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The two kinds of Web video

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

I believe that there are two kinds of Web videos – those that exist as self-contained narratives, and those that serve a functional external purpose.

Self-contained narratives are iterations of a larger type, what we have classically referred to as “movies” or “films”. Movies can be anything from that 15 second clip of a dog on a skateboard to a two-hour long Netflix stream of Spider-Man 3. To a degree such videos can serve a functional external purpose – for example, the skateboard video could be co-opted by a skateboarding website to help generate pageviews, and we certainly understand a large Hollywood movie like Spider-Man 3 is going to have all kinds of licensed merchandise tie-ins – but invariably, “movies” are, in the old media sense, individual SKUs meant to be consumed on a per-performance basis. By individual SKU, I mean that we think of these movies as products, something we would have traditionally exhibited on the aforementioned per-performance basis; we’d sell tickets or rent the DVD or otherwise distribute, or commoditize, these self-contained narratives for no other reason than to create a viewing experience, or an individual performance of a narrative which, hopefully, would be paid for individually. Moreover, the experience can end when the curtains close and the lights come up.

Now, the fortunate thing about the Web is that anyone, anywhere, even collaboratively over great distances, can produce movies, the 15-second or 2-hour variety, completely unrestricted, and post them almost anywhere on-line. From there, movies can take on new life in the social media space, too, in that they can spread an idea, help build a filmmaker’s portfolio and reputation, foster a meme, and perhaps lead to further work for the filmmakers. Also, movies can become an active part of participatory culture.

The unfortunate thing is that, as digital commodities with a reproduction price of zero, movies on-line are painfully difficult to sell as self-contained narratives. Almost all must (or inevitably will via infringement) be shared for free.

Which brings me to our second variety of Web video, material that serves a functional external purpose… (more…)

Tags: film, social media, social media video, video, web video
Posted in advertising, communication, convergence, digital media, entertainment, film, monetization, net economics, new media, old media, storytelling, web video | Comments

Post-class Reflection: Economics 101, courtesy of Monday Night Football, Chris Anderson, and Mickey Mouse

Friday, October 30th, 2009

I’ll explain what this image is about momentarily, but first, let me begin with a prologue. Tuesday night in my Net Economics course at the UW MCDM a lively debate, to say the least, was had over Chris Anderson’s new book “Free”; whether free as a concept was good or bad. I took the free side, but it made me feel a little lonely. I almost felt like I was the only student in the room who believed that it’s a good thing that we’re moving towards a digital economy based on giving bits away, harnessing business models that find alternative sources of revenue. For instance, a fellow student mentioned that Microsoft has a 90% market share of netbook operating systems, a testament to the strength of their software, no doubt. However, I posited that if MSFT went the Anderson route and gave their OS away for free they could have a 100% market share. I’m not going to say what the reaction to that was, but considering our proximity to Redmond and the makeup of the class, which includes Microsoft employees, you can take a wild guess…

Anderson’s “Free” starts out by giving us a quick economics briefing, using that as backdrop to defend the notion of ‘free’. He explains that, for instance, traditional, or old media has used a third-party advertising model to earn revenue while still providing a “free” product. I may not pay for 30 Rock, but when I buy products advertised during commercial breaks on TV or in interstitials on Hulu, I am still giving my money to NBC. It’s pretty basic and has worked for Google, a benevolent empire that has largely amassed their wealth through selling advertising and diversifying revenue streams. Of course, the model isn’t absolutely identical – the web magnifies things by presenting opportunities to apply wisdom gleaned from specific metrics and target users with relevant advertising, as well as ways of satisfying niches with long tail services – but the principle is the same: subsidize one product (free content) with money made from another (paid ad space). Multiply and diversify.

With the notion of one product funding the other in mind, I further illustrate the point by explaining how I helped inadvertently save ABC, Monday Night Football, and the Disney company in 2004. Maybe. Or not. But keep reading! I think you’ll enjoy the reasoning anyways!

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Tags: ABC, Al Michaels, Bob Iger, chris anderson, Disney, economics, Epic Mickey, ESPN, football, free, kathy gill, MCDM, metrics, mickey mouse, Microsoft, MNF, Monday Night Football, monetization, NBC, NBC Universal, net economics, netecon, nintendo, Oswald, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, SNF, sports, Sunday Night Football, synergy, television, The Walt Disney Company, TWDC, USC, uw, video games, wii
Posted in advertising, entertainment, monetization, net economics, new media, old media, personal, reading reflections | Comments

Book Review: Chris Anderson’s “Free, The Future of a Radical Price”

Monday, October 26th, 2009

…and it could be yours, absolutely free!

“Free,” the latest book by Chris Anderson, author of “The Long Tail” and editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, illustrates how the 21st century’s digital economy of ones and zeros is increasingly moving towards a pricing model where everything is (or should be), essentially, free (Anderson, 2009). Another way of putting it is thus: whereas the marginal cost of reproducing intangible digital goods made of bits instead of atoms is practically zero, whereas Moore’s law and other concepts dictate that the cost of processors, bandwidth, and storage are marching towards nil, and whereas less typical motives for doing business like gaining reputation and raising social capital are on the rise, the very notion that one should pay for digital goods and services is pretty much dead at the door. Anecdotally, for a US economy that is for all intents and purposes steeped in never-ending debt, built on the foundations of imaginary money no less, the irony is not lost upon myself that we really ought not to be paying for anything anyways! Nonetheless, money is scarce, but the resource of intellectual property is endless. “Free” addresses what to do about this, and how real money can be made by giving everything away.

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Tags: chris anderson, economics, free, long tail, malcolm gladwell, net economics, piracy
Posted in monetization, net economics, reading reflections | Comments

Where da money at?

Friday, August 14th, 2009

For my final blog post in Drew Keller’s Web Storytelling course this summer in the MCDM, I am going to diverge just a little from the exact question Drew posed for us with this entry, which was: Bill Wasik at Big Think believes shorter content on-line will always be free; do I agree or disagree? Wasik, in this video, takes new media to task, discussing things like the beauty of what the longtail provides us, the detriments of endless online distractions, and what people are willing to pay for on the web. I’m less concerned about whether people will pay for content based on duration or production value, or what they will or will not pay for in terms of any type of content at all. I’m satisfied with the current status quo – I love that the web evens the playing field for cultural commodities, that for a few bucks Spider-Man 3 on Netflix can be streamed one minute, or without any money changing hands a clip of a teenager brutally injuring himself on a trampoline at YouTube can be shared the next, and, also for free, I can finish with a live satellite feed from CNN of a breaking news event in India while engaging fellow Facebook users about what’s happening, all of it right here online and on my lappy at the coffee shop. Obviously people are willing to pay for access to the infrastructure that provides all of this content – the DSL, the cable Internet, the FiOS and so forth. And they’ll pay for that Netflix download and other certain things, too. But it seems that web culture was FOREVER decided that digital = free, so content providers have to generally rely on meager revenue streams from embedded adverts and banner ads and interstitials and the like so I can still watch the latest episode of “Desperate Housewives” any time of day. But I guess that’s just not enough for content producers and providers. They keep asking – everyone keeps asking: