Video Saved the Radio Star

You may or may not recall the first video shown on MTV way back in the Golden Age of TV, circa 1981 (Actually any Age of TV you just missed seems to become the Golden Age. I was actually quite alive and in college in 1981, but I digress). It was, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

Now it seems that video may actually be saving the radio star. That is the tack taken by Richard Siklos in today's NYT. Video is now a growing complement to many of the popular radio shows out there. According to comScore Media Metrix, Clear Channel radio sites ranked sixth in December among music Websites. That's behind MTV, AOL, Yahoo, MySpace and Artistdirect.

The article describes how radio stations have added video in an effort to offset dwindling audiences. The efforts seem to be working. I have a slightly different take on it.... I believe that one reason why video is working in tandem with radio is that it offers audiences yet another source of original, local media. Local media is hot right now, whether its offered as Websites, magazines, television. There are numerous opportunities to find out what's happening around the world or across the country, but far fewer reliable sources to discover what's happening around the corner. I believe that's what these video versions of local radio are now offering to their audiences, and people can't get enough of it.

Age of the Blog
Today's WSJ runs an interview with Technorati Chair and CMO Peter Hirshberg. Hirshberg is betting the farm on the future of blogs (well, he does after all, know where his bread is buttered) but it's a point of view with which I agree. He stresses the importance of listening to and engaging with customers and consumers and urges companies to hire a person whose job it is not only to blog but to engage with bloggers and to monitor what's being said. While he is careful to say you shouldn't listen to everything everyone says, you can get a general vibe from monitoring the traffic. Self promotion warning: This is something that I've been advocating for a while now, but it has been falling on mostly deaf ears.

Animal House: Multi-Platforming It
I was at a Dartmouth College event last night taping a book reading by Chris Miller. Miller who co-wrote the screenplay of Animal House has just published "a mostly lucid memoir" entitled "The Real Animal House." From the reading, I can tell you it's not something for Mom's birthday. But what's interesting is that Animal House was adapted from the "Tales from the Adelphian Lodge" that Miller wrote for National Lampoon in 1975. Now, many years later, he's gone back to write the book that was what the articles were supposed to precede. Well, a small cultural icon, starring the artistry of a young man named John Belushi intervened. Thirty years later, here we are.

Fox Business On the Runway

Fox News continues to make noise about the forthcoming launch of its biz channel. At last week's media summit Rupert Murdoch talked about being more business friendly that the competition -- that being CNBC. I'm not exactly sure how CNBC is unfriendly to business, but what is clear is that Fox wants some of the $500 million that CNBC is scooping up in licensing fees and ad revenues.

Fox News Chair Roger Ailes and biz honcho Neil Cavuto also indicated that they would be going for a wider audience in this excerpt from Multi-Channel News...

Cavuto, who worked for eight years at CNBC, said: “We’re going to be entertaining, informative, youthful. We’re going to appeal to groups beyond old white guys with money.”

Riffing on that remark, Ailes said: “I have no problem with old white guys with money, being one of them. Having said that, it would be good to broaden the audience.”

Comedy Central, at least, doesn't have too much to worry about. Clearly. There are some doubts that there's a need for another biz channel, friendly or unfriendly.

News watcher Andrew Tyndall, who monitors TV-news viewing through the Tyndall Report, is not sure one is really needed.

“This is not an underserved market,” he said. “CNNfn didn’t make it. Bloomberg [Television], a very well-established name in the financial field, hasn’t really succeeded.” CNNfn shut down on Dec. 15, 2004, with distribution to 30 million homes. Bloomberg currently counts some 43 million subscribers.

Snickers Scores on Superbowl
You may not have liked the Snickers ad that was quickly pulled and criticized as homophobic, but it did score among some viewers. Visits to the Snickers website was 16 times higher than it was the week before the game, a gain of 1,4447.7%. Similarly, Budlight saw traffic grow by over 655 percent. Granted, traffic to those sites was relatively small to begin with, so the percentages may be somewhat misleading.

Lights, Camera.... MySpace

Just a short one today guys... MySpace is linking in the U.K. with Film4 and Vertigo Films to get a low budget film ($1.96 mm) off the ground. Anyone in the U.K will be free to enter the contest, MySpace Movie MashUp, by submitting a short. The massive quantity of expected entrants will be cut down to 12 by the companies involved. The final 3 will be submitted to MySpace users, who will choose the winner. MySpace users will also have an opportunity to be involved in script selection, casting and other decisions for the eventual feature. They'll even be able to put themselves forward as cast members.

The Gold Rush 2.0

Before I get to work on today's illuminating column, I'd like to take a moment to thank Melissa McNamara of CBS for her mention of Multi-Platform Media for the mention in Blogophile! Now you know we've hit the big time.

OK, now that the self-promotion is out of the way, it's over to Barry Diller. Today, he announced that IAC would be pouring millions into producing original content on their myriad of sites. He sees the value of user generated content, ala YouTube and MySpace, but feels that the future is really in professionally produced content. Good point, but you have to remember that he comes from the world of professionally produced content, and, oh yeah, he doesn't own either YouTube or MySpace. That said, overall, I agree with him.

