doubt, the Cable and Satellite companies feel even more strongly about controlling Internet video streams to the TV. It’s the central reason they are trying to move forward with the TV Everywhere initiative. TV Everywhere is seeking to become an Internet platform containing nearly all of the popular TV programming available, but only permits viewers to watch the shows if they are already subscribers to conventional CATV, Telco, and Satellite video services. The plan is to permit viewers access only if they can be “authenticated” as conventional subscribers. Unfortunately for TV Everywhere, authentication is going to be a hugely complex problem, largely because of the wide disparity of proprietary networks that have built-up over the years in the CATV industry. However, adding portable devices, such as the iPhone and the iPod Touch compounds the complexity. As the video incumbents try to work some magic to hold back the clock, everyone else will increasingly post their videos to YouTube. In the end, even the Hollywood studios may find it in their best interests to make content available on YouTube simply because YouTube videos will play on more devices. In short, you can’t have TV Everywhere unless is plays everywhere. Presently, against its prime rivals, YouTube has the singular advantage of playing the vigorously growing number of iPhones and iPond Touches. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Download to iPhone and iPod. If you want to learn one way that YouTube is extending its competitive lead, even against rivals like Hulu, this video is for you. If you watched last week’s video podcast as a stream from our website, you may have noticed that we switched to the YouTube player from our previous Flash player. The change reflects the fact that iPhones and iPods will not display native Flash streams. However, given YouTube’s popularity, Apple developed a special application enabling the units to display YouTube Flash videos. Since Apple has sold about 40 – 50 million of the devices, we want to make it as easy as possible for users to watch Inside Digital Media on their iPhones and iPod Touches. Prior to the change, Inside Digital Media videos were available on iPhones and iPod Touches as either downloads or free subscription podcasts. Now, you can merely visit our website from such devices via the Apple Safari browser and touch on the videos you want to watch. The rapid growth of iPhones and iPod Touches provides a market that we do not want to miss. This is especially so because the units can be attached to TVs with $50 cable assembles thereby providing users a way to watch our videos on their TVs. The implication of YouTube’s privileged status on the Apple portable units extends well beyond Inside Digital Media. About 80% of websites with Internet Video rely primarily upon the Flash format, including such otherwise potentially powerful YouTube rivals as Hulu.com. Their videos also will not play on Apple’s portable units, unless the websites choose to use the YouTube player. But, the chances of competitors like Hulu adopting the YouTube player are about as slim as a Cherokee Indian getting elected Pope. The situation creates a dilemma for the Hollywood studios when they choose to make their movies and shows available on the Internet as advertising-supported streams. If they stick with Hulu, then they forfeit a large part of the portable screen market. If instead they distribute the shows via YouTube, then they pick-up the iPhones and iPod Touches, but they also might find that users of the portable devices attach them to TVs so the videos can be watched in a lean-back viewing environment. Presumably, the studios have instructed Hulu to avoid such a scenario, because they don’t want their Internet-streamed shows to be viewable on the TV. No doubt, the Cable and Satellite companies feel even more strongly about controlling Internet video streams to the TV. It’s the central reason they are trying to move forward with the TV Everywhere initiative. TV Everywhere is seeking to become an Internet platform containing nearly all of the popular TV programming available, but only permits viewers to watch the shows if they are already subscribers to conventional CATV, Telco, and Satellite video services. The plan is to permit viewers access only if they can be “authenticated” as conventional subscribers. Unfortunately for TV Everywhere, authentication is going to be a hugely complex problem, largely because of the wide disparity of proprietary networks that have built-up over the years in the CATV industry. However, adding portable devices, such as the iPhone and the iPod Touch compounds the complexity. As the video incumbents try to work some magic to hold back the clock, everyone else will increasingly post their videos to YouTube. In the end, even the Hollywood studios may find it in their best interests to make content available on YouTube simply because YouTube videos will play on more devices. In short, you can’t have TV Everywhere unless is plays everywhere. Presently, against its prime rivals, YouTube has the singular advantage of playing the vigorously growing number of iPhones and iPond Touches. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-10-10,25264720 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:00:13 -0700 no Inside Digital Media iphone, youtube, apple, ipod, Adobe, flash, hulu, Podcast Video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, inside digital media http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25241933-What-if-all-Video-were-on-the-Internet Download to iPhone and iPod here. Last week I was on a panel at a conference for the Entertainment Law Institute of the Texas Bar in Austin. Our panel topic was “The Future of Video Distribution”. This video podcast summarizes my presentation. Andy Grove, who was the last of the three original Intel leaders to leave, liked to encourage employees to ask “What if?” questions. He felt they could lead to new discoveries about future change. Thus, we ponder, “What if all video were on the Internet instead of Cable TV?” Consider the impact on three constituencies, (1) Consumers, (2) Sponsors, and (3) Copyright Holders. Consumers will benefit in four ways. First, all programs will be available on demand. Broadcast schedules will be irrelevant and there will be no need to remember to TiVo anything. Second, shows will be viewable on any screen from mobile phone to TV. Third, content will be searchable. You’ll find what you want to watch by Googling it. Fourth, the Long-Tail will stretch to n... Download to iPhone and iPod here. Last week I was on a panel at a conference for the Entertainment Law Institute of the Texas Bar in Austin. Our panel topic was “The Future of Video Distribution”. This video podcast summarizes my presentation. Andy Grove, who was the last of the three original Intel leaders to leave, liked to encourage employees to ask “What if?” questions. He felt they could lead to new discoveries about future change. Thus, we ponder, “What if all video were on the Internet instead of Cable TV?” Consider the impact on three constituencies, (1) Consumers, (2) Sponsors, and (3) Copyright Holders. Consumers will benefit in four ways. First, all programs will be available on demand. Broadcast schedules will be irrelevant and there will be no need to remember to TiVo anything. Second, shows will be viewable on any screen from mobile phone to TV. Third, content will be searchable. You’ll find what you want to watch by Googling it. Fourth, the Long-Tail will stretch to near infinity. Sponsors gain a number of advantages. First, viewership will be measurable. Second, commercials can be held accountable. Sponsors might be able to choose to pay for only those that actually get watched. Third, ads can be interactive thereby generating sales nearly instantaneously from the viewers. Fourth, ads can be addressable in a variety of ways including demographic, geographic, and behavioral targeting. Copyright Holders also stand to benefit. First, Internet distribution provides a Global market. Second, revenue opportunities for Long-Tail content become viable because there is no need for a minimum economic production run as would apply for DVDs. Hollywood studios will be able to sell downloads from their back catalog that are seldom available in the form of physical DVDs. Third, consumers will be able to make impulse purchases since the Internet is constantly available 24/7. Fourth, the Net provides opportunities for multiple revenue streams. Among them are (1) rentals, (2) downloads, (3) subscriptions, and (4) advertising. Inevitability. For the past 30 years we’ve been gradually attaching an increasing number of appliances to our TVs. In the first half of that period the devices were not Internet-connected and included items like Cable Set-Top boxes, Video Tape Players, and Video Game Consoles. However, during the last 15 years most such appliances are Internet-connected. Examples are laptop computers, Apple TV, (modern) Video Game Consoles, and even the iPhone and iPod. As a result, the TV is being transformed into a dual function device. In one context it remains a TV as we have always known it, but in a second it is becoming a giant window into the Internet Cloud. Thus, the question is not “What if all video were on the Internet?” but instead is “When will all video migrate to the Net.” To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Download to iPhone and iPod here. Last week I was on a panel at a conference for the Entertainment Law Institute of the Texas Bar in Austin. Our panel topic was “The Future of Video Distribution”. This video podcast summarizes my presentation. Andy Grove, who was the last of the three original Intel leaders to leave, liked to encourage employees to ask “What if?” questions. He felt they could lead to new discoveries about future change. Thus, we ponder, “What if all video were on the Internet instead of Cable TV?” Consider the impact on three constituencies, (1) Consumers, (2) Sponsors, and (3) Copyright Holders. Consumers will benefit in four ways. First, all programs will be available on demand. Broadcast schedules will be irrelevant and there will be no need to remember to TiVo anything. Second, shows will be viewable on any screen from mobile phone to TV. Third, content will be searchable. You’ll find what you want to watch by Googling it. Fourth, the Long-Tail will stretch to near infinity. Sponsors gain a number of advantages. First, viewership will be measurable. Second, commercials can be held accountable. Sponsors might be able to choose to pay for only those that actually get watched. Third, ads can be interactive thereby generating sales nearly instantaneously from the viewers. Fourth, ads can be addressable in a variety of ways including demographic, geographic, and behavioral targeting. Copyright Holders also stand to benefit. First, Internet distribution provides a Global market. Second, revenue opportunities for Long-Tail content become viable because there is no need for a minimum economic production run as would apply for DVDs. Hollywood studios will be able to sell downloads from their back catalog that are seldom available in the form of physical DVDs. Third, consumers will be able to make impulse purchases since the Internet is constantly available 24/7. Fourth, the Net provides opportunities for multiple revenue streams. Among them are (1) rentals, (2) downloads, (3) subscriptions, and (4) advertising. Inevitability. For the past 30 years we’ve been gradually attaching an increasing number of appliances to our TVs. In the first half of that period the devices were not Internet-connected and included items like Cable Set-Top boxes, Video Tape Players, and Video Game Consoles. However, during the last 15 years most such appliances are Internet-connected. Examples are laptop computers, Apple TV, (modern) Video Game Consoles, and even the iPhone and iPod. As a result, the TV is being transformed into a dual function device. In one context it remains a TV as we have always known it, but in a second it is becoming a giant window into the Internet Cloud. Thus, the question is not “What if all video were on the Internet?” but instead is “When will all video migrate to the Net.” To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-10-06,25241933 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:32:13 -0700 no Inside Digital Media future of tv, Add new tag, Podcast Video, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, inside digital media, Texas Bar http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25205541-Books-of-the-Future Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how authoring will change in the next decade, this audio is for you. Recently I encountered a newly published book about the future of business in the Internet Age. Looking at the hardcover I found myself figuratively scratching my head. I could not understand why an expert would choose an aging form factor to describe the capabilities of an emerging medium. I was asking myself, “Why does this guy fail to structure the ‘book’ in a way that uses the medium itself to demonstrate the new applications he wants to promote?” Put another way, “Doesn’t a conventional book on such a topic unintentionally message the reader to ‘do as I say; not as I do’?” By contrast, authoring Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising convinced us that our reports could much more effectively demonstrate future concepts by employing the multimedia characteristics of the Net itself. Thus, we sell them as PDFs, but each has embedded links to v... Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how authoring will change in the next decade, this audio is for you. Recently I encountered a newly published book about the future of business in the Internet Age. Looking at the hardcover I found myself figuratively scratching my head. I could not understand why an expert would choose an aging form factor to describe the capabilities of an emerging medium. I was asking myself, “Why does this guy fail to structure the ‘book’ in a way that uses the medium itself to demonstrate the new applications he wants to promote?” Put another way, “Doesn’t a conventional book on such a topic unintentionally message the reader to ‘do as I say; not as I do’?” By contrast, authoring Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising convinced us that our reports could much more effectively demonstrate future concepts by employing the multimedia characteristics of the Net itself. Thus, we sell them as PDFs, but each has embedded links to videos and animations illustrating the newer concepts. Sure, buyers can print-them-out and read them as paper documents, but they can also watch and see for themselves what we wrote about. Furthermore, our experience leads us to reason that such is the future of authoring in general. Later in this Century observers will likely glance back at the second decade to conclude that authoring was transformed “during the teens”. Authors will routinely use three Internet characteristics that are unavailable with paper and ink. First, is mixing media, including text, graphics, animation, video, and audio in whatever context is most appropriate. Second is ever-present access to the knowledge base of the infinite mind of the Internet Cloud. Third, is interactivity thereby permitting audience contribution to the narrative. The trends are already in place, they’re just not yet obvious. Increasingly blogs are embedding YouTube videos. The most successful ones enjoy active communities of visitors posting comments. The same is true for the online versions of newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The changes are exponential in the sense that they are happening at a steady rate. On a logarithmic chart, exponential change traces a straight line, but on an ordinary graph it traces a parabolic curve that rises ever-steeper with the passage of time. In the early periods exponential change is nearly imperceptible, but in the later stages it becomes overwhelming. For example, consider a pond with a single Lilly pad. Introduce a growth function whereby the number of pads doubles everyday such that at the end of 30 days the entire pond is covered with pads. On the 27th day fully 85% of the pond remains open water, but in the final three day the exponential (doubling) growth function results in a completely pad-choked pond. Changes in “authoring in the teens” will be similar. Such a transformation follows logically from the nearly forgotten wisdom of two Marshall McLuhan principles. First, “content follows form.” Second, “the medium is the message”. If you would like to learn more about the future of media, consider our market research reports, Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how authoring will change in the next decade, this audio is for you. Recently I encountered a newly published book about the future of business in the Internet Age. Looking at the hardcover I found myself figuratively scratching my head. I could not understand why an expert would choose an aging form factor to describe the capabilities of an emerging medium. I was asking myself, “Why does this guy fail to structure the ‘book’ in a way that uses the medium itself to demonstrate the new applications he wants to promote?” Put another way, “Doesn’t a conventional book on such a topic unintentionally message the reader to ‘do as I say; not as I do’?” By contrast, authoring Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising convinced us that our reports could much more effectively demonstrate future concepts by employing the multimedia characteristics of the Net itself. Thus, we sell them as PDFs, but each has embedded links to videos and animations illustrating the newer concepts. Sure, buyers can print-them-out and read them as paper documents, but they can also watch and see for themselves what we wrote about. Furthermore, our experience leads us to reason that such is the future of authoring in general. Later in this Century observers will likely glance back at the second decade to conclude that authoring was transformed “during the teens”. Authors will routinely use three Internet characteristics that are unavailable with paper and ink. First, is mixing media, including text, graphics, animation, video, and audio in whatever context is most appropriate. Second is ever-present access to the knowledge base of the infinite mind of the Internet Cloud. Third, is interactivity thereby permitting audience contribution to the narrative. The trends are already in place, they’re just not yet obvious. Increasingly blogs are embedding YouTube videos. The most successful ones enjoy active communities of visitors posting comments. The same is true for the online versions of newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The changes are exponential in the sense that they are happening at a steady rate. On a logarithmic chart, exponential change traces a straight line, but on an ordinary graph it traces a parabolic curve that rises ever-steeper with the passage of time. In the early periods exponential change is nearly imperceptible, but in the later stages it becomes overwhelming. For example, consider a pond with a single Lilly pad. Introduce a growth function whereby the number of pads doubles everyday such that at the end of 30 days the entire pond is covered with pads. On the 27th day fully 85% of the pond remains open water, but in the final three day the exponential (doubling) growth function results in a completely pad-choked pond. Changes in “authoring in the teens” will be similar. Such a transformation follows logically from the nearly forgotten wisdom of two Marshall McLuhan principles. First, “content follows form.” Second, “the medium is the message”. If you would like to learn more about the future of media, consider our market research reports, Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-09-29,25205541 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:51:53 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Books, Podcast Audio, Future-of-Books, Future of Authoring, Authoring, Multimedia Authoring http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25146926-Thinking-the-Unthinkable-about-Video-Ads Phil Leigh What if sponsors paid for video ads only when they are actually watched? As John Wanamaker put it long ago, “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” For over half-a-Century Nielsen audience rating have supposedly addressed Wanamaker’s question for television ads. It’s the foundation supporting a $70 billion annual business. It’s supposed to tell advertisers which programs viewers are watching and for how long. Given present computer technology it’s downright stunning when one learns Nielsen’s techniques for collecting its data. With so much money on the table there’s a lot at stake. Some industry constituents want to update the measurement technology while others want no changes at all. Any changes are likely to upset somebody’s apple cart. That’s probably why progress in measurement methodology has moved at the pace of continental drift. Nonetheless, sponsors pay the bills and ultimately they’re going to demand more for their money. N... Phil Leigh What if sponsors paid for video ads only when they are actually watched? As John Wanamaker put it long ago, “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” For over half-a-Century Nielsen audience rating have supposedly addressed Wanamaker’s question for television ads. It’s the foundation supporting a $70 billion annual business. It’s supposed to tell advertisers which programs viewers are watching and for how long. Given present computer technology it’s downright stunning when one learns Nielsen’s techniques for collecting its data. With so much money on the table there’s a lot at stake. Some industry constituents want to update the measurement technology while others want no changes at all. Any changes are likely to upset somebody’s apple cart. That’s probably why progress in measurement methodology has moved at the pace of continental drift. Nonetheless, sponsors pay the bills and ultimately they’re going to demand more for their money. Nielsen’s flagship service tries to estimate the viewing habits of our entire nation from a polling process based upon imperfect diaries of 18,500 homes. Given the sample size, three-fourths of the 400 cable and broadcast networks are simply not watched enough to be accurately measured. Except for the top 20 markets, Nielsen mostly relies upon paper-logs that panel members (i.e. participating consumers) maintain on the honor system. Even in larger markets where Nielsen provides electronic log-entry, the company acknowledges that users sometimes press the wrong key resulting in a measurement error of up to eight-percentage-points. Owing to the shortcomings of Nielsen data, a number of vendors sell supplemental information. TiVo is one example. With several million DVRs deployed across the nation they provide more granular and real-time data. For example, TiVo can tell how long a viewer watches a commercial. Similarly, the CATV industry hopes to provide far more detailed and accurate data via its Project Canoe initiative. Unfortunately, Project Canoe faces a significant technical challenge. Data formats are inconsistent among different CATV systems. Some set-top boxes are incapable of capturing data and passing it back to the head-end. Each Multiple System Operator (e.g. Comcast, Time-Warner, etc) has proprietary elements in its networks. Proprietary inconsistencies are amplified to the nth degree considering that each MSO is by definition an amalgamation of independent systems typically acquired over decades. In sum, the problem of getting universally accurate measurements out of the legacy CATV and Satellite platforms is going to be as convoluted as the Gordian Knot. Ultimately, the solution could well be to simply cut the knot by putting all video on the Internet. Standards on the Net are decades old, uniform, and well understood by an abundance of developers all over the planet. Measurements can be in real-time and sliced & diced nearly infinitely. Most significantly, Internet sponsors are increasingly demanding Cost-Per-Action (CPA) advertising. Google AdWords conditioned them to expect that it is only necessary to pay when a visitor clicks on ads. Once video resides on the Net, sponsors may insist that they only pay for video ads that get watched.  The new paradigm will nearly eliminate the utility of audience measurement statistics as we have known them. We’ll want different data, but it will be more readily attained on the Net where the granularity and accuracy of measurement is infinitely better. To advertising executives who don’t want to be accountable for the performance of their ads, such a paradigm shift is so horrible as to be unthinkable. So they may choose to simply avoid thinking about it. To them, it’s a creation of Satan anyway, more destructive to their business as the ability of the iPhone to display its Internet Videos on a television screen. Yet, when sponsors pay for video ads only when they actually get watched, the ghost of John Wannamaker will break into a happy grin. Phil Leigh What if sponsors paid for video ads only when they are actually watched? As John Wanamaker put it long ago, “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” For over half-a-Century Nielsen audience rating have supposedly addressed Wanamaker’s question for television ads. It’s the foundation supporting a $70 billion annual business. It’s supposed to tell advertisers which programs viewers are watching and for how long. Given present computer technology it’s downright stunning when one learns Nielsen’s techniques for collecting its data. With so much money on the table there’s a lot at stake. Some industry constituents want to update the measurement technology while others want no changes at all. Any changes are likely to upset somebody’s apple cart. That’s probably why progress in measurement methodology has moved at the pace of continental drift. Nonetheless, sponsors pay the bills and ultimately they’re going to demand more for their money. Nielsen’s flagship service tries to estimate the viewing habits of our entire nation from a polling process based upon imperfect diaries of 18,500 homes. Given the sample size, three-fourths of the 400 cable and broadcast networks are simply not watched enough to be accurately measured. Except for the top 20 markets, Nielsen mostly relies upon paper-logs that panel members (i.e. participating consumers) maintain on the honor system. Even in larger markets where Nielsen provides electronic log-entry, the company acknowledges that users sometimes press the wrong key resulting in a measurement error of up to eight-percentage-points. Owing to the shortcomings of Nielsen data, a number of vendors sell supplemental information. TiVo is one example. With several million DVRs deployed across the nation they provide more granular and real-time data. For example, TiVo can tell how long a viewer watches a commercial. Similarly, the CATV industry hopes to provide far more detailed and accurate data via its Project Canoe initiative. Unfortunately, Project Canoe faces a significant technical challenge. Data formats are inconsistent among different CATV systems. Some set-top boxes are incapable of capturing data and passing it back to the head-end. Each Multiple System Operator (e.g. Comcast, Time-Warner, etc) has proprietary elements in its networks. Proprietary inconsistencies are amplified to the nth degree considering that each MSO is by definition an amalgamation of independent systems typically acquired over decades. In sum, the problem of getting universally accurate measurements out of the legacy CATV and Satellite platforms is going to be as convoluted as the Gordian Knot. Ultimately, the solution could well be to simply cut the knot by putting all video on the Internet. Standards on the Net are decades old, uniform, and well understood by an abundance of developers all over the planet. Measurements can be in real-time and sliced & diced nearly infinitely. Most significantly, Internet sponsors are increasingly demanding Cost-Per-Action (CPA) advertising. Google AdWords conditioned them to expect that it is only necessary to pay when a visitor clicks on ads. Once video resides on the Net, sponsors may insist that they only pay for video ads that get watched.  The new paradigm will nearly eliminate the utility of audience measurement statistics as we have known them. We’ll want different data, but it will be more readily attained on the Net where the granularity and accuracy of measurement is infinitely better. To advertising executives who don’t want to be accountable for the performance of their ads, such a paradigm shift is so horrible as to be unthinkable. So they may choose to simply avoid thinking about it. To them, it’s a creation of Satan anyway, more destructive to their business as the ability of the iPhone to display its Internet Videos on a television screen. Yet, when sponsors pay for video ads only when they actually get watched, the ghost of John Wannamaker will break into a happy grin. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-18,25146926 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:45:54 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, future-of-advertising, Video-Advertising, Gordian Knot, Wannamaker http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25130683-Conspiracy-against-CATV-Industry Typical TV Socket Panel If you would like to learn why the transformation of television only seems to be a recent development, this audio is for you. It only appears that television is transforming abruptly. In reality the trend has been in place for decades.  More importantly, its very longevity implies inexorable momentum. There is only just now an incipient awareness of the emergence of Third Generation Television. Our televisions are becoming dual function devices. On one hand they remain TVs as we have long known them, but on another they are giant windows into the Internet Cloud. Contrary to the cynics, the current state of affairs does not represent a sinister plot on the part of Hollywood producers, appliance makers, and computer manufactures against the Cable and Satellite Television industries. To the contrary, it all started in the early 1980s as TV makers sought to accommodate the CATV industry by offering more connecting sockets for attaching Cable set-top boxes to the ... Typical TV Socket Panel If you would like to learn why the transformation of television only seems to be a recent development, this audio is for you. It only appears that television is transforming abruptly. In reality the trend has been in place for decades.  More importantly, its very longevity implies inexorable momentum. There is only just now an incipient awareness of the emergence of Third Generation Television. Our televisions are becoming dual function devices. On one hand they remain TVs as we have long known them, but on another they are giant windows into the Internet Cloud. Contrary to the cynics, the current state of affairs does not represent a sinister plot on the part of Hollywood producers, appliance makers, and computer manufactures against the Cable and Satellite Television industries. To the contrary, it all started in the early 1980s as TV makers sought to accommodate the CATV industry by offering more connecting sockets for attaching Cable set-top boxes to the TV. At the time, the Cable industry was expanding exponentially into urban markets whereas earlier it was limited to secondary territories. Gradually more devices designed to mate with TVs were introduced. Examples include video tape recorders, video game consoles, DVD players, camcorders, and digital cameras. As a result, connection panels like the one pictured above became the center-of-gravity for the transformation of television. Today the ever growing variety of connection jacks in the panel facilitates the attachment of Internet Connected devices such as laptop computers, iPods, iPhones, multiplayer video game consoles, TiVos, and dedicated appliances like Roku and Apple TV. The recent appearance of HDMI jacks is particularly significant because they permit the transport of High Definition video and audio in a single cable. In sum, even the most unlikely of today’s devices can exhibit Internet content through connections to the TV. For example, consider the iPhone. Since the unit has a built-in iPod it can purchase, or rent, movies from Apple’s iTunes online store. Alternately, it can download free video podcasts, some of which include popular TV shows.  Yet the iPhone will conveniently attach to a TV thereby providing a big screen display for the unit’s videos. As a number of instructional videos demonstrate, generally only the uninitiated insist that the set-up is too complex. An inevitable result of the increasingly versatile TV socket panel is vigorous growth in the practice of viewing Internet content on the TV. The proliferation of video rentals at iTunes and Amazon.com is only one example. But it is an example that portends the death of Blockbuster. Consequently, the amount of time consumers spend watching CATV, Satellite, and Broadcast TV must almost certainly decline. In our analysis, consumers will ultimately spend more time watching Internet content on their TVs than in watching conventional television. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . Typical TV Socket Panel If you would like to learn why the transformation of television only seems to be a recent development, this audio is for you. It only appears that television is transforming abruptly. In reality the trend has been in place for decades.  More importantly, its very longevity implies inexorable momentum. There is only just now an incipient awareness of the emergence of Third Generation Television. Our televisions are becoming dual function devices. On one hand they remain TVs as we have long known them, but on another they are giant windows into the Internet Cloud. Contrary to the cynics, the current state of affairs does not represent a sinister plot on the part of Hollywood producers, appliance makers, and computer manufactures against the Cable and Satellite Television industries. To the contrary, it all started in the early 1980s as TV makers sought to accommodate the CATV industry by offering more connecting sockets for attaching Cable set-top boxes to the TV. At the time, the Cable industry was expanding exponentially into urban markets whereas earlier it was limited to secondary territories. Gradually more devices designed to mate with TVs were introduced. Examples include video tape recorders, video game consoles, DVD players, camcorders, and digital cameras. As a result, connection panels like the one pictured above became the center-of-gravity for the transformation of television. Today the ever growing variety of connection jacks in the panel facilitates the attachment of Internet Connected devices such as laptop computers, iPods, iPhones, multiplayer video game consoles, TiVos, and dedicated appliances like Roku and Apple TV. The recent appearance of HDMI jacks is particularly significant because they permit the transport of High Definition video and audio in a single cable. In sum, even the most unlikely of today’s devices can exhibit Internet content through connections to the TV. For example, consider the iPhone. Since the unit has a built-in iPod it can purchase, or rent, movies from Apple’s iTunes online store. Alternately, it can download free video podcasts, some of which include popular TV shows.  