Category Archives: The Mediascape

The Most Technologically Advanced Book Ever Published

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Chuck Salter writes in FastCoDesign about a publishing company that continues to innovate in the personal book field.

First came ‘The Girl Who Lost Her Name’ and ‘The Boy Who Lost His Name’. Now comes ‘The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home’.

“This time, a lost boy or girl navigates his or her way from outer space back home. Spoiler alert: to the reader’s actual home. The wayward space ship swoops into his or her city and arrives in the child’s neighborhood. The image, the book’s big reveal, incorporates the corresponding satellite photos. That degree of personalization required even more algorithms and developers than Lost My Name’s first book, along with help from NASA, Microsoft, satellite makers, and other unlikely children’s book partners.”

The creators are Lost My Name of East London. What a wondrous book and a steal at $30.

My take: I love this concept and the marvellous execution! (The new book does remind me slightly of Arcade Fire‘s Chrome Experiment, The Wilderness Downtown, which may or may not be still working.) Now imagine this in the video realm. I see no reason, with the state of CGI, digital production and online streaming, that my likeness could not be inserted into productions and animated, for my entertainment only. Maybe not in real-time initially and probably not voice. But imagine your own channel on Netflix, starring or co-starring you! That might be fun.

Issues in digitizing history

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Fast Company recently published The Trouble with Digitizing History.

Tina Amirtha claims “The Netherlands spent seven years and $202 million to digitize huge swaths of AV archives that most people will never see.”

She interviews Tom de Smet, head archivist of the Sound and Vision Institute, and Gene DeAnna, acting chief of the recorded sound section at the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.

‘”It doesn’t make sense to digitize everything,” de Smet says in his office at Sound and Vision. “You have ask yourself, ‘Who are you doing this for?’” Researchers may be interested in a narrow set of media, while the public may prefer a skim of the archives. “Honestly, only a little bit of the funding should go towards digitization and the rest, towards digital preservation,” says de Smet.’

The problems are many:

  • high costs
  • limited copyright clearances
  • indexing and meta-tagging needs for search retrieval
  • differing audiences: researchers and general public
  • media platform choices: in-house hosting or Youtube

Future considerations include:

  • securing pre-licenses to kick in after 25 years
  • donations of lesser known works by media companies

A major concern is that, over time, systems impose technological barriers to access. For instance, who still has a U-matic deck or even a VHS player?

My take: this is the paradox of the modern information age: whereas paper-based documents can last hundreds of years, digital works may be corrupt within a decade and obsolete within two decades. Is digital a Faustian bargain?

Legacy media companies face dilemmas

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Richard Greenfield from BTIG Research recently asked “Can Netflix Be Stopped? If Not, What Can Legacy Media Do?” at Neuehouse, NYC, on November 23, 2015.

His entertaining half hour overview of the modern mediascape and the dilemmas the TV industry faces is highly insightful.

Well worth watching; here are three takeaways:

  1. The problem is not so much the content but the medium used to distribute it. The TV model, even TV Everywhere, is losing dominance.
  2. In addition, viewers are simply turning away from interruption advertising any way they can.
  3. Viewers are moving their monthly video dollars from Cable TV to Subscription Video on Demand services, like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now and Showtime.

My take: Richard even predicts an ad-free future in which most if not all content is paid by subscription. See his take on the future for film companies.

Portrait mode video lures advertisers

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Even though a mock Vertical Video Syndrome PSA first appeared in 2012, it seems as if portrait mode video is making a big splash.

According to Snapchat (as quoted in Long Considered an Eyesore, Vertical Video Is Now Being Embraced by Mobile Marketers on Entrepreneur),

“Vertical video ads are nine times more likely to be viewed to completion than their horizontal counterparts.”

There’s even a platform dedicated exclusively to vertical videos. Vervid plans to become the Youtube for “thoughtful content” shot in upright mode on iPhones. They write on Medium:

“We hold our phones vertically 90% of the time. Thanks to Snapchat and now Meerkat and Periscope, this behavior is becoming even more normalized as more and more content is being shot natively in portrait mode. So rather than having to constantly switch between how we naturally hold our phones (vertically) to the way most media has traditionally been formatted (horizontally), users are now able to enjoy content the way they’ve secretly always wanted to — upright, up close and personal.”

