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Category: Digital Media
November 16th, 2009
Professional Web video comes of age with Brightcove upgrade
The interest in professional online video used to be limited to the big companies who were integrating video clips into their marketing or social media campaigns. Today, the interest has broadened to companies of all sizes, including the small business owners who would like to use video for promotional efforts but found the offerings from companies such as Brightcove to be too much - and too expensive - for their needs.
Recognizing that, Brightcove today is announcing Brightcove 4, a major upgrade to its existing product that includes, among other things, an “Express” edition that’s targeting customers of all sizes. The product starts at $99 per month. In a statement, Brightcove chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said:
As video becomes pervasive on the Web, publishers face increasingly complex and demanding requirements that often span multiple use-cases and devices. Brightcove 4 provides a powerful and extensible suite of new services that make it easy or customers to execute three-screen strategies and generate additional value from online video through new distribution and monetization opportunities.
The company said the Express product is designed to integrate easily with ad networks, Web analytics data and content management systems such as Wordpress, TypePad and others, enabling both large and small Web site owners to embed professional video clips into their sites.
Among the other features of Brightcove 4:
- New cloud services, SDKs and options for publishers that allow for, among other things, easier branding and in-player design elements without the need for Flash programming.
- Features that address new use-cases and offer advanced monetization capabilities, social sharing tools and support for live streaming.
- New capabilities such as the ability to delivery content over the most appropriate protocol for the viewer, whether PC, mobile, connected TV or set-top box.
November 2nd, 2009
iTunes TV subscriptions: Sure, it could happen - and probably will
Apple is reportedly working on a subscription model that would open television viewing through iTunes - sort of. We’re not talking about some sort of service tied to the Apple TV product or even a standalone TV with iTunes built-in (at least not yet.) The Media Memo blog today cited several unnamed sources who say that Apple is pitching the TV networks on a subscription model - though no deals have yet been reported.
Currently, television shows on iTunes are available for purchase, either by the episode or the full season. This model, from what I can tell, would allow users who pay $30 per month for a subscription to watch them without “buying” them.
Sure, the $30 subscription rate is far cheaper than monthly cable or satellite bills. But that doesn’t mean the cable or satellite folks should be running scared just yet. When iTunes first made the leap into video programming on iTunes, Disney was the first to jump on board. The others followed, but not right away. Today, the programming lineup looks much better - but surely, Apple would have to cut new deals on a different distribution and revenue models with the networks.
Would the networks be on board with a model like that? It’s hard to say. I can’t imagine they’d want to disrupt relationships they already have in place with the big cable and satellite providers. But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore the influences of not only the programming being streamed over the Internet itself, but more importantly Apple, a powerhouse with a history of dominating and accelerating the growth of digital media in a “legal” marketplace.
For now, this subscription model chatter is all just rumor. No one, including Apple, has confirmed it. But I don’t put it past Apple. It sounds like something Steve Jobs and company consider. I also trust the reporting and sourcing of Media Memo’s Peter Kafka, so that makes it a bit easier to swallow.
Plus, it’s Apple - which, of course, means the rumor mill kicks into high gear again.
November 2nd, 2009
Make room for another e-reader as Creative shows off prototype
Be on the lookout for yet another e-book reader, this time from Creative, a company probably best known for its Soundblaster audio products and Zen mp3 players.
According to a post on Creative fan site, epiZenter (named for those Zen players), the company revealed a working protoype of the touch-screen reader, dubbed “Mediabook” for now. (Techmeme) The device will reportedly include text-to-speech functionality, an SD memory card slot and have Internet capabilities. There was no word on how that device would access the Web - either via WiFi or a wireless. Details on pricing and availability were also unavailable.
Still. it’s good to see Creative step into this arena. Creative, after all, was the brand behind one of the original portable mp3 players - the Nomad Jukebox. It’s long been understood that you don’t have to be the first one our of the gate to win the race - and Apple proved that to be true with its iPod.
E-Book readers are suddenly the rage. And while Amazon talks a good talk about the Kindle’s success, the company has yet to cough up actual data on how many Kindles have actually been sold. Sony recently upped its marketing campaign on its own e-book reader, including a TV commercial featuring celebrities such as Justin Timberlake and NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. Barnes and Noble entered the game with the Nook just a couple of weeks ago. And now, here comes Creative.
The market is still very ripe here. Amazon and its Kindle may have been first but that doesn’t mean it gets the market leader position. As we (and Creative) have seen before, you don’t have to be first to be the best.
