ITV looking to charge viewers for clips

SuBo on Britain's Got Talent

My jaw dropped when Brand Republic posted a story about Michael Grade, Chairman of ITV talking about charging for video clips of shows like Britain’s Got Talent.

This a classic example of a highly experienced ‘traditional’ media guy struggling with the world of digital. The embarrassment of having missed out on millions of pounds of advertising revenue during the Susan Boyle craze (because Grade and his team had failed to agree on a revenue share deal with YouTube), has lead ITV to leap to the conclusion that the only way forward is to charge between 10p-50p per clip.

I just don’t get this thinking. So, you get a viral phenomenon like SuBo on Britain’s Got Talent. It drives up the ratings, it makes the show even more talked about an popular across the globe. So, next time, instead of finding multiple ways of monetising the viral/exponential growth by maybe doing exclusive distribution deals of the content with one of the many video aggregators or social networks or even providing the content on their own ITV embedable video player – all of which could be monetised through advertising – they are going to but a great big barrier to viral growth. All this will achieve is some very mediocre content revenues and a mountain of legal costs in protecting the content that will inevitably appear on the torrents and unofficial video sites.

Video

ITV, Michael Grade, Susan Boyle

July 13, 2009

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Microsoft to launch music service to rival Spotify?

The Telegraph have just put out a story about Microsoft launching its own music streaming/download service by end of July! Differentiating itself by using the Xbox as the entertainment hub to the home.

This is getting interesting – what with Virgin Media about to launch a music service in the UK, Nokia building up a head of steam on their Comes With Music strategy and We7 and Spotify gaining traction. It adds weight to my earlier ramblings about digital entertainment content being available everywhere on every device at any time turning the music/video into a commodity. The services that will win, therefore, will not be the ones that just offer access to millions of tracks (they’ll all do that) – it’ll be the ones that can integrate easily on all of our devices (computer, phone, TV, home stereo) and that can make sense of our tastes and moods to offer us the right music at the right time.

Music

Microsoft, Spotify

July 13, 2009

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Web Awards single out entertainment services

Last week saw the inaugural TechCrunch Europe Awards – baptised the Europas – announce its shortlist and winners. Judging by all the tweets on the day, it sounded like a great bash. I really need to go next year!

The thing that struck me most was the success of entertainment-based services (Spotify, Songkick, Songcloud are just three examples) and specifically the adulation that Spotify received. They were the clear winners on the night. I love seeing European companies getting traction and being rewarded for their success, however, I am a little perplexed that a service like Spotify, which is ultimately just another way of streaming content, had so much success. There is a real question mark over the long term viability of any content delivery service that doesn’t own its content – no matter how brilliantly intuitive or designed it is (and Spotify is both!).

My belief is the future will see us all have access to any music and video, any where and at any time. And the beauty (for consumers) and problem (for content services) with this is that if we can easily access all music on Spotify and We7 and Last.fm and any other newcomer in this space, what stops me from jumping from one to the other depending on what’s cheapest or coolest or best integrated? It’s not like you loose all of your music if you move to the next coolest music or video service, so what is it that keeps me there?

Last.fm developed a music social network, We7 have been attracting users by hosting exclusive content for a limited period and Spotify have focused on the simplicity of their UI and quality of the files. But is this enough to keep the technophile music fans from jumping ship next time another service launches?

Music

Europas, Last.fm, Spotify, We7

July 11, 2009

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Glasto hits online maturity

Glatonbury mud festival

Glastonbury was four times bigger in 2009 than in 2008… well, in digital terms, anyway.

The BBC festival website managed a record of 7.2 million video streams and the red button coverage on digital TV attracted over 6.1 million viewers over the weekend. Lady Gaga was by far the biggest act online – attracting 1.3 million streams compared to last year’s top act Jay Z who attracted just 119,000 streams…

So, why the increased interest compared to 2008? It’s not like there are 4x more people online, surely? It could be because they had three webcams placed around the site giving visitors a chance to watch from different angles. Even though that was cool, I think that the increase has more to do with the fact that the iPlayer has become even more prevalent in our everyday lives over the last 12 months.

Music, Video

BBC

July 9, 2009

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Music streaming services growing fast in the UK

Every week there’s a news alert about ‘ad funded music services’ Spotify or We7 reaching new milestones for user numbers. Last week Spotify announced 2 million UK users, this week it’s We7′s turn to announce 2 million unique users.

I am chuffed to bits to see two European-based music businesses growing so rapidly. These guys have clearly demonstrated that there is a demand for free (and legal) music which is effortlessly available on the web/desktop. This demand will ultimately lead to us having access to all entertainment content at any time on any device. There are still many distribution, rights and business model issues that need to be sorted before this happens, but it will happen.

So, once digital distribution has been sorted, the businesses that will thrive will be those who have also sussed out digital demand. In a world where everything is available to everybody at any time and on any device, demand is no longer based on what is available, but on what content is most relevant to us at that specific time. We will need smart filters that serve up relevant content to us based on location, time, entourage, past activity, tastes and mood.

That is why I am so excited about the work that my team is doing at The Filter. For the last 5 years we have been developing recommendation and relevance technologies for all types of digital content that use multiple inputs (consumption data, meta data, location, time zone, social data, etc…) to build models that enable us to work out the probability of what content goes with what situation – by using behaviour and mashing it up with meta data to provide a user with the most relevant content possible for them.