Yet the iPhone will conveniently attach to a TV thereby providing a big screen display for the unit’s videos. As a number of instructional videos demonstrate, generally only the uninitiated insist that the set-up is too complex. An inevitable result of the increasingly versatile TV socket panel is vigorous growth in the practice of viewing Internet content on the TV. The proliferation of video rentals at iTunes and Amazon.com is only one example. But it is an example that portends the death of Blockbuster. Consequently, the amount of time consumers spend watching CATV, Satellite, and Broadcast TV must almost certainly decline. In our analysis, consumers will ultimately spend more time watching Internet content on their TVs than in watching conventional television. To learn more about how your business can exploit or adapt to such changes, feel welcome to contact us. You may also want to consider buying our research reports Third Generation Television and Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-09-15,25130683 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:51:06 -0700 no Inside Digital Media iphone, apple, ipod, Podcast Audio, digital-media, CATV Industry, Satellite-TV, Apple-TV http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25124917-iPhone-and-Adobe-Go-to-The-Mattresses Adrian Ludwig of Adobe Flash Marketing If you would like to learn how Adobe plans to extend Flash Video’s market leadership on computers onto other Internet-connected devices such as mobile phones and consumer electronics appliances, this interview is for you. About 70% of today’s Internet Video is streamed in Adobe’s Flash format. That’s because nearly all computer users installed a Flash player. Consumers also like that Flash provides an “instant-on” playback experience, thereby avoiding the wait for a download. However, Apple’s iPhone does not support Flash. Even at YouTube, where Flash dominates, iPhone subscribers must use a special prepackaged application to watch the videos. When iPhone subscribers visit other websites streaming Flash, they simply cannot see the videos. As a concrete example, iPhone subscribers can watch Inside Digital Media video streams at our YouTube channel, but to get them directly from our website they must either subscribe to the podcast or click on th... Adrian Ludwig of Adobe Flash Marketing If you would like to learn how Adobe plans to extend Flash Video’s market leadership on computers onto other Internet-connected devices such as mobile phones and consumer electronics appliances, this interview is for you. About 70% of today’s Internet Video is streamed in Adobe’s Flash format. That’s because nearly all computer users installed a Flash player. Consumers also like that Flash provides an “instant-on” playback experience, thereby avoiding the wait for a download. However, Apple’s iPhone does not support Flash. Even at YouTube, where Flash dominates, iPhone subscribers must use a special prepackaged application to watch the videos. When iPhone subscribers visit other websites streaming Flash, they simply cannot see the videos. As a concrete example, iPhone subscribers can watch Inside Digital Media video streams at our YouTube channel, but to get them directly from our website they must either subscribe to the podcast or click on the “download to iPod and iPhone” link. Obviously, Adobe is worried about the iPhone’s avoidance of Flash. The situation creates a conflict that is, as Don Corleone might put it, forcing the two sides to “go to the mattresses”. Our guest today is Adrian Ludwig who is the Group Manager for marketing Flash. His objective is to get Flash as widely deployed on mobile phones and consumer electronics appliances as it is on computers. In the marketplace, Adobe’s efforts are termed the “Open Screen Project” thereby stressing the fact that the Flash platform is open to independent developers. Thus, Adobe is giving developers more innovative freedom than enjoyed in the iPhone environment where applications can be rejected by Apple. Adobe hopes that the strategy will enable Flash to become a standard among the rapidly growing number of newer Internet-connected devices just as it did with computers. Apparently there are two accepted explanations for why the iPhone fails to support Flash.  One is that the AT&T wireless network is already overtaxed and cannot hope to accommodate all of the video demand that a Flash phone would induce. AT&T has mixed feeling about this explanation. On one hand it puts them at blame, but on another it gives them an argument to justify high subscription fees to finance capital investment. Our reflex reaction is to doubt the validity since travelers to Asia are able to make video phone calls in a number of countries where wireless Internet charges are often less than in the States. The second explanation is that Apple wants to insure a good video experience for iPhone subscribers.  Since Apple cannot know the bandwidth provided by each of the websites streaming Flash videos, they cannot predict how satisfactorily, or unsatisfactorily, they’ll work. Therefore, Apple prefers to have the video first downloaded to the iPhone and then played-back locally where bandwidth vagaries are eliminated. In our interview, Adrian discusses how Flash has been deployed on a number of Internet-connected devices aside from computers. Among them is the HTC Hero cellular phone that uses Google’s Android operating system. Unfortunately, Adrian declines to discuss why the iPhone fails to support Flash. Thus we are left to connect the dots without the benefit of his perspective. Adrian Ludwig of Adobe Flash Marketing If you would like to learn how Adobe plans to extend Flash Video’s market leadership on computers onto other Internet-connected devices such as mobile phones and consumer electronics appliances, this interview is for you. About 70% of today’s Internet Video is streamed in Adobe’s Flash format. That’s because nearly all computer users installed a Flash player. Consumers also like that Flash provides an “instant-on” playback experience, thereby avoiding the wait for a download. However, Apple’s iPhone does not support Flash. Even at YouTube, where Flash dominates, iPhone subscribers must use a special prepackaged application to watch the videos. When iPhone subscribers visit other websites streaming Flash, they simply cannot see the videos. As a concrete example, iPhone subscribers can watch Inside Digital Media video streams at our YouTube channel, but to get them directly from our website they must either subscribe to the podcast or click on the “download to iPod and iPhone” link. Obviously, Adobe is worried about the iPhone’s avoidance of Flash. The situation creates a conflict that is, as Don Corleone might put it, forcing the two sides to “go to the mattresses”. Our guest today is Adrian Ludwig who is the Group Manager for marketing Flash. His objective is to get Flash as widely deployed on mobile phones and consumer electronics appliances as it is on computers. In the marketplace, Adobe’s efforts are termed the “Open Screen Project” thereby stressing the fact that the Flash platform is open to independent developers. Thus, Adobe is giving developers more innovative freedom than enjoyed in the iPhone environment where applications can be rejected by Apple. Adobe hopes that the strategy will enable Flash to become a standard among the rapidly growing number of newer Internet-connected devices just as it did with computers. Apparently there are two accepted explanations for why the iPhone fails to support Flash.  One is that the AT&T wireless network is already overtaxed and cannot hope to accommodate all of the video demand that a Flash phone would induce. AT&T has mixed feeling about this explanation. On one hand it puts them at blame, but on another it gives them an argument to justify high subscription fees to finance capital investment. Our reflex reaction is to doubt the validity since travelers to Asia are able to make video phone calls in a number of countries where wireless Internet charges are often less than in the States. The second explanation is that Apple wants to insure a good video experience for iPhone subscribers.  Since Apple cannot know the bandwidth provided by each of the websites streaming Flash videos, they cannot predict how satisfactorily, or unsatisfactorily, they’ll work. Therefore, Apple prefers to have the video first downloaded to the iPhone and then played-back locally where bandwidth vagaries are eliminated. In our interview, Adrian discusses how Flash has been deployed on a number of Internet-connected devices aside from computers. Among them is the HTC Hero cellular phone that uses Google’s Android operating system. Unfortunately, Adrian declines to discuss why the iPhone fails to support Flash. Thus we are left to connect the dots without the benefit of his perspective. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-14,25124917 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:57:28 -0700 no Inside Digital Media iphone, android, google, apple, Adobe, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, htc hero http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25102428-YouTube-The-Billions-Nobody-Wanted If you would like to learn why many industry observers underestimate the potential for streamed movie rentals from YouTube, this audio is for you. Recently The Wall Street Journal revealed that YouTube is in discussions with selected Hollywood Studios to offer movie rentals as streams. While a number of industry observers conclude there’s not much opportunity here, we disagree. The pessimists gravitate toward three arguments. First, they suggest that few consumers will pay to watch rentals on a computer screen. Second, they conclude that the video quality of streamed-through-the-browser video will not be good enough. Third, they assume that few YouTube users will pay for content. The first argument ignores that 10 million Americans have connected computers to their TVs in order to watch Internet Video on a large screen. In our analysis, YouTube movie rental availability will accelerate the growth of this “under the radar” trend. In the typical configuration a laptop computer is atta... If you would like to learn why many industry observers underestimate the potential for streamed movie rentals from YouTube, this audio is for you. Recently The Wall Street Journal revealed that YouTube is in discussions with selected Hollywood Studios to offer movie rentals as streams. While a number of industry observers conclude there’s not much opportunity here, we disagree. The pessimists gravitate toward three arguments. First, they suggest that few consumers will pay to watch rentals on a computer screen. Second, they conclude that the video quality of streamed-through-the-browser video will not be good enough. Third, they assume that few YouTube users will pay for content. The first argument ignores that 10 million Americans have connected computers to their TVs in order to watch Internet Video on a large screen. In our analysis, YouTube movie rental availability will accelerate the growth of this “under the radar” trend. In the typical configuration a laptop computer is attached to the TV thereby acting as the TV’s Internet Gateway over a WiFi home network. Given a wireless mouse and keyboard the user gets a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. Generally, only the uninitiated assume the set-up is too geeky as documented by numerous  instructional videos.  Ultimately the laptop-as-Internet-Gateway becomes a forcing-factor leading to a new form factor such as browser centric televisions. Upon examination the poor picture quality argument also falls flat. One reason is that YouTube recently started permitting users to upload high quality video formats. No doubt, the attraction of premium content was one motivation. More importantly, to a great many viewers the “instant on” characteristic of streamed-within-a-browser video trumps the marginally improved picture quality of a time consuming download. Once people decide they want to watch a movie, they want it “right now”. Unless they’re using a monstrously large screen there’s little discernable video quality difference anyway. The picture quality argument is echoes disparaging MP3 comments from the record labels. To their regret the labels learned that convenience trumps quality. Finally the viewpoint that YouTube users won’t pay for rentals merely because they previously haven’t ignores the concept of the “latent market”. The analysis is much like the one that prominent consultants provided IBM in the 1950s when they advised the office equipment maker to avoid investing in Xerox. Specifically, Arthur D. Little reasoned that since the entire office copying market at the time was about $200 million, Haloid-Xerox stock was overpriced even if they captured a 100% share. The consultants failed to realize that the market for copies on plain paper was gigantic by comparison to the chemically treated paper copies previously available. In his memoir, My Years With Xerox the R & D chief at the time explained that Xerox repeatedly faced such skepticism when it sought business partners. He characterized the company’s journey as “the billions nobody wanted” and employed the expression as a subtitle for his book. About a decade later, Forbes Magazine listed Chester Carlson, who invented xerography, as one of the World’s wealthiest men. Years afterward Carlson’s widow corrected Forbes and explained that he anonymously gave away most of their money over the years.  But that’s another story, and a good one. In short, a better measure for the potential dimensions of a YouTube movie rental market is the annual DVD rentals business which approximates $4 - $5 billion in the U.S. alone. The added convenience of getting movies “right now” from our living room sofa adds a considerable “latent market”. The YouTube community is huge and constantly hungers for new content. Google claims that search queries on YouTube make it the second largest search engine. Such points are obvious to those routinely watching YouTube videos on their TVs. If you would like to learn why many industry observers underestimate the potential for streamed movie rentals from YouTube, this audio is for you. Recently The Wall Street Journal revealed that YouTube is in discussions with selected Hollywood Studios to offer movie rentals as streams. While a number of industry observers conclude there’s not much opportunity here, we disagree. The pessimists gravitate toward three arguments. First, they suggest that few consumers will pay to watch rentals on a computer screen. Second, they conclude that the video quality of streamed-through-the-browser video will not be good enough. Third, they assume that few YouTube users will pay for content. The first argument ignores that 10 million Americans have connected computers to their TVs in order to watch Internet Video on a large screen. In our analysis, YouTube movie rental availability will accelerate the growth of this “under the radar” trend. In the typical configuration a laptop computer is attached to the TV thereby acting as the TV’s Internet Gateway over a WiFi home network. Given a wireless mouse and keyboard the user gets a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. Generally, only the uninitiated assume the set-up is too geeky as documented by numerous  instructional videos.  Ultimately the laptop-as-Internet-Gateway becomes a forcing-factor leading to a new form factor such as browser centric televisions. Upon examination the poor picture quality argument also falls flat. One reason is that YouTube recently started permitting users to upload high quality video formats. No doubt, the attraction of premium content was one motivation. More importantly, to a great many viewers the “instant on” characteristic of streamed-within-a-browser video trumps the marginally improved picture quality of a time consuming download. Once people decide they want to watch a movie, they want it “right now”. Unless they’re using a monstrously large screen there’s little discernable video quality difference anyway. The picture quality argument is echoes disparaging MP3 comments from the record labels. To their regret the labels learned that convenience trumps quality. Finally the viewpoint that YouTube users won’t pay for rentals merely because they previously haven’t ignores the concept of the “latent market”. The analysis is much like the one that prominent consultants provided IBM in the 1950s when they advised the office equipment maker to avoid investing in Xerox. Specifically, Arthur D. Little reasoned that since the entire office copying market at the time was about $200 million, Haloid-Xerox stock was overpriced even if they captured a 100% share. The consultants failed to realize that the market for copies on plain paper was gigantic by comparison to the chemically treated paper copies previously available. In his memoir, My Years With Xerox the R & D chief at the time explained that Xerox repeatedly faced such skepticism when it sought business partners. He characterized the company’s journey as “the billions nobody wanted” and employed the expression as a subtitle for his book. About a decade later, Forbes Magazine listed Chester Carlson, who invented xerography, as one of the World’s wealthiest men. Years afterward Carlson’s widow corrected Forbes and explained that he anonymously gave away most of their money over the years.  But that’s another story, and a good one. In short, a better measure for the potential dimensions of a YouTube movie rental market is the annual DVD rentals business which approximates $4 - $5 billion in the U.S. alone. The added convenience of getting movies “right now” from our living room sofa adds a considerable “latent market”. The YouTube community is huge and constantly hungers for new content. Google claims that search queries on YouTube make it the second largest search engine. Such points are obvious to those routinely watching YouTube videos on their TVs. tag:odeo.com,2009-09-10,25102428 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:44:49 -0700 no Inside Digital Media youtube, Podcast Audio, Movie Studios, digital-media, Internet-Movies, Movie Rentals, Wall Stree Journal http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24994186-Apple-Tablet-Computer Steve Lang If you would like to learn why one expert thinks Apple will introduce a tablet computer and what it might look like, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Lang who blogs about the future of media at MadMaxMedia.com. Numerous observers speculate that Apple will introduce a tablet computer but Steve’s analysis seems cogent. Not only does he predict such a product, but he also believes that it will use an operating system much like the iPod Touch or iPhone, as opposed to the Mac-OS. As a result it will provide a bigger screen to experience the touch-sensitive icon-based interface that has reached close to 50 million users of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Such a device would mostly be used for Internet-centric computing such as email, web browsing, and media consumption. The bigger screen would be attractive for such applications as downloading movies from iTunes or watching video streams from YouTube or Hulu. When limited interaction is required, such as quick ema... Steve Lang If you would like to learn why one expert thinks Apple will introduce a tablet computer and what it might look like, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Lang who blogs about the future of media at MadMaxMedia.com. Numerous observers speculate that Apple will introduce a tablet computer but Steve’s analysis seems cogent. Not only does he predict such a product, but he also believes that it will use an operating system much like the iPod Touch or iPhone, as opposed to the Mac-OS. As a result it will provide a bigger screen to experience the touch-sensitive icon-based interface that has reached close to 50 million users of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Such a device would mostly be used for Internet-centric computing such as email, web browsing, and media consumption. The bigger screen would be attractive for such applications as downloading movies from iTunes or watching video streams from YouTube or Hulu. When limited interaction is required, such as quick email responses, a virtual keyboard will be adequate, especially since the tablet computer will provide a bigger one than the iPhone. It should also be adequate for interaction on social networks such as FaceBook.  Users who need to create bigger documents, like multipage reports or spreadsheets, could attach a separate physical keyboard when needed. The success of the Apps Store is another factor that could benefit a tablet computer based on the Touch-OS. Presumably all the apps would also be available on the tablet computer. No doubt some will be even more useful with a bigger screen. One example is the Amazon application for downloading digital books. The experience of reading a digital book on a tablet computer would presumably be much better than trying to read it on the small screen of an iPod Touch or iPhone.  Those who are considering the purchase of a Kindle, might prefer the more versatile functionality of a tablet computer for which digital books is only one of many applications. Steve envisions the Touch-OS tablet will be designed to provide near desktop computer functionality.  It will be a general purpose device intended to obviate the need for such specialized units as those designed for Internet Video, digital music, home media centers, and digital books, among others.  It might use a 3GS processor with an approximate 10-inch display and High Definition video capability. Since Apple has developed its own lifestyle/productivity software applications, it could run versions of iWork, and iLife. Finally, it would easily synchronize with conventional Mac computers. Steve estimates that an Apple tablet would be priced at $500 - $1,000. He reasons that it would be under Apple’s low-end laptop, but above the iPod Touch or iPhone. He speculates a market entry this autumn or next winter. Steve Lang If you would like to learn why one expert thinks Apple will introduce a tablet computer and what it might look like, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Lang who blogs about the future of media at MadMaxMedia.com. Numerous observers speculate that Apple will introduce a tablet computer but Steve’s analysis seems cogent. Not only does he predict such a product, but he also believes that it will use an operating system much like the iPod Touch or iPhone, as opposed to the Mac-OS. As a result it will provide a bigger screen to experience the touch-sensitive icon-based interface that has reached close to 50 million users of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Such a device would mostly be used for Internet-centric computing such as email, web browsing, and media consumption. The bigger screen would be attractive for such applications as downloading movies from iTunes or watching video streams from YouTube or Hulu. When limited interaction is required, such as quick email responses, a virtual keyboard will be adequate, especially since the tablet computer will provide a bigger one than the iPhone. It should also be adequate for interaction on social networks such as FaceBook.  Users who need to create bigger documents, like multipage reports or spreadsheets, could attach a separate physical keyboard when needed. The success of the Apps Store is another factor that could benefit a tablet computer based on the Touch-OS. Presumably all the apps would also be available on the tablet computer. No doubt some will be even more useful with a bigger screen. One example is the Amazon application for downloading digital books. The experience of reading a digital book on a tablet computer would presumably be much better than trying to read it on the small screen of an iPod Touch or iPhone.  Those who are considering the purchase of a Kindle, might prefer the more versatile functionality of a tablet computer for which digital books is only one of many applications. Steve envisions the Touch-OS tablet will be designed to provide near desktop computer functionality.  It will be a general purpose device intended to obviate the need for such specialized units as those designed for Internet Video, digital music, home media centers, and digital books, among others.  It might use a 3GS processor with an approximate 10-inch display and High Definition video capability. Since Apple has developed its own lifestyle/productivity software applications, it could run versions of iWork, and iLife. Finally, it would easily synchronize with conventional Mac computers. Steve estimates that an Apple tablet would be priced at $500 - $1,000. He reasons that it would be under Apple’s low-end laptop, but above the iPod Touch or iPhone. He speculates a market entry this autumn or next winter. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-20,24994186 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:20:12 -0700 no Inside Digital Media podcast, youtube, apple, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Phil-Leigh, tablet computer http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24904539-TV-Viewers-Fall-for-Evil-Plot Phil Leigh If you would like to learn the latest research about the audience for online video, this audio program is for you. Last week the Pew Internet and American Life Project released new research concluding that online video is growing at a rapid rate and that a leading edge of users are migrating Internet viewing to the TV screens.  The data is actually about four months olds, so we presume that market penetration has advanced even further.  Among the findings are the following: First, the popularity of video streaming websites such as YouTube and Hulu outranks many other headline snatching Internet pastimes such as social networking and Twitter. Whereas 62% of adults watched online video, only 46% participated in social networks and an even smaller 11% used Twitter. Second, audience growth for online video streams has been swift. Over the 28 months from December ’06 to April ’09 the number of adults watching Internet video streams nearly doubled from 33% to 62%. Furthermore, ... Phil Leigh If you would like to learn the latest research about the audience for online video, this audio program is for you. Last week the Pew Internet and American Life Project released new research concluding that online video is growing at a rapid rate and that a leading edge of users are migrating Internet viewing to the TV screens.  The data is actually about four months olds, so we presume that market penetration has advanced even further.  Among the findings are the following: First, the popularity of video streaming websites such as YouTube and Hulu outranks many other headline snatching Internet pastimes such as social networking and Twitter. Whereas 62% of adults watched online video, only 46% participated in social networks and an even smaller 11% used Twitter. Second, audience growth for online video streams has been swift. Over the 28 months from December ’06 to April ’09 the number of adults watching Internet video streams nearly doubled from 33% to 62%. Furthermore, an increasing proportion became habituated to watching every day. About one-third of those watching online videos view them daily as compared to only one-fourth in December ‘06. Third, the practice of watching TV shows and movies online is growing at about a 100% annual rate. In April 35% of Internet users had viewed a TV show or movie online as compared to only 16% just over a year earlier in February ’07. Fourth, a significant number of us are watching online videos on our televisions. Among those who watch TV shows and movies online, nearly one-fourth connected their computer to a television screen so they could view Internet video on their TVs. Pew estimates that 8% of all Internet users had made such connections as of April ’09 which equates to about 7.5 million users. Moreover, about 30% of males watching online TV and movies were doing so via the television as compared to only about 15% of females. Since men are often leading indicators of Internet technology adoption the 100% gender differential implies continued expansion of the practice. Fifth, about one-third of those who have cut back on cable TV have “re-routed” their online video to the television. Phil Leigh If you would like to learn the latest research about the audience for online video, this audio program is for you. Last week the Pew Internet and American Life Project released new research concluding that online video is growing at a rapid rate and that a leading edge of users are migrating Internet viewing to the TV screens.  The data is actually about four months olds, so we presume that market penetration has advanced even further.  Among the findings are the following: First, the popularity of video streaming websites such as YouTube and Hulu outranks many other headline snatching Internet pastimes such as social networking and Twitter. Whereas 62% of adults watched online video, only 46% participated in social networks and an even smaller 11% used Twitter. Second, audience growth for online video streams has been swift. Over the 28 months from December ’06 to April ’09 the number of adults watching Internet video streams nearly doubled from 33% to 62%. Furthermore, an increasing proportion became habituated to watching every day. About one-third of those watching online videos view them daily as compared to only one-fourth in December ‘06. Third, the practice of watching TV shows and movies online is growing at about a 100% annual rate. In April 35% of Internet users had viewed a TV show or movie online as compared to only 16% just over a year earlier in February ’07. Fourth, a significant number of us are watching online videos on our televisions. Among those who watch TV shows and movies online, nearly one-fourth connected their computer to a television screen so they could view Internet video on their TVs. Pew estimates that 8% of all Internet users had made such connections as of April ’09 which equates to about 7.5 million users. Moreover, about 30% of males watching online TV and movies were doing so via the television as compared to only about 15% of females. Since men are often leading indicators of Internet technology adoption the 100% gender differential implies continued expansion of the practice. Fifth, about one-third of those who have cut back on cable TV have “re-routed” their online video to the television. tag:odeo.com,2009-08-03,24904539 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:23:28 -0700 no Inside Digital Media market research, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, Future-of-Video, Mary Madden, Pew Research http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24886820-Behavioral-Ad-Targeting-Newspapers Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how newspapers and TV affiliates can generate incremental ad revenue by selling behaviorally-targeted Internet ads to local businesses, this audio is for you. Behavioral-targeting is one of the keys to success in online advertising.  For example, consider how online merchants such as iTunes and Amazon.com are among the most successful websites in terms of translating visits into sales. There are two reasons why their conversion performance is exceptionally good. First, visitors are obviously pre-disposed to buying since they are visiting an online merchant. But the second reason is more interesting and significant in terms of implications for online advertising. Consider how both Amazon.com and iTunes do a good job of suggesting alternative titles for visitors who arrived looking for related books or recordings. It is not uncommon for visitors to purchase the suggested alternate titles. The banners and texts that suggest such titles are examples... Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how newspapers and TV affiliates can generate incremental ad revenue by selling behaviorally-targeted Internet ads to local businesses, this audio is for you. Behavioral-targeting is one of the keys to success in online advertising.  For example, consider how online merchants such as iTunes and Amazon.com are among the most successful websites in terms of translating visits into sales. There are two reasons why their conversion performance is exceptionally good. First, visitors are obviously pre-disposed to buying since they are visiting an online merchant. But the second reason is more interesting and significant in terms of implications for online advertising. Consider how both Amazon.com and iTunes do a good job of suggesting alternative titles for visitors who arrived looking for related books or recordings. It is not uncommon for visitors to purchase the suggested alternate titles. The banners and texts that suggest such titles are examples of behavioral-targeted ads. Amazon and iTunes target such ads based upon the consumers’ prior purchasing experience at each site. Delivering behaviorally-targeted ads when the ad serving company does not have access to such proprietary information requires a different approach. Most identify visitors by assigning a unique id “cookie” to each visitor at a client site. Thereafter the cookie tracks visitors throughout their ensuing web journey. The platform then makes a rules-based decision about what content to serve based upon the multiple websites that a cookie-enabled browser visits. Behavioral data can be combined with demographic and geographic information in order to produce a greater degree of targeting precision. Last year Yahoo developed such a platform and is offering it to outsiders, including newspapers, and more recently AT&T Yellow Pages, among others. Essentially, newspapers are discovering that their existing sales-force can be used to sell both newspaper and Internet ads to local businesses. Typically one of their strengths is a trusted prior relationship with local advertisers. Yahoo has partnered with a consortium of newspapers to which it provides its targeted advertising platform. There are two advantages that the Yahoo consortium provides to participating newspapers. First, it enables them to sell Internet ads for local businesses that will be distributed on Yahoo web properties as well as the newspapers’ websites. Second, and more importantly, it enables newspapers to sell behaviorally-targeted ads on their own web pages. For example, assume the Yahoo cookie learns that I have been searching for information of BMW automobiles at a variety of websites. Should I next choose to visit my home town newspaper website merely to check on unrelated stories, the Yahoo platform is likely to place ads for local BMW dealers within the online pages of the newspaper that I see. You will see different ads on those same pages based upon your own prior browsing patterns. While Yahoo has not yet made the platform available to local TV affiliates it may do so in the future. Alternately, a competing platform could offer similar services to TV affiliates thereby enabling them to also sell higher priced behaviorally-targeted Internet ads as well. Phil Leigh If you would like to learn how newspapers and TV affiliates can generate incremental ad revenue by selling behaviorally-targeted Internet ads to local businesses, this audio is for you. Behavioral-targeting is one of the keys to success in online advertising.  For example, consider how online merchants such as iTunes and Amazon.com are among the most successful websites in terms of translating visits into sales. There are two reasons why their conversion performance is exceptionally good. First, visitors are obviously pre-disposed to buying since they are visiting an online merchant. But the second reason is more interesting and significant in terms of implications for online advertising. Consider how both Amazon.com and iTunes do a good job of suggesting alternative titles for visitors who arrived looking for related books or recordings. It is not uncommon for visitors to purchase the suggested alternate titles. The banners and texts that suggest such titles are examples of behavioral-targeted ads. Amazon and iTunes target such ads based upon the consumers’ prior purchasing experience at each site. Delivering behaviorally-targeted ads when the ad serving company does not have access to such proprietary information requires a different approach. Most identify visitors by assigning a unique id “cookie” to each visitor at a client site. Thereafter the cookie tracks visitors throughout their ensuing web journey. The platform then makes a rules-based decision about what content to serve based upon the multiple websites that a cookie-enabled browser visits. Behavioral data can be combined with demographic and geographic information in order to produce a greater degree of targeting precision. Last year Yahoo developed such a platform and is offering it to outsiders, including newspapers, and more recently AT&T Yellow Pages, among others. Essentially, newspapers are discovering that their existing sales-force can be used to sell both newspaper and Internet ads to local businesses. Typically one of their strengths is a trusted prior relationship with local advertisers. Yahoo has partnered with a consortium of newspapers to which it provides its targeted advertising platform. There are two advantages that the Yahoo consortium provides to participating newspapers. First, it enables them to sell Internet ads for local businesses that will be distributed on Yahoo web properties as well as the newspapers’ websites. Second, and more importantly, it enables newspapers to sell behaviorally-targeted ads on their own web pages. For example, assume the Yahoo cookie learns that I have been searching for information of BMW automobiles at a variety of websites. Should I next choose to visit my home town newspaper website merely to check on unrelated stories, the Yahoo platform is likely to place ads for local BMW dealers within the online pages of the newspaper that I see. You will see different ads on those same pages based upon your own prior browsing patterns. While Yahoo has not yet made the platform available to local TV affiliates it may do so in the future. Alternately, a competing platform could offer similar services to TV affiliates thereby enabling them to also sell higher priced behaviorally-targeted Internet ads as well. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-30,24886820 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:14:52 -0700 no Inside Digital Media podcast, yahoo, advertising, market research, newspapers, Add new tag, Podcast Audio, behavioral targeting, Phil-Leigh, Internet-Advertising, future-of-advertising, local Internet ads, behavioral ads http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24850470-Profound-Implications-of-Video-Centric-Wikipedia Phil Leigh If you would like to consider the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia, this audio program is for you. As reported in Technology Review, the Wikipedia Foundation will soon be launching an editable online video encyclopedia. According to Alexa, Wikipedia is the World’s seventh most popular website. Consider how often you visit the site and ponder your reaction if many of its articles provided relevant video. In our analysis, the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia are profound. Perhaps the most important result will be transcendence in the public perception of media itself. The walls separating earlier silos of radio for sound, television for video, and newspapers for print, will collapse. In response, our culture will begin to routinely use the Internet as a mixed-media resource. This will lead to an expectation that users can access media on-demand in whatever form desired whether it be text, graphics, animation, video, or audio. Consider the following. First,... Phil Leigh If you would like to consider the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia, this audio program is for you. As reported in Technology Review, the Wikipedia Foundation will soon be launching an editable online video encyclopedia. According to Alexa, Wikipedia is the World’s seventh most popular website. Consider how often you visit the site and ponder your reaction if many of its articles provided relevant video. In our analysis, the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia are profound. Perhaps the most important result will be transcendence in the public perception of media itself. The walls separating earlier silos of radio for sound, television for video, and newspapers for print, will collapse. In response, our culture will begin to routinely use the Internet as a mixed-media resource. This will lead to an expectation that users can access media on-demand in whatever form desired whether it be text, graphics, animation, video, or audio. Consider the following. First, the Wikipedia could become the-center-of-gravity for news. It could replace television, radio, and newspapers as the preferred destination.  Topics can be updated nearly instantaneously from a large number of self-policing “journalists”. Furthermore, the updates might include on-the-spot video and audio recordings. Finally, since most topics were prepared earlier as Wikipedia articles, each addition is automatically connected to an abundance of background and context along with branching links to sources and related material. Second, after a critical threshold of Wikipedia articles contain video we’ll expect the website to be available on TV. If the set-makers and CATV operators don’t provide it then we’ll connect our TV to a computer. That way the TV can function as both a monitor for the (Internet-connected) computer as well as a conventional TV. For example, consider someone with an intense interest in the history of World War II. Eventually, a video-centric Wikipedia will have an abundance of public domain video footage posted and indexed within the applicable article.  Moreover, the videos will be continually updated with new postings from archives from various nations. Third, once a video-centric Wikipedia is accessible on our TVs, we’re going to require a user-friendly search device. For example, a Yahoo Widget that merely transports us to the Wikipedia home page is going to be all but useless. We must be able to navigate to the desired content easily and also to explore related articles without difficulty. Such needs may imply a consumer preference for (as yet unannounced) browser-centric TVs as opposed to a Widget platform. Fourth, if Internet access to copyrighted TV shows and movies is too expensive, or limited, viewers are going to start watching other Internet videos. A video-centric Wikipedia is merely one example. But it is a potentially profound one since it is already such a popular website and has the potential to grow infinitely. Phil Leigh If you would like to consider the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia, this audio program is for you. As reported in Technology Review, the Wikipedia Foundation will soon be launching an editable online video encyclopedia. According to Alexa, Wikipedia is the World’s seventh most popular website. Consider how often you visit the site and ponder your reaction if many of its articles provided relevant video. In our analysis, the implications of a video-centric Wikipedia are profound. Perhaps the most important result will be transcendence in the public perception of media itself. The walls separating earlier silos of radio for sound, television for video, and newspapers for print, will collapse. In response, our culture will begin to routinely use the Internet as a mixed-media resource. This will lead to an expectation that users can access media on-demand in whatever form desired whether it be text, graphics, animation, video, or audio. Consider the following. First, the Wikipedia could become the-center-of-gravity for news. It could replace television, radio, and newspapers as the preferred destination.  Topics can be updated nearly instantaneously from a large number of self-policing “journalists”. Furthermore, the updates might include on-the-spot video and audio recordings. Finally, since most topics were prepared earlier as Wikipedia articles, each addition is automatically connected to an abundance of background and context along with branching links to sources and related material. Second, after a critical threshold of Wikipedia articles contain video we’ll expect the website to be available on TV. If the set-makers and CATV operators don’t provide it then we’ll connect our TV to a computer. That way the TV can function as both a monitor for the (Internet-connected) computer as well as a conventional TV. For example, consider someone with an intense interest in the history of World War II. Eventually, a video-centric Wikipedia will have an abundance of public domain video footage posted and indexed within the applicable article.  Moreover, the videos will be continually updated with new postings from archives from various nations. Third, once a video-centric Wikipedia is accessible on our TVs, we’re going to require a user-friendly search device. For example, a Yahoo Widget that merely transports us to the Wikipedia home page is going to be all but useless. We must be able to navigate to the desired content easily and also to explore related articles without difficulty. Such needs may imply a consumer preference for (as yet unannounced) browser-centric TVs as opposed to a Widget platform. Fourth, if Internet access to copyrighted TV shows and movies is too expensive, or limited, viewers are going to start watching other Internet videos. A video-centric Wikipedia is merely one example. But it is a potentially profound one since it is already such a popular website and has the potential to grow infinitely. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-23,24850470 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:00:41 -0700 no Inside Digital Media radio, yahoo, widgets, iptv, newspapers, wikipedia, Podcast Video, digital-media, Future-of-Television, Hollywood-Studios http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24839090-Yahoo-Connected-TV-Widgets Patrick Barry, Vice President, Yahoo If you would like to learn about Yahoo’s plans to bring Internet applications to the TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Patrick Barry who is Vice President of Yahoo’s Connected TV initiative. Yahoo offers TV-set manufacturers a software platform enabling viewers to access Internet applications via a TV remote unit typically provided by the set maker. The on-screen interface is similar to the iPhone or iPod Touch experience. Readers may watch a Yahoo-prepared demonstration here. Yahoo’s Connected TV could be an important innovation. In short, it is extending to the TV the icon-based approach for Internet applications that the iPhone and iPod Touch have popularized. Since there are over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches in use, a sizeable body of consumers can relate intuitively to the Yahoo Connected TV interface. To be sure, Yahoo does not merely duplicate Apple icons. However, the overall environment is similar and Yahoo also pe... Patrick Barry, Vice President, Yahoo If you would like to learn about Yahoo’s plans to bring Internet applications to the TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Patrick Barry who is Vice President of Yahoo’s Connected TV initiative. Yahoo offers TV-set manufacturers a software platform enabling viewers to access Internet applications via a TV remote unit typically provided by the set maker. The on-screen interface is similar to the iPhone or iPod Touch experience. Readers may watch a Yahoo-prepared demonstration here. Yahoo’s Connected TV could be an important innovation. In short, it is extending to the TV the icon-based approach for Internet applications that the iPhone and iPod Touch have popularized. Since there are over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches in use, a sizeable body of consumers can relate intuitively to the Yahoo Connected TV interface. To be sure, Yahoo does not merely duplicate Apple icons. However, the overall environment is similar and Yahoo also permits third parties to develop Widgets much like Apple permits third parties to develop applications for the iPhone.  Yahoo is making good progress in getting leading TV set manufacturers to enable the platform within certain models that are being marketed this year. In sum, Yahoo Connected TV Widgets has promise, but not without important qualifications. Aside from a number of “devils in the details” which can be worked-out over time, Yahoo Widgets face three major challenges. First, when Internet access is available at the TV consumers will demand an easy-to-use search capability. For example, Yahoo has a Widget for YouTube, but it is nearly useless without the ability to search for desired videos among the gigantic number available. It may be difficult to use a simple four-button remote to type-out a search string even with an on-screen virtual keyboard. One way might be to use a predictive keyboard like the one familiar to iPhone subscribers. While the approach might be satisfactory, it remains to be seen if consumers would prefer it over an ordinary wireless keyboard & mouse for use in combination with a familiar browser. Second, some websites may not want to permit Yahoo Widgets. A case in point is Hulu.com where TV shows from ABC, Fox, NBC, and others are commonly available for streaming over the Net. Earlier this year Hulu disabled software from Boxee that permitted icon-based navigation for computers that are attached to televisions. Put briefly, Hulu wanted to restrict its video streams to computers that typically have smaller screens than the TV. Since consumers can avoid both problems noted above merely by connecting a laptop computer to a flat panel TV, they may prefer that manufactures ultimately offer browser-centric TVs instead Widget-enabled units. Such sets would provide consumers with (1) a familiar interface, (2) a user-friendly wireless keyboard, and (3) unlimited Internet access, even to websites that don’t provide Widgets. Third, Apple may become a serious competitor. For example, there is no technical reason why the Apple TV fails to offer a similar platform. Given Apple’s success with the icon environment on the iPhone, it’s easy to foresee a similar approach working to make Apple products popular the living room. Widgets for Apple TV would enable older sets to use the platform whereas so far Yahoo Widgets only work with some sets made this year. Additionally, as speculated elsewhere, Apple may even consider making TV sets themselves. If so they would likely incorporate iTunes and a Widget platform. In point of fact, it is curious that Apple has not yet expanded the concept.  Presently it appears they are more interested in content sales and rentals via Apple TV. Perhaps they might also have concerns that a Widget platform would not be used by providers of popular content like Hulu. For example, Apple delayed the launch of the iTunes music store until it had content from all five major record labels. Similarly, they may not want to offer a Widget platform for Apple TV (or some future product) until major content providers like Hulu are “on board”. Patrick Barry, Vice President, Yahoo If you would like to learn about Yahoo’s plans to bring Internet applications to the TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Patrick Barry who is Vice President of Yahoo’s Connected TV initiative. Yahoo offers TV-set manufacturers a software platform enabling viewers to access Internet applications via a TV remote unit typically provided by the set maker. The on-screen interface is similar to the iPhone or iPod Touch experience. Readers may watch a Yahoo-prepared demonstration here. Yahoo’s Connected TV could be an important innovation. In short, it is extending to the TV the icon-based approach for Internet applications that the iPhone and iPod Touch have popularized. Since there are over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches in use, a sizeable body of consumers can relate intuitively to the Yahoo Connected TV interface. To be sure, Yahoo does not merely duplicate Apple icons. However, the overall environment is similar and Yahoo also permits third parties to develop Widgets much like Apple permits third parties to develop applications for the iPhone.  Yahoo is making good progress in getting leading TV set manufacturers to enable the platform within certain models that are being marketed this year. In sum, Yahoo Connected TV Widgets has promise, but not without important qualifications. Aside from a number of “devils in the details” which can be worked-out over time, Yahoo Widgets face three major challenges. First, when Internet access is available at the TV consumers will demand an easy-to-use search capability. For example, Yahoo has a Widget for YouTube, but it is nearly useless without the ability to search for desired videos among the gigantic number available. It may be difficult to use a simple four-button remote to type-out a search string even with an on-screen virtual keyboard. One way might be to use a predictive keyboard like the one familiar to iPhone subscribers. While the approach might be satisfactory, it remains to be seen if consumers would prefer it over an ordinary wireless keyboard & mouse for use in combination with a familiar browser. Second, some websites may not want to permit Yahoo Widgets. A case in point is Hulu.com where TV shows from ABC, Fox, NBC, and others are commonly available for streaming over the Net. Earlier this year Hulu disabled software from Boxee that permitted icon-based navigation for computers that are attached to televisions. Put briefly, Hulu wanted to restrict its video streams to computers that typically have smaller screens than the TV. Since consumers can avoid both problems noted above merely by connecting a laptop computer to a flat panel TV, they may prefer that manufactures ultimately offer browser-centric TVs instead Widget-enabled units. Such sets would provide consumers with (1) a familiar interface, (2) a user-friendly wireless keyboard, and (3) unlimited Internet access, even to websites that don’t provide Widgets. Third, Apple may become a serious competitor. For example, there is no technical reason why the Apple TV fails to offer a similar platform. Given Apple’s success with the icon environment on the iPhone, it’s easy to foresee a similar approach working to make Apple products popular the living room. Widgets for Apple TV would enable older sets to use the platform whereas so far Yahoo Widgets only work with some sets made this year. Additionally, as speculated elsewhere, Apple may even consider making TV sets themselves. If so they would likely incorporate iTunes and a Widget platform. In point of fact, it is curious that Apple has not yet expanded the concept.  Presently it appears they are more interested in content sales and rentals via Apple TV. Perhaps they might also have concerns that a Widget platform would not be used by providers of popular content like Hulu. For example, Apple delayed the launch of the iTunes music store until it had content from all five major record labels. Similarly, they may not want to offer a Widget platform for Apple TV (or some future product) until major content providers like Hulu are “on board”. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-21,24839090 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:00:31 -0700 no Inside Digital Media podcast, youtube, apple, yahoo, tv, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Patrick Barry http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24829094-Best-Internet-Video-Ad-Format Download a Free Prospectus for: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod or iPhone If you would like to watch an example of a successful Internet video ad format, this video is for you. MTV conducted a research study to discover the kind of video ad format that works best for their streamed music videos. The results are important because we infer that they’ll apply to Interactive television as well. The project concluded that a five-second pre-roll followed by a temporary translucent overlay along the lower third of the screen of the ensuing music video provided the best results. To see an actual demonstration of such an ad click on the above player. While the results of the survey are significant, it is dismaying that the press release failed to contain links to videos illustrating the formats tested. Not one of the three involved companies, MTV, Panache, and InsightExpress, seems to understand that demonstrative videos can be embedded in such releases. If th... Download a Free Prospectus for: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod or iPhone If you would like to watch an example of a successful Internet video ad format, this video is for you. MTV conducted a research study to discover the kind of video ad format that works best for their streamed music videos. The results are important because we infer that they’ll apply to Interactive television as well. The project concluded that a five-second pre-roll followed by a temporary translucent overlay along the lower third of the screen of the ensuing music video provided the best results. To see an actual demonstration of such an ad click on the above player. While the results of the survey are significant, it is dismaying that the press release failed to contain links to videos illustrating the formats tested. Not one of the three involved companies, MTV, Panache, and InsightExpress, seems to understand that demonstrative videos can be embedded in such releases. If they do understand it, then they don’t seem to realize the advantages of demonstrating the video ad formats as opposed to merely describing them with text. Major video-centric media companies should stop complaining that the Internet is not generating enough revenue for them if they fail to use the Web’s multimedia characteristics in such obvious opportunities. It’s the 21st Century and time to get rid of PR firms that still seem to think that most press release recipients only read them after they have arrived via postal mail. To learn more about the future of television advertising, check-out our July ’09 market research report entitled Future Developments in Video Advertising . Download a Free Prospectus for: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod or iPhone If you would like to watch an example of a successful Internet video ad format, this video is for you. MTV conducted a research study to discover the kind of video ad format that works best for their streamed music videos. The results are important because we infer that they’ll apply to Interactive television as well. The project concluded that a five-second pre-roll followed by a temporary translucent overlay along the lower third of the screen of the ensuing music video provided the best results. To see an actual demonstration of such an ad click on the above player. While the results of the survey are significant, it is dismaying that the press release failed to contain links to videos illustrating the formats tested. Not one of the three involved companies, MTV, Panache, and InsightExpress, seems to understand that demonstrative videos can be embedded in such releases. If they do understand it, then they don’t seem to realize the advantages of demonstrating the video ad formats as opposed to merely describing them with text. Major video-centric media companies should stop complaining that the Internet is not generating enough revenue for them if they fail to use the Web’s multimedia characteristics in such obvious opportunities. It’s the 21st Century and time to get rid of PR firms that still seem to think that most press release recipients only read them after they have arrived via postal mail. To learn more about the future of television advertising, check-out our July ’09 market research report entitled Future Developments in Video Advertising . tag:odeo.com,2009-07-19,24829094 Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:00:32 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, market research, web-2.0, Podcast Video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, Internet-Advertising, online-advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24814436-How-Video-Advertising-Will-Change Download Free Copy of Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why product promotion campaigns will replace advertising campaigns, this video is for you. Traditionally advertising campaigns are executed by media buyers. Ad preparation, termed creative work, is done by the advertising agency. The sponsoring company determines the campaign budget and contracts with a media buyer to place the ads on the appropriate media. The media buyer determines the optimal allocation among television, newspaper, radio, Internet, and other formats. The buying organization also determines how the ads will run in each media. For example, they will decide which TV shows will get the ads. They seek to optimize the demographic match between the show audience and the profile of customers for the advertised product. From the beginning the sponsor is focused on the advertising process. Ad agency selection is based upon a judgment of a... Download Free Copy of Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why product promotion campaigns will replace advertising campaigns, this video is for you. Traditionally advertising campaigns are executed by media buyers. Ad preparation, termed creative work, is done by the advertising agency. The sponsoring company determines the campaign budget and contracts with a media buyer to place the ads on the appropriate media. The media buyer determines the optimal allocation among television, newspaper, radio, Internet, and other formats. The buying organization also determines how the ads will run in each media. For example, they will decide which TV shows will get the ads. They seek to optimize the demographic match between the show audience and the profile of customers for the advertised product. From the beginning the sponsor is focused on the advertising process. Ad agency selection is based upon a judgment of agency skills in ad creation. Media buyer selection reflects the sponsor’s assessment of buyer’s effectiveness in ad placement. The process will be different in the future. In the years ahead, sponsors will think in terms of product promotion.  It is a larger concept that advertising promotion because it takes into consideration how the sponsor will use media directly, as well as indirectly, within the promotional campaign. Direct media applications are those that the sponsor can implement autonomously without a media buyer. Examples include promotions on the corporate website, email, Twitter, press releases, and YouTube postings, among others. Aside from the obvious use on YouTube channels, the use of video can augment the effectiveness of each example. In contrast, advertising is an indirect media application of the sponsor. He relies upon the media buyer to place ads on properties that he cannot access directly. Aside from the conventional examples of TV, newspapers, and radio other examples include third-party websites like Huffington Post, or Sportsline. Significantly, however, they not include Web properties that sponsors can use themselves such as YouTube. The replacement of advertising promotion by product promotion carries a number of implications. First, the marketing executives at sponsoring companies will need to enlarge their job description. In addition to optimizing indirect media (advertising) returns they must also maximize returns on direct media applications. That means they’ll have to learn more about how to make direct Internet contact with customers effective. Learning about online email campaigns is only a starting point. They must also learn about how to use YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter, among other applications. Since the Internet permits interactivity they must learn how to deploy applications that engage users. For example, an online game that users find entertaining might be an excellent brand promotion tool. Second, promotional materials need to be tailored to the intended media application. Videos for television might be longer than videos for the Internet. Similarly, videos embedded in an email campaign or press release might be different that those on the corporate home page or those on third-party websites. Some may contain calls-to-action, whereas others may not. Third, advertising will follow us around. We’ll see one version of conventional TV and another in Internet streams to fixed devices such as desktop computers. Our mobile phones will get yet another version. The ads will follow us into elevators equipped with built-in screens and we’ll see special versions on electronic billboards at airports and even on the highway. Length: This video is 4 minutes long. Download Free Copy of Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising Download Video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why product promotion campaigns will replace advertising campaigns, this video is for you. Traditionally advertising campaigns are executed by media buyers. Ad preparation, termed creative work, is done by the advertising agency. The sponsoring company determines the campaign budget and contracts with a media buyer to place the ads on the appropriate media. The media buyer determines the optimal allocation among television, newspaper, radio, Internet, and other formats. The buying organization also determines how the ads will run in each media. For example, they will decide which TV shows will get the ads. They seek to optimize the demographic match between the show audience and the profile of customers for the advertised product. From the beginning the sponsor is focused on the advertising process. Ad agency selection is based upon a judgment of agency skills in ad creation. Media buyer selection reflects the sponsor’s assessment of buyer’s effectiveness in ad placement. The process will be different in the future. In the years ahead, sponsors will think in terms of product promotion.  It is a larger concept that advertising promotion because it takes into consideration how the sponsor will use media directly, as well as indirectly, within the promotional campaign. Direct media applications are those that the sponsor can implement autonomously without a media buyer. Examples include promotions on the corporate website, email, Twitter, press releases, and YouTube postings, among others. Aside from the obvious use on YouTube channels, the use of video can augment the effectiveness of each example. In contrast, advertising is an indirect media application of the sponsor. He relies upon the media buyer to place ads on properties that he cannot access directly. Aside from the conventional examples of TV, newspapers, and radio other examples include third-party websites like Huffington Post, or Sportsline. Significantly, however, they not include Web properties that sponsors can use themselves such as YouTube. The replacement of advertising promotion by product promotion carries a number of implications. First, the marketing executives at sponsoring companies will need to enlarge their job description. In addition to optimizing indirect media (advertising) returns they must also maximize returns on direct media applications. That means they’ll have to learn more about how to make direct Internet contact with customers effective. Learning about online email campaigns is only a starting point. They must also learn about how to use YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter, among other applications. Since the Internet permits interactivity they must learn how to deploy applications that engage users. For example, an online game that users find entertaining might be an excellent brand promotion tool. Second, promotional materials need to be tailored to the intended media application. Videos for television might be longer than videos for the Internet. Similarly, videos embedded in an email campaign or press release might be different that those on the corporate home page or those on third-party websites. Some may contain calls-to-action, whereas others may not. Third, advertising will follow us around. We’ll see one version of conventional TV and another in Internet streams to fixed devices such as desktop computers. Our mobile phones will get yet another version. The ads will follow us into elevators equipped with built-in screens and we’ll see special versions on electronic billboards at airports and even on the highway. Length: This video is 4 minutes long. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-16,24814436 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:00:39 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Podcasting, advertising, market research, social-networking, Podcast Video, digital-media, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24799251-Future-Video-Commercials-to-use-Search Click Here to Download Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click here to download video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why search will become a crucial part of future video advertising, this video is for you. Once video migrates to the Internet the search function will become crucially integrated with video advertising. This applies to both short and long form programs including TV shows and movies. As discussed in our Future Developments in Video Advertising research report, there are three reasons for our conclusion. First, viewers will search for the video programs they want to see. YouTube has already surpassed Yahoo to become the second largest search engine. Consumers love having long-tail content available, but they cannot find what they want without a search engine. Over time each of us will exhibit a pattern of searches enabling video ads to be targeted for the type of video programs we watch. Second, sponsors will learn to enhance Goo... Click Here to Download Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click here to download video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why search will become a crucial part of future video advertising, this video is for you. Once video migrates to the Internet the search function will become crucially integrated with video advertising. This applies to both short and long form programs including TV shows and movies. As discussed in our Future Developments in Video Advertising research report, there are three reasons for our conclusion. First, viewers will search for the video programs they want to see. YouTube has already surpassed Yahoo to become the second largest search engine. Consumers love having long-tail content available, but they cannot find what they want without a search engine. Over time each of us will exhibit a pattern of searches enabling video ads to be targeted for the type of video programs we watch. Second, sponsors will learn to enhance Google AdWords by linking to video landing pages. Instead of structuring an AdWords Click-Through to link to a landing page that merely contains text and graphics about the advertised product, future landing pages will make increasing use of video. For several generations TV demonstrated the power of video to stimulate consumer demand. A broadband Internet enables sponsors to harness that power in conjunction with AdWords at their own websites without reliance upon ad agencies or media buyers. Third, YouTube recently started offering contributors the opportunity to place overlay ads on their videos. The process is similar to AdWords but is concentrated on videos within the YouTube community. Consider the hypothetical case of a producer with a popular YouTube instructional video explaining how to connect HDMI-equipped laptop computers to flat-panel TVs. This enables the TVs to display Internet videos and provides for unlimited Internet access via the television. A computer company like Acer may wish to place overlay ads on the video for its laptops that have HDMI sockets. The computer company would bid for YouTube-specific AdWords like “computer-to-TV-connections”, “Internet-Video-on-TV”, and “HDMI computers”.  Thus, viewers watching the instructional video could easily click-through to Acer in order to buy an appropriate laptop, to wit, one with HDMI sockets. Length: This video is about 5 minutes long. Click Here to Download Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click here to download video to iPod and iPhone. If you would like to learn why search will become a crucial part of future video advertising, this video is for you. Once video migrates to the Internet the search function will become crucially integrated with video advertising. This applies to both short and long form programs including TV shows and movies. As discussed in our Future Developments in Video Advertising research report, there are three reasons for our conclusion. First, viewers will search for the video programs they want to see. YouTube has already surpassed Yahoo to become the second largest search engine. Consumers love having long-tail content available, but they cannot find what they want without a search engine. Over time each of us will exhibit a pattern of searches enabling video ads to be targeted for the type of video programs we watch. Second, sponsors will learn to enhance Google AdWords by linking to video landing pages. Instead of structuring an AdWords Click-Through to link to a landing page that merely contains text and graphics about the advertised product, future landing pages will make increasing use of video. For several generations TV demonstrated the power of video to stimulate consumer demand. A broadband Internet enables sponsors to harness that power in conjunction with AdWords at their own websites without reliance upon ad agencies or media buyers. Third, YouTube recently started offering contributors the opportunity to place overlay ads on their videos. The process is similar to AdWords but is concentrated on videos within the YouTube community. Consider the hypothetical case of a producer with a popular YouTube instructional video explaining how to connect HDMI-equipped laptop computers to flat-panel TVs. This enables the TVs to display Internet videos and provides for unlimited Internet access via the television. A computer company like Acer may wish to place overlay ads on the video for its laptops that have HDMI sockets. The computer company would bid for YouTube-specific AdWords like “computer-to-TV-connections”, “Internet-Video-on-TV”, and “HDMI computers”.  Thus, viewers watching the instructional video could easily click-through to Acer in order to buy an appropriate laptop, to wit, one with HDMI sockets. Length: This video is about 5 minutes long. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-14,24799251 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:31:09 -0700 no Inside Digital Media web-2.0, Podcast Video, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, online-advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24765207-Legal-Green-Light-for-Cloud-Computing Jim Burger, Copyright Attorney, Dow, Lohnes If you would like learn about a recent Supreme Court action providing a legal green light to a future “Networked Economy”, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Burger who is an attorney with Dow, Lohnes in Washington, D. C. His specialty is intellectual property, including copyright law. Recently the Supreme Court declined to review an Appellate Court decision that gave Cablevision authority to offer DVR functionality within the network of their physical plant, as opposed to inside discrete boxes installed on subscriber premises. Copyright interests opposed the Appellate Court decision because they argued that Cablevision would be illegally making copies of copyrighted material whenever subscribers chose to record a program. It was an odd argument considering that they have not yet challenged the legality of subscriber-premises DVRs, like TiVo. Be that as it may, the immediate impact of the Supreme Court action enables Cablevi... Jim Burger, Copyright Attorney, Dow, Lohnes If you would like learn about a recent Supreme Court action providing a legal green light to a future “Networked Economy”, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Burger who is an attorney with Dow, Lohnes in Washington, D. C. His specialty is intellectual property, including copyright law. Recently the Supreme Court declined to review an Appellate Court decision that gave Cablevision authority to offer DVR functionality within the network of their physical plant, as opposed to inside discrete boxes installed on subscriber premises. Copyright interests opposed the Appellate Court decision because they argued that Cablevision would be illegally making copies of copyrighted material whenever subscribers chose to record a program. It was an odd argument considering that they have not yet challenged the legality of subscriber-premises DVRs, like TiVo. Be that as it may, the immediate impact of the Supreme Court action enables Cablevision to offer DVR functionality without having to install DVR units at each participating subscriber. They can merely enable the feature with a software download to the existing cable set-top box. This saves Cablevision the expense of a “truck-roll” to the subscriber’s home for DVR installation. In short, it saves Cablevision installation expenses and also provides mass-storage economies of scale that can reduce operating expenses. However, Jim believes there is a far greater implication. Specifically, he believes the action will help foster the development of “Cloud Computing”. Consider the case of a consumer with a collection of copyrighted movies on DVDs. Companies may now offer a service enabling the consumer to upload the movies to an “Internet locker” where they can be constantly available via the Internet. The failure to review the Appellate Court implies that the operator of such a service need have no fear of copyright violation. As media increasingly moves to the Internet it will be crucial that copyright holders be adequately compensated. In our analysis, most consumers are going to choose to watch Internet video in ad-supported formats. To learn more about how this will happen, click here where you can download a free Prospectus of our new market research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising. Jim Burger, Copyright Attorney, Dow, Lohnes If you would like learn about a recent Supreme Court action providing a legal green light to a future “Networked Economy”, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Burger who is an attorney with Dow, Lohnes in Washington, D. C. His specialty is intellectual property, including copyright law. Recently the Supreme Court declined to review an Appellate Court decision that gave Cablevision authority to offer DVR functionality within the network of their physical plant, as opposed to inside discrete boxes installed on subscriber premises. Copyright interests opposed the Appellate Court decision because they argued that Cablevision would be illegally making copies of copyrighted material whenever subscribers chose to record a program. It was an odd argument considering that they have not yet challenged the legality of subscriber-premises DVRs, like TiVo. Be that as it may, the immediate impact of the Supreme Court action enables Cablevision to offer DVR functionality without having to install DVR units at each participating subscriber. They can merely enable the feature with a software download to the existing cable set-top box. This saves Cablevision the expense of a “truck-roll” to the subscriber’s home for DVR installation. In short, it saves Cablevision installation expenses and also provides mass-storage economies of scale that can reduce operating expenses. However, Jim believes there is a far greater implication. Specifically, he believes the action will help foster the development of “Cloud Computing”. Consider the case of a consumer with a collection of copyrighted movies on DVDs. Companies may now offer a service enabling the consumer to upload the movies to an “Internet locker” where they can be constantly available via the Internet. The failure to review the Appellate Court implies that the operator of such a service need have no fear of copyright violation. As media increasingly moves to the Internet it will be crucial that copyright holders be adequately compensated. In our analysis, most consumers are going to choose to watch Internet video in ad-supported formats. To learn more about how this will happen, click here where you can download a free Prospectus of our new market research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-07,24765207 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:32:17 -0700 no Inside Digital Media copyright, Supreme Court, Podcast Audio, Cloud Computing, Cablevisión, digital-media, Internet-video, Phil-Leigh, Jim-Burger, Dow Lohnes http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24749219-Generating-Sales-Leads-from-Websites-and-eMails Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click Here to Download Video Interview to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn how to generate more leads and sales transactions from your website and email campaigns, this video interview is for you. Our guest today is John Babb who is the founder and CEO of iDimension . His company specializes in helping corporations generate revenues and sales leads from their websites and email campaigns. It is also an expert in the deployment of Google Analytics. As noted in one of our earlier podcasts, a key conclusion of our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will increasingly use the Internet as a direct-media connection to their customers. Thus advertising agencies will be competing for resources within the Marketing Departments of their own customers. Unless they learn how to help such customers use their own websites and email campaigns to generate sales leads and induce online transactions, the ag... Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click Here to Download Video Interview to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn how to generate more leads and sales transactions from your website and email campaigns, this video interview is for you. Our guest today is John Babb who is the founder and CEO of iDimension . His company specializes in helping corporations generate revenues and sales leads from their websites and email campaigns. It is also an expert in the deployment of Google Analytics. As noted in one of our earlier podcasts, a key conclusion of our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will increasingly use the Internet as a direct-media connection to their customers. Thus advertising agencies will be competing for resources within the Marketing Departments of their own customers. Unless they learn how to help such customers use their own websites and email campaigns to generate sales leads and induce online transactions, the agencies will find that they will be allocated a smaller share of the marketing budget. There are three ways agencies can meet the challenge. First, is to develop the required technical resources within their own company. Usually, that means hiring new people with radically different technical skills than is customary at the typical agency. Second, is to partner with firms such as iDimension that already have such skills. That way the agency can at least hold onto the artistic work for the customers’ Internet-as-direct-media applications. A third way is to seek out the best-of-breed firms like iDimension and acquire them. Venture capitalists and investment bankers may also want to take note of this option since many companies like iDimension are privately owned. In our analysis the good ones have favorable growth prospects. The aggressive ones might seek capital to gain market share while the others might be good acquisition candidates. Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click Here to Download Video Interview to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn how to generate more leads and sales transactions from your website and email campaigns, this video interview is for you. Our guest today is John Babb who is the founder and CEO of iDimension . His company specializes in helping corporations generate revenues and sales leads from their websites and email campaigns. It is also an expert in the deployment of Google Analytics. As noted in one of our earlier podcasts, a key conclusion of our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will increasingly use the Internet as a direct-media connection to their customers. Thus advertising agencies will be competing for resources within the Marketing Departments of their own customers. Unless they learn how to help such customers use their own websites and email campaigns to generate sales leads and induce online transactions, the agencies will find that they will be allocated a smaller share of the marketing budget. There are three ways agencies can meet the challenge. First, is to develop the required technical resources within their own company. Usually, that means hiring new people with radically different technical skills than is customary at the typical agency. Second, is to partner with firms such as iDimension that already have such skills. That way the agency can at least hold onto the artistic work for the customers’ Internet-as-direct-media applications. A third way is to seek out the best-of-breed firms like iDimension and acquire them. Venture capitalists and investment bankers may also want to take note of this option since many companies like iDimension are privately owned. In our analysis the good ones have favorable growth prospects. The aggressive ones might seek capital to gain market share while the others might be good acquisition candidates. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-05,24749219 Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:00:19 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Email Marketing, advertising, market research, google analytics, Podcast Video, digital-media, Website Marketing, iDimension, John Babb http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24737757-Why-Project-Canoe-Will-Fail Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click here to download to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn why the Cable Industry’s effort to provide addressable advertising will fail, this video is for you. Last year a consortium of six leading CATV operators formed a joint venture termed, Project Canoe, to develop a standard platform to deliver addressable and interactive commercials over cable systems. The industry is abundantly aware of the threat that Internet targeted advertising represents and Canoe is their response. In our analysis there are five reasons it will fail. First, video will ultimately migrate to the Internet. Eventually, the TV will evolve into a giant window into the Internet Cloud where video is merely one of many accessible applications. Consumers will favor the Net’s anytime, anywhere access as well as the interactivity. Ultimately even sponsors will prefer the ad flexibility of the Net in terms of addressability, interactivity, and spontaneous e-commerce.... Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click here to download to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn why the Cable Industry’s effort to provide addressable advertising will fail, this video is for you. Last year a consortium of six leading CATV operators formed a joint venture termed, Project Canoe, to develop a standard platform to deliver addressable and interactive commercials over cable systems. The industry is abundantly aware of the threat that Internet targeted advertising represents and Canoe is their response. In our analysis there are five reasons it will fail. First, video will ultimately migrate to the Internet. Eventually, the TV will evolve into a giant window into the Internet Cloud where video is merely one of many accessible applications. Consumers will favor the Net’s anytime, anywhere access as well as the interactivity. Ultimately even sponsors will prefer the ad flexibility of the Net in terms of addressability, interactivity, and spontaneous e-commerce. Second, video advertising will evolve more quickly into successful models on the Internet than in within closed networks of CATV systems. Technical standards on the Net are open and well understood by independent developers. Thus it is likely that more of them will focus on Internet advertising innovations than on those governed by Project Canoe where standards have yet to be defined. The trial-and-error process of innovation will be much faster on the Net where consumer reaction can be quickly measured. Third, cable networks like ESPN and A & E are suspicious of Project Canoe. Perpetual tension exists between cable operators and cable networks over the issue of carriage fees. Project Canoe enables CATV systems to charge a fee to the cable networks for ad targeting which is the reverse of the directional money flow for carriage fees. Although the operators are justified in collecting a fee, it is an unwelcome change in the power dynamics for the cable networks. Fourth, theoretically the CATV industry could have moved forward with targeted advertising ten or twenty years ago. They’ve certainly talked about it long enough, sometimes in high profile announcements and discussion. Yet in reality they have done very little. Thus, there is reason to question their commitment this time as evidenced by the abandonment of “community level” addressability recently. Even if the commitment is taken at face value, there is reason to question their technical readiness. Put another way, during all the years of discussing the promise of ad targeting they may have let their systems drift in a sort of entropy toward a technical Tower of Babel that Project Canoe cannot unify. Finally, just two weeks ago Project Canoe abandoned a much publicized planned feature that would have enabled households to be targeted at a “community level”. The decision is significant for two reasons. First, until now Canoe aggressively promoted the capability in nearly all of its public comments. Second, the Project confessed that the variety of networks and deployed equipment among consortium members was too disparate to unify into a workable technical standard. Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus Click here to download to iPod or iPhone If you would like to learn why the Cable Industry’s effort to provide addressable advertising will fail, this video is for you. Last year a consortium of six leading CATV operators formed a joint venture termed, Project Canoe, to develop a standard platform to deliver addressable and interactive commercials over cable systems. The industry is abundantly aware of the threat that Internet targeted advertising represents and Canoe is their response. In our analysis there are five reasons it will fail. First, video will ultimately migrate to the Internet. Eventually, the TV will evolve into a giant window into the Internet Cloud where video is merely one of many accessible applications. Consumers will favor the Net’s anytime, anywhere access as well as the interactivity. Ultimately even sponsors will prefer the ad flexibility of the Net in terms of addressability, interactivity, and spontaneous e-commerce. Second, video advertising will evolve more quickly into successful models on the Internet than in within closed networks of CATV systems. Technical standards on the Net are open and well understood by independent developers. Thus it is likely that more of them will focus on Internet advertising innovations than on those governed by Project Canoe where standards have yet to be defined. The trial-and-error process of innovation will be much faster on the Net where consumer reaction can be quickly measured. Third, cable networks like ESPN and A & E are suspicious of Project Canoe. Perpetual tension exists between cable operators and cable networks over the issue of carriage fees. Project Canoe enables CATV systems to charge a fee to the cable networks for ad targeting which is the reverse of the directional money flow for carriage fees. Although the operators are justified in collecting a fee, it is an unwelcome change in the power dynamics for the cable networks. Fourth, theoretically the CATV industry could have moved forward with targeted advertising ten or twenty years ago. They’ve certainly talked about it long enough, sometimes in high profile announcements and discussion. Yet in reality they have done very little. Thus, there is reason to question their commitment this time as evidenced by the abandonment of “community level” addressability recently. Even if the commitment is taken at face value, there is reason to question their technical readiness. Put another way, during all the years of discussing the promise of ad targeting they may have let their systems drift in a sort of entropy toward a technical Tower of Babel that Project Canoe cannot unify. Finally, just two weeks ago Project Canoe abandoned a much publicized planned feature that would have enabled households to be targeted at a “community level”. The decision is significant for two reasons. First, until now Canoe aggressively promoted the capability in nearly all of its public comments. Second, the Project confessed that the variety of networks and deployed equipment among consortium members was too disparate to unify into a workable technical standard. tag:odeo.com,2009-07-01,24737757 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:44:28 -0700 no Inside Digital Media market research, Podcast Video, Future-of-Television, canoe ventures, future-of-advertising, Project Canoe, CATV Operators, Addrssable Advertising, Cable Networks http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24737758-What-Makes-our-Market-Research-Different Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click Here to Download to iPhone or iPod. If you would like to know how our market research is different, this video is for you. One key difference is that our reports are multimedia documents providing numerous embedded links to demonstrate new technologies. Thus, you can print-them-out and read them as conventional paper documents, but you can also use them in a television-like experience to actually watch what video ads will be like in the future. Inside Digital Media has been creating video and audio podcasts for six years. When it comes to Digital Media, we “walk the walk and talk the talk”. For example in our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , we provide links to video demonstrations that show you how overlay, interstitial, viral, and other new media ads work. One cannot truly comprehend such things without experiencing them. They cannot be experienced in a paper-on... Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click Here to Download to iPhone or iPod. If you would like to know how our market research is different, this video is for you. One key difference is that our reports are multimedia documents providing numerous embedded links to demonstrate new technologies. Thus, you can print-them-out and read them as conventional paper documents, but you can also use them in a television-like experience to actually watch what video ads will be like in the future. Inside Digital Media has been creating video and audio podcasts for six years. When it comes to Digital Media, we “walk the walk and talk the talk”. For example in our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , we provide links to video demonstrations that show you how overlay, interstitial, viral, and other new media ads work. One cannot truly comprehend such things without experiencing them. They cannot be experienced in a paper-only document no matter how many pretty pictures are included. You could read volumes about how to swim, but you’re not going to learn much of anything until you actually get in the water and feel the medium. Of course, you can print-out our 71-page report to paper. It gives you plenty of charts, tables and analytical commentary. But the added feature which is often not provided by others is the multimedia characteristic. It enables you to comprehend the future of video advertising by actually experiencing it. Click Here to Download a Free Prospectus: Future Developments in Video Advertising. Click Here to Download to iPhone or iPod. If you would like to know how our market research is different, this video is for you. One key difference is that our reports are multimedia documents providing numerous embedded links to demonstrate new technologies. Thus, you can print-them-out and read them as conventional paper documents, but you can also use them in a television-like experience to actually watch what video ads will be like in the future. Inside Digital Media has been creating video and audio podcasts for six years. When it comes to Digital Media, we “walk the walk and talk the talk”. For example in our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , we provide links to video demonstrations that show you how overlay, interstitial, viral, and other new media ads work. One cannot truly comprehend such things without experiencing them. They cannot be experienced in a paper-only document no matter how many pretty pictures are included. You could read volumes about how to swim, but you’re not going to learn much of anything until you actually get in the water and feel the medium. Of course, you can print-out our 71-page report to paper. It gives you plenty of charts, tables and analytical commentary. But the added feature which is often not provided by others is the multimedia characteristic. It enables you to comprehend the future of video advertising by actually experiencing it. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-29,24737758 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:22:18 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, market research, Podcast Video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Video-Advertising, Addressable Advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24737759-What-should-ad-agencies-do Download Free Prospectus for our new research report on the future of video advertising. Download to iPhone of iPod If you would like to learn how ad agencies can prepare for the future of video advertising, this video is for you. One conclusion from our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will start competing with the advertising industry.  More specifically, they’ll intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. A greater share of their marketing budgets will be allocated to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage more of their email marketing and employ embedded video in press releases, product promotions, and corporate communications. Historically, corporate websites were set-up and managed by an internal staff of IT (Information Technology) experts, or by outside IT contractors. Most such organizations were technically skilled but had little kn... Download Free Prospectus for our new research report on the future of video advertising. Download to iPhone of iPod If you would like to learn how ad agencies can prepare for the future of video advertising, this video is for you. One conclusion from our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will start competing with the advertising industry.  More specifically, they’ll intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. A greater share of their marketing budgets will be allocated to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage more of their email marketing and employ embedded video in press releases, product promotions, and corporate communications. Historically, corporate websites were set-up and managed by an internal staff of IT (Information Technology) experts, or by outside IT contractors. Most such organizations were technically skilled but had little knowledge of marketing. Yet it quickly became apparent that corporate websites were chiefly marketing properties. As a result, the IT staff maintaining the website, and the marketing staff assigned the revenue-generation-responsibilities, understood each other about as well as cows do algebra. In the typical scenario, eventually the Marketing Department took charge of the website. Unfortunately, it often found that the applications that the IT staff developed to generate sales and leads were not good enough. When the Marketing Department turned to their ad agencies for help, they normally discovered the agencies were bereft of the needed programming skills. Often agencies could help less than the “alien” IT staff. The foregoing commonly left the Marketing Department with three choices. One was to hire the required technical people. A second was to use an expensive Digital Agency like Razorfish. The third option was to find outside website design firms that possessed excellent programming skills along with artistic capability. Such firms are numerous around the country, but most are small and privately held. In our analysis, ad agencies would be well advised to seek out the best-of-breed and acquire them. That way they can compete for that portion of a sponsor’s future marketing budget to be allocated for use of the Internet as a direct media channel. Length: This video is about 5 minutes long. Download Free Prospectus for our new research report on the future of video advertising. Download to iPhone of iPod If you would like to learn how ad agencies can prepare for the future of video advertising, this video is for you. One conclusion from our new research report, Future Developments in Video Advertising , is that sponsors will start competing with the advertising industry.  More specifically, they’ll intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. A greater share of their marketing budgets will be allocated to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage more of their email marketing and employ embedded video in press releases, product promotions, and corporate communications. Historically, corporate websites were set-up and managed by an internal staff of IT (Information Technology) experts, or by outside IT contractors. Most such organizations were technically skilled but had little knowledge of marketing. Yet it quickly became apparent that corporate websites were chiefly marketing properties. As a result, the IT staff maintaining the website, and the marketing staff assigned the revenue-generation-responsibilities, understood each other about as well as cows do algebra. In the typical scenario, eventually the Marketing Department took charge of the website. Unfortunately, it often found that the applications that the IT staff developed to generate sales and leads were not good enough. When the Marketing Department turned to their ad agencies for help, they normally discovered the agencies were bereft of the needed programming skills. Often agencies could help less than the “alien” IT staff. The foregoing commonly left the Marketing Department with three choices. One was to hire the required technical people. A second was to use an expensive Digital Agency like Razorfish. The third option was to find outside website design firms that possessed excellent programming skills along with artistic capability. Such firms are numerous around the country, but most are small and privately held. In our analysis, ad agencies would be well advised to seek out the best-of-breed and acquire them. That way they can compete for that portion of a sponsor’s future marketing budget to be allocated for use of the Internet as a direct media channel. Length: This video is about 5 minutes long. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-26,24737759 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:04:15 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, market research, Podcast Video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Video-Advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24737760-Future-of-Video-Advertising-5-Conclusions Click Here for Free Prospectus Download to iPhone or iPod If you would like to learn five major conclusions from our new research report entitled Future Developments in Video Advertising , this video is for you. 1. The advertising market will shrink for several years to come. Even five years in the future aggregate advertising spending will be smaller than it was in last year. We project total advertising revenues of $245 billion in 2013 as compared to $285 billion in 2008. Internet advertising will gain share from 8% to 22%. The Great Recession of 2009 is leading sponsors to radically change long-held assumptions about the use of media in marketing and advertising. In short, advertisers will face new competition from their own sponsors as sponsors intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. They will allocate a greater share of marketing budgets to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage m... Click Here for Free Prospectus Download to iPhone or iPod If you would like to learn five major conclusions from our new research report entitled Future Developments in Video Advertising , this video is for you. 1. The advertising market will shrink for several years to come. Even five years in the future aggregate advertising spending will be smaller than it was in last year. We project total advertising revenues of $245 billion in 2013 as compared to $285 billion in 2008. Internet advertising will gain share from 8% to 22%. The Great Recession of 2009 is leading sponsors to radically change long-held assumptions about the use of media in marketing and advertising. In short, advertisers will face new competition from their own sponsors as sponsors intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. They will allocate a greater share of marketing budgets to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage more of their email marketing and employ embedded video in press releases, product promotions, and corporate communications. 2. Video will migrate to the Internet. Cable and Satellite networks are evolutionary dead-ends that cannot hope to compete with the innovative pace enabled by the Internet. Consumers are learning to get unlimited Internet access at their TV, most commonly by connecting it to a laptop computer. The computer’s onboard WiFi links over a home network to the Internet thereby transforming the laptop into an Internet Gateway for the TV. The configuration permits users to watch any Internet Video on the TV screen. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers get a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. An estimated 10 million Americans watch Internet Video on TV monitors via computers. It is an intermediate forcing factor ultimately leading to two alternatives. One is the browser-centric TV. Second would be something like an Apple TV but with its own Apps Store. Such a store would be similar to the one for the iPhone but instead enable websites like Hulu.com and TV.com to provide simple (typically free) interfaces permitting their programs to be watched on TV via the applicable hardware. 3. Product promotion campaigns will replace product  advertising campaigns. To the detriment of the advertising industry, the Internet will redefine product promotions to fit into a larger context. Historically product promotions were nearly synonymous with product advertising. The applicable marketing budget was allocated to the advertising agencies and media buyers responsible for the creative work and media placement. Increasingly, sponsors will incorporate their own use of the Internet into product promotion. By enriching their websites, press releases, email marketing, and corporate communications with Digital Media they will trigger transactions and generate leads in activities that bypass the advertising industry. 4. Ad rolls will become shorter. There are three reasons why Internet Video advertisers will be able to cut back on the time designated for commercials. First, is the avoidance of ad-time allocations for local network affiliates or Cable Systems. For example, websites like Hulu.com that host popular TV shows don’t need a local TV affiliate to stream the shows over the Internet. This frees-up about 4 – 5 minutes per hour. Second, unlike DVR users, viewers of streamed Internet Video cannot fast-forward through the advertisements. Third, Internet Video can employ non-disruptive interactive overlay ads.  As a result, the typical hour-long TV show on Hulu takes only 48 minutes including 6 minutes of ads. 5. Advertising Industry Bypass will promote interactivity. Websites with the highest “click-through” rates are those engaged in triggering transactions. Examples include Amazon.com and iTunes. As sponsors gain experience with using Internet media to connect directly with customers they also will be focused on inducing transactions. Thus, as an indirect consequence of bypassing the advertising industry sponsors will learn how to increase click-through rates thereby advancing the state-of-the-art for interactive advertising.  In short, Internet advertising and Internet retailing will overlap. Click Here for Free Prospectus Download to iPhone or iPod If you would like to learn five major conclusions from our new research report entitled Future Developments in Video Advertising , this video is for you. 1. The advertising market will shrink for several years to come. Even five years in the future aggregate advertising spending will be smaller than it was in last year. We project total advertising revenues of $245 billion in 2013 as compared to $285 billion in 2008. Internet advertising will gain share from 8% to 22%. The Great Recession of 2009 is leading sponsors to radically change long-held assumptions about the use of media in marketing and advertising. In short, advertisers will face new competition from their own sponsors as sponsors intensify use of Internet media as a direct channel to their customers. They will allocate a greater share of marketing budgets to enriching their own websites as interactive, lead-generation properties. Similarly, they will self-manage more of their email marketing and employ embedded video in press releases, product promotions, and corporate communications. 2. Video will migrate to the Internet. Cable and Satellite networks are evolutionary dead-ends that cannot hope to compete with the innovative pace enabled by the Internet. Consumers are learning to get unlimited Internet access at their TV, most commonly by connecting it to a laptop computer. The computer’s onboard WiFi links over a home network to the Internet thereby transforming the laptop into an Internet Gateway for the TV. The configuration permits users to watch any Internet Video on the TV screen. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers get a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. An estimated 10 million Americans watch Internet Video on TV monitors via computers. It is an intermediate forcing factor ultimately leading to two alternatives. One is the browser-centric TV. Second would be something like an Apple TV but with its own Apps Store. Such a store would be similar to the one for the iPhone but instead enable websites like Hulu.com and TV.com to provide simple (typically free) interfaces permitting their programs to be watched on TV via the applicable hardware. 3. Product promotion campaigns will replace product  advertising campaigns. To the detriment of the advertising industry, the Internet will redefine product promotions to fit into a larger context. Historically product promotions were nearly synonymous with product advertising. The applicable marketing budget was allocated to the advertising agencies and media buyers responsible for the creative work and media placement. Increasingly, sponsors will incorporate their own use of the Internet into product promotion. By enriching their websites, press releases, email marketing, and corporate communications with Digital Media they will trigger transactions and generate leads in activities that bypass the advertising industry. 4. Ad rolls will become shorter. There are three reasons why Internet Video advertisers will be able to cut back on the time designated for commercials. First, is the avoidance of ad-time allocations for local network affiliates or Cable Systems. For example, websites like Hulu.com that host popular TV shows don’t need a local TV affiliate to stream the shows over the Internet. This frees-up about 4 – 5 minutes per hour. Second, unlike DVR users, viewers of streamed Internet Video cannot fast-forward through the advertisements. Third, Internet Video can employ non-disruptive interactive overlay ads.  As a result, the typical hour-long TV show on Hulu takes only 48 minutes including 6 minutes of ads. 5. Advertising Industry Bypass will promote interactivity. Websites with the highest “click-through” rates are those engaged in triggering transactions. Examples include Amazon.com and iTunes. As sponsors gain experience with using Internet media to connect directly with customers they also will be focused on inducing transactions. Thus, as an indirect consequence of bypassing the advertising industry sponsors will learn how to increase click-through rates thereby advancing the state-of-the-art for interactive advertising.  In short, Internet advertising and Internet retailing will overlap. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-23,24737760 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:09:09 -0700 no Inside Digital Media market research, Podcast Video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, Advertising Research, Future of Video Advertising, Advertising Market Research http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24713345-Effective-Ads-for-Long-Form-Internet-Video Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships ha... Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships have been particularly effective. For example, the hosts of DIGGnation typically discuss the sponsor’s products during the show. The objective is to have a deeper “conversation” with the audience about the sponsoring brands. Ordinarily the “conversations” result in a direct or implied endorsement. The approach is actually an echo of a method effectively used on television 50 – 55 years ago.  Shows such as Schlitz Playhouse 90 and The General Electric Theater had single sponsors that wanted parallel identity with the programs. For example, both put their names in the title and General Electric used a consistent host who for eight years was Ronald Reagan. As noted in our “Third Generation Television” research report released in February, long-form video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the “Third Generation Television” report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships have been particularly effective. For example, the hosts of DIGGnation typically discuss the sponsor’s products during the show. The objective is to have a deeper “conversation” with the audience about the sponsoring brands. Ordinarily the “conversations” result in a direct or implied endorsement. The approach is actually an echo of a method effectively used on television 50 – 55 years ago.  