Speaking of user generated content, Facebook and Comcast are teaming up to offer even more video. The content will appear first on Ziddio, a new Comcast site devoted to ugc. The best stuff will end up on Comcast's video on demand channel and on a new television show in the works.

Doc/Reality producer RJ Cutler is working to develop 10 episodes of a project called Facebook Diaries that will devoted to topics like "Heartbreak" and "Life During Wartime." The show will be shopped around, and Comcast, with some 23 million subscribers, does have some pull in the TV world.

Not to be too glib about it, but it strikes me that this one for the "more things change, the more things stay the same department." Remember "America's Funniest Home Videos," which is still on btw. Isn't that a network show that runs video submitted by users? The only difference there is that it doesn't appear on a website first.

Coach Potato Edition

The best ads on last night's coverage of the Superbowl were brought to us courtesy of Doritos. I didn't even realize that they were user generated until I saw the winners on the Today Show this morning. What's quite cool is that the winning ad, "the crash" was filmed on a budget of $12. Opps. A ad exec quoted in the WSJ said it was scary that amateurs could put together something so good. It definitely scored with the group with whom I was watching.

On Today's discussion about the ads, Matt Lauer roundly dismissed the automotive ads. Donnie Deutsch threw in something complimentary about one of the ads featuring a robot for GM. While the NYT also praised it, I also happened to notice that the ad was produced by Deutsch. Okaaay.

On the topics of coach potatoes, Reuters reports on an article from the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It reports that a 4 year study of more than 10,000 U.S. children found that, "Simply restricting television viewing may not be effective in increasing physical activity."

Advertisers Discover Video
Another article in today's NYT reports on a number of advertisers meeting with success as a result of posting videos, much of it user generated, online. Notables are 1-800-Flowers.com, Buy.com, and Blendtec.com. At this point, the videos are novelties. What remains to be seen is whether they will translate into real sales. Some companies are wary of getting involved with soliciting user generated videos, fearing a loss of control. That problem should be solved, at least to some extent, by BazaarVoice.com, a company that helps clients review posted content.

The Museum Closes

British theaters have pulled the plug on "Night At The Museum," in response to Fox's plans to release the DVD just 13 weeks after theatrical release. The accepted theatrical window has been four months. It's the second showdown in two weeks. Last week German theater owners pulled all Fox pictures in response to the studio's plan to move up the DVD release date of Eragon. Fox blinked on that one. It seems that the war over theatrical windows (a battle between platforms) has just begun. In the US directors like Steven Soderbergh have been playing with the concept of simultaneous theatrical and home releases. The theatrical window is bound to close, but the timing is still up in the air.

Web: TV's Minor Leagues?
As reported on Mashable today, the indomitable LisaNova will be making the move to the big time (well, semi-big time) having signed a deal to join the cast of MADtv. LisaNova, aka Lisa Donovan, moved to LA and auditioned unsuccessfully for MADtv the first time around, the traditional way. She made it once her YouTube show took off into the stratosphere. Fred Wilson reports that her YouTube shows sometimes generate more than 1mm viewers, always more than 100,000.

The real question here is whether the web is a farm club for TV or a end in and of itself. I would argue that, at least for now, it's a training ground. MADtv is now a farm club for bigger and better TV shows and films in the same way that the Groundlings as been a feeder for SNL. What's quite cool is the opportunity that forums like YouTube allow for training and truly open auditions.

More Bad News In Timesville
Yesterday the Times reported a $648 million quarterly loss. As reported by the AP...

The New York Times Co. posted a $648 million loss in its latest quarter as it absorbed an $814.4 million charge to write down the value of its struggling New England properties, The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Interesting, some of the loss is attributed to the economic clime, but a part of it is reported to have been caused by the consolidation of major retail chains, like Macy's and Filene's, the bread and butter of newspaper advertising.

The New TV

I had a great conversation today with Adam Elend and Jeff Marks, the producers of Wallstrip. Wallstrip is an irreverent video series, looking at stocks topping the charts on Wall Street. Elend and Marks are TV pros and the daily videos are slick without being glossy. You know what I mean, they still have that sort of underground edge. Now that they've started and have caught on to the tune of 10,000 viewers per segment, they are being courted by potential partners and advertisers. I should also mention that Howard Lindzon is the third, non-production member of the Wallstrip triumverate. Howard is, however, featured on today's segment.

Wall Street is definitely the right way to go. After porn, gambling, and, maybe, technology, personal finance attracts a huge audience of the right demo of people with money and some tech savvy. Wallstrip definitely does it right by bringing production values to a web video world that has long been dominated (OK, it hasn't been around for too long) by talking heads and dark and gloomy shooting.

Adam and I had a long conversation about how web video is likely to be monetized in the future. We agreed that the winning formula is not to create a tent pole site, but to make your video available to everyone who wants to see it by whatever means possible. They post on YouTube, blip.tv, iTunes, etc. You can also subscribe or catch it on their own site. I have attempted to do this in media campaigns I've been running. Post it everywhere, and do not assume people will find it and come running to you.

We also discussed the state of web video advertising. Adam feels that pre and post rolls will be of limited utility, and that the winning formula will be to embed and integrate advertising into online content and also to create affiliations with consumer and service brands. This is another example of history repeating itself. Soap operas, variety shows (Hello, Uncle Miltie) and even the news were once presented by and named after single sponsors.