New
World Wide Web Emerging – Meet the New Network
By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc.
November 23 2005
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An interesting phenomenon is coming to a monitor near you, perhaps the
one you are looking at right now. The days of convergence are upon
us. The trend towards the merging of media via the Internet is already causing
significant cultural shifts as witnessed by the power bloggers have
exercised
in relation to TV and print journalism. What a difference an era makes.
A decade ago, the traditional media set the pace by telling our stories
and provided practical means of mass-communications. Today, the Internet
provides a globally stable transmission line and the Web serves as
both production studio and broadcast medium. The Internet’s growth
and more importantly, the ease of access for anyone with a computer, a connection
and a bit of talent, has pushed the majority of traditional media outlets
into a period of survival strategy and planning.
The Internet, as a means of content-distribution has been recognized as
the emerging standard as opposed to the add-on it had previously been. Just
as cable killed broadcast, IPTV and HDTV will replace the current cable
TV distribution model. (Imagine the threat to satellite TV providers.) That
doesn’t mean the demise of your local cable company but it does mark
a change in the way they will be doing business in the future. For most
sectors of the entertainment, marketing, distribution and search industries,
the only thing left to do is to actually figure out how to do it and how
it will work.
The recent discussions between Google,
Yahoo and CBS, along with the combined
support of AOL
and ASK for Internet TV start-up Brightcove show a definite
shift in thinking among the US TV networks. Along with that shift, two unique
experiments in business model development appear to be underway.
In an interview with Reuters, Les Moonves, CBS chairman said, “We’re
talking to them [Google] about a whole slew of things including video-on-demand,
including video search.”
The distribution power of four of the five largest search engines and the
business model proposed by Brightcove can be seen as an experiment in marketing
and content-distribution. The TV networks have recognized they need to work
with the Internet and to do so they need to work with the Web’s core
information providers, the major search engines.
"They need our content, we need their technology," he said in
the Reuters interview, referring to broader discussions with Internet companies. "We
argue about which is more important. I think ultimately my content, no matter
how you get it, content is still the most important thing."
Google, Yahoo, ASK, AOL, et al, view virtually all “open” information
on the web as freely spiderable. They make lists that everyone else can
check twice. Even without formal agreements signed, Google and Yahoo have
both made video search of TV show snippets uploaded by fans available on
demand. Quotes from the shows be found based on the transcripts of closed
captioning broadcasts.
For producers of Web-ready television content, it’s no use producing
content for mass-distribution over the Internet if you aren’t in the
new-media version of the TV guide. The problem for both the search-information
providers and the content creators is making a profit providing the service.
While Google, Yahoo and the major TV networks will, for the most part, be
able to rely on current advertisers for revenues, three important factors
threaten to challenge the stability of that traditional marketing environment.
The first is the dramatic increase in ease of access to the industry. Making
video has never been cheaper or easier and with the proliferation of broadband
access (often via the traditional cable TV companies); delivery of product
is virtually instant and universal. In other words, consumers no longer
have to go to an expensive movie theatre to watch a production that cost
a fortune to produce. Access to the market and means of production is literally
open to anyone. In the near future, there could even be competition for
click-through revenues between traditional commercial driven television
production and the increasingly professional but independent amateur productions.
The second factor stems from the proliferation of video entertainment production.
If there is a sudden increase in quality and availability of independent
productions and those independent producers show credible commercial competition,
what is to become of the massive media machines behind the scenes of most
network shows? Someone has to pay the bills and the predominantly successful
model, (pay per click or in this case, pay per view), might not provide
sufficient revenues for the highly expensive network shows against popular
independent productions.
The third is the portability of information. Handheld, pocket-sized devices
such as Blackberrys and cell phones are increasingly web-capable and can
handle video. Content produced for the web must also be available where
portable media users are looking for it.
Brightcove thinks it has the answers to these issues. Founded in Cambridge
Ma, in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove is “an open Internet TV
service that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband
businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use
of video and television.” (source: brightcove.com)
Its preview page shows that Brightcove is working to tie advertisers to
video produced by individual users and mainstream networks. It also looks
to AOL, ASK and other search related businesses to send traffic in the form
of branded user features and video-on-demand services. Distribution is the
major factor that places the Web far above other forms of media. Taking
a page from Google’s early playbook, Brightcove is also working to
harness the massive distributive power of the Internet by inviting website
owners to inquire about syndicating video content.
The opportunities for small business advertisers and website marketers
are enormous. The emergence of the Web as the primary means of delivering
video information offers website marketers a new area to present client
products and services.
The Internet and the Web, while already remarkably versatile, has become
a vital link in distribution for the largest traditional media companies,
including the major TV networks. The Web is also absorbing a great deal
of the advertising money that was previously spent on print. It even threatens
the mainstay revenue generator for most urban newspapers, the classified
ads section.
Over the past few weeks, stories about Google Automat, a service procedure
Google wrote a patent
application for nearly two years ago have emerged.
The patent application, which was published in early September of this year,
is for “a system and method for providing online user-assisted Web-based
advertising.” The patent application goes on to describe a service
that appears remarkably similar to Google Base.
“Preferably, such an approach would guide a user in the creation
of advertisements describing offerings of goods or services, creatives associated
with the advertisements, and advertising budgets. Such an approach would
also help create and host a Web presence for individual and other advertisers.
Such an approach would also facilitate driving Web traffic to hyperlinked
advertisements through targeting.” (source: Patent Abstract)
The patent shows Google is preparing to enter the collection and distribution
of small, personal sized classified ads, like the ones printed in the back
of your local newspaper. As Google collects them, many industry analysts
expect them to begin distributing them through the online classified sections
of those same major newspapers.
This presents another wide-open opportunity for search and website marketers
to promote client messages and services. In order to take advantage the
new landscape, search and website marketers should take time to learn as
much as they can about a number of technologies, techniques and complimentary
services.
For instance, a good To Do list would include,
- Lean about FLASH and other video-editing software. Check out pre-established
businesses such as SiSTeR.TV to see if their products or services can help.
- Learn about the creation and optimization of files for podcasting.
These files can be video based or simple audio streams but the trick is
learning how to help search engines find them
- Learn as much about the amorphous catch-phrase Web2.0. Social networking
and information recommendation have become important facets in website marketing
campaigns.
- Find a way to gently break the news to long-term clients. We all have
a lot of work ahead of us.
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