Shows such as Schlitz Playhouse 90 and The General Electric Theater had single sponsors that wanted parallel identity with the programs. For example, both put their names in the title and General Electric used a consistent host who for eight years was Ronald Reagan. As noted in our “Third Generation Television” research report released in February, long-form video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the “Third Generation Television” report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-16,24713345 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:00:07 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Podcast Audio, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, online-advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24685407-Effective-Ads-for-Long-Form-Internet-Video Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships ha... Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships have been particularly effective. For example, the hosts of DIGGnation typically discuss the sponsor’s products during the show. The objective is to have a deeper “conversation” with the audience about the sponsoring brands. Ordinarily the “conversations” result in a direct or implied endorsement. The approach is actually an echo of a method effectively used on television 50 – 55 years ago.  Shows such as Schlitz Playhouse 90 and The General Electric Theater had single sponsors that wanted parallel identity with the programs. For example, both put their names in the title and General Electric used a consistent host who for eight years was Ronald Reagan. As noted in our “Third Generation Television” research report released in February, long-form video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the “Third Generation Television” report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 If you would like learn about the types of advertisements that are effectively generating revenue for long-form video on the Internet, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Jim Louderback who is the CEO of  Revision3. com . His company is an Internet television network that creates, produces and distributes web television shows on niche topics. Some shows have achieved audience numbers equivalent to popular cult-TV shows. One example is DIGGnation in which two hosts discuss the top weeky topics on the Digg website.  It gets about 200,000 – 300,000 viewers which is equivalent to the TV audience for Dog the Bounty Hunter. Just like a regular TV network, Revision3 is dependent upon advertising as the primary revenue source. One reason for interviewing Jim was to gain insight into the kinds of ads that will work in an interactive environment. Revision3 uses all types of ads including video-rolls, overlays, sponsorships, and banners. Sponsorships have been particularly effective. For example, the hosts of DIGGnation typically discuss the sponsor’s products during the show. The objective is to have a deeper “conversation” with the audience about the sponsoring brands. Ordinarily the “conversations” result in a direct or implied endorsement. The approach is actually an echo of a method effectively used on television 50 – 55 years ago.  Shows such as Schlitz Playhouse 90 and The General Electric Theater had single sponsors that wanted parallel identity with the programs. For example, both put their names in the title and General Electric used a consistent host who for eight years was Ronald Reagan. As noted in our “Third Generation Television” research report released in February, long-form video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the “Third Generation Television” report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-10,24685407 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:46:07 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Podcast Audio, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, online-advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24639629-Streaming-Video-to-Clients-Prospects Benjamin Wayne, CEO, Fliqz.com If you would like to learn how to put video on your website that will stream via a player that has the look-and-feel of your own pages, this interview if for you. If you host videos at YouTube and have them play through your website the YouTube brand is prominently displayed on the player. Thus, businesses that put video on their websites often prefer to host their own, or use a service that provides an “unbranded” player. One such vendor is Fliqz.com which specializes in white-label video services for businesses. In addition to providing an unbranded player, Fliqz also offers industrial strength streaming and viewer analytics. Our guest today is Benjamin Wayne who is the CEO of Fliqz. Prior to organizing Fliqz, Ben was the CEO of three other Internet companies. One was a third party lead generation company and another provided price comparison shopping aids. His first job out of college was with a consulting firm in South Korea. Ben holds an undergrad... Benjamin Wayne, CEO, Fliqz.com If you would like to learn how to put video on your website that will stream via a player that has the look-and-feel of your own pages, this interview if for you. If you host videos at YouTube and have them play through your website the YouTube brand is prominently displayed on the player. Thus, businesses that put video on their websites often prefer to host their own, or use a service that provides an “unbranded” player. One such vendor is Fliqz.com which specializes in white-label video services for businesses. In addition to providing an unbranded player, Fliqz also offers industrial strength streaming and viewer analytics. Our guest today is Benjamin Wayne who is the CEO of Fliqz. Prior to organizing Fliqz, Ben was the CEO of three other Internet companies. One was a third party lead generation company and another provided price comparison shopping aids. His first job out of college was with a consulting firm in South Korea. Ben holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a MBA from Harvard. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar to South Korea. About 10 – 15 years ago most companies realized the competitive necessity to establish websites. In today’s environment, Ben believes that the “table stakes” now require them to provide online video. However, there is little point in meeting the new requirement with poor quality video that streams sporadically thorough players that indirectly promote their own brands such as the YouTube player. Most successful companies will want the videos to look as though the originated on the corporate website. And they’ll want comprehensive analytical data about those who are watching the videos. Companies like BrightCove, Fliqz, and Blitp.tv provide such capabilities as applications service providers. They enable your company’s website to reliably stream video to visitors. As such they enable you to communicate with video directly to clients and prospects without having to rely upon an intermediate medium such as television. For example, research at Fliqz concludes that up to 80% of the first clicks visitors make once at a website landing page containing video is on the video itself. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. We are currently preparing a research report entitled “Future Developments in Video Advertising” that examines how video will be used for advertising and promotion in the years ahead. To learn more about our earlier Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. Benjamin Wayne, CEO, Fliqz.com If you would like to learn how to put video on your website that will stream via a player that has the look-and-feel of your own pages, this interview if for you. If you host videos at YouTube and have them play through your website the YouTube brand is prominently displayed on the player. Thus, businesses that put video on their websites often prefer to host their own, or use a service that provides an “unbranded” player. One such vendor is Fliqz.com which specializes in white-label video services for businesses. In addition to providing an unbranded player, Fliqz also offers industrial strength streaming and viewer analytics. Our guest today is Benjamin Wayne who is the CEO of Fliqz. Prior to organizing Fliqz, Ben was the CEO of three other Internet companies. One was a third party lead generation company and another provided price comparison shopping aids. His first job out of college was with a consulting firm in South Korea. Ben holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a MBA from Harvard. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar to South Korea. About 10 – 15 years ago most companies realized the competitive necessity to establish websites. In today’s environment, Ben believes that the “table stakes” now require them to provide online video. However, there is little point in meeting the new requirement with poor quality video that streams sporadically thorough players that indirectly promote their own brands such as the YouTube player. Most successful companies will want the videos to look as though the originated on the corporate website. And they’ll want comprehensive analytical data about those who are watching the videos. Companies like BrightCove, Fliqz, and Blitp.tv provide such capabilities as applications service providers. They enable your company’s website to reliably stream video to visitors. As such they enable you to communicate with video directly to clients and prospects without having to rely upon an intermediate medium such as television. For example, research at Fliqz concludes that up to 80% of the first clicks visitors make once at a website landing page containing video is on the video itself. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. We are currently preparing a research report entitled “Future Developments in Video Advertising” that examines how video will be used for advertising and promotion in the years ahead. To learn more about our earlier Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-06-02,24639629 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:00:28 -0700 no Inside Digital Media youtube, advertising, Brightcove, Podcast Audio, digital-video, fliqz, benjamin wayne, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24608780-Advertising-on-Internet-TV-Shows-and-Movies Steve Robinson, CEO, Panache If you would like to learn the latest from an expert about video ads for premium Internet streams such as popular TV shows and movies, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Robinson who is the CEO of Panache . His company provides an ad-insertion platform that offers media and entertainment companies the infrastructure to generate advertising revenues from their video streams. Representative clients include MTV, VH1, Country Music Channel, and Nickelodeon, among others. We caught-up with Steve at the Streaming Media East conference where we could get a chance to learn his thoughts on the future of video advertising. Steve emphasized that his company is focused on premium content providers and probably accounts for about 10% – 15% of the business in his industry outside of YouTube. The advent of websites like Hulu.com and the increasing abundance of popular TV shows and movie streams on the Internet means that it is crucial that the video ad... Steve Robinson, CEO, Panache If you would like to learn the latest from an expert about video ads for premium Internet streams such as popular TV shows and movies, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Robinson who is the CEO of Panache . His company provides an ad-insertion platform that offers media and entertainment companies the infrastructure to generate advertising revenues from their video streams. Representative clients include MTV, VH1, Country Music Channel, and Nickelodeon, among others. We caught-up with Steve at the Streaming Media East conference where we could get a chance to learn his thoughts on the future of video advertising. Steve emphasized that his company is focused on premium content providers and probably accounts for about 10% – 15% of the business in his industry outside of YouTube. The advent of websites like Hulu.com and the increasing abundance of popular TV shows and movie streams on the Internet means that it is crucial that the video ads in such streams generate sufficient revenues to adequately compensate the program providers. Steve makes a number of comments to this point. First, the emergence of an accepted standard will be important because standards drive large scale adoption. For example, should the pre-roll be 15 seconds, or 30 seconds? Should it be interactive or passive? Second, although standards will help establish scale, the industry is so young that there is likely to also be a lot of innovation. For example, clickable overlays that segue into interactive games have been popular on MTV. Third, TV and movie producers are going to try and move slowly into Internet distribution because they want to be assured that the revenues generated via the Net are truly incremental. In our analysis, however, they may have to move faster than they want because consumers are connecting laptop computers to flat-panel TVs and thereby getting Internet access on the TV monitor. This is feeding demand for video content from the Net. If premium producers don’t provide it, consumers will find alternate sources. Some may even resort to piracy. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus of our research report. Steve Robinson, CEO, Panache If you would like to learn the latest from an expert about video ads for premium Internet streams such as popular TV shows and movies, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Robinson who is the CEO of Panache . His company provides an ad-insertion platform that offers media and entertainment companies the infrastructure to generate advertising revenues from their video streams. Representative clients include MTV, VH1, Country Music Channel, and Nickelodeon, among others. We caught-up with Steve at the Streaming Media East conference where we could get a chance to learn his thoughts on the future of video advertising. Steve emphasized that his company is focused on premium content providers and probably accounts for about 10% – 15% of the business in his industry outside of YouTube. The advent of websites like Hulu.com and the increasing abundance of popular TV shows and movie streams on the Internet means that it is crucial that the video ads in such streams generate sufficient revenues to adequately compensate the program providers. Steve makes a number of comments to this point. First, the emergence of an accepted standard will be important because standards drive large scale adoption. For example, should the pre-roll be 15 seconds, or 30 seconds? Should it be interactive or passive? Second, although standards will help establish scale, the industry is so young that there is likely to also be a lot of innovation. For example, clickable overlays that segue into interactive games have been popular on MTV. Third, TV and movie producers are going to try and move slowly into Internet distribution because they want to be assured that the revenues generated via the Net are truly incremental. In our analysis, however, they may have to move faster than they want because consumers are connecting laptop computers to flat-panel TVs and thereby getting Internet access on the TV monitor. This is feeding demand for video content from the Net. If premium producers don’t provide it, consumers will find alternate sources. Some may even resort to piracy. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus of our research report. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-26,24608780 Tue, 26 May 2009 04:00:47 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, Podcast Audio, panache, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, digital-music, Steve Robinsone http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24580443-The-Record-Label-Business Steve Knopper, Author, Appetitte for Self-Destruction If you would like to know how the Internet transformed the record label business, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Knopper who is the author of Appetite for Self-Destruction . Steve’s book is a chronicle and analysis of the spectacular crash of the record industry in the Digital Age. He is a Rolling Stone contributing editor who has covered the business since 2002. Among our conclusions are the following: First, record label industry leaders during the past 30 years are “larger than life” characters whose stories may be colorful enough to merit retelling as a made-for-TV movie. Technological innovation was far down the list of the skills that made them successful. Second, the industry has almost always fought against technological change. For example, they resisted the adoption of CDs during the 1980s even though the format provided two great benefits from a financial viewpoint. First, the labels were able to s... Steve Knopper, Author, Appetitte for Self-Destruction If you would like to know how the Internet transformed the record label business, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Knopper who is the author of Appetite for Self-Destruction . Steve’s book is a chronicle and analysis of the spectacular crash of the record industry in the Digital Age. He is a Rolling Stone contributing editor who has covered the business since 2002. Among our conclusions are the following: First, record label industry leaders during the past 30 years are “larger than life” characters whose stories may be colorful enough to merit retelling as a made-for-TV movie. Technological innovation was far down the list of the skills that made them successful. Second, the industry has almost always fought against technological change. For example, they resisted the adoption of CDs during the 1980s even though the format provided two great benefits from a financial viewpoint. First, the labels were able to sell CDs at a price premium relative to the LP and also simultaneously charge artists an associated technology adoption fee as an offset to royalty payments. Second, widespread acceptance of the CD led consumers to not only purchase new releases in the format but to often also replace their existing LP library selections with CDs as well. Third, the Internet has forever changed the record labels. It simply may not be possible for the industry to adapt in a way that enables it to retain its historical prominence. Its situation may be similar to the encyclopedia or newspapers businesses. For example, no matter what changes Encyclopedia Britannica made, the company simply could not retain its leadership after the advent of the Wikipedia. Similarly, it appears that newspapers could not have avoided losing prominence in classified advertising once Craig’s List gained traction. Fourth, record labels could be the “canaries in the coal mine” for the video entertainment business. Both industries are characterized by high profile leaders who are unaccustomed to adapting to changes driven by external forces. The labels were impacted first because of the lower bandwidth requirements of audio. But it has been ten years since Shawn Fanning launched Napster and the day of reckoning for entertainment video is fast approaching. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. Steve Knopper, Author, Appetitte for Self-Destruction If you would like to know how the Internet transformed the record label business, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Steve Knopper who is the author of Appetite for Self-Destruction . Steve’s book is a chronicle and analysis of the spectacular crash of the record industry in the Digital Age. He is a Rolling Stone contributing editor who has covered the business since 2002. Among our conclusions are the following: First, record label industry leaders during the past 30 years are “larger than life” characters whose stories may be colorful enough to merit retelling as a made-for-TV movie. Technological innovation was far down the list of the skills that made them successful. Second, the industry has almost always fought against technological change. For example, they resisted the adoption of CDs during the 1980s even though the format provided two great benefits from a financial viewpoint. First, the labels were able to sell CDs at a price premium relative to the LP and also simultaneously charge artists an associated technology adoption fee as an offset to royalty payments. Second, widespread acceptance of the CD led consumers to not only purchase new releases in the format but to often also replace their existing LP library selections with CDs as well. Third, the Internet has forever changed the record labels. It simply may not be possible for the industry to adapt in a way that enables it to retain its historical prominence. Its situation may be similar to the encyclopedia or newspapers businesses. For example, no matter what changes Encyclopedia Britannica made, the company simply could not retain its leadership after the advent of the Wikipedia. Similarly, it appears that newspapers could not have avoided losing prominence in classified advertising once Craig’s List gained traction. Fourth, record labels could be the “canaries in the coal mine” for the video entertainment business. Both industries are characterized by high profile leaders who are unaccustomed to adapting to changes driven by external forces. The labels were impacted first because of the lower bandwidth requirements of audio. But it has been ten years since Shawn Fanning launched Napster and the day of reckoning for entertainment video is fast approaching. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about the Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-19,24580443 Tue, 19 May 2009 04:00:13 -0700 no Inside Digital Media radio, Podcast Audio, digital-video, record-labels, digital-music, Steve Knopper http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24553070-Training-For-Internet-Advertising Leslie Laredo, President, The Laredo Group If you would like to learn how advertising agencies, media buyers and other media professionals learn their ways around new media, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Leslie Laredo who is the President of The Laredo Group . Her company is a leading training and consulting firm concentrating in online advertising buying and selling, search engine marketing, and site optimization. The Laredo Group provides general sales training for companies and individuals, media training for buyers and sellers, and custom consulting services for traditional, online, and cross-platform sales and marketing activities.  The client list of The Laredo Group includes many of the world’s largest and most successful companies as well as smaller firms, start-ups and many industry associations. Examples include ABC, AOL, Google, Fox, NBC, NFL, Time, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, among others. Among her staff are published authors of industry-re... Leslie Laredo, President, The Laredo Group If you would like to learn how advertising agencies, media buyers and other media professionals learn their ways around new media, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Leslie Laredo who is the President of The Laredo Group . Her company is a leading training and consulting firm concentrating in online advertising buying and selling, search engine marketing, and site optimization. The Laredo Group provides general sales training for companies and individuals, media training for buyers and sellers, and custom consulting services for traditional, online, and cross-platform sales and marketing activities.  The client list of The Laredo Group includes many of the world’s largest and most successful companies as well as smaller firms, start-ups and many industry associations. Examples include ABC, AOL, Google, Fox, NBC, NFL, Time, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, among others. Among her staff are published authors of industry-relevant books and articles. All instructors have real-world, hands-on experience in their fields. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. Laredo Group training can help advertising agencies, media buyers, and other advertising professionals learn how to be more effective in new media. To learn more about Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus of our research report. Leslie Laredo, President, The Laredo Group If you would like to learn how advertising agencies, media buyers and other media professionals learn their ways around new media, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Leslie Laredo who is the President of The Laredo Group . Her company is a leading training and consulting firm concentrating in online advertising buying and selling, search engine marketing, and site optimization. The Laredo Group provides general sales training for companies and individuals, media training for buyers and sellers, and custom consulting services for traditional, online, and cross-platform sales and marketing activities.  The client list of The Laredo Group includes many of the world’s largest and most successful companies as well as smaller firms, start-ups and many industry associations. Examples include ABC, AOL, Google, Fox, NBC, NFL, Time, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, among others. Among her staff are published authors of industry-relevant books and articles. All instructors have real-world, hands-on experience in their fields. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. Laredo Group training can help advertising agencies, media buyers, and other advertising professionals learn how to be more effective in new media. To learn more about Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus of our research report. tag:odeo.com,2009-05-12,24553070 Tue, 12 May 2009 04:00:02 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, future of tv, Podcast Audio, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, Laredo Group, Leslie Laredo, future-of-advertising http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24514511-Internet-Video-Advertising Waikit Lau, Co-Founder, ScanScout If you would like to learn what kind of Internet Video ads work best, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Waikit Lau who is the President and Co-Founder of ScanScout.com. His four-year old company serves ads, such as pre-rolls, mid-rolls, post-rolls, and overlays, to Internet Video websites. Earlier Waikit worked at Scientific-Atlanta and Bessemer Ventures. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a MBA from Harvard. Waikit slices-and-dices the Internet Video advertising market in multiple ways. He shares his thoughts on the merits and applicability video ad types. Additionally we get a tutorial on the approaches to branding versus transaction advertising. We discuss the likely trends that will emerge once Internet Video gets to be more common on the TV. We also examine the ad characteristics that work best for mobile devices such as the iPhone. Waikit describes how targeting and accountability is actually implemented. He clears away the “smoke and mi... Waikit Lau, Co-Founder, ScanScout If you would like to learn what kind of Internet Video ads work best, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Waikit Lau who is the President and Co-Founder of ScanScout.com. His four-year old company serves ads, such as pre-rolls, mid-rolls, post-rolls, and overlays, to Internet Video websites. Earlier Waikit worked at Scientific-Atlanta and Bessemer Ventures. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a MBA from Harvard. Waikit slices-and-dices the Internet Video advertising market in multiple ways. He shares his thoughts on the merits and applicability video ad types. Additionally we get a tutorial on the approaches to branding versus transaction advertising. We discuss the likely trends that will emerge once Internet Video gets to be more common on the TV. We also examine the ad characteristics that work best for mobile devices such as the iPhone. Waikit describes how targeting and accountability is actually implemented. He clears away the “smoke and mirrors” about how it is done and how it can be done even better in the future. We examine the limitations of the Internet and discuss where improvements are needed. He shares his knowledge of click-through percentages by ad type and describes the trends in CPM rates. Issues are addressed from a variety of perspectives including those of the publisher, advertiser, ad agency, media buyer, and consumer. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about out Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. Waikit Lau, Co-Founder, ScanScout If you would like to learn what kind of Internet Video ads work best, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Waikit Lau who is the President and Co-Founder of ScanScout.com. His four-year old company serves ads, such as pre-rolls, mid-rolls, post-rolls, and overlays, to Internet Video websites. Earlier Waikit worked at Scientific-Atlanta and Bessemer Ventures. He holds a BSEE from MIT and a MBA from Harvard. Waikit slices-and-dices the Internet Video advertising market in multiple ways. He shares his thoughts on the merits and applicability video ad types. Additionally we get a tutorial on the approaches to branding versus transaction advertising. We discuss the likely trends that will emerge once Internet Video gets to be more common on the TV. We also examine the ad characteristics that work best for mobile devices such as the iPhone. Waikit describes how targeting and accountability is actually implemented. He clears away the “smoke and mirrors” about how it is done and how it can be done even better in the future. We examine the limitations of the Internet and discuss where improvements are needed. He shares his knowledge of click-through percentages by ad type and describes the trends in CPM rates. Issues are addressed from a variety of perspectives including those of the publisher, advertiser, ad agency, media buyer, and consumer. As noted in our Third Generation Television research report released in February we believe that video will inexorably migrate to the Internet. Furthermore, consumers will exhibit a decided preference for free viewing from ad-supported websites and podcasts. As a result, it is crucial that Internet Video ads generate enough revenue to adequately compensate the program producers. To learn more about out Third Generation Television report click here where you can purchase a copy or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-28,24514511 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:00:42 -0700 no Inside Digital Media advertising, scanscout, Podcast Audio, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, online-advertising, Internet-Media http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24478547-Internet-TV-Consumer-Attitudes [See post to watch Flash video] Download to iPod and iPhone If you would like to learn the latest thinking from Parks Associates about Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Kurt Scherf who is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Parks Associates. He narrates a PowerPoint summarizing his latest white paper “From Boob Tube to YouTube”. It is available for free at his website. We found three of Kurt’s conclusions of particular interest. First, the two most popular items jacked-into TVs and also connected to the Internet are (1) console video game players and (2) computers. In the United States, about 13 million consoles and 7.5 million computers are thus connected. Inside Digital Media concludes that most of the computers are used for providing unrestricted Internet access to the TV whereas only a minority of the game consoles are accessing Internet Video. Moreover, most of the game consoles are getting videos either via rental or purchase as oppo... [See post to watch Flash video] Download to iPod and iPhone If you would like to learn the latest thinking from Parks Associates about Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Kurt Scherf who is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Parks Associates. He narrates a PowerPoint summarizing his latest white paper “From Boob Tube to YouTube”. It is available for free at his website. We found three of Kurt’s conclusions of particular interest. First, the two most popular items jacked-into TVs and also connected to the Internet are (1) console video game players and (2) computers. In the United States, about 13 million consoles and 7.5 million computers are thus connected. Inside Digital Media concludes that most of the computers are used for providing unrestricted Internet access to the TV whereas only a minority of the game consoles are accessing Internet Video. Moreover, most of the game consoles are getting videos either via rental or purchase as opposed to free ad-supported web sites.  Consoles are primarily connected in order to enable multiplayer gaming. Second, Parks surveys conclude that consumers are frustrated by the user interfaces presently available. In our analysis, those using hand-held remotes are more confusing than the familiar web browser that a computer-to-TV connection provides. This is one reason that future TVs may become browser-centric. Third, consumers want more than mere access to web videos on Internet-connected TVs. In point of fact, Parks surveys reveal that they want (on the TV) email, search, and gaming, more than Internet Video, per se. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Prospectus. [See post to watch Flash video] Download to iPod and iPhone If you would like to learn the latest thinking from Parks Associates about Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Kurt Scherf who is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Parks Associates. He narrates a PowerPoint summarizing his latest white paper “From Boob Tube to YouTube”. It is available for free at his website. We found three of Kurt’s conclusions of particular interest. First, the two most popular items jacked-into TVs and also connected to the Internet are (1) console video game players and (2) computers. In the United States, about 13 million consoles and 7.5 million computers are thus connected. Inside Digital Media concludes that most of the computers are used for providing unrestricted Internet access to the TV whereas only a minority of the game consoles are accessing Internet Video. Moreover, most of the game consoles are getting videos either via rental or purchase as opposed to free ad-supported web sites.  Consoles are primarily connected in order to enable multiplayer gaming. Second, Parks surveys conclude that consumers are frustrated by the user interfaces presently available. In our analysis, those using hand-held remotes are more confusing than the familiar web browser that a computer-to-TV connection provides. This is one reason that future TVs may become browser-centric. Third, consumers want more than mere access to web videos on Internet-connected TVs. In point of fact, Parks surveys reveal that they want (on the TV) email, search, and gaming, more than Internet Video, per se. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-21,24478547 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:00:53 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Television, Podcast Video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Hollywood-Studios, Parks-Associates, Kurt Scherf http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24460080-Metered-Pricing-for-Internet-Access Timothy Karr, Campaign Director, FreePress.net If you would like to learn about efforts by Time Warner Cable and other broadband ISPs to test metered-use pricing of Internet service in selected markets, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Timothy Karr who is the Campaign Director at FreePress.net . His organization is about six years old and is focused on policy issues relating to media. It is funded by various private foundations and individuals and does not take donations from corporations. Few, if any, achievements exceed Newton’s Three Laws of Physics. But Newton was also a believer in the occult. Similarly, few contributions to electronic networking surpass Bob Metcalf’s invention of Ethernet. But, Metcalf also predicted the impending collapse on the Internet in 1996 owing to characteristic exponential traffic growth. Metcalfe was wrong and modified his prediction to forecast a brownout. He was wrong about that too. Now Time Warner Cable has updated Metcalfe’s rear-vi... Timothy Karr, Campaign Director, FreePress.net If you would like to learn about efforts by Time Warner Cable and other broadband ISPs to test metered-use pricing of Internet service in selected markets, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Timothy Karr who is the Campaign Director at FreePress.net . His organization is about six years old and is focused on policy issues relating to media. It is funded by various private foundations and individuals and does not take donations from corporations. Few, if any, achievements exceed Newton’s Three Laws of Physics. But Newton was also a believer in the occult. Similarly, few contributions to electronic networking surpass Bob Metcalf’s invention of Ethernet. But, Metcalf also predicted the impending collapse on the Internet in 1996 owing to characteristic exponential traffic growth. Metcalfe was wrong and modified his prediction to forecast a brownout. He was wrong about that too. Now Time Warner Cable has updated Metcalfe’s rear-view mirror look and predicts dire consequences if it is not permitted to charge Internet customers a metered rate based upon bandwidth consumed. Their plans to test market a new tariff have sparked a heated debate. Time Warner and allies argue on one side that higher rates are needed to encourage investment in new facilities. On the other side are those who argue that the move is nothing less than a disguised effort to strangle Internet Video in the cradle and thereby preserve the CATV business model. They note that exponential traffic growth has always been characteristic of the Internet and that adding capacity is not nearly as expensive as Time Warner implies. In our analysis, the natural evolution of the Internet is toward intelligence at the endpoints. It enables an abundance of future Cloud Computing applications ranging telepresence to routine video phone calls and others that cannot even be predicted. In totality they are likely to become nearly indispensable to consumers and businesses alike. Steps that block such evolution will irreparably damage the United States economy. Accordingly, it is crucial that monopolies like Time Warner and others convincingly demonstrate that their new rates are merited. The chart below from the Time Warner Cable annual report suggests that skepticism is warranted. Apparently the company’s ISP profit margins exceed 95% and their direct ISP service costs dropped 12% last year even as revenues increased 11%. Time Warner Cable, ISP Revenue and Costs Timothy Karr, Campaign Director, FreePress.net If you would like to learn about efforts by Time Warner Cable and other broadband ISPs to test metered-use pricing of Internet service in selected markets, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Timothy Karr who is the Campaign Director at FreePress.net . His organization is about six years old and is focused on policy issues relating to media. It is funded by various private foundations and individuals and does not take donations from corporations. Few, if any, achievements exceed Newton’s Three Laws of Physics. But Newton was also a believer in the occult. Similarly, few contributions to electronic networking surpass Bob Metcalf’s invention of Ethernet. But, Metcalf also predicted the impending collapse on the Internet in 1996 owing to characteristic exponential traffic growth. Metcalfe was wrong and modified his prediction to forecast a brownout. He was wrong about that too. Now Time Warner Cable has updated Metcalfe’s rear-view mirror look and predicts dire consequences if it is not permitted to charge Internet customers a metered rate based upon bandwidth consumed. Their plans to test market a new tariff have sparked a heated debate. Time Warner and allies argue on one side that higher rates are needed to encourage investment in new facilities. On the other side are those who argue that the move is nothing less than a disguised effort to strangle Internet Video in the cradle and thereby preserve the CATV business model. They note that exponential traffic growth has always been characteristic of the Internet and that adding capacity is not nearly as expensive as Time Warner implies. In our analysis, the natural evolution of the Internet is toward intelligence at the endpoints. It enables an abundance of future Cloud Computing applications ranging telepresence to routine video phone calls and others that cannot even be predicted. In totality they are likely to become nearly indispensable to consumers and businesses alike. Steps that block such evolution will irreparably damage the United States economy. Accordingly, it is crucial that monopolies like Time Warner and others convincingly demonstrate that their new rates are merited. The chart below from the Time Warner Cable annual report suggests that skepticism is warranted. Apparently the company’s ISP profit margins exceed 95% and their direct ISP service costs dropped 12% last year even as revenues increased 11%. Time Warner Cable, ISP Revenue and Costs tag:odeo.com,2009-04-16,24460080 Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:47:25 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Podcast Audio, freepress.net, internet-access, time warner cable, metered pricing, Bandwidth Pricing, Useage Pricing http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24424296-Opinion-Surveys-vs-Direct-Experience How do opinion surveys of the uninitiated compare to the knowledge of those with direct experience? There’s a lot to be said for direct experience. While looking for an advantageous way to attack the Confederates in the Spring of 1862 the commander of the Federal army in Virginia and his staff approached the Chickahominy River. Stopping at the bank, they pondered whether it was too deep for troops to cross. As the group discussed the matter, one of the youngest staff members rode his horse down the bank and into the river. From his dry saddle at midstream he turned around and shouted back, “This is how deep it is General.” * The officer with wet boots was George Custer, who later became the youngest Brigadier General in the Union army. Years later along the banks of a Montana river incongruously named Little Big Horn he would achieve even greater notoriety. But that’s another story, and a good one. Getting Internet Video on the television is a similar. Those who have experience unli... How do opinion surveys of the uninitiated compare to the knowledge of those with direct experience? There’s a lot to be said for direct experience. While looking for an advantageous way to attack the Confederates in the Spring of 1862 the commander of the Federal army in Virginia and his staff approached the Chickahominy River. Stopping at the bank, they pondered whether it was too deep for troops to cross. As the group discussed the matter, one of the youngest staff members rode his horse down the bank and into the river. From his dry saddle at midstream he turned around and shouted back, “This is how deep it is General.” * The officer with wet boots was George Custer, who later became the youngest Brigadier General in the Union army. Years later along the banks of a Montana river incongruously named Little Big Horn he would achieve even greater notoriety. But that’s another story, and a good one. Getting Internet Video on the television is a similar. Those who have experience unlimited Internet access quickly comprehend the future as though they had a vision on the road to Damascus. For such users the television evolves into a dual function device. In one context it remains a conventional television, but in a second it becomes a giant window into the Internet Cloud. After 10 – 15 years of surfing the Net on their computers, they’ll never be satisfied with a Walled Garden of Internet content on the TV. No matter how beautiful, it will always be perceived as a Walled Prison. Thus, survey results from conventional TV watchers revealing they want YouTube on their TVs overlooks two bigger points. First, if they are constrained to limit their response to YouTube or other discrete items per se, they are unable to express a desire for unlimited access. But the second point is even more significant. Specifically, many users cannot realize how much they want something until they have experienced it. That’s why auto dealers want you to test drive a car. It’s also why 15 years ago many of us thought the Internet was for geeks only. In our analysis, unrestricted Internet access at the TV is even a more applicable example. The point is one of the basic conclusions of our earlier “Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV” research report. In short, no matter how much consumers are surveyed about Internet access to the TV, their true reaction cannot be measured until they have experience it. Once they have, a number of points become obvious. One is their ultimate dissatisfaction with restrictions to Internet access on the TV. Another is that they will have a decided preference for advertising-supported video as opposed to rentals from places like iTunes or Amazon-Video-on-Demand. The second point leads us to undertake a new research project, “Future Developments in Video Advertising”. The report is currently in preparation and will be released within 2 – 3 months. Advance subscribers get a discount. If you want subscription information, or merely would like to suggest coverage topics, feel welcome to contact me. ______________________________________________________ *Catton, Bruce: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, p. 118, Smith Press, 2007 How do opinion surveys of the uninitiated compare to the knowledge of those with direct experience? There’s a lot to be said for direct experience. While looking for an advantageous way to attack the Confederates in the Spring of 1862 the commander of the Federal army in Virginia and his staff approached the Chickahominy River. Stopping at the bank, they pondered whether it was too deep for troops to cross. As the group discussed the matter, one of the youngest staff members rode his horse down the bank and into the river. From his dry saddle at midstream he turned around and shouted back, “This is how deep it is General.” * The officer with wet boots was George Custer, who later became the youngest Brigadier General in the Union army. Years later along the banks of a Montana river incongruously named Little Big Horn he would achieve even greater notoriety. But that’s another story, and a good one. Getting Internet Video on the television is a similar. Those who have experience unlimited Internet access quickly comprehend the future as though they had a vision on the road to Damascus. For such users the television evolves into a dual function device. In one context it remains a conventional television, but in a second it becomes a giant window into the Internet Cloud. After 10 – 15 years of surfing the Net on their computers, they’ll never be satisfied with a Walled Garden of Internet content on the TV. No matter how beautiful, it will always be perceived as a Walled Prison. Thus, survey results from conventional TV watchers revealing they want YouTube on their TVs overlooks two bigger points. First, if they are constrained to limit their response to YouTube or other discrete items per se, they are unable to express a desire for unlimited access. But the second point is even more significant. Specifically, many users cannot realize how much they want something until they have experienced it. That’s why auto dealers want you to test drive a car. It’s also why 15 years ago many of us thought the Internet was for geeks only. In our analysis, unrestricted Internet access at the TV is even a more applicable example. The point is one of the basic conclusions of our earlier “Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV” research report. In short, no matter how much consumers are surveyed about Internet access to the TV, their true reaction cannot be measured until they have experience it. Once they have, a number of points become obvious. One is their ultimate dissatisfaction with restrictions to Internet access on the TV. Another is that they will have a decided preference for advertising-supported video as opposed to rentals from places like iTunes or Amazon-Video-on-Demand. The second point leads us to undertake a new research project, “Future Developments in Video Advertising”. The report is currently in preparation and will be released within 2 – 3 months. Advance subscribers get a discount. If you want subscription information, or merely would like to suggest coverage topics, feel welcome to contact me. ______________________________________________________ *Catton, Bruce: Mr. Lincoln’s Army, p. 118, Smith Press, 2007 tag:odeo.com,2009-04-08,24424296 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:00:49 -0700 no Inside Digital Media podcast, Television, Podcasting, youtube, Podcast Audio, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Television-Advertising, Internet-Advertising, online-advertising, Custer, Opinion Surveys http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24415953-Netbooks-Accelerate-Internet-Video-to-the-TV-Adoption How will Internet-Video-to-the-TV be impacted if inexpensive “netbooks” take market share away from conventional laptop computers? By way of background, netbooks are pint-sized laptop computers. Typically they have nine-inch screens as compared to  fifteen-inches (or bigger) for a conventional laptop. Also netbooks have less powerful processors, smaller memories, and less sophisticated software.  Gartner estimates that they could account for 10% of laptop computer sales by the end of this year. Netbooks could have a big impact on the streaming video market for three reasons. First, despite their lower price they are capable of processing streaming video just fine as this video demonstrates . Moreover, the netbooks can be attached to most flat-panel TVs. While few netbooks currently provide the HDMI sockets that would simplify such connections, nearly all offer alternative receptacles such as VGA for video and audio-out jacks for audio. Second, netbook prices compare favorably to ded... How will Internet-Video-to-the-TV be impacted if inexpensive “netbooks” take market share away from conventional laptop computers? By way of background, netbooks are pint-sized laptop computers. Typically they have nine-inch screens as compared to  fifteen-inches (or bigger) for a conventional laptop. Also netbooks have less powerful processors, smaller memories, and less sophisticated software.  Gartner estimates that they could account for 10% of laptop computer sales by the end of this year. Netbooks could have a big impact on the streaming video market for three reasons. First, despite their lower price they are capable of processing streaming video just fine as this video demonstrates . Moreover, the netbooks can be attached to most flat-panel TVs. While few netbooks currently provide the HDMI sockets that would simplify such connections, nearly all offer alternative receptacles such as VGA for video and audio-out jacks for audio. Second, netbook prices compare favorably to dedicated appliances designed to get Internet Video to the TV. Current units are priced at $200 - $400 and models slated for delivery in a few months are priced even lower. By comparison, the Apple TV is priced at $230 and only permits users to access content from the iTunes store whereas netbooks can stream video from anywhere on the Web. In Atlanta AT&T is testing a special promotion offering netbooks for $50 to new Internet subscribers. The company may spread the promotion to other cities once the Atlanta test is completed. In short, netbooks could become commonly available for $100 or less if ISPs subsidize the purchase price like the cellular operators do for cell-phones. Third, as netbooks gain market share they’ll put pricing pressure on laptops. That means that laptop buyers will be able to get units with HDMI sockets that will more easily attach to flat-panel TVs and also accommodate High Definition video. Such units are available for $400 presently and could drop to $300 by year end. Once netbooks, or laptops, are mated with a flat-panel TV the television becomes a dual function device. In one context it remains a TV as we have always known it, but in a second one it become a giant window into the Internet Cloud. Give a remote mouse and keyboard the user gets a lean-back viewing experience of Internet Video on television 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. Ultimately the laptop (or netbook) as Internet-Gateway for the TV will become a forcing factor inducing TV set makers to offer browser-centric televisions as they come off the factory floor. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can either purchase a copy or our “Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV” research report or download a free copy of the prospectus. How will Internet-Video-to-the-TV be impacted if inexpensive “netbooks” take market share away from conventional laptop computers? By way of background, netbooks are pint-sized laptop computers. Typically they have nine-inch screens as compared to  fifteen-inches (or bigger) for a conventional laptop. Also netbooks have less powerful processors, smaller memories, and less sophisticated software.  Gartner estimates that they could account for 10% of laptop computer sales by the end of this year. Netbooks could have a big impact on the streaming video market for three reasons. First, despite their lower price they are capable of processing streaming video just fine as this video demonstrates . Moreover, the netbooks can be attached to most flat-panel TVs. While few netbooks currently provide the HDMI sockets that would simplify such connections, nearly all offer alternative receptacles such as VGA for video and audio-out jacks for audio. Second, netbook prices compare favorably to dedicated appliances designed to get Internet Video to the TV. Current units are priced at $200 - $400 and models slated for delivery in a few months are priced even lower. By comparison, the Apple TV is priced at $230 and only permits users to access content from the iTunes store whereas netbooks can stream video from anywhere on the Web. In Atlanta AT&T is testing a special promotion offering netbooks for $50 to new Internet subscribers. The company may spread the promotion to other cities once the Atlanta test is completed. In short, netbooks could become commonly available for $100 or less if ISPs subsidize the purchase price like the cellular operators do for cell-phones. Third, as netbooks gain market share they’ll put pricing pressure on laptops. That means that laptop buyers will be able to get units with HDMI sockets that will more easily attach to flat-panel TVs and also accommodate High Definition video. Such units are available for $400 presently and could drop to $300 by year end. Once netbooks, or laptops, are mated with a flat-panel TV the television becomes a dual function device. In one context it remains a TV as we have always known it, but in a second one it become a giant window into the Internet Cloud. Give a remote mouse and keyboard the user gets a lean-back viewing experience of Internet Video on television 15 – 20 feet distant from the screen. Ultimately the laptop (or netbook) as Internet-Gateway for the TV will become a forcing factor inducing TV set makers to offer browser-centric televisions as they come off the factory floor. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can either purchase a copy or our “Third Generation Television: Internet-Video-to-the-TV” research report or download a free copy of the prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-04-06,24415953 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:39:37 -0700 no Inside Digital Media iphone, Podcast Audio, netbook, digital-video, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24390898-3rd-Party-Widgets-for-Verizon-FiOS-TV Joe Ambeault, Verizon What if Verizon FiOS offered a video-centric “apps store” for its television set-top box analogous to the one that Apple has for the iPhone? The answer depends upon the restrictions that Verizon might impose on third-party developers. For example, if sites like Hulu, TV.com, and Joost are allowed to develop widgets enabling FiOS subscribers to visit the websites to watch TV shows over the Internet, then it would be significant. However, if Verizon moves slowly, or only permits a few applications from those not affiliated with current programmers providing shows for FiOS IPTV service, then it may be relatively inconsequential for two reasons. First, if they move slowly the Third Generation Television revolution will leave them choking in the dust. It is estimated that over 5 million consumers have already attached laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby transforming the TV into a giant window into the Internet Cloud. To such users a Walled Garden of Verizon W... Joe Ambeault, Verizon What if Verizon FiOS offered a video-centric “apps store” for its television set-top box analogous to the one that Apple has for the iPhone? The answer depends upon the restrictions that Verizon might impose on third-party developers. For example, if sites like Hulu, TV.com, and Joost are allowed to develop widgets enabling FiOS subscribers to visit the websites to watch TV shows over the Internet, then it would be significant. However, if Verizon moves slowly, or only permits a few applications from those not affiliated with current programmers providing shows for FiOS IPTV service, then it may be relatively inconsequential for two reasons. First, if they move slowly the Third Generation Television revolution will leave them choking in the dust. It is estimated that over 5 million consumers have already attached laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby transforming the TV into a giant window into the Internet Cloud. To such users a Walled Garden of Verizon Widgets will look more like a Walled Prison. Second, if platform access is limited to content partners then it is likely that a mere handful of widgets will get developed and the pace of introduction will only slightly exceed continental drift. Basically, existing content partners have far less incentive to innovate. The established order is almost always more comfortable with the status quo. However, you are able to judge for yourself by listening to our interview with Joe Ambeault who is the Director of Interactive TV Applications at Verizon.   In point of fact, his company has decided to move forward by permitting third parties to develop applications for the Verizon FiOS set-top box. Initially it shall be limited to existing content providers. Also, as Joe notes, Verizon itself will be developing more widgets to add to the weather and traffic ones provided to date. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more visit www.insidedigitalmedia.com Joe Ambeault, Verizon What if Verizon FiOS offered a video-centric “apps store” for its television set-top box analogous to the one that Apple has for the iPhone? The answer depends upon the restrictions that Verizon might impose on third-party developers. For example, if sites like Hulu, TV.com, and Joost are allowed to develop widgets enabling FiOS subscribers to visit the websites to watch TV shows over the Internet, then it would be significant. However, if Verizon moves slowly, or only permits a few applications from those not affiliated with current programmers providing shows for FiOS IPTV service, then it may be relatively inconsequential for two reasons. First, if they move slowly the Third Generation Television revolution will leave them choking in the dust. It is estimated that over 5 million consumers have already attached laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby transforming the TV into a giant window into the Internet Cloud. To such users a Walled Garden of Verizon Widgets will look more like a Walled Prison. Second, if platform access is limited to content partners then it is likely that a mere handful of widgets will get developed and the pace of introduction will only slightly exceed continental drift. Basically, existing content partners have far less incentive to innovate. The established order is almost always more comfortable with the status quo. However, you are able to judge for yourself by listening to our interview with Joe Ambeault who is the Director of Interactive TV Applications at Verizon.   In point of fact, his company has decided to move forward by permitting third parties to develop applications for the Verizon FiOS set-top box. Initially it shall be limited to existing content providers. Also, as Joe notes, Verizon itself will be developing more widgets to add to the weather and traffic ones provided to date. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more visit www.insidedigitalmedia.com tag:odeo.com,2009-04-01,24390898 Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:16:09 -0700 no Inside Digital Media Television, iphone, apple, verizon, Podcast Audio, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24383010-Internet-TV-The-Empire-Strikes-Back What if popular TV shows are only permitted to be viewed over-the-Net by subscribers to conventional CATV, Satellite, and IPTV services? Such a plan seems to be gaining momentum among companies such as Time Warner, Direct TV, and Verizon. They want to discourage subscribers from “cutting the cord” to conventional TV and alternately watching the shows via broadband ISP service at websites like Hulu, Joost, and TV.com. Simultaneously they reason the plan provides added value to conventional subscribers because it gives viewers an alternate way to watch the shows. The answer to “what would happen?” depends upon a number of contingencies. The two most important are (1) whether it would be free or involve yet another monthly charge and (2) whether the broadcast networks would co-operate.” As to the first point, it appears that a number of popular cable programmers want to be paid an additional fee thereby requiring the operators to pass along the costs to subscribers. Alternately the ope... What if popular TV shows are only permitted to be viewed over-the-Net by subscribers to conventional CATV, Satellite, and IPTV services? Such a plan seems to be gaining momentum among companies such as Time Warner, Direct TV, and Verizon. They want to discourage subscribers from “cutting the cord” to conventional TV and alternately watching the shows via broadband ISP service at websites like Hulu, Joost, and TV.com. Simultaneously they reason the plan provides added value to conventional subscribers because it gives viewers an alternate way to watch the shows. The answer to “what would happen?” depends upon a number of contingencies. The two most important are (1) whether it would be free or involve yet another monthly charge and (2) whether the broadcast networks would co-operate.” As to the first point, it appears that a number of popular cable programmers want to be paid an additional fee thereby requiring the operators to pass along the costs to subscribers. Alternately the operators could “eat” the expense themselves, but there’s not a Saint’s chance at a political convention that they would do that. Secondly, the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) are likely to be less co-operative because they generally don’t collect carriage fees from the operators as do the cable networks like ESPN. However, system operators may be able to “buy” broadcast network co-operation by paying them fees similar to those paid to the cable networks.  The broadcast networks would argue, as a matter of parity with the cable networks, that such fees should be based upon the 80 million conventional TV subscribers instead of the nascent subscribers to a restricted “over-the-top” video service. In short, it appears that getting everyone to agree is like herding cats. Furthermore, the incentives needed for such co-operation may require the operators to pass along the expense in the form of an incremental monthly subscriber fee. Thus, we come to two conclusions. First, we don’t think many subscribers will be willing to pay much extra for Internet access to shows that are already available on conventional TV. It is likely to be about as popular as paid online newspaper subscriptions. Second, the initiative reminds us of the first alternative offerings to Shawn Fanning’s Napster offered by the record label industry, PressPlay and MusicNet. In retrospect it is clear that both were intentionally restrictive in order to minimize the potential adverse impact on CD sales. But the strategy backfired as illegal file sharing ran amok in the absence of a realistic legal alternative. The situation could be much the same for video. If consumers are confronted with too many obstacles when attempting to watch TV shows and movies on the Internet, they may resort to piracy. Confessedly, the mainstream will be reluctant to access pirated sites as long as they are “geeky” and potential sources of malware. However, recent developments suggest that pirated content is available at websites providing streams as opposed to downloads. This is important for two reasons. First, anyone skilled enough to watch a YouTube video will understand how to watch a video stream from most any website. Second, streams are less likely to infect the viewer’s computer than are downloads. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can either purchase a copy or our “Third Generation Television” research report or download a free copy of the prospectus. What if popular TV shows are only permitted to be viewed over-the-Net by subscribers to conventional CATV, Satellite, and IPTV services? Such a plan seems to be gaining momentum among companies such as Time Warner, Direct TV, and Verizon. They want to discourage subscribers from “cutting the cord” to conventional TV and alternately watching the shows via broadband ISP service at websites like Hulu, Joost, and TV.com. Simultaneously they reason the plan provides added value to conventional subscribers because it gives viewers an alternate way to watch the shows. The answer to “what would happen?” depends upon a number of contingencies. The two most important are (1) whether it would be free or involve yet another monthly charge and (2) whether the broadcast networks would co-operate.” As to the first point, it appears that a number of popular cable programmers want to be paid an additional fee thereby requiring the operators to pass along the costs to subscribers. Alternately the operators could “eat” the expense themselves, but there’s not a Saint’s chance at a political convention that they would do that. Secondly, the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) are likely to be less co-operative because they generally don’t collect carriage fees from the operators as do the cable networks like ESPN. However, system operators may be able to “buy” broadcast network co-operation by paying them fees similar to those paid to the cable networks.  The broadcast networks would argue, as a matter of parity with the cable networks, that such fees should be based upon the 80 million conventional TV subscribers instead of the nascent subscribers to a restricted “over-the-top” video service. In short, it appears that getting everyone to agree is like herding cats. Furthermore, the incentives needed for such co-operation may require the operators to pass along the expense in the form of an incremental monthly subscriber fee. Thus, we come to two conclusions. First, we don’t think many subscribers will be willing to pay much extra for Internet access to shows that are already available on conventional TV. It is likely to be about as popular as paid online newspaper subscriptions. Second, the initiative reminds us of the first alternative offerings to Shawn Fanning’s Napster offered by the record label industry, PressPlay and MusicNet. In retrospect it is clear that both were intentionally restrictive in order to minimize the potential adverse impact on CD sales. But the strategy backfired as illegal file sharing ran amok in the absence of a realistic legal alternative. The situation could be much the same for video. If consumers are confronted with too many obstacles when attempting to watch TV shows and movies on the Internet, they may resort to piracy. Confessedly, the mainstream will be reluctant to access pirated sites as long as they are “geeky” and potential sources of malware. However, recent developments suggest that pirated content is available at websites providing streams as opposed to downloads. This is important for two reasons. First, anyone skilled enough to watch a YouTube video will understand how to watch a video stream from most any website. Second, streams are less likely to infect the viewer’s computer than are downloads. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can either purchase a copy or our “Third Generation Television” research report or download a free copy of the prospectus. tag:odeo.com,2009-03-31,24383010 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:29:16 -0700 no Inside Digital Media verizon, Time Warner, iptv, hulu, joost, Podcast Audio, cable industry, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, CATV Industry, TV.com, Direct TV http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24215192-The-iDeal-iPod Suppose the iPod Touch had a fully functioning browser along with Bluetooth connectivity. Such a device could connect to a flat-panel TV and display HD video on the TV screen. The on-board WiFi of the Touch would connect to the home network and thence to the Internet. Thus users could watch any Internet Video instead of only those at websites providing applications at the Apps Store. Bluetooth would enable a remote keyboard and mouse to provide a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. While today’s iPod Touch has Apple’s Safari browser it will not play Flash content. Thus, watching YouTube via the Touch requires the use of the YouTube app. A fully browser with the Flash plug-in would enable videos from nearly all websites including Hulu, YouTube, and Inside Digital Media. Apple already provides High Definition cables to connect the Touch to a flat-panel TV. The kit includes a power supply so that the Touch can be powered from wall sockets when displayi... Suppose the iPod Touch had a fully functioning browser along with Bluetooth connectivity. Such a device could connect to a flat-panel TV and display HD video on the TV screen. The on-board WiFi of the Touch would connect to the home network and thence to the Internet. Thus users could watch any Internet Video instead of only those at websites providing applications at the Apps Store. Bluetooth would enable a remote keyboard and mouse to provide a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. While today’s iPod Touch has Apple’s Safari browser it will not play Flash content. Thus, watching YouTube via the Touch requires the use of the YouTube app. A fully browser with the Flash plug-in would enable videos from nearly all websites including Hulu, YouTube, and Inside Digital Media. Apple already provides High Definition cables to connect the Touch to a flat-panel TV. The kit includes a power supply so that the Touch can be powered from wall sockets when displaying video on the TV.  However, the experience would be better if an HDMI socket were included on the Touch. Additionally, today’s Touch uses the dot-11g standard for WiFi. If it were to instead use dot-11n the experience would approximate that of a hard-wired connection. Even in the absence of a fully functioning browser, consumers are likely to discover that the Touch will display an ever-growing number of Internet Videos on the TV.  That’s because popular websites, like YouTube, are developing apps for the Apps Store. Additionally, many video websites that don’t yet have an application at the Apps Store are available as podcasts via iTunes. One example is Inside Digital Media. While today’s Touch fails to offer Bluetooth specific appliances are available for it from a number of vendors such as Motorola’s wireless headphones.  Additionally, hacks enabling Apple’s standard Bluetooth keyboard to work with the Touch are available. The alert reader will recognize that the preceding analysis also applies to the iPhone. Consider three future scenarios. First, TV shows become widely available as advertising-supported videos for free download from iTunes. Second, popular ad-supported websites with TV shows and movies, like Hulu, develop apps for Apple’s Apps store. Third, Apple updates the Touch to become the iDeal iPod as described above thereby enabling users to watch any Internet Video and surf the Web without restrictions. In all three scenarios consumers can use the iPod Touch to watch TV shows and movies on their flat-panel TVs without requiring Cable or Satellite service. This is Third Generation Television. For more information visit www.insidedigitalmedia.com Suppose the iPod Touch had a fully functioning browser along with Bluetooth connectivity. Such a device could connect to a flat-panel TV and display HD video on the TV screen. The on-board WiFi of the Touch would connect to the home network and thence to the Internet. Thus users could watch any Internet Video instead of only those at websites providing applications at the Apps Store. Bluetooth would enable a remote keyboard and mouse to provide a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. While today’s iPod Touch has Apple’s Safari browser it will not play Flash content. Thus, watching YouTube via the Touch requires the use of the YouTube app. A fully browser with the Flash plug-in would enable videos from nearly all websites including Hulu, YouTube, and Inside Digital Media. Apple already provides High Definition cables to connect the Touch to a flat-panel TV. The kit includes a power supply so that the Touch can be powered from wall sockets when displaying video on the TV.  However, the experience would be better if an HDMI socket were included on the Touch. Additionally, today’s Touch uses the dot-11g standard for WiFi. If it were to instead use dot-11n the experience would approximate that of a hard-wired connection. Even in the absence of a fully functioning browser, consumers are likely to discover that the Touch will display an ever-growing number of Internet Videos on the TV.  