October 30th, 2009
Apple TV update looks good but doesn't offer much more
As Larry Dignan has repeatedly pointed out here, I am one of the few people out there who has an Apple TV device in my living room. For the most part, we like it, using it mostly to rent HD movies or share the occasional photo slide show with friends or family. But just because we like it, doesn’t mean I would automatically recommend it to anyone.
The latest software update - now at version 3.0 - brings a new look to the user interface, making it look more like the “cover flow” look used in iTunes to give browsers a sneak peek of content via thumbnails. But beyond a new UI, the new version of Apple TV doesn’t offer much more. 
That’s disappointing.
Apple has been one of the most innovative companies when it comes to understanding how people want to interact with their digital media, whether photos, music or video. And given what the company has done to introduce us to the power of apps, it’s frustrating that the company hasn’t done more to bring that experience to the Apple TV device. Where’s Hulu? Where’s Netflix? Where’s Pandora? Where’s the innovation?
Quarter after quarter, Apple TV barely gets a mention by the company during its earnings call with analysts. In its 2009 Q1 call back in January, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook - who was seated in the CEO’s chair while Steve Jobs was on medical leave - said the company would continue to invest in Apple TV, even though it had repeatedly been referred to as a “hobby.” During that call, Cook noted that Apple TV growth was almost triple from the year-ago quarter and that movie rentals were sparking some interest among consumers.
We like the movie rentals, too. But we’re finding more value these days in our Netflix subscription, which comes with some titles available for streaming. In recent weeks, I’ve connected the laptop - with Netflix streaming - to the living room HD TV for Family Movie Night.
It’s too bad there’s no Netflix button on Apple TV. Having it there might feel like there’s actually some value in having an Apple TV set-top box in the living room.
Related coverage:
October 13th, 2009
Ruling: Fighting RIAA by blog is OK
Lawsuits have long been tried in the news media, with lawyers putting their spins on the case in front of news cameras and microphones. So what’s wrong with a lawyer using a blog to post court documents and otherwise discredit his legal opponents?
Apparently, nothing.
New York Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy ruled that attorney Ray Beckerman may have been “less thank forthcoming at times” but did not cross ethical bounds by posting his motions on a blog devoted to criticizing the defendant: the Recording Industry Association of America. According to a post on Wired’s Threat Level blog, the music industry’s concerns over the blog were “largely overstated.” (PDF of ruling)
Why not use a blog to help advance a legal case? In most cases, courts are open places and legal filings are made publicly available. Unless the judge has ruled otherwise, by way of a gag order, there’s nothing to stop a lawyer from talking to a news reporter or providing copies of the legal filings. Is it a conflict of interest that the lawyer and the “reporter” are the same person? Absolutely. But clearly, just in the name of the blog - called Recording Industry vs The People - there’s bound to be a spin every now and then.
You almost have to expect it
Also see:
September 30th, 2009
TV Everywhere: We're not just ready; we're already doing it
Television has gone through some major transformations over the years: color, cable, digital and even TiVo. Now, the industry is undergoing another transformation - and consumers are more than ready.
A report released today found that consumers are already accessing television-style video content from devices other than the living room set - PCs, mobile phones and portable gaming devices, among them. And, they like the option of accessing content anywhere, that they’d be willing to pay an additional monthly fee or pay to rent premium content from the studio itself.
The survey of 1,300 people was conducted by The Diffusion Group, a research firm that will publish a whitepaper on the studio-branded rental model next month.
The survey found that nearly 25 percent would be willing to pay $10-$15 per month for a premium “TV Everywhere” service that would allow them to view premium content on their TV, PC or mobile device. About one-third said they would be willing to pay studios a direct rental fee of to watch a movie or TV show on the same devices.
As revolutionary as this sounds, there’s sure to be some resistance, notably from the industries that stand to be cut out of their share of the proceeds. Consider these questions:
- If I can rent or buy a movie directly from the studio, why do I need Blockbuster or Wal-Mart?
- If I can just download a movie or TV show directly into the living room screen or the iPod, do I really need to buy a DVD or Blu-Ray player?
- Why am I still paying a cable or satellite bill when I can get my shows over the Internet?
- I wonder what the wireless carriers and broadband providers think of streaming all of that video content over their networks?