My take: even though purists might decry this state of affairs, I think it’s only a natural evolution. Consider that over 50% of Youtube views now come from mobile. Those mobile viewers will gladly watch in portrait orientation, saving themselves the time to rotate their phones horizontally. And though almost all movies are shot using horizontal aspect ratios, Xavier Dolan went 1:1 for Mommy!

The CBC joins with Fullscreen

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“Evolve or die,” says the CBC‘s executive director of multi-platform media sales Mary Kreuck, when it comes to digital strategies.

To that end, on September 23, 2015, the CBC announced a partnership with Fullscreen, one of the largest Youtube multi-channel networks. As an MCN, Fullscreen provides services to its 70,000 individual creators, such as Rooster Teeth, Fine Brothers Entertainment and shane.

The CBC | Fullscreen Creator Network will be a new way for advertisers to connect with millennial audiences. As Mary said,

“What are we offering? Custom content created for your brands, developed with your brand, its use by key influencers, and amplified across multi-media. So the result then is endless possibilities in a safe and proven environment.”

Read their media releases here and here.

My take: the CBC wants to remain relevant to their advertisers and to Canadian millennials. Recognizing that they have little expertise in the mobile video arena (and other online outlets such as Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, Instagram, etc.) they are partnering with Fullscreen and inserting themselves as an ‘agent’ for all of Fullscreen’s Canadian creators. In addition, the CBC might be hoping to “up-level” at least one of the Canadian Youtubers to network television. (Not sure, though, how this fits into Fullscreen’s plans to launch a mobile SVOD service later this year.) I’ve got to admit, I’m a little confused about what’s in this for the Canadian-based creators in Fullscreen’s stable. Maybe more subscribers? The Internet sort of erases distance and borders, so nationality is just not a big factor to them.

The improv branch of the new media tree

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Nick Fortugno, CCO & Co-Founder at Playmatics, and Lance Weiler, Director at Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab, recently presented at Power to the Pixel, in London, England.

Nick began by reading a manifesto of sorts that concluded with:

“I stand here with the resolve that this is an amazing time to be a storyteller and we collectively hold a unique opportunity to innovate the industry we would like to see.”

They reiterated the necessity of story at the heart of innovation and then led the audience/collaborators in a story/creation of Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things.

The session was recorded: the pair present for the first half of the video and then launch into the simulation/group activity at 16:30.

Read about it on Hackpad.

My take: this seems to me to be an elaborate improv game. More of a parlour entertainment than a sit-back experience. I think that’s their point — the definition of media and audience is expanding.

57 million channels (and nothin’ on)

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The excellent CMF Trends welcomes Barbara Chazelle of France Télévisions with a guest post titled TV / video: finding content still as challenging as ever.

Referencing Ericsson’s TV and Media 2015 report, she says:

“Half the linear TV viewers questioned confirmed that they “can’t find anything to watch on TV at least once a day.” The figure climbs to 62% for those 35 to 54. Once in front of the screen, 40% viewers still turn to the TV guide, with only 29% of those satisfied with what they find.”

Moreover:

“Those consuming non-linear TV are equally dissatisfied with what they’re finding when it comes to content. Many feel that the current crop of recommendation features is neither intelligent nor personal enough to meet their needs, to surprise or inspire them in their choices.”

The full Ericsson report is worth reading as a global yardstick with which to measure the Canadian experience.

My take: this reminds me of Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice. Does too much choice paralyze you? When it comes to your media, would you prefer curated suggestions, so you can maximize the ‘lean back experience’ after work?

New Media Business Model

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Annelise Larson of Veria recently gave a presentation at the Vancouver International Film Festival Industry conference about Discovering the Biz Model in the Data.

She starts with:

“For me discoverability is a two way street. It’s about the audience discovering you and your work, and it’s also about you discovering your audience. It means you have to know WHO they are, WHERE they are and WHAT they want. This is key for sustainable creative business models, for making your dreams a reality.”

