[opendtv] News: Lots of Little Screens: TV Is Changing Shape

[Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/business/02frame.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 

Lots of Little Screens: TV Is Changing Shape

By DENISE CARUSO
Published: December 2, 2007

INEXPENSIVE broadband access has done far more for online video than 
enable the success of services like YouTube and iTunes. By unchaining 
video watchers from their TV sets, it has opened the floodgates to a 
generation of TV producers for whom the Internet is their native 
medium.
And as they shift their focus away from TV to grab us on one of the 
many other screens in our lives - our computers, cellphones and iPods 
- the command-and-control economic model of traditional television is 
being quickly superseded by the market chaos of a freewheeling and 
open digital network.
According to Move Networks, a company based in Utah that provides 
online video technologies, more than 100,000 new viewers jump online 
every 24 hours to watch its clients' long-form or episodic video. 
During the first two weeks of November alone, more than twice the 
number of Americans were watching TV online than in the entire month 
of August.
The shift is proving quite inspirational to digital media entrepreneurs.

"What absolutely convinced me to start a company in this area was 
when I realized just how large the disruption was," said Kip 
McClanahan, the co-founder and chief executive of ON Networks, an 
online studio in Austin, Tex. "It touches everything - how video 
content is created and monetized, how it's distributed and consumed. 
And it's a half-trillion-dollar market, if you include the 
advertising that supports it and the revenue associated with 
subscriptions, tickets and so on."
A market that size provides plenty of room for experimentation. Many 
flavors of technology and programming are being tested, as are some 
changes in traditional revenue models.
Vuze, based in Palo Alto, and Joost, based in Leiden in the 
Netherlands, for example, have both developed proprietary software 
that must be downloaded to view their video programming. In addition 
to providing programming from established brands like PBS, Showtime, 
the BBC and A&E, the start-ups encourage new producers to make deals 
with them and upload new programs to their sites.
ON does not distribute any traditional TV shows. Instead, it works 
with professional content creators who develop original programs in 
HDTV. So far, it has produced hundreds of episodes for 25 programs, 
all of which are available at the ON Web site, as well as through 
iTunes and AT&T, its distribution partners. They include a dating 
show, produced in partnership with NBC, and a home-building show 
called "Mainstream Green."
Blip Networks, based in New York, is another company working to 
create its own established brands, providing thousands of short-form 
videos from all comers. In addition to one-off documentaries like 
"Gotham Girls Roller Derby," Blip's library includes weekly news 
satires like "Goodnight Burbank," which drew favorable notice from 
several mainstream media outlets, including USA Today and The Los 
Angeles Times.
Blip syndicates its programming to America Online, Yahoo, Google, 
iTunes, Facebook and other big Web distributors. Vuze, Joost, Blip 
and ON all share as much as 50 percent of their revenue with the 
content producers, regardless of distribution medium. "If that model 
existed today, writers wouldn't be on strike," said Mr. McClanahan.
René Pinnell, the director of "Backpack Picnic," a popular sketch 
comedy show that came to ON after the troupe produced two pilots that 
were never shown by MTV, said the online environment is a "really 
good deal" for many reasons.
"The biggest one is that it allows us a tremendous amount of creative 
freedom we wouldn't get in a more traditional media environment," he 
said. "The investment is low for them - nowhere near the $500,000 a 
network will spend on one episode. They can afford to trust us."
For its part, Hulu of Los Angeles has turned a traditional TV library 
into a promotional vehicle for, well, more TV. The joint venture 
between NBC Universal and the News Corporation offers scores of 
popular prime-time shows from all the major networks and channels, as 
well as past hits like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
"Because people can watch TV shows when and where they want, they can 
sample a lot more shows," said Jason Kilar, chief executive of Hulu.
As a means to that end, Hulu may have persuaded the industry to relax 
a bit. Hulu's player allows viewers to create short video clips from 
the shows they watch and put them in e-mail messages or on Web sites, 
including blogs, an activity that in the past has drawn nasty letters 
from copyright lawyers. "This is a key way that we can make sure the 
content finds the audience," said Mr. Kilar.
But what happens to the television industry when the traditional way 
for content to find its audience becomes obsolete?
"There's a lot of rewriting of the concept of windows in the TV 
network world today - the timing of when and where shows appear," 
said Allen Weiner, the managing vice president for media and consumer 
technologies for the Gartner Group in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In the old days, after something appeared on TV, its release to other 
distribution channels was carefully staged - from the timing of 
reruns to the DVD release to when it would be available on-demand. 
"We're seeing all kinds of new windows occurring, and no one knows 
what the magic formula will be," he said. "A lot depends on 
advertiser reaction and on user behavior."
One closely watched approach is the new online series "Quarterlife," 
by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who produced "My So-Called 
Life." Episodes first appear on MySpace TV, then are available the 
next day on Quarterlife.com, and a week later on YouTube, Facebook 
and Imeem. There is talk that they may even appear later on network 
TV - but as the last window, rather than the first.
As far as ON is concerned, Mr. McClanahan intends to put his programs 
in every single window he can find. Unlike other companies, ON 
optimizes all its shows for viewing on any video-capable device, a 
feature he calls "lifestyle distribution."
That's why he has deals with partners like iTunes and AT&T's 
Television, Broadband and Wireless Services, both of which can 
deliver video programs to multiple devices, from plasma TVs to 
computer screens and cellphones.
"You can't expect to control consumers and force them to come to 
prime time at 7 p.m. on a Monday night," said Mr. McClanahan. "If the 
consumer wants it on their phone at 3 p.m. while they're on the golf 
course, then that's where we have to deliver it."
Denise Caruso is executive director of the Hybrid Vigor Institute, 
which studies collaborative problem-solving. E-mail: 
dcaruso@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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