With all of that said, I have no doubt that this concept of TV Everywhere is more a question of “when” than “if.” Consumers aren’t just ready for it, they’re already doing it. According to the survey, 41 percent of respondents said that, in the last month, they have watched video on several devices other than a computer or laptop, including mobile phones, portable video players, televisions and portable gaming players.
Also see:
September 28th, 2009
Health warnings on iPods? EC is thinking about it
Maybe it’s not as crazy as it sounds - health warnings on portable music players such as the iPods so that users can understand that they may doing long-term harm to their hearing.
It’s a proposal that the European Commission is considering, according to a report in the Times of London. Years ago, when I was a blaring-my-music-at-the-stoplight teenager, I might have snubbed the government for trying to get me to turn down the volume. But, as an older guy who increasingly finds himself responding to his wife with a “Huh? Speak up. I can’t hear you,” I understand now that maybe the loud music wasn’t the smartest thing.
I’ll give the EC this much. It’s looking at some innovative ideas around the warnings - from labels to on-screen alerts or periodic reminders after prolonged use. Sure, they’re also looking at a way of capping the volumes on the devices but also realize that there needs to be an override process for users who insist on kicking up the volume.
Still, we need to ask the question: Is this really necessary? Warning labels and all that? From the Times story:
The proposals follow the findings of an EU scientific committee last year that said that between 5 and 10 per cent of portable music users risked permanent hearing damage because they listened to too much music through headphones at or above 89 decibels, a level deemed safe for up to an hour a day. The committee suggested that up to ten million people in the EU could be left with impaired hearing in 20 years’ time, prompting a call for action from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID). Officials say that the maximum volume of portable music devices ranges between 80 and 115 decibels and that earphones can add a further seven to nine decibels on top by taking the sound straight into the ear.
Officials pointed to additional research that found that music is played louder today than it was back in my day of cassette-tape Walkmans. Back then, if you turned up the music too loud, distortion kicked in and the song didn’t sound good. In today’s digital age, distortion is not as much of a problem.
With that said, I have a feeling that me telling my kids, “Hey. Turn that down before I take it away” will be more effective than a warning label that will likely just get covered by a case or some bling.
September 23rd, 2009
Palm tattles on Apple, finds itself in the hot seat instead
No one likes a tattle-tale. But there is a bit of satisfaction that comes when the tables turn on the tattler.
That’s what happened to Palm this week when it ratted out Apple to the USB Implementers Forum, an industry group that oversees the USB standard. Palm, you’ll recall, marketed the Pre smartphone as being compatible with iTunes synchronization. Shortly after, Apple stepped in with an “I don’t think so” and tweaked the software to disable it. Apple tells Palm to cut it out but Palm doesn’t give up, issuing tweaks to re-enable the sync feature on the Pre, followed by yet another tweak by Apple to block it again.
I love where this story goes from here.
September 17th, 2009
Music execs crying about royalties again; Time for a start-over
There’s an interesting piece by CNET’s Greg Sandoval today about royalty fees in the music industry and how the songwriters, composers and music publishers aren’t getting their fair share from iTunes, based on today’s royalty rules. It’s gotten so extreme that those folks even want a cut of the free 30-second samples of songs that are played on iTunes. Here’s one of the best lines in Sandoval’s article:
This would also undoubtedly confirm the perception held by many that those overseeing the music industry are greedy.
Ya think?
I’ll spare you all of the technical details about how royalties are paid in the music industry. Sandoval offers a very thorough explanation about the difference between music sales and music performances - such as songs played at sporting events, in movies and TV shows and so on. And I would encourage interested readers to click the link and read his post. (Techmeme)
I understand that there are some important players in the music industry who may be getting shafted. But how is that the fault of Apple or consumers. We didn’t make the rules. Apparently, changing the rules about the fees takes an act of Congress - literally. And the groups representing the publishers, songwriters and composers have already started to lobby Congress for changes that would include fees for music downloads.
Allow me to say it again, if you will. (I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record - no pun intended.) The music industry cannot turn back the clock on technology. You’d think they would have figured that out already. But here comes another group of music executives who want to somehow morph old rules into new ways. Why on Earth would anyone lobby Congress to modify rules that were established under different market conditions and ask that they be applied to the new way?
Start all over. Take the old rules. Figure out what works and what doesn’t and then come up with suggestions for a new set of rules and guidelines. Come to the table with a solution on how to address the problem.
Hey music executives: We’ve heard your it’s-not-fair cries from the halls of Capitol Hill before. This time, why not be useful and instead come to the table with some new ideas for legislators to ponder.