She then illustrates this with four examples, including Angry BIrds and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

She concludes with ten lessons:

“1. Start with free. All of these success stories began with giving content away for free, and continue to have “free” as part of their model. Free allows them to grow and engage their audiences and reward their attention and loyalty to get them hooked. It’s part of the “give before you ask” nature of the online economy.
2. Think beyond the project. Instead of building an audience from scratch with each project, think big picture to your body of work. Finding throughlines through the work that can allow you to bring the audience you have discovered, grown and engaged with you from project to project.
3. Think franchise. Corallery of #2. Not a franchise in the Marvel Universe sense, remembering that audiences are more loyal to characters and storyworlds than the people behind them. Create a content/story franchise allows you to carry that auidiene forward and collect and leverage data for a long(er) time.
4. Data=truth. Success comes not just from gathering data but from being open to the truths it has to tell you (even if you don’t like what they are). And yes, I know data can be manipulated. But how about NOT manipulating it and actually trying to understand what it is telling you instead.
5. Listen & respond. Listen to your audience and then take action based on what they (and their data) tells you.
6. The digital space changes quickly. You can never afford to stand still but must keep adapting and following new opportunities.
7. Embrace failure. The digital space is iterative. You can never be “perfect.” Instead experiment, track and use what you learn to improve and get better at what you do. This is especially feasible within the ongoing “big picture”/ franchise model (and another good reason to think this way).
8. The digital economy is a social economy. It’s built on relationships. And at the end of the day, the data is simply an expression of your relationship with your fans. Listening to the data is listening to what they are telling you. And if you respond authentically you will be rewarded.
9. Digital business models starts with discoverability. If the audience can’t find you it doesn’t matter how good your story is.
10. Discoverability starts with audience data. Helping audiences discover your story, starts with discovering who they are, where they are and what they want. The online space gives you the means to do that in the access to data it provides.”

My take: although this has hints of chicken or egg, I really like the perspective. No longer are we filmmakers working on projects, we are media makers working on media experiences. Also, lesson #3 resonates for me — I call this the storyverse.

Content creators use apps to build super fans

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Tony Zameczkowski, Victorious International‘s MD & VP, describes todaly’s mediascape as a constant feedback loop between creators and their audiences on mipblog.

He starts with a bit of history:

“In the B.D. (before digital) era, the focal point of content consumption was the physical water cooler. With limited media options, must-see TV such as Friends and Seinfeld connected colleagues in break-rooms and families around dinner tables with a commonality of content. The series finales of both sitcoms were cultural cornerstones for audiences worldwide.”

Enter the smartphone, or mobile for you Europeans:

“That commonality of content no longer exists for millennials. Netflix, YouTube, and a multitude of online platforms compete for their attention. Instead of the TV, millennials are increasingly glued to their mobile devices — more than 1/4 of millennials use mobile as their primary device for viewing content. Google recently announced that users are spending an average of 40+ minutes per session on YouTube Mobile and that more than half of the views on YouTube are coming from mobile devices. Many of our creator-partners are seeing that the majority of their viewership comes from mobile as well.”

What should content creators do?

“Creators need to focus on what we like to call, ‘symbiotic content’. In essence, it transcends single formats (videos, images etc.) and platforms (YouTube, Vine etc.) and bridges them together. Symbiotic content is founded on a three step cycle. First, our community app crowd-sources content and inspiration from a creator’s community. The distribution platform (e.g., YouTube) then repackages that content for distribution. Third, our community app enables follow-on conversation and content back in the creator’s community. This facilitates a virtuous cycle of engagement and re-engagement among our creators’ fanbase.”

In essence, they are creating a virtual water cooler, one that is decentralized and mobile. It unites fans across the world with the content creators who have expanded beyond the concept of 20th century media to the new reality.

My take: this is the best summary of the future of the mediascape to date. Dismiss at your peril!

Cable Access extends its reach to the Web

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Who knew that a local cable access channel in Hamilton, Ontario, would be on the cutting edge of multi-platform media in Canada?

Cable 14 is streaming live on the Internet, in addition to cablecasting to the local population.

“CABLE 14 NOW is an online service that lets Hamiltonians watch live and onDemand video content, all curated by people who love Hamilton. It combines the passion and expertise of our Staff, Community Producers and Production Volunteers with the latest technology to deliver compelling local programming wherever and whenever our viewers demand it.”

The lineup includes Hamilton Life, Vital Signs, The Opinionators and The O Show.

My take: I love this! It immediately made me think of Mike Myers and Wayne’s World, his community access cable TV show broadcast from his basement in Aurora, Illinois. (Hamilton is 500 miles directly east.) Joking aside, the reason this is newsworthy is that cable access just shed its local constraints and potentially expanded its audience worldwide.