Magnify.net Blog
Streaming Media West -
November 08, 2007 - Steve Rosenbaum
So, it has been two days in San Jose, and there's a bunch to report.
First of all - the keynote day one by Erick Hachenburg from Metacafe was impressive. These guys have a long view of the space, and they're not shy about their beliefs and vision. In fact, Eric proclaimed that pre-roll was dead, and despite the fact that others have wispered it - his proclaimation was notable for its clarity and definitive nature. I love that these guys are growing, and thriving in UGV - it helps prove the point that the future of UGV is about many companies doing well, not just one or two category killers.
Then, there was the panel on monetizing UGC. The Panel included folks from Turner, Lucasfilm, AtomFilms, and yours truly. The Moderator was Jose Castillo of thinkjose.com. What was perhaps most notable here was that each of these companies - who maybe a year ago would have had little to say abou UGC (other than Atom of course) had a TON to say. Chris Carvalho of Lucasfilms talked about user generated mash-ups and about the challanges of getting George to embrace the fan fiction that we all know is now so central to their web offerigns. This is huge. Fans love Star Wars. And George is a notorious control freak. The fact that they've found a way to accept and even embrace fan content should be a lesson to creators and media co's everwhere. Similarly, David Eckofrf from Turner talked about CNN iReport, a product that is work of our friends at Blip.TV. Eckoff was enthusiastic about UGC within the Turner world - and seemed to be suggesting we'd see more of it from other Turner properties in the future. And Joel Sanders of AtomFilms talked about how MTV under the leadership of Atom founder Mika Salmi is driving UGC into the core of the product.
Overall - the panel agreed that there is a business model for user-content, and its advertising. But everyone was cautious about predicting when the revenue would arrive... and the issue of what is paid and what is free was up for grabs. An audience member asked of the contributors to iReport were paid, and the answer of course is no.
The thing that I focused on a bit was this moment in time we're in - as the Writers Strike is in the second day. It seems to me that history will write that the strike will result in a major increase in both the consumption, and to some extent content creation as well. For the media world to allow one of its greatest assets (writers) to walk out could really expedite the sea change to web video. Why? Well first of all - writers will still write. They just won't be working for networks for a while . So now here's their chance to write their own stuff, and there is the web ready to absorb and distribute all of this work to audiences who don't have any of their favorite shows to watch. I don't think this is an intended consequence of the strike - but i think its pretty inevitable. Audiences will discover new sources of video, and they'll include them in their viewing habits.
And then - just to make the three days even crazier - my interview for Next NYers went live, and got picked up on Tech Cruch and Ally Insider
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/07/video-series-nextnyers-to-interview-new-york-startups/#comments http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/11/nextny-gets-a-tv-show.html
It is interesting to see how that kind of buzz drives traffic and signups - we're having a huge day - and looking to close the magic 20k number!
The Panel
Ari and Alison hang out at The Booth -
First of all - the keynote day one by Erick Hachenburg from Metacafe was impressive. These guys have a long view of the space, and they're not shy about their beliefs and vision. In fact, Eric proclaimed that pre-roll was dead, and despite the fact that others have wispered it - his proclaimation was notable for its clarity and definitive nature. I love that these guys are growing, and thriving in UGV - it helps prove the point that the future of UGV is about many companies doing well, not just one or two category killers.
Then, there was the panel on monetizing UGC. The Panel included folks from Turner, Lucasfilm, AtomFilms, and yours truly. The Moderator was Jose Castillo of thinkjose.com. What was perhaps most notable here was that each of these companies - who maybe a year ago would have had little to say abou UGC (other than Atom of course) had a TON to say. Chris Carvalho of Lucasfilms talked about user generated mash-ups and about the challanges of getting George to embrace the fan fiction that we all know is now so central to their web offerigns. This is huge. Fans love Star Wars. And George is a notorious control freak. The fact that they've found a way to accept and even embrace fan content should be a lesson to creators and media co's everwhere. Similarly, David Eckofrf from Turner talked about CNN iReport, a product that is work of our friends at Blip.TV. Eckoff was enthusiastic about UGC within the Turner world - and seemed to be suggesting we'd see more of it from other Turner properties in the future. And Joel Sanders of AtomFilms talked about how MTV under the leadership of Atom founder Mika Salmi is driving UGC into the core of the product.
Overall - the panel agreed that there is a business model for user-content, and its advertising. But everyone was cautious about predicting when the revenue would arrive... and the issue of what is paid and what is free was up for grabs. An audience member asked of the contributors to iReport were paid, and the answer of course is no.
The thing that I focused on a bit was this moment in time we're in - as the Writers Strike is in the second day. It seems to me that history will write that the strike will result in a major increase in both the consumption, and to some extent content creation as well. For the media world to allow one of its greatest assets (writers) to walk out could really expedite the sea change to web video. Why? Well first of all - writers will still write. They just won't be working for networks for a while . So now here's their chance to write their own stuff, and there is the web ready to absorb and distribute all of this work to audiences who don't have any of their favorite shows to watch. I don't think this is an intended consequence of the strike - but i think its pretty inevitable. Audiences will discover new sources of video, and they'll include them in their viewing habits.
And then - just to make the three days even crazier - my interview for Next NYers went live, and got picked up on Tech Cruch and Ally Insider
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/07/video-series-nextnyers-to-interview-new-york-startups/#comments http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/11/nextny-gets-a-tv-show.html
It is interesting to see how that kind of buzz drives traffic and signups - we're having a huge day - and looking to close the magic 20k number!
The Panel
Ari and Alison hang out at The Booth -