And be sure to leave the lawyers at home.
Previous coverage:
July 20th, 2009
Shopping together, online: Into a closet vs. real-time
So, Zappos has begun to test its “My Zappos“ social shopping service, first alluded to here in June.
You can put shoes, clothes and accessories into your personal closet, online. You can blog about it. You can share your choices with friends, via Twitter and Facebook. And get feedback, as you try to make a decision.
You can also post personal photos, making the whole closet more like a personal locker of ideas and images, not just your shopping druthers.
Or you could just shop together in real-time, using the sharing functions of a company called DecisionStep.
On the Charlotte Russe site for women’s shoes and fashion, you can immediately share what you’re looking at with one or more friends using the Share Item or ShopTogether options on the toolbar at bottom of the screen. You can talk in a chat window with friends while you’re at it.
And if you’re not sure what you should be interested in, you can see pretty quickly what others are looking at, by looking under Style Tips at the bottom of the page and choosing Watch Others.
This is like the Zappos map. And, yes, Zappos may the online retailer that tends to set the standard in its use of social media (see “Following Zappos” case study).
But if you’re just about to make a purchase, do you want to put it in your closet and wait to see what feedback you get?
Or do you want your friends to weigh in right away?
Or not at all?
Don’t worry. These features won’t go away. Expect, over time, that all shopping sites will have closets with social communication built-in. And real-time chat on product images, specs and more, as well.
Welcome to Shopping 3.0. If you can’t make up your mind on your own, the barriers are being taken down.
June 24th, 2009
Real unleashes video for mobile with Real Player SP
Real Networks today announced the release of a free upgrade to its popular Real Player application. But the importance of this beta release, called Real Player SP, isnt just about the player itself. It’s about the technology that allows it to take video from the Web or a computer and put it through an on-the-fly conversion for playback on other devices, including the Blackberry and Palm Pre.
That becomes a big deal because one of the biggest selling points of the iPhone is the simplicity that comes with transferring multimedia files between the computer and mobile device. As Blackberry maker Research in Motion, Palm and Google go head-first into the competitive smartphone business, the ability to easily bring video to the device becomes critical.
The new Real Player also has a feature that allows videos to be shared via Twitter, Facebook or email with an extra click. It also comes with some customization options, which allows for specific device profiles or settings for the video format or size. And it creates audio-only version of videos for playback on audio-only devices.
The company said the player is designed to format for the existing media players on the various devices so that the user doesn’t have to download and install anything from the device itself.
For now, it’s just for Windows but Real says a Mac version is expected by the year’s end. There’s also a premium version for $39.99 that offers support for features such as DVD playback and DVD burning. It’s also worth noting that it will only work with Web video that is not DRM-protected.
June 23rd, 2009
The Real Case in Social Media: Zappos CEO Not All Atwitter About Twitter
When reporting first began on ZDNet’s look at Zappos’ use of social media to build its online retailing business, its CEO, Tony Hsieh, had just crossed 600,000 followers on Twitter.
This past week, he passed 800,000. No, the reporting didn’t take that long. It just shows how fast you can gather followers, once you have momentum and critical mass.
Which Hsieh does. And the magnitude of his following generates a lot of media interest. It’s partly responsible for getting the ZDNet case study off the ground. But tweeting is bite-sized and fun, as captured in this recent Zappos video on same.
But, if you’re a competitor to Zappos and you think somehow that twittering and blogging are somehow the secret to its success as the Web’s most successful seller of shoes, you’re missing the point. Or, points, really.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 23rd, 2009
The media is dead. Long live the media
[The opinions expressed here are mine alone, and not those of Google, Inc. my current employer.]
I gave up on the mainstream media in 2002-2003, in the run up to the Iraq war. Every single channel in the USA was selling the prospect of war like a product, a new soap powder. I tried to find coverage of the over one million person protest march in London that I’d heard about via email, and it was barely mentioned. The last straw came when I got so angry I nearly threw a chair through my brand new plasma TV, which would have been an expensive outburst, but that’s what you get for watching Fox News for longer than it takes to flip through the channels on the remote.
