[opendtv] Google exec: TV's future looks bright--for 90 seconds
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 12:56:34 -0500
"In an experiment conducted jointly by Google and MTV and aimed at the
coveted youth demographic, it was determined that the average viewer
could tolerate a program only one minute and 30 seconds in length, after
which boredom set in."
I'd say, on an interative platform such as a PC, of course this is true.
But there aren't too many DVDs that last only 90 seconds, and yet even
kids seem to watch DVD movies.
This is a case of "it's hard to hype up something that's been around for
50 years, and easy to hype up something unrelated, and pretend it's
related, just because it's new."
Bert
----------------------------------------------------
Google exec: TV's future looks bright--for 90 seconds
David Benjamin
(03/07/2007 3:56 PM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197800929
DUBLIN, Ireland - In an upbeat keynote presentation before the DVB World
forum here Wednesday (March 7), Vincent Dureau, head of TV technology
for Google, reassured his audience of television technologists that
their medium remains "relevant"-even as it seems to face a mortal threat
to its popularity and revenue from his medium, the Internet.
"We don't believe the Internet is replacing television," he said. "The
Web is actually complementary to television."
But he added that in a "connected world," the Web is "the cloud" where
people will eventually keep their content. "Don't trap your content on
devices," said Dureau. "You're better off moving your content to the
Web."
Devices will persist, he said, as keys to content delivery, and
television remains the overwhelmingly favorite device.
Dureau cited a recent experiment in which CBS television provided
samples of its newest broadcast content to the popular YouTube website.
In YouTube's teen and post-teen demographic group, which is coveted by
advertisers but reportedly indifferent to TV, three of the CBS programs
were among YouTube's "Top 25" most-viewed. Dureau added to this good
news the cheerful promise that more Americans will vote in this year's
American Idol TV competition than will vote in next year's presidential
election.
In further support of TV's prevalence, Dureau noted that, despite
advertisers' growing interest in the Web, television still reaches four
times as large an audience as the Internet. He added that ad volume on
the Internet is only one-fifth as large as TV ad volume.
Dureau sketched a future in which video content produced by users for
the Web will join with programs from traditional broadcasters to create
richer, more-professional content on both media. He trumpeted the Web as
a "video playground" for broadcasters, permitting them to experiment
with formats and programs.
By 2010, Duereau said, technology will exist for programmers and
broadcast operators to offer users a library of all video content from
all sources, including the Web, on TV. Advertisers will be "putting
money on specialized content, provided by programmers and operators" but
partly consisting of user-generated video.
Dureau addressed one serious concern among both broadcasters and
advertisers- that "ad zapping" by consumers with personal video
recorders will make TV ads obsolete. To allay this fear, he cited
Google's experience of using the Web's interactivity capabilities to
identify users' interests, which Internet advertisers can then target.
The same potential, he said, applies to TV advertising.
"Advertisers will end up paying a premium for better and targeted
advertising," said Dureau.
Among his rosy predictions for the lucrative convergence of TV and
Internet technologies, however, Dureau injected one troubling note: In
the multimedia future, the audience will have a puppy's attention span.
In an experiment conducted jointly by Google and MTV and aimed at the
coveted youth demographic, it was determined that the average viewer
could tolerate a program only one minute and 30 seconds in length, after
which boredom set in. The same average viewer could watch only three
such 90-second videos in a row-four and a half minutes-before losing
interest.
The ideal ad in this experiment had a duration of five seconds.
All material on this site Copyright 2007 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
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