October
30, 2006
Copyright Mediaware Infotech Pvt. Ltd. |
As
common folklore* has it, the silver bullet is a single weapon or technique to
kill witch, vampire, werewolf or monster. Unfortunately, there is no such single
technology or even a direction that can predict the future of television !
As
far as technology is concerned, there are multiple television
technologies vying for their place in the sun. And each country
/ region seems to favor a couple of them. While Digital Cable TV, Digital Satellite
TV (direct-to-home) and Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) are the base technologies
for TV broadcast, IPTV or streaming video via the Web is growing steadily, albeit
slowly.
While Mobile TV is another frontier with Digital Video Broadcasting
- Handheld (DVB-H) technology riding 3G on
as well as DTT infrastructure.
*
And Wikipedia, of course. Silver bullets by the way, were favoured by comic strip
character The Lone Ranger. And silver as a metal is not the best material for
today's bullets !
The New Online Video Models
As far as
television models go, Online Video seems to be one clear future model, given the
huge growth rate of Internet bandwidths. As everybody probably knows, the most
popular models are a mix of consumer-generated media and online video
clip culture. Both are reflected admirably in Google's YouTube.com.
Besides,
there are a number of other promising variations in the offing.
Brightcove.com
Take
start-up firm Brightcove.com - whose plan is to "take Internet TV into the media
mainstream". On the one hand, it will provide a range of services to help viewers
find the video programming they want. On the other, it will host professional-quality
video from content providers - with the idea of generating ad revenue for them.
Brightcove
is visibly different from say, YouTube.com as much because of the professional
quality of its video as because of its well managed layout of commercial & non-commercial
content.
And there is more to the model. Brightcove's search engine will
help locate videos anywhere on the Web and list offerings by genre. And in this
process of enhancing viewership, it will also generate ad revenue from Internet
video through the following services:
#
Ad sales - Brightcove will sell spots for videos and
space on websites,
sharing 50% with the content
provider. For this Brightcove can help
maximize
video exposure & therefore revenue opportunities, by arranging
for
videos to appear on 3rd-party sites.
#
Retail - Brightcove can also handle online sales,
including video rentals
and downloads, sharing
70% of the revenue with the content provider.
Revver.com
Revver.com
hosts short video films on its site - videos which are of the entertaining and/or
"interesting" variety. These videos are created by independent producers and uploaded
to revver.com. Depending on the subject, revver.com tries to find a sponsor who
would like to associate its brand(s) with the video content.
One of the
most well-known videos hosted on revver.com is popularly known as the "Coke &
Mentos" video. A meaningless, but extremely interesting & entertaining video depicts
an orchestrated show of tens of fizzing Coke bottles, in a manually controlled
display which is reminiscent of musical fountains. (The fizz was created by dropping
Mentos in just-opened Coke bottles giving a net effect that was pleasing enough
to attract millions of downloads.)
Revver.com was quick to approach Coke
& Mentos to sponsor the video which reportedly generated a few million dollars
from the sponsors (@ a dollar per download) - shared equally with the creators.
Google Video / Youtube
A couple of years ago, Google was a non-entity
on Madison Avenue. Its text ads were shown alongside search results as well as
thousands of Web sites that partnered with Google. Since then, Google has been
steadily progressing to online video, to sell video or display ads to big advertisers
on its partner sites. And recently (October 2006), Google displayed its ambitions
by opening its new ad sales office in Manhattan with executives recruited from
big media firms - in an attempt to build relationships with agencies as well as
advertisers.
Get ready for the new Google Ads!
Yahoo
Yahoo
Inc. on the other hand established its Manhattan office in 1997 and is regarded
as the current leader in developing branding campaigns on the Web.
These
new Web video ad formats could ultimately give TV commercials a run for their
money - simply because of their ability to catch the attention of today's youth.
And
eventually there are hopes that metrics will be available for online video ads,
just as it is available for online text & banner ads.
BravoTV.com
Bravo
TV is a U.S. national TV channel promoted by NBC Universal. And BravoTV.com is
a portal which is designed to promote Bravo TV viewership. Complete with program
schedules, program promos, message boards, FAQs, contest results, e-community,
newsletters, blogs. And of course, ads.
With
the burgeoning bandwidths, will sites like bravotv.com be converted in online
(IPTV) channels?
It's Raining Channels
The
above list is far from complete. There are a number of channel initiatives similar
to BravoTV.com. And others like CBS News.com provide live feed on their web-site.
And many more.
What will be the new television model is anybody's guess.Meanwhile,
television channels continue to reign!
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Mediaware Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
The New Mahalaxmi Silk Mills Premises,
Mathuradas Mills Estate, Opp Kamala City, Senapati Bapat Marg,
Lower Parel
(West), Mumbai 400 013.
Tel: 6660 2634 Fax: 24923765 Email : response@mediawareonline.com
Mediaware Gulf
P.O.Box No. 182620, Dubai Media City, U.A.E.
Tel: +9714 3681655 Fax: +9714 3688058 Email : m-e@mediawareonline.com
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