Godzilla: I just didn't care
I moved to the Internet to get my news coverage, and I’ve never looked back. Yes, I’m seeing some of the same US-centric reports, but you can easily balance them by looking at the viewpoint on events from world wide media coverage. There are so many alternatives to simple text now too. Video sharing sites provide instant camera-phone access to events that would never have received attention before. You can actually watch an event that previously would only be reported from one point of view and make up your own mind about what happened. New communications media like Twitter have become so important in recent events that the US government requested the company postpone scheduled maintenance in the aftermath of the Iranian election, because so many Iranians were using it to communicate with the outside world.
Mainstream cinema I’d given up much earlier than that. I went to see the movie “Godzilla” when it came out in 1998. I’d seen the previews and was excited about actually seeing a big lizard trample New York underfoot. I wasn’t disappointed. The special effects (an early use of computer-generated imagery) were everything they promised in the trailers. I actually believed a giant lizard was loose in the Big Apple. But during the movie I realized I felt completely detached from the spectacle. It took me a while to realize the problem was I just didn’t care. The story was facile (OK, it was a monster movie) and the characters were one dimensional cardboard cut-outs. I was bored, which is the ultimate sin for a summer blockbuster movie.
Since then I’ve still enjoyed movies, but now I only go watch movies with recommendations from people whose judgment I trust. I use a peer-to-peer filter on my viewing habits these days. As for TV shows I no longer partake. If I hear about anything interesting on the networks I wait until it is available on DvD, then buy the boxed set to enjoy at my leisure. No adverts, you see. Anyone who has ever watched US TV channels will realize how unbearable the adverts make trying to watch a program. Some people use a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to achieve the same effect, but I just don’t want to encourage the TV networks any more so I don’t subscribe.
Mostly I like to watch things online. Read the rest of this entry »
June 19th, 2009
RIAA's $1.92 million victory: more about message, less about money
The Recording Industry Association of America won a big one yesterday - a $1.92 million judgment against a woman charged with copyright infringement. But you won’t hear champagne bottles popping open in Hollywood.
Is anyone really a winner here? Does the RIAA expect to see a single nickel of the judgment for copyright infringement? Does anyone think that such a judgment will turn back the hands of time and send music lovers back to CDs from Tower Records?
Also see: Wow! Jury verdict in Capitol v Thomas-Rasset: $2 million
The buzz this morning is that the judgment - which amounted to $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that the woman was accused of sharing over the Internet - is excessive. And, on the surface, it looks like the woman, named Jammie Thomas-Rasset, is nothing more than a victim of an overzealous recording industry looking to make an example of a music downloader.
After all, that’s what this is about, right? The recording industry is sending a message about the willful and unlawful sharing of copyrighted music, a message that’s likely cost far more than $1.92 million in legal fees over the years.
It may have been a message that was meant to resonate with everyday folks who are using their home computers to share music over the Internet. But Thomas-Rasset isn’t your ordinary victim here either. Her case was reportedly full of holes and, in recent days, information surfaced to suggest that she was being less the truthful about her innocence, including revelations that she had her computer hard drive replaced. Some have even suggested that the large judgment was imposed by the jury because they suspected that Thomas-Rasset had lied during the court proceedings.
According to a post on Ars Technica, the woman gasped aloud in court when the judgment was read but later said of the settlement money: “Good luck trying to get it from me… it’s like squeezing blood from a turnip.”
June 17th, 2009
'Quality Scores' For Web Content: How Numbers Will Create A 'Beautiful Cycle of Greatness for Us All'
Patrick Keane spent four years at Google, before becoming chief marketing officer at CBS Interactive (which owns CNet and ZDNet).
Now he’s in his third month as chief executive officer at Associated Content, the “people’s media” company.
And the former head of advertising sales strategy at the world’s dominant search service is ready to apply the numeric ranking techniques of Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s digital steamroller to the stuff that has long been regarded as the most intangible of products: quality content.
Writers, authors, video producers and the like may cringe at the idea that every piece of work they do will be graded on a 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 scale, kind of like a taste score by Robert Parker or The Wine Spectator, for a fermented grape beverage.
But it’s coming and Keane wants his outfit to be the one that cracks the code. Literally.
Keane is at work on figuring out what will constitute a Quality Score, for every article, podcast, Webcast or other piece of output generated by an Associated Content contributor. If his 21st Century content production and distribution network can figure out how to put a useful rank on what it puts out on the Web then it can raise it up, notch by notch.
This scoring comes right back to the Page Rank process that is at the heart of Google’s success as a search engine.
“The great thing about Page Rank in Google ‘ s algorithm is … seeing the Web as a big popularity contest,’’ said Keane, in Associated Content’s offices on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.