That’s because popular websites, like YouTube, are developing apps for the Apps Store. Additionally, many video websites that don’t yet have an application at the Apps Store are available as podcasts via iTunes. One example is Inside Digital Media. While today’s Touch fails to offer Bluetooth specific appliances are available for it from a number of vendors such as Motorola’s wireless headphones.  Additionally, hacks enabling Apple’s standard Bluetooth keyboard to work with the Touch are available. The alert reader will recognize that the preceding analysis also applies to the iPhone. Consider three future scenarios. First, TV shows become widely available as advertising-supported videos for free download from iTunes. Second, popular ad-supported websites with TV shows and movies, like Hulu, develop apps for Apple’s Apps store. Third, Apple updates the Touch to become the iDeal iPod as described above thereby enabling users to watch any Internet Video and surf the Web without restrictions. In all three scenarios consumers can use the iPod Touch to watch TV shows and movies on their flat-panel TVs without requiring Cable or Satellite service. This is Third Generation Television. For more information visit www.insidedigitalmedia.com tag:odeo.com,2009-02-26,24215192 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:04:57 -0800 no Inside Digital Media podcast, Television, Podcasting, iphone, youtube, apple, ipod, wifi, iTunes, Podcast Audio, digital-video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Hollywood-Studios http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24181335-The-End-Game-for-Internet-Video-to-the-TV During the past month we repeatedly observed that consumers are connecting laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby accessing Internet Video on the TV screen. While the laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller is becoming an important computer application, it is not the “end game”. Ultimately, TVs will connect directly to the Internet. While they may have a new browser that works with a simple remote unit instead of a keyboard, they will provide unrestricted Internet access.  The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application is merely a “forcing factor” to the final scenario. One soon-to-be-announced example will come from Gordon Campbell who was Intel’s first Director of Marketing. He now runs Personal Web Systems which is making browser-centric semiconductor chips. The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application cannot be stopped. Flat-panel TVs and laptop computers have common connection sockets for legitimate reasons. One example is for PowerPoint presentations in an office setting... During the past month we repeatedly observed that consumers are connecting laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby accessing Internet Video on the TV screen. While the laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller is becoming an important computer application, it is not the “end game”. Ultimately, TVs will connect directly to the Internet. While they may have a new browser that works with a simple remote unit instead of a keyboard, they will provide unrestricted Internet access.  The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application is merely a “forcing factor” to the final scenario. One soon-to-be-announced example will come from Gordon Campbell who was Intel’s first Director of Marketing. He now runs Personal Web Systems which is making browser-centric semiconductor chips. The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application cannot be stopped. Flat-panel TVs and laptop computers have common connection sockets for legitimate reasons. One example is for PowerPoint presentations in an office setting. As multimedia content in such presentations grows, HDMI sockets are likely to proliferate on nearly all laptop computers. Once the laptop and TV are mated, the user perceives the TV as nothing more that a giant monitor for the laptop, which is exactly what it is. The perception leads users to expect unlimited Internet access. The TV’s remote unit enables users to switch from conventional TV to Internet access with a single button-click. When the screen is set on “TV input” consumers interact with it as a TV. That means they expect to use a hand-held remote. When the screen video source is set to the laptop socket, consumers interact with it as a computer monitor. That means they expect to see a browser and use a mouse and keyboard.  It’s an intuitive, almost subconscious, switch in expectation much like depressing either the accelerator or brake pedals in your car. Thus, in time, consumers will habitually perceive the TV as a dual-purpose screen. In one instance it will be a conventional television. In the other, it will be a giant monitor for the Internet. Much like the iPhone is both a phone and an Internet browser, the flat-panel TV will be both a television and Internet screen. It’s as certain as tomorrow’s sunrise. This is Third Generation Television. During the past month we repeatedly observed that consumers are connecting laptop computers to flat-panel TVs thereby accessing Internet Video on the TV screen. While the laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller is becoming an important computer application, it is not the “end game”. Ultimately, TVs will connect directly to the Internet. While they may have a new browser that works with a simple remote unit instead of a keyboard, they will provide unrestricted Internet access.  The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application is merely a “forcing factor” to the final scenario. One soon-to-be-announced example will come from Gordon Campbell who was Intel’s first Director of Marketing. He now runs Personal Web Systems which is making browser-centric semiconductor chips. The laptop-as-TV-Media-Controller application cannot be stopped. Flat-panel TVs and laptop computers have common connection sockets for legitimate reasons. One example is for PowerPoint presentations in an office setting. As multimedia content in such presentations grows, HDMI sockets are likely to proliferate on nearly all laptop computers. Once the laptop and TV are mated, the user perceives the TV as nothing more that a giant monitor for the laptop, which is exactly what it is. The perception leads users to expect unlimited Internet access. The TV’s remote unit enables users to switch from conventional TV to Internet access with a single button-click. When the screen is set on “TV input” consumers interact with it as a TV. That means they expect to use a hand-held remote. When the screen video source is set to the laptop socket, consumers interact with it as a computer monitor. That means they expect to see a browser and use a mouse and keyboard.  It’s an intuitive, almost subconscious, switch in expectation much like depressing either the accelerator or brake pedals in your car. Thus, in time, consumers will habitually perceive the TV as a dual-purpose screen. In one instance it will be a conventional television. In the other, it will be a giant monitor for the Internet. Much like the iPhone is both a phone and an Internet browser, the flat-panel TV will be both a television and Internet screen. It’s as certain as tomorrow’s sunrise. This is Third Generation Television. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-24,24181335 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:00:47 -0800 no Inside Digital Media podcast, iphone, tv, Intel, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Gordon Campbell, Personal Web Systems http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24150549-Madness-at-Fox-and-NBC On Thursday www.hulu.com announced that they will not permit viewers who are using Boxee software to access Internet Video streams. Background Hulu is a website owned by NBC and Fox that provides high quality streaming of popular television shows and movies. Most of the shows are from NBC and Fox, but others are also available such as Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. The website is entirely legal and supported with advertising. Additionally, there are over 100 movies. Boxee offers free software for Apple computers (and Apple TV) enabling the devices to access a larger number of online sites, like Hulu, where Internet Video is legitimately available. Boxee’s basic advantage is that it permits users to control the interface with a simple six-button remote made by Apple. There are two ramifications. First, it permits Apple TV users to get Internet Video at many websites instead of merely iTunes, and watch them on the TV. Second, if an Apple computer ... On Thursday www.hulu.com announced that they will not permit viewers who are using Boxee software to access Internet Video streams. Background Hulu is a website owned by NBC and Fox that provides high quality streaming of popular television shows and movies. Most of the shows are from NBC and Fox, but others are also available such as Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. The website is entirely legal and supported with advertising. Additionally, there are over 100 movies. Boxee offers free software for Apple computers (and Apple TV) enabling the devices to access a larger number of online sites, like Hulu, where Internet Video is legitimately available. Boxee’s basic advantage is that it permits users to control the interface with a simple six-button remote made by Apple. There are two ramifications. First, it permits Apple TV users to get Internet Video at many websites instead of merely iTunes, and watch them on the TV. Second, if an Apple computer is connected to a television, the user gets to watch the Internet Video on the TV screen and control it with a simple remote. Present Action Hulu has been told by Fox and NBC to deny access to consumers using Boxee software. The parent companies apparently don’t want Hulu content to display on a TV screen. Future Consequences First, consumers will discover that laptop computers and flat-panel TVs have common connection sockets. Once mated the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop and the computer functions as a Media Controller for the TV. The laptop’s on-board WiFi links to a home network and thence to the Internet. This provides unlimited access to Internet Videos, including Hulu, on the TV screen. Given a remote mouse and keyboard the consumer gets a comfortable lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 distant from the TV screen. Contrary to received wisdom, the Laptop-as-Media-Controller is not “geeky” as demonstrated by this video. Fox and NBC will learn that anyone who knows how to use a Browser can get Hulu on the TV screen. Although, Boxee is not technically a Browser, it is being used as one with a simplified interface.  Since nearly every computer user knows how to use a Browser, Fox and NBC have shot-themselves-in-the-foot by banning Boxee. Second, once the Laptop-as-Media-Controller is set-up, there’s nothing to stop users from downloading pirated copies of TV shows and movies to watch on their TVs. Recommendations The men and women who run NBC and Fox would not have become leaders in such a prominent industry if they were not hard-working and smart. No doubt they have proven themselves to be big money-makers, which is the raison d’etre for all businesses that don’t command Government bailouts. Despite their proven abilities they are failing to recognize when what is new is more significant than what is familiar. They are deluding themselves to think they can stop Internet Video from getting to the TV. Instead, they can focus on finding ways to generate revenues from Internet Video that are unavailable in conventional television. For example, Hulu can be more creative with interactive advertising instead of the pre-post-and-mid-rolls that dominate presently. Companies like YuMe Networks enable such interactivity. They not only enhance ad revenues, but can execute purchase transactions with the viewer. On Thursday www.hulu.com announced that they will not permit viewers who are using Boxee software to access Internet Video streams. Background Hulu is a website owned by NBC and Fox that provides high quality streaming of popular television shows and movies. Most of the shows are from NBC and Fox, but others are also available such as Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. The website is entirely legal and supported with advertising. Additionally, there are over 100 movies. Boxee offers free software for Apple computers (and Apple TV) enabling the devices to access a larger number of online sites, like Hulu, where Internet Video is legitimately available. Boxee’s basic advantage is that it permits users to control the interface with a simple six-button remote made by Apple. There are two ramifications. First, it permits Apple TV users to get Internet Video at many websites instead of merely iTunes, and watch them on the TV. Second, if an Apple computer is connected to a television, the user gets to watch the Internet Video on the TV screen and control it with a simple remote. Present Action Hulu has been told by Fox and NBC to deny access to consumers using Boxee software. The parent companies apparently don’t want Hulu content to display on a TV screen. Future Consequences First, consumers will discover that laptop computers and flat-panel TVs have common connection sockets. Once mated the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop and the computer functions as a Media Controller for the TV. The laptop’s on-board WiFi links to a home network and thence to the Internet. This provides unlimited access to Internet Videos, including Hulu, on the TV screen. Given a remote mouse and keyboard the consumer gets a comfortable lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 distant from the TV screen. Contrary to received wisdom, the Laptop-as-Media-Controller is not “geeky” as demonstrated by this video. Fox and NBC will learn that anyone who knows how to use a Browser can get Hulu on the TV screen. Although, Boxee is not technically a Browser, it is being used as one with a simplified interface.  Since nearly every computer user knows how to use a Browser, Fox and NBC have shot-themselves-in-the-foot by banning Boxee. Second, once the Laptop-as-Media-Controller is set-up, there’s nothing to stop users from downloading pirated copies of TV shows and movies to watch on their TVs. Recommendations The men and women who run NBC and Fox would not have become leaders in such a prominent industry if they were not hard-working and smart. No doubt they have proven themselves to be big money-makers, which is the raison d’etre for all businesses that don’t command Government bailouts. Despite their proven abilities they are failing to recognize when what is new is more significant than what is familiar. They are deluding themselves to think they can stop Internet Video from getting to the TV. Instead, they can focus on finding ways to generate revenues from Internet Video that are unavailable in conventional television. For example, Hulu can be more creative with interactive advertising instead of the pre-post-and-mid-rolls that dominate presently. Companies like YuMe Networks enable such interactivity. They not only enhance ad revenues, but can execute purchase transactions with the viewer. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-21,24150549 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:00:07 -0800 no Inside Digital Media apple, fox, nbc, hulu, Add new tag, Podcast Audio, boxee, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24083545-Apple-and-Digital-Living-Room If you would like to learn how Apple might take center-stage in the digital living room, this audio is for you. Following our February 4th post about how the Mac Mini might be modified to provide Internet-Video-to-the-TV, there’s been a flurry of speculation about the company’s potential to enter the TV set business in a couple of years. The idea is that Apple would enter the category with a game changing product concept much like it did in the cell phone business with the iPhone. It’s not a bad idea. However, much of the justification for an Apple Television discussed in the press centers on the company’s ability to leverage the iTunes store and add a DVR.  There’s nothing wrong with the notion, except that it misses a bigger point, unless free podcasts of most TV shows and movies at places like hulu are also at iTunes. In our analysis the critical asset for an Apple Television would be a graphical interface that can be controlled by a simple remote combined with an applications pl... If you would like to learn how Apple might take center-stage in the digital living room, this audio is for you. Following our February 4th post about how the Mac Mini might be modified to provide Internet-Video-to-the-TV, there’s been a flurry of speculation about the company’s potential to enter the TV set business in a couple of years. The idea is that Apple would enter the category with a game changing product concept much like it did in the cell phone business with the iPhone. It’s not a bad idea. However, much of the justification for an Apple Television discussed in the press centers on the company’s ability to leverage the iTunes store and add a DVR.  There’s nothing wrong with the notion, except that it misses a bigger point, unless free podcasts of most TV shows and movies at places like hulu are also at iTunes. In our analysis the critical asset for an Apple Television would be a graphical interface that can be controlled by a simple remote combined with an applications platform much like the one for the iPhone. The applications platform will be crucial since consumers are going to be naturally resistant to limitations on Internet Video content. For example, they’re going to have a decided preference for free viewing at ad-supported websites. Such a platform will enable websites that want to be easily accessed by Apple Television users to join the Apple ecosystem. For example, a future Apple Television platform will likely come pre-loaded with hulu.com, YouTube, abc.com and other popular video destinations. But if sites like Veoh and Blip.tv want to be included, they’ll be permitted to develop their own apps. In short, if an Apple Television comes to market it will likely have an interface and platform much like Boxee is already offering. Unfortunately for Boxee, it will likely be developed by Apple itself. Such a product would be an undeniable game changer for the TV set manufacturing industry. Incumbent manufactures like Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung, LG, and Vizio will find it hard to compete. They’ll have to develop competitive interfaces and platforms. But few developers are going to want to focus on their platforms once Apple jumps into the lead. The situation will be much like it is today with the iPhone. If most of the apps are developed for the Apple Television then most of the Internet Video will be available only on Apple’s unit and not competitive ones. In such a scenario Apple Television will become the center-of-gravity for consumers wanting to watch Internet Video on TV. Competitors will steadily lose market share. Apple’s competitors should fight back now in two ways. First is to unify around a similar platform as a standard (e.g. Boxee) and introduce products that use it. Second, is to immediately start promoting the laptop computer as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs. Specifically, consumers are discovering that flat-panel TVs conveniently mate with laptop computers. Thus connected, the laptop WiFi connects with the home router and thence to the Internet. In such a configuration the TV functions as a giant monitor for the laptop thereby permitting any Internet Video or website to be viewed. Essentially, the laptop becomes a Media Controller. A remote mouse and keyboard completes the scenario in an entirely comfortable lean-back experience from the living room sofa. There are four reasons why consumers select laptops, as opposed to alternate devices, for TV-to-Internet hook-up. First, they provide unlimited access to the Internet. Second, they are commonly available. Third, the laptop is surprisingly inexpensive compared to alternate appliances, especially considering its general-purpose capabilities. Fourth, since consumers have been surfing the Web for 10 – 15 years, they are comfortable with a browser. Computer makers also need to promote the Media Controller application or watch this potential Killer App drift away to Apple Television. First, and foremost, Dell, Sony, and H-P need to offer more laptops with HDMI sockets. All laptops capable of processing HD video should have HDMI sockets. This is Third Generation Television. If you would like to learn how Apple might take center-stage in the digital living room, this audio is for you. Following our February 4th post about how the Mac Mini might be modified to provide Internet-Video-to-the-TV, there’s been a flurry of speculation about the company’s potential to enter the TV set business in a couple of years. The idea is that Apple would enter the category with a game changing product concept much like it did in the cell phone business with the iPhone. It’s not a bad idea. However, much of the justification for an Apple Television discussed in the press centers on the company’s ability to leverage the iTunes store and add a DVR.  There’s nothing wrong with the notion, except that it misses a bigger point, unless free podcasts of most TV shows and movies at places like hulu are also at iTunes. In our analysis the critical asset for an Apple Television would be a graphical interface that can be controlled by a simple remote combined with an applications platform much like the one for the iPhone. The applications platform will be crucial since consumers are going to be naturally resistant to limitations on Internet Video content. For example, they’re going to have a decided preference for free viewing at ad-supported websites. Such a platform will enable websites that want to be easily accessed by Apple Television users to join the Apple ecosystem. For example, a future Apple Television platform will likely come pre-loaded with hulu.com, YouTube, abc.com and other popular video destinations. But if sites like Veoh and Blip.tv want to be included, they’ll be permitted to develop their own apps. In short, if an Apple Television comes to market it will likely have an interface and platform much like Boxee is already offering. Unfortunately for Boxee, it will likely be developed by Apple itself. Such a product would be an undeniable game changer for the TV set manufacturing industry. Incumbent manufactures like Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung, LG, and Vizio will find it hard to compete. They’ll have to develop competitive interfaces and platforms. But few developers are going to want to focus on their platforms once Apple jumps into the lead. The situation will be much like it is today with the iPhone. If most of the apps are developed for the Apple Television then most of the Internet Video will be available only on Apple’s unit and not competitive ones. In such a scenario Apple Television will become the center-of-gravity for consumers wanting to watch Internet Video on TV. Competitors will steadily lose market share. Apple’s competitors should fight back now in two ways. First is to unify around a similar platform as a standard (e.g. Boxee) and introduce products that use it. Second, is to immediately start promoting the laptop computer as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs. Specifically, consumers are discovering that flat-panel TVs conveniently mate with laptop computers. Thus connected, the laptop WiFi connects with the home router and thence to the Internet. In such a configuration the TV functions as a giant monitor for the laptop thereby permitting any Internet Video or website to be viewed. Essentially, the laptop becomes a Media Controller. A remote mouse and keyboard completes the scenario in an entirely comfortable lean-back experience from the living room sofa. There are four reasons why consumers select laptops, as opposed to alternate devices, for TV-to-Internet hook-up. First, they provide unlimited access to the Internet. Second, they are commonly available. Third, the laptop is surprisingly inexpensive compared to alternate appliances, especially considering its general-purpose capabilities. Fourth, since consumers have been surfing the Web for 10 – 15 years, they are comfortable with a browser. Computer makers also need to promote the Media Controller application or watch this potential Killer App drift away to Apple Television. First, and foremost, Dell, Sony, and H-P need to offer more laptops with HDMI sockets. All laptops capable of processing HD video should have HDMI sockets. This is Third Generation Television. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-13,24083545 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:00:48 -0800 no Inside Digital Media Television, iphone, youtube, sony, apple, tv, iTunes, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053485-Boxee-Improves-on-Apple If you would like to learn how to use a simple remote with Apple devices to watch Internet Video on TV without being limited to iTunes content, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Avner Ronen who is the CEO and Co- Founder of Boxee . His company provides free software enabling Apple computers (and Apple TV) to display Internet Video on televisions using an interface only requiring the six-button remote that Apple itself manufactures. Here’s how it works. First, connect the Apple laptop to the television. Typically this is done with two cables. One called DVI is for the video and the second is optical audio. The Apple TV unit connects via HDMI. Second, download free Boxee software. Once installed it is pre-loaded with a number of popular video websites including hulu and YouTube. As noted, the software is specifically designed to work with the Apple remote, so there is no need for a mouse and keyboard on the coffee table. The company also has an Alpha version for Windows co... If you would like to learn how to use a simple remote with Apple devices to watch Internet Video on TV without being limited to iTunes content, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Avner Ronen who is the CEO and Co- Founder of Boxee . His company provides free software enabling Apple computers (and Apple TV) to display Internet Video on televisions using an interface only requiring the six-button remote that Apple itself manufactures. Here’s how it works. First, connect the Apple laptop to the television. Typically this is done with two cables. One called DVI is for the video and the second is optical audio. The Apple TV unit connects via HDMI. Second, download free Boxee software. Once installed it is pre-loaded with a number of popular video websites including hulu and YouTube. As noted, the software is specifically designed to work with the Apple remote, so there is no need for a mouse and keyboard on the coffee table. The company also has an Alpha version for Windows computers and is working on software permitting the iPhone and iPod Touch to function as remotes. Despite its advantages Boxee has two problems. First, Internet access is limited. Thus, there is still a Walled Garden of content, although the acreage is far bigger than iTunes. Boxee intends to address this problem by offering the software as a platform for others to layer-on their own applications. In short, they want Boxee to be like the iPhone Apps platform. Thus, if somebody, like Veoh or Daily Motion, wants to be on Boxee then they develop an application for the platform. The next time consumers use the software the new apps appear in the Boxee menu. Second, Boxee recognizes the value of Long-Tail content but does not yet permit a Google search function. They intend to provide it by offering a virtual keyboard on the TV screen. In our experience, such keyboards are cumbersome. Thus, Boxee may find that consumers will actually prefer to have a familiar keyboard on the coffee table. If so, then it sort-of defeats the purpose of Boxee altogether. In short, after 15 years of surfing the Net we question whether consumers will prefer a new graphical interface over the familiar browser. For example, many cell phone makers found that they had to provide a keyboard in order to accommodate the habitual texting of users even though the phone is intended primarily for voice.  Similarly, once consumers recognize that a flat panel TV can double as a giant monitor for their laptop, they may actually prefer to use the keyboard and browser owing to their greater versatility and familiarity. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. If you would like to learn how to use a simple remote with Apple devices to watch Internet Video on TV without being limited to iTunes content, this interview is for you. Our guest today is Avner Ronen who is the CEO and Co- Founder of Boxee . His company provides free software enabling Apple computers (and Apple TV) to display Internet Video on televisions using an interface only requiring the six-button remote that Apple itself manufactures. Here’s how it works. First, connect the Apple laptop to the television. Typically this is done with two cables. One called DVI is for the video and the second is optical audio. The Apple TV unit connects via HDMI. Second, download free Boxee software. Once installed it is pre-loaded with a number of popular video websites including hulu and YouTube. As noted, the software is specifically designed to work with the Apple remote, so there is no need for a mouse and keyboard on the coffee table. The company also has an Alpha version for Windows computers and is working on software permitting the iPhone and iPod Touch to function as remotes. Despite its advantages Boxee has two problems. First, Internet access is limited. Thus, there is still a Walled Garden of content, although the acreage is far bigger than iTunes. Boxee intends to address this problem by offering the software as a platform for others to layer-on their own applications. In short, they want Boxee to be like the iPhone Apps platform. Thus, if somebody, like Veoh or Daily Motion, wants to be on Boxee then they develop an application for the platform. The next time consumers use the software the new apps appear in the Boxee menu. Second, Boxee recognizes the value of Long-Tail content but does not yet permit a Google search function. They intend to provide it by offering a virtual keyboard on the TV screen. In our experience, such keyboards are cumbersome. Thus, Boxee may find that consumers will actually prefer to have a familiar keyboard on the coffee table. If so, then it sort-of defeats the purpose of Boxee altogether. In short, after 15 years of surfing the Net we question whether consumers will prefer a new graphical interface over the familiar browser. For example, many cell phone makers found that they had to provide a keyboard in order to accommodate the habitual texting of users even though the phone is intended primarily for voice.  Similarly, once consumers recognize that a flat panel TV can double as a giant monitor for their laptop, they may actually prefer to use the keyboard and browser owing to their greater versatility and familiarity. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-11,24053485 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:01:18 -0800 no Inside Digital Media Television, iphone, youtube, apple, ipod, iTunes, Podcast Audio, digital-video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053486-Netflix-%E2%80%9CWatch-Now%E2%80%9D-Fame-Misses-Bigger-Point Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the recent publicity surrounding Netflix’s “Watch Now” Internet-Video-to-the-TV initiative misses a bigger truth about Third Generation Television, this video is for you. Confessedly, Netflix is doing an outstanding job to make the company a major winner as Internet-Video-to-the-TV gains momentum. First, they purchased the rights to stream 12,000 movie titles enabling subscribers to watch them (nearly) instantly. Second, they contracted with important appliance manufacturers to embed the service in their devices. Examples include Microsoft’s Xbox, certain TiVo models, Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and ultimately even TVs from LG and Vizio. Last week Netflix announced that one million Xboxes have used the three-month old service. Lots of people have been impressed, including New York Times columnist David Pogue. He created a short video concluding that “Netflix will be the one who finally nails the Internet m... Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the recent publicity surrounding Netflix’s “Watch Now” Internet-Video-to-the-TV initiative misses a bigger truth about Third Generation Television, this video is for you. Confessedly, Netflix is doing an outstanding job to make the company a major winner as Internet-Video-to-the-TV gains momentum. First, they purchased the rights to stream 12,000 movie titles enabling subscribers to watch them (nearly) instantly. Second, they contracted with important appliance manufacturers to embed the service in their devices. Examples include Microsoft’s Xbox, certain TiVo models, Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and ultimately even TVs from LG and Vizio. Last week Netflix announced that one million Xboxes have used the three-month old service. Lots of people have been impressed, including New York Times columnist David Pogue. He created a short video concluding that “Netflix will be the one who finally nails the Internet movie business.” As always, the story plot is humorous, clever, and informative. It is a dialog between David and a baby sitter. The baby sitter shows David how she will entertain herself with Netflix “Watch Now” movies via David’s TiVo. The first step uses a laptop computer to select the movie, and this is where the video misses the bigger point. If instead of using the laptop to activate “Watch Now” on the TiVo she had merely connected it to the TV with an HDMI cable the baby sitter could watch any video on the Internet. She would not be limited to the mostly old or obscure titles of the Netflix “Watch Now” library. Instead she could visit Hulu and choose from dozens of current, and popular, TV shows. Alternately she could visit abc.com, or cbs.com, for more TV shows or go to YouTube. In short, once the laptop is connected to the TV there are no limitations. In sum, consumers are discovering that flat panel TVs and laptop computers have common connection sockets. Once they are mated unlimited Internet-Video-on-the-TV becomes a reality. A remote mouse and keyboard provides a comfortable viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. It could well become the next “Killer Application” for computers and it should be evident this year. However, the trend is under the industry’s radar. As such it is destined to traverse Esther Dyson’s four stages of all new ideas. First, people don’t pay any attention to you. Second, they look at you like you are speaking Chinese. Third, they begin to scratch their chins and ponder that you may be “onto” something. Fourth, they respond with “Oh, that’s boring. Everybody knows that.” Pogue’s video demonstrates that the laptop-as-Media-Controller idea is at best somewhere between stage one and two among most established authorities. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the recent publicity surrounding Netflix’s “Watch Now” Internet-Video-to-the-TV initiative misses a bigger truth about Third Generation Television, this video is for you. Confessedly, Netflix is doing an outstanding job to make the company a major winner as Internet-Video-to-the-TV gains momentum. First, they purchased the rights to stream 12,000 movie titles enabling subscribers to watch them (nearly) instantly. Second, they contracted with important appliance manufacturers to embed the service in their devices. Examples include Microsoft’s Xbox, certain TiVo models, Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, and ultimately even TVs from LG and Vizio. Last week Netflix announced that one million Xboxes have used the three-month old service. Lots of people have been impressed, including New York Times columnist David Pogue. He created a short video concluding that “Netflix will be the one who finally nails the Internet movie business.” As always, the story plot is humorous, clever, and informative. It is a dialog between David and a baby sitter. The baby sitter shows David how she will entertain herself with Netflix “Watch Now” movies via David’s TiVo. The first step uses a laptop computer to select the movie, and this is where the video misses the bigger point. If instead of using the laptop to activate “Watch Now” on the TiVo she had merely connected it to the TV with an HDMI cable the baby sitter could watch any video on the Internet. She would not be limited to the mostly old or obscure titles of the Netflix “Watch Now” library. Instead she could visit Hulu and choose from dozens of current, and popular, TV shows. Alternately she could visit abc.com, or cbs.com, for more TV shows or go to YouTube. In short, once the laptop is connected to the TV there are no limitations. In sum, consumers are discovering that flat panel TVs and laptop computers have common connection sockets. Once they are mated unlimited Internet-Video-on-the-TV becomes a reality. A remote mouse and keyboard provides a comfortable viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. It could well become the next “Killer Application” for computers and it should be evident this year. However, the trend is under the industry’s radar. As such it is destined to traverse Esther Dyson’s four stages of all new ideas. First, people don’t pay any attention to you. Second, they look at you like you are speaking Chinese. Third, they begin to scratch their chins and ponder that you may be “onto” something. Fourth, they respond with “Oh, that’s boring. Everybody knows that.” Pogue’s video demonstrates that the laptop-as-Media-Controller idea is at best somewhere between stage one and two among most established authorities. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-09,24053486 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:00:20 -0800 no Inside Digital Media tv, netflix, tivo, Podcast Video, digital-video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, New-York-Times, Pogue http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053488-What-Should-Verizon-Do If you would like to learn how Verizon can better compete with the CATV industry in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Verizon is attempting to compete against the CATV industry with a futile “me too” offering. Specifically, their focus is on a “Triple Play” of (1) telephony, (2) video and (3) Internet access services. Yet motivating the consumer to abandon an incumbent service for a new one requires that the alternative be demonstratively superior. For example, Flash memory replaced disc drives in iPods because solid-state chips make the unit far more rugged. That’s significant to consumers who are prone to dropping the devices. Verizon’s claim that its deployed fiber (FiOS) makes its Triple Play service better than the Cable operator’s is moot, at best. If it were demonstrably superior the company would not be investing the huge amounts of marketing dollars that it feels compelled to spend. (I trust the stock analysts have learned whether or not Verizon is... If you would like to learn how Verizon can better compete with the CATV industry in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Verizon is attempting to compete against the CATV industry with a futile “me too” offering. Specifically, their focus is on a “Triple Play” of (1) telephony, (2) video and (3) Internet access services. Yet motivating the consumer to abandon an incumbent service for a new one requires that the alternative be demonstratively superior. For example, Flash memory replaced disc drives in iPods because solid-state chips make the unit far more rugged. That’s significant to consumers who are prone to dropping the devices. Verizon’s claim that its deployed fiber (FiOS) makes its Triple Play service better than the Cable operator’s is moot, at best. If it were demonstrably superior the company would not be investing the huge amounts of marketing dollars that it feels compelled to spend. (I trust the stock analysts have learned whether or not Verizon is capitalizing such expenses!) For example in the Tampa market Verizon overburdens the Post Office with junk mailings on FiOS monthly. It also has a telephone solicitor call my home every couple of months or so. Verizon’s fiber facilities would be a better weapon if targeted at Cable’s weak spot, to wit broadband Internet Access. The CATV industry does not want subscribers to have truly fast Internet since it would encourage them to watch more Internet Video and less television. Furthermore, it might stimulate them to discover ways of getting Internet Video on the TV screen thereby reducing subscriber reliance upon conventional CATV service. Although the Government donated the Internet backbone to Verizon (predecessor BBN) and AT&T about 20 years ago, the United States now ranks 15th in broadband access among EEOC countries. Yet Verizon’s FiOS deployment enables the company to offer broadband speeds that could take our country to the head of the list. More importantly, potential FiOS Internet access capacity could not be matched by the CATV industry for two reasons. First, Cable companies have too much invested in their existing business models to make changes. Although they could deploy the DOCSIS high speed alternative, they’ll be reluctant and their unwillingness will lead them down the path of the record labels and metropolitan newspapers. Second, they don’t have fiber and are reluctant to spend their own (as opposed to the taxpayer’s) money to install it. In contrast, Verizon could offer Internet speeds of 100 megabits-per-second or more at a premium price. Consumers will pay the higher price because it is better for Internet Video and other applications such as Internet Telephony (e.g. Skype). In this scenario, Triple Play features are replaced by applications that the consumer selects to “run” over the Internet. As such it provides unlimited versatility for the consumer to adopt future applications when desired. Consequently, it builds ever-greater dependence upon the high speed Internet access provider, to wit Verizon. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. If you would like to learn how Verizon can better compete with the CATV industry in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Verizon is attempting to compete against the CATV industry with a futile “me too” offering. Specifically, their focus is on a “Triple Play” of (1) telephony, (2) video and (3) Internet access services. Yet motivating the consumer to abandon an incumbent service for a new one requires that the alternative be demonstratively superior. For example, Flash memory replaced disc drives in iPods because solid-state chips make the unit far more rugged. That’s significant to consumers who are prone to dropping the devices. Verizon’s claim that its deployed fiber (FiOS) makes its Triple Play service better than the Cable operator’s is moot, at best. If it were demonstrably superior the company would not be investing the huge amounts of marketing dollars that it feels compelled to spend. (I trust the stock analysts have learned whether or not Verizon is capitalizing such expenses!) For example in the Tampa market Verizon overburdens the Post Office with junk mailings on FiOS monthly. It also has a telephone solicitor call my home every couple of months or so. Verizon’s fiber facilities would be a better weapon if targeted at Cable’s weak spot, to wit broadband Internet Access. The CATV industry does not want subscribers to have truly fast Internet since it would encourage them to watch more Internet Video and less television. Furthermore, it might stimulate them to discover ways of getting Internet Video on the TV screen thereby reducing subscriber reliance upon conventional CATV service. Although the Government donated the Internet backbone to Verizon (predecessor BBN) and AT&T about 20 years ago, the United States now ranks 15th in broadband access among EEOC countries. Yet Verizon’s FiOS deployment enables the company to offer broadband speeds that could take our country to the head of the list. More importantly, potential FiOS Internet access capacity could not be matched by the CATV industry for two reasons. First, Cable companies have too much invested in their existing business models to make changes. Although they could deploy the DOCSIS high speed alternative, they’ll be reluctant and their unwillingness will lead them down the path of the record labels and metropolitan newspapers. Second, they don’t have fiber and are reluctant to spend their own (as opposed to the taxpayer’s) money to install it. In contrast, Verizon could offer Internet speeds of 100 megabits-per-second or more at a premium price. Consumers will pay the higher price because it is better for Internet Video and other applications such as Internet Telephony (e.g. Skype). In this scenario, Triple Play features are replaced by applications that the consumer selects to “run” over the Internet. As such it provides unlimited versatility for the consumer to adopt future applications when desired. Consequently, it builds ever-greater dependence upon the high speed Internet access provider, to wit Verizon. This is Third Generation Television. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-05,24053488 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:00:47 -0800 no Inside Digital Media podcast, tv, Podcast Audio, digital-video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053490-What-Should-Apple-Do If you would like to learn how Apple can better participate in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Apple TV is only a modest success because it provides limited access to Internet Video. Essentially, users are restricted to videos available at the iTunes store. Although most podcasts are free, TV shows and movies must be rented or purchased at prices ranging from $2 to $15. Once consumers realize that they can connect an ordinary laptop computer to a flat panel TV and thereby gain access to TV shows for free at ad-supported sites like www.hulu.com, they’ll have virtually no interest in Apple TV. Furthermore Apple’s product costs $230 whereas Windows laptops are sometimes priced as low as $300 - $400.  In short, the laptop computer as Media Controller for flat panel TVs has the potential to become the next Killer App. The trend should become evident this year. Apple’s other shot at the emerging Internet-Video-to-TV market is the Mac Mini. While standard Apple ... If you would like to learn how Apple can better participate in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Apple TV is only a modest success because it provides limited access to Internet Video. Essentially, users are restricted to videos available at the iTunes store. Although most podcasts are free, TV shows and movies must be rented or purchased at prices ranging from $2 to $15. Once consumers realize that they can connect an ordinary laptop computer to a flat panel TV and thereby gain access to TV shows for free at ad-supported sites like www.hulu.com, they’ll have virtually no interest in Apple TV. Furthermore Apple’s product costs $230 whereas Windows laptops are sometimes priced as low as $300 - $400.  In short, the laptop computer as Media Controller for flat panel TVs has the potential to become the next Killer App. The trend should become evident this year. Apple’s other shot at the emerging Internet-Video-to-TV market is the Mac Mini. While standard Apple laptops are $1,000 or more the two Mac Mini models, at $600 and $800 respectively, are more competitively priced. However, Mac Minis has several disadvantages relative to Windows computers. First, they have only about half the RAM of Windows laptops costing half as much. Second, they lack HDMI sockets. Thus, getting Internet Video on the television via a Mac Mini requires special adapter cables for the video and a separate one for the audio. Third, a number of popular Internet Video applications and websites, like the Netflix Watch Instantly library, are not optimized for Apple’s Safari web browser. In short, Apple needs to make some changes if it hopes to compete effectively in the Internet-Video-to-TV market. One way is to introduce a new product to compete with lower priced Windows laptops for the TV Media Controller application. Without such a product, the Mac Mini is Apple’s best candidate for the Media Controller application but it needs to be enhanced in a number of ways. First it needs HDMI sockets. Second, to avoid a price cut the Mac Mini needs a creative media interface that might look something like the one from Boxee. Third, it could benefit from more memory. Fourth, Apple should assist websites with popular Internet Video to become interoperable with Safari, or work them into the hypothetical interface noted in our second point. Fifth, the company should vigorously promote the Media Controller concept featuring (a reconfigured) Mac Mini. Such promotion should be abundant online instructional videos explaining how to arrange the set-up. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. If you would like to learn how Apple can better participate in Third Generation Television, this audio program is for you. Apple TV is only a modest success because it provides limited access to Internet Video. Essentially, users are restricted to videos available at the iTunes store. Although most podcasts are free, TV shows and movies must be rented or purchased at prices ranging from $2 to $15. Once consumers realize that they can connect an ordinary laptop computer to a flat panel TV and thereby gain access to TV shows for free at ad-supported sites like www.hulu.com, they’ll have virtually no interest in Apple TV. Furthermore Apple’s product costs $230 whereas Windows laptops are sometimes priced as low as $300 - $400.  In short, the laptop computer as Media Controller for flat panel TVs has the potential to become the next Killer App. The trend should become evident this year. Apple’s other shot at the emerging Internet-Video-to-TV market is the Mac Mini. While standard Apple laptops are $1,000 or more the two Mac Mini models, at $600 and $800 respectively, are more competitively priced. However, Mac Minis has several disadvantages relative to Windows computers. First, they have only about half the RAM of Windows laptops costing half as much. Second, they lack HDMI sockets. Thus, getting Internet Video on the television via a Mac Mini requires special adapter cables for the video and a separate one for the audio. Third, a number of popular Internet Video applications and websites, like the Netflix Watch Instantly library, are not optimized for Apple’s Safari web browser. In short, Apple needs to make some changes if it hopes to compete effectively in the Internet-Video-to-TV market. One way is to introduce a new product to compete with lower priced Windows laptops for the TV Media Controller application. Without such a product, the Mac Mini is Apple’s best candidate for the Media Controller application but it needs to be enhanced in a number of ways. First it needs HDMI sockets. Second, to avoid a price cut the Mac Mini needs a creative media interface that might look something like the one from Boxee. Third, it could benefit from more memory. Fourth, Apple should assist websites with popular Internet Video to become interoperable with Safari, or work them into the hypothetical interface noted in our second point. Fifth, the company should vigorously promote the Media Controller concept featuring (a reconfigured) Mac Mini. Such promotion should be abundant online instructional videos explaining how to arrange the set-up. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here where you can purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. tag:odeo.com,2009-02-04,24053490 Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:00:37 -0800 no Inside Digital Media podcast, Television, iphone, apple, ipod, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Phil-Leigh http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053491-What-Should-Microsoft-Do After its recent disappointing earnings report, Microsoft should give serious consideration to stimulating demand for PCs by fostering the next “Killer Application” for the Win-tel platform. Such an application is likely to emerge this year as consumers discover flat panel TVs and laptop computers have a number of common connection sockets. Once attached, the laptop functions as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs thereby enabling consumers to watch Internet Video on their televisions. In such a configuration the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop. The laptop’s built-in WiFi connects to a home network and thence to the Internet. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers can watch Internet Videos on their TVs in a comfortable lean-back viewing experience. This is good news for Microsoft for several reasons. First, the PC laptop is considerably less expensive than a comparable one from Apple. Thus, consumers seeking to buy a new laptop for the Media Controller application a... After its recent disappointing earnings report, Microsoft should give serious consideration to stimulating demand for PCs by fostering the next “Killer Application” for the Win-tel platform. Such an application is likely to emerge this year as consumers discover flat panel TVs and laptop computers have a number of common connection sockets. Once attached, the laptop functions as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs thereby enabling consumers to watch Internet Video on their televisions. In such a configuration the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop. The laptop’s built-in WiFi connects to a home network and thence to the Internet. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers can watch Internet Videos on their TVs in a comfortable lean-back viewing experience. This is good news for Microsoft for several reasons. First, the PC laptop is considerably less expensive than a comparable one from Apple. Thus, consumers seeking to buy a new laptop for the Media Controller application are more likely to choose a PC. Second, Apple’s more competitively priced MacMini does not have HDMI sockets. This is a significant impediment because an HDMI cable provides high definition and transports both audio and video whereas two cables are required for the MacMini. Third, a laptop PC provides unlimited Internet access whereas the Apple TV only permits consumers to purchase content from iTunes. Unlimited access enables users to visit any website including ones like www.hulu.com that provide popular TV shows and movies free to the viewer in an ad-supported business model. Microsoft can encourage the adoption of the Media Controller application in a number of ways. First, they should provide clear instructional videos online showing consumers how to connect the laptop to the flat panel TV. The videos should fully describe the entire process, including dual screen set-up. They should be abundantly available online and not merely at Microsoft’s website. For example, they should be featured on Microsoft’s own YouTube channel. Second, versions of Windows from XP onward should be updated with downloads that make it easier for consumers to use the dual screen mode and set screen resolutions that are suitable for monitors the size of a TV screen. Third, the Media Controller application should be heavily promoted and account for a significant proportion of Microsoft’s advertising budget. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here to purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. After its recent disappointing earnings report, Microsoft should give serious consideration to stimulating demand for PCs by fostering the next “Killer Application” for the Win-tel platform. Such an application is likely to emerge this year as consumers discover flat panel TVs and laptop computers have a number of common connection sockets. Once attached, the laptop functions as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs thereby enabling consumers to watch Internet Video on their televisions. In such a configuration the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop. The laptop’s built-in WiFi connects to a home network and thence to the Internet. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers can watch Internet Videos on their TVs in a comfortable lean-back viewing experience. This is good news for Microsoft for several reasons. First, the PC laptop is considerably less expensive than a comparable one from Apple. Thus, consumers seeking to buy a new laptop for the Media Controller application are more likely to choose a PC. Second, Apple’s more competitively priced MacMini does not have HDMI sockets. This is a significant impediment because an HDMI cable provides high definition and transports both audio and video whereas two cables are required for the MacMini. Third, a laptop PC provides unlimited Internet access whereas the Apple TV only permits consumers to purchase content from iTunes. Unlimited access enables users to visit any website including ones like www.hulu.com that provide popular TV shows and movies free to the viewer in an ad-supported business model. Microsoft can encourage the adoption of the Media Controller application in a number of ways. First, they should provide clear instructional videos online showing consumers how to connect the laptop to the flat panel TV. The videos should fully describe the entire process, including dual screen set-up. They should be abundantly available online and not merely at Microsoft’s website. For example, they should be featured on Microsoft’s own YouTube channel. Second, versions of Windows from XP onward should be updated with downloads that make it easier for consumers to use the dual screen mode and set screen resolutions that are suitable for monitors the size of a TV screen. Third, the Media Controller application should be heavily promoted and account for a significant proportion of Microsoft’s advertising budget. To learn more about Third Generation Television, click here to purchase a copy or our research report or download a free Synopsis and Table-of-Contents. tag:odeo.com,2009-01-29,24053491 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:00:40 -0800 no Inside Digital Media Television, microsoft, apple, iTunes, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Hollywood-Studios http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053493-How-to-Improve-TV-Set-Sales A recent (1/20/09) Wall Street Journal article projects an 18% decline in worldwide TV set sales this year. However, manufacturers can improve that performance by promoting a popular method that enables Internet Video to be watched on the TV. Specifically, consumers are discovering almost by accident that flat-panel TVs conveniently mate with laptop computers. Thus connected, the laptop WiFi connects with the home router and thence to the Internet. In such a configuration the TV functions as a giant monitor for the laptop thereby permitting any Internet Video or website to be viewed. Essentially, the laptop becomes a Media Controller. A remote mouse and keyboard completes the scenario in an entirely comfortable lean-back experience from the living room sofa. There are four reasons why consumers select laptops, as opposed to alternate devices, for TV-to-Internet hook-up. First, they provide unlimited access to the Internet. Second, they are commonly available. Third, the laptop is su... A recent (1/20/09) Wall Street Journal article projects an 18% decline in worldwide TV set sales this year. However, manufacturers can improve that performance by promoting a popular method that enables Internet Video to be watched on the TV. Specifically, consumers are discovering almost by accident that flat-panel TVs conveniently mate with laptop computers. Thus connected, the laptop WiFi connects with the home router and thence to the Internet. In such a configuration the TV functions as a giant monitor for the laptop thereby permitting any Internet Video or website to be viewed. Essentially, the laptop becomes a Media Controller. A remote mouse and keyboard completes the scenario in an entirely comfortable lean-back experience from the living room sofa. There are four reasons why consumers select laptops, as opposed to alternate devices, for TV-to-Internet hook-up. First, they provide unlimited access to the Internet. Second, they are commonly available. Third, the laptop is surprisingly inexpensive compared to alternate appliances, especially considering its general-purpose capabilities. Fourth, since consumers have been surfing the Web for 10 – 15 years, they are comfortable with a browser. TV set manufacturers can improve their own sales prospects by promoting the laptop’s Media Controller application in at least three ways. First, they should provide clear instructional videos online showing consumers how to connect the laptop to the flat panel TV. The videos should fully describe the entire process, including dual screen set-up. They should be abundantly available online and not merely at the supplier’s website. For example, each manufacturer should have a YouTube channel. Second, they should vigorously advertise the capability of their sets to easily mate with laptop computers. Third, most importantly, they should plan to ultimately integrate such capability into the set itself. In the final analysis the laptop-as-Media-Controller is a “forcing factor” that points to a feature that is likely to be mandatory in future televisions. A recent (1/20/09) Wall Street Journal article projects an 18% decline in worldwide TV set sales this year. However, manufacturers can improve that performance by promoting a popular method that enables Internet Video to be watched on the TV. Specifically, consumers are discovering almost by accident that flat-panel TVs conveniently mate with laptop computers. Thus connected, the laptop WiFi connects with the home router and thence to the Internet. In such a configuration the TV functions as a giant monitor for the laptop thereby permitting any Internet Video or website to be viewed. Essentially, the laptop becomes a Media Controller. A remote mouse and keyboard completes the scenario in an entirely comfortable lean-back experience from the living room sofa. There are four reasons why consumers select laptops, as opposed to alternate devices, for TV-to-Internet hook-up. First, they provide unlimited access to the Internet. Second, they are commonly available. Third, the laptop is surprisingly inexpensive compared to alternate appliances, especially considering its general-purpose capabilities. Fourth, since consumers have been surfing the Web for 10 – 15 years, they are comfortable with a browser. TV set manufacturers can improve their own sales prospects by promoting the laptop’s Media Controller application in at least three ways. First, they should provide clear instructional videos online showing consumers how to connect the laptop to the flat panel TV. The videos should fully describe the entire process, including dual screen set-up. They should be abundantly available online and not merely at the supplier’s website. For example, each manufacturer should have a YouTube channel. Second, they should vigorously advertise the capability of their sets to easily mate with laptop computers. Third, most importantly, they should plan to ultimately integrate such capability into the set itself. In the final analysis the laptop-as-Media-Controller is a “forcing factor” that points to a feature that is likely to be mandatory in future televisions. tag:odeo.com,2009-01-28,24053493 Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:00:19 -0800 no Inside Digital Media Television, youtube, Podcast Audio, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television http://www.odeo.com/episodes/23948161-Third-Generation-Television-Third-Catalyst-Long-Tail Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive ... Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive the interest really is. Examples include out-of-syndication TV shows, older documentaries, personality interviews, and instructional videos. Today’s show provides clips of three Long-Tail videos. First is from an old documentary entitled The Ascent of Man. The narrator demonstrates how Pythagoras may have discovered the Pythagorean Theorem 2,500 years ago. Second is an interview with Stephen Hunter who authored such novels as Point of Impact, Black Light, Hot Springs, A Time to Hunt,  and 47th Samurai. Point of Impact was made into a movie entitled Shooter. The principal character in the novels is named Bob Lee Swagger who is a former Marine Corps sniper. During the interview Hunter comments that Swagger’s character is based upon a “real” guy named Carlos Hathcock. The third clip from an interview with Hathcock himself. Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive the interest really is. Examples include out-of-syndication TV shows, older documentaries, personality interviews, and instructional videos. Today’s show provides clips of three Long-Tail videos. First is from an old documentary entitled The Ascent of Man. The narrator demonstrates how Pythagoras may have discovered the Pythagorean Theorem 2,500 years ago. Second is an interview with Stephen Hunter who authored such novels as Point of Impact, Black Light, Hot Springs, A Time to Hunt,  and 47th Samurai. Point of Impact was made into a movie entitled Shooter. The principal character in the novels is named Bob Lee Swagger who is a former Marine Corps sniper. During the interview Hunter comments that Swagger’s character is based upon a “real” guy named Carlos Hathcock. The third clip from an interview with Hathcock himself. tag:odeo.com,2009-01-26,23948161 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:15:11 -0800 no Inside Digital Media future of tv, Podcast Video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Free TV Shows on Internet, Long-Tail http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053494-Third-Generation-Television-Third-Catalyst-Long-Tail Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive ... Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive the interest really is. Examples include out-of-syndication TV shows, older documentaries, personality interviews, and instructional videos. Today’s show provides clips of three Long-Tail videos. First is from an old documentary entitled The Ascent of Man. The narrator demonstrates how Pythagoras may have discovered the Pythagorean Theorem 2,500 years ago. Second is an interview with Stephen Hunter who authored such novels as Point of Impact, Black Light, Hot Springs, A Time to Hunt,  and 47th Samurai. Point of Impact was made into a movie entitled Shooter. The principal character in the novels is named Bob Lee Swagger who is a former Marine Corps sniper. During the interview Hunter comments that Swagger’s character is based upon a “real” guy named Carlos Hathcock. The third clip from an interview with Hathcock himself. Download to Computer, iPod, or iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of Long-Tail content is driving consumers to get Internet Video on their televisions, this video is for you. In earlier podcasts we demonstrated the first two catalysts.  The first is the concept of a “Media Controller”, the initial version of which is the commonly available laptop computer. When a laptop is connected to the television, the TV functions as a giant monitor while the Internet-connected computer enables users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing availability of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. The best example is www.hulu.com. Today’s show is about the third catalyst which is the rising interest in Long-Tail content available on the Internet but not on conventional TV. The 5 billion monthly streams at YouTube are only one indication of just how massive the interest really is. Examples include out-of-syndication TV shows, older documentaries, personality interviews, and instructional videos. Today’s show provides clips of three Long-Tail videos. First is from an old documentary entitled The Ascent of Man. The narrator demonstrates how Pythagoras may have discovered the Pythagorean Theorem 2,500 years ago. Second is an interview with Stephen Hunter who authored such novels as Point of Impact, Black Light, Hot Springs, A Time to Hunt,  and 47th Samurai. Point of Impact was made into a movie entitled Shooter. The principal character in the novels is named Bob Lee Swagger who is a former Marine Corps sniper. During the interview Hunter comments that Swagger’s character is based upon a “real” guy named Carlos Hathcock. The third clip from an interview with Hathcock himself. tag:odeo.com,2009-01-26,24053494 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:15:11 -0800 no Inside Digital Media future of tv, Podcast Video, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, Free TV Shows on Internet, Long-Tail http://www.odeo.com/episodes/24053496-Third-Generation-Television-Second-Catalyst Download to iPod Video and iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites is acting as a catalyst to mass market adoption of Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this video is for you. Last week’s show discussed the concept of a “Media Controller” as the first catalyst that is driving the adoption of Third Generation Television. The initial version of a “Media Controller” is the commonly available laptop computer. In such a configuration, the TV functions as a giant monitor for the Internet-connected laptop thereby enabling users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing abundance of TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. For example, the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) are posting many current and previously popular TV shows at places like www.hulu.com and on their own websites. Other websites like ... Download to iPod Video and iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites is acting as a catalyst to mass market adoption of Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this video is for you. Last week’s show discussed the concept of a “Media Controller” as the first catalyst that is driving the adoption of Third Generation Television. The initial version of a “Media Controller” is the commonly available laptop computer. In such a configuration, the TV functions as a giant monitor for the Internet-connected laptop thereby enabling users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing abundance of TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. For example, the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) are posting many current and previously popular TV shows at places like www.hulu.com and on their own websites. Other websites like Veoh.com provide indexes that link to legitimately available TV shows and movies on the Net. While a number of services (e.g. Amazon-Video-on-Demand) and appliance makers (e.g. Xbox) are starting to provide a “Walled Garden” of Internet-Video-to-the-TV, ultimately consumers will not be satisfied with limited access. Most have been surfing the Web for over ten years and will come to view a “Walled Garden” as a “Walled Prison”. Additionally, most of the movies and TV shows available from Amazon-Video-on-Demand, iTunes, CinemaNow, Xbox, and similar services require the consumer to pay a rental or purchase fee. Instead consumers are likely to have a decided preference for the free viewing of ad-supported websites and will only pay to rent or purchase recently-released motion pictures that are otherwise unavailable for free viewing. Broadcast networks lead the way with TV shows on the Net because, unlike the Cable Networks (e.g. ESPN), they do not get paid “carry fees” by the CATV and Satellite TV operators. However, some of the Cable Networks are also placing shows on the Web. For example, Comedy Central offers both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. Cable Network shows are likely to become even more evident on the Net in the future because many Cable Networks are dissatisfied with the level of “carry fees” as evidenced by the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and Viacom. Download to iPod Video and iPhone If you would like to learn how the growing abundance of popular TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites is acting as a catalyst to mass market adoption of Internet-Video-to-the-TV, this video is for you. Last week’s show discussed the concept of a “Media Controller” as the first catalyst that is driving the adoption of Third Generation Television. The initial version of a “Media Controller” is the commonly available laptop computer. In such a configuration, the TV functions as a giant monitor for the Internet-connected laptop thereby enabling users to watch Internet Video in a lean-back experience with remote mouse and keyboard. The second catalyst is the growing abundance of TV shows and movies at ad-supported websites that are free to the viewer. For example, the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) are posting many current and previously popular TV shows at places like www.hulu.com and on their own websites. Other websites like Veoh.com provide indexes that link to legitimately available TV shows and movies on the Net. While a number of services (e.g. Amazon-Video-on-Demand) and appliance makers (e.g. Xbox) are starting to provide a “Walled Garden” of Internet-Video-to-the-TV, ultimately consumers will not be satisfied with limited access. Most have been surfing the Web for over ten years and will come to view a “Walled Garden” as a “Walled Prison”. Additionally, most of the movies and TV shows available from Amazon-Video-on-Demand, iTunes, CinemaNow, Xbox, and similar services require the consumer to pay a rental or purchase fee. Instead consumers are likely to have a decided preference for the free viewing of ad-supported websites and will only pay to rent or purchase recently-released motion pictures that are otherwise unavailable for free viewing. Broadcast networks lead the way with TV shows on the Net because, unlike the Cable Networks (e.g. ESPN), they do not get paid “carry fees” by the CATV and Satellite TV operators. However, some of the Cable Networks are also placing shows on the Web. For example, Comedy Central offers both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. Cable Network shows are likely to become even more evident on the Net in the future because many Cable Networks are dissatisfied with the level of “carry fees” as evidenced by the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and Viacom. tag:odeo.com,2009-01-19,24053496 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:00:59 -0800 no Inside Digital Media Podcast Video, hulu.com, digital-media, Internet-video, Future-of-Television, TV Shows on the Internet, Futurer of TV