I am very proud that we have proven beyond any doubt that providing users with relevant choices of content leads to an increase in consumption per visit AND an increase in the number of visits because the user finds more content that they like at each visit. Over the last 12 months partners that use The Filter on their sites have seen uplifts in consumption of 15-20% based on increases in streams per visit and visits per week. And for us, it is just the start. As we get access to more data (using location on mobiles) and fine tune our engines, technologies like this will provide better content choices to individuals leading to more consumption.

Music, Technology

recommendations, relevance, Spotify, The Filter, We7

July 9, 2009

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Facebook – a social network for the over 50s?

So, the over 55s are signing up to Facebook in droves (an increase of 500% in the last 6 months) possibly fueling the exodus of younger users. Ironic that a site that was initially built for college students is being taken over by ‘silver surfers’. This could be a very good thing for Facebook. Let’s face it, there are more older people in the world who are less fickle and have more money.

Social Media

Facebook

July 9, 2009

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Music royalties agreed for online radio – Pandora now safe?

Listening to online radio

I love Pandora. I know I can’t get it out here in the UK anymore, but I still love it (and when there’s a will, there’s a way – like using a service like Hotspot Shield). So, I was buoyed by the news that webcasters, artists and the record labels have reached an agreement on royalties for online radio (see the post on Pandora’s blog if you want to grasp how important this was to the company).

My understanding is that the level of royalties finally agreed is still higher than traditional radio, however, they will enable companies like Pandora to exist. They have said that they will have to start charging $0.99 for users who listen to more than 40 hours per month – a small price to pay for one of the best online radio services available.

This news has come off the back of changes in the PRS rates for interactive radio in the UK. So, big question is will we see Pandora back in the UK market any time soon? The gap that Pandora left here was significant – just look at the traction that We7 and Spotify have had in the UK in the last 12 months.

Music

Online radio, Pandora, Royalties

July 8, 2009

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Normal telly versus webTV

I sit here tonight on my sofa watching the telly. My PVR is polluted with stuff that the kids and my wife have recorded, so I am really left with channel surfing to quench my thirst for entertainment.

So, BBC1… Holby City (poor man’s ER)
BBC2… Coast (about the UK’s coastal cities)
ITV… Ladette to Lady (surely, this is the lowest of the low?)
Channel 4… Big Brother (I was wrong, this is the lowest common denominator stuff)

Ok, not any original or interesting content on right now on the main 4 channels. But, I have Sky, so I will be saved by the plethora of high quality digital channels on offer, won’t I?

Click… Road Wars

Click… Diary of a Mail Order Bride

Click… Britain’s Next Top Model

Click… 10 Years Younger USA

Ok, I give up. I reckon it’ll be easier and quicker for me to find some good stuff on the web. I am now on YouTube and within 2 seconds I find this… an Evian viral ad. It’s an advert and it is more engaging and entertaining than anything I found on the REAL telly tonight. Next time I am sitting here looking for tv entertainment, I will not reach for the remote, but pick up my laptop instead.

WebTV and IPTV

Crap telly, Evian, Viral

July 7, 2009

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The great social barometer

Michael Jackson is surely the first mega star to die in the digital age. Many people predicted that he would top the charts and the level of his domination in record stores was probably not a big surprise – we’ve seen that before. What has gripped me is how the internet absorbed our reaction and became an incredibly powerful social barometer.

I know that this is not the first event that has unfolded before our computer and mobile screens – but I cannot think of any other event dominating the news feeds, Twitter AND also triggering unprecedented digital revenues (see MJ’s near total domination of the iTunes charts across the world, as well as the matter of the 2.6 million downloads of his music in just one week).

And it doesn’t stop there; Mashable reported yesterday that Jacko’s fan page on Facebook went from 80,000 fans (before his death) to 6.7 million… eclipsing even previous ‘king of Facebook’ Barack Obama, and there was the online lottery to ‘win’ tickets to today’s memorial service.

This surge of Michael Jackson fever will undoubtedly slow down in the next few days, but I do think that we have witnessed a digital phenomenon like we have never seen before… and may never see again?

And one more thing – this moon walk video was viewed 14.5m times in the last few weeks on YouTube. Wow!

Music, Social Media

Facebook, Michael Jackson

July 7, 2009

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I heart my NewTeeVee

It’s been, what, 6 months? Followed a link on Twitter, and ended up at NewTeeVee (part of the GigaOM collection of blogs). And within minutes I was hooked – I signed up to the daily email alerts and I visit every day.

NewTeeVee brands itself as the place to go to “follow the video revolution”. If you work in any form of video/TV or are simply passionate about the way TV and video is changing, then this is one to add to your feeds. I manage to keep on top of the main news stories in video just by scanning through the daily email. For my job, it is an essential source of information.

But NewTeeVee is not just about video related news – it’s also about the content. They have their own station that highlights and showcases the best web video out there. The team review webTV series and content, and visitors can rate the content. In effect, through their editors and community they do what all the big video portals fail to do – they filter out all the crap so that we are left with some great content to chose from. Lovely.

They cover a wide range of content type from great viral vids posted on YouTube all the way to fully crafted webTV content. Recent examples of great content highlighted by NewTeeVee includes the Filipino Prisoners tribute to Michael Jackson…

And Imaginary Bitches first series on YouTube.

Blogroll, Cool sites, Video

July 6, 2009

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