The idea, of course, is this: The more sites that link to a particular piece of content, the more votes there are that this piece of content is useful. That is to say, that the content is good. That it has higher quality than other pieces of content of similar sort on the Web.
So the Quality Score that is in the conceptual stage at Associated Content will attempt to provide a similar benchmark that not just the popularity of a piece of content, but its usefulness. In the Associated Content world, usefulness is a key component of quality.
Says Keane:
“The reality of the Web is: Quality needs a redefinition and retooling in my opinion.
Quality is a subjective term. Does quality equal Tom Friedman and Paul Krugman writing for the New York Times with Princeton and Columbia-trained brains and all the journalism chops you could ever have? They create a certain valuable content that a certain user gravitates toward.
But, there could be a guy blogging in his underpants in Chicago about video games, that might not be a professionally trained journalist and may not be the world’s best writer, but if someone is looking for cheat codes, is looking for information and is looking for strategic tools and advice on how to play games and that guy is creating great content, is that quality? Is that useful for the user?
I think quality needs to veer a little more closely to useful as opposed to Pulitzer-Peabody winning kind of professionalism. I think there is a place for both.’’
June 17th, 2009
AP, Meet AC. And, BTW, News is Not Really 'Monetizable,' on the Web.
The Associated Press was created in 1846 as a news cooperative. The idea was to allow member newspapers (and later, radio and TV stations) to combine costs in covering, reporting on and distributing news of import to its members.
Its 21st Century counterpart, Associated Content, goes it one better. It pays anyone to create content. The contributor does not have to be a professional . And the person only gets paid if the content gets read. Oh, and by the way, news is not something that really registers at Associated Content.
You can find lots of Father’s Day articles, from AC. But don’t expect a lot of coverage of the L.A. Lakers’ recent championship in basketball.
“Yeah, you can do a search on Associated Content and find news content,’’ says AC chief executive Patrick Keane, formerly of CBS Interactive (owners of ZDNet, BNET and CNet) and Google. “But we typically don’t pay upfront for that. It’s not something we would encourage over time because news content, while, it generates a lot of traffic and user interest, it is very difficult to monetize.”
How’s that?
“There are not a lot of advertisers that want to associate with swine flu and floods in Iowa, even though there are a lot of people who are talking about it and reading about it and understanding it,’’ Keane (at right) told Between The Lines Wednesday. “It ‘s just hard to sell ads against that stuff.”
What works on the Web is what Wired editor Chris Anderson gave a sexy name to: Long tail content.
Translate to 20th Century English and you’d call it stuff with a long shelf life.
How-to stories. Advice. Narrow, unique articles based on accomplishing tasks. Like making clothes you might wear once a year. But every year you do it.
“The problem with news content is its shelf-life is limited and user interest is sort of ephemeral to whatever that is, for a short period of time,’’ said Keane. “But if someone writes a great piece of content on home-made Halloween costumes, that could be written in 2005 and be as relevant this October as it was the day it was written.”
June 16th, 2009
The Cost of the Free Internet
The outpouring of interest in and passionate argument about IAC chairman Barry Diller’s declaration last week that the delivery of content over the Internet ‘absolutely’ will become a ‘paid system’ was instructive.
First, it shows the power of the “free” Internet, as it is currently constructed. A single article gets read 50,000 times. Hundreds of individuals weighed in with more than 350 talkback postings. And the message was clear: the Internet is not free now, never was.
But let’s peel this back a bit – and even look at who benefits from this “not free” content.
1. The Internet is not free.
To a great number of the participants, the Internet has never been free, because they pay for access to it. $15 a month or $50 a month, whatever the price, that is what they believe they pay for access. And the content that comes to them through that access.
But that’s not all:
Everyone pays for the Internet already. We pay for the speed of the connection. Some pay email providers. Some pay for online storage. Some pay by buying products online. Some pay for rare and valuable information or to receive specific publications. We also pay with the attention we give to advertisements on our favorite sites. We pay with the time we waste sorting through all the spam we get from advertisers.
Said BillDem on 06/10/09.
Of course, a few sites, most notably the Wall Street Journal, do charge a subscription fee for content. Research houses charge by the report or by subscription. But let’s recognize the obvious here: That’s the exception the vast majority of news and information sites make their content available free and try to cover the costs via ads and sponsorship.
