Terry Heaton has a couple of interesting posts looking at what seems to be the sudden drive to unbundle distribution of what have traditionally been network TV. He pulls together a number of threads — the video iPod, NBC’s reported interest in online delivery, suggestions that Apple is in talks with various sports groups and more.
Here are a couple of quotes, the first from the post “Tasting the edges” of unbundled media:
The unbundled video “business” is going to suck eyeballs from mainstream distribution systems, regardless of who’s producing the content. Unless the big boys get into this, those eyeballs will be watching content created by others — and advertising money will follow. This is the biggest threat to the network-affiliate relationship — that online video would become ANOTHER hungry mouth drooling over the already thinly-sliced advertising pie.
And, from Unbundled video downloads: an exploding market:
Developments here are coming fast and furious, and I expect that to continue. While it’s terribly exciting for consumers (although I think the price point is too high), network affiliates have to be aware of the sword above their heads. My response to them is, “What are you waiting for? Get onboard with YOUR unbundled offerings.”
Like the rest of us, those who produce video (and sell commercials around it) for a living are cursed by living in interesting times. And the threats Terry is writing about are starting to emerge. Revver is a video hosting site with a big difference — the service tacks an ad onto any videos you upload and splits the revenue with you based on the number of views. (Caveat: I haven’t looked deeply into the FAQ or terms of service. This is a pointer, not a recommendation.)
Broadcast TV seems to me to be particularly vulnerable to the competition for attention. I can control my “print” input by choosing where and when I connect to the ‘net, and through RSS aggregation. I can also consume “print” while I’m doing other things: watching TV, listening to the radio, etc.
I have time for audio during my commute and when I’m walking around doing various errands, or as general background noise when I’m working.
But TV fixes my attention to a place and, until recently, a time. (While I have the ability to timeshift TV through my VCR, I find that cumbersome and virtually worthless. It involves remembering to set it all up and then creating the time, in the face of other demands on my attention, to watch what I’ve taped.) And TV consumes fixed time: if I’m watching a half-hour show, it will mean a commitment of half-an-hour.
When I transfer that half-hour to the ‘net, broadcast loses, the same way that a print newspaper loses when I surf the news sites. But where I can pick up the paper later, the broadcast is gone. An hour spent watching vlogs on FireANT is an hour the broadcasters (and the advertisers) will never get.
I can’t see myself giving myself over to a video iPod: the idea of watching TV on my daily bus ride is not appealing at all, so on that front the broadcasters’ claim to my time is safe. But increasingly, I’m spending time watching video on my laptop screen (both news and entertainment). The broadcasters are going to have to come to me eventually and, as Terry points out in his first post, that has massive implications for the entire broadcasting structure.
Which brings me to another post Terry put up this week, his essay-length The remarkable opportunities of unbundled media. In it, he goes much deeper into the how unbundling is literally taking apart media, and the opportunities that presents. He writes:
Unbundled media, for example, is an acquired taste, but once the palette has been sufficiently soaked in its broth, there is no going back. This is the great and deadly reality confronting all of the mainstream, for bundled media is all we know, and it’s increasingly a Twinkie next to the strawberry pie of that which is unbundled.
If, like me, you’re struggling to understand where we are, where we may be going and the implications of that for both media and customer, you really have to read this essay.
TAGS: MEDIA, UNBUNDLING, BROADCAST TV