2. TV is not free.
Interestingly, the days of video programming being free have largely passed into history. Indeed, June 12 was kind of a demarcation date of sorts, for that. That’s when all over-the-air broadcasting of TV signals went digital. That’s when consumers had to buy equipment (converters or new TVs) to keep getting TV “for free.” Or, at long last, sign up with a cable TV or satellite TV operator to keep getting programming.
June 10th, 2009
Barry Diller: The Internet 'Absolutely' Will Become a 'Paid System'. Time Projection: Within 5 Years
The days of the free Internet will draw to a close over the next five years, according to the chairman and chief executive of IAC, the interactive services company which operates a collection of more than 30 Internet sites which produce $1.5 billion a year in revenue.
The only missing link, according to Barry Diller, who cut his teeth building up over-the-air and cable TV networks: a good billing system, akin to Amazon’s “one-click” button or the Apple iPhone’s slick downloading of paid applications.
“I absolutely believe the Internet is passing from its free days into a paid system. Inevitably, I promise you, it will be paid,” Diller said in a keynote discussion opening up the Advertising 2.0 conference held at his company’s futuristic glass building alongside the Hudson River in Manhattan. “Not every single thing, but anything of value. “
The fact that content and services on the Internet so far have been largely supplied for no charge is “an accident of historical moment that will be corrected,” he said, in an era of “creative chaos” that will span the next three to five years.
So far, news, content and service suppliers were “afraid of not being dinosaurs and slapped everything up on the Internet for free,’’ he said, in an interchange with BusinessWeek media columnist Jon Fine.
But, that will be change. The New York Times, for instance, likely will have to go beyond the “pay wall” in order to cover the cost of its worldwide reporting corps, even if it means having 1, 2 or 3 million paid subscribers, instead of 20 million unique visitors a month. And people will pay – if it is quality they’re buying.
“People have paid for content,’’ he said. “They always have.”
IAC’s Match.com, a dating service, already charges subscription fees. IAC also operates Ask.com, the search service, UrbanSpoon, one of those iPhone apps, Citysearch, a local information service, and The Daily Beast, a content site headed by former New Yorker editor Tina Brown.
Inevitably, Diller said, the “base model” of the Internet will be paid, at the end of the chaos. The forms will include not just subscriptions and individual one-time purchases, but rapid-fire micropayments and other mechanisms.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 4th, 2009
Apple TV: Games and apps would be a tough way to gain traction
Like most 11-year-olds, my son loves playing video games on the Wii, the PlayStation and, yes, even on his iPod Touch. With that said, I don’t know if he’d find anything appealing about playing the games he’s downloaded from Apple’s App Store on the living room big screen TV - not with a Wii and PlayStation already there.
This morning, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggested that Apple could use next week’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference to launch an SDK for games in a new Apple TV App Store - not that Apple has offered any clues that it’s even working on an App Store for Apple TV.
Munster, it seems, has a good eye for businesses Apple should be in - even if Apple itself doesn’t see it that way. After all, it was Munster who predicted back in February that Apple would sell 6.6 million Apple TV units this year. Yet, I haven’t really heard a peep out of Apple as it relates to Apple TV in months and I certainly haven’t seen any efforts by the company to raise awareness about Apple TV and the digital living room. 
For the sake of disclosure, I have an Apple TV unit in my living room and my family likes using it to rent HD movies (no need for a Blu-Ray player in my home) and play slide shows of our family photo albums in iPhoto. Like Munster, I would like to see Apple pay more attention to Apple TV and treat it with the same respect it gives the iPod, the iPhone and the Mac. It really is an innovative product worthy of more respect and there’s so much more than the company could and should be doing with it.
May 29th, 2009
Bing vs. Bing: Pitching To Be Its Pitchman?
You had to expect it.
The personage who writes the Bing blog and column for Fortune is “moderately outraged” by Microsoft’s use of his pen name as the name of its latest search engine.
Gil Schwartz, the executive vice president and chief communications officer of CBS Corporation (which owns ZDNet), writes screeds about inanities about life at the top of American corporations. He does so under the pen name Stanley Bing. His latest book? “Executricks,” about enjoying the perks of executive live, while working only as much as absolutely essential.
So it might not be a good fit to use Stanley as a spokesman for Bing in Microsoft’s upcoming $100 million on behalf of a search engine that it hopes will set a new standard in tireless and effective pinpointing, retrieval and presentation of information.
But, hey, do you really expect this latest Microsoft campaign to show as much wit or creativity as the ongoing Mac vs. PC campaign from Apple?
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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