Drew, Good thoughts. I'd ignore hulu etc in the context of the "independent" scene. It's a consortium of old media getting their content on the net. I've written about how I feel that it is a flawed strategy overall but certainly accomplishes some goals for those involved. hulu, as popular as it has become, will always struggle with the costs of their popularity and the cost of the content and the lack of exclusivity rights etc. i would not put it out of the realm of possibility that hulu.com (the website) will eventually phase itself out as the primary destination and become "part" of the backend infrastructure for the content owner websites themselves (nbc, fox etc). i've always felt that surfing the web for TV shows should not have to be any different than surfing your TV for TV shows. You go to the channel that has the show you want to watch. simple. done. a website is that enhanced channel... and often is accessed on a TV as well. the merge is happening.. slowly but surely. "web tv". hulu also has competitors in the backend infrastructure arena. take a look at abc.com which is powered by http://www.movenetworks.com.
so i am actually happy that hulu exists. always knew i would benefit from it since i dont subscribe to cable TV except in October for baseball. So more Internet options for me is great. And as a company, they are different. Not a typical "online video startup" (joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp). It will probabaly get absorbed by one of the partners anyway or phased out or whatever. point is, hulu is NOT important to the independent scene. Be glad it exists while it exists and then be glad that you can watch TV on the channels websites etc etc. TV on the web. yay! i agree that we need Rev3 type of companies to exist and do well. and I agree that we need to carefully look at the bandwidth control issue. and I also agree that in ways, we are where we were 4 years ago... as far as needing innovation and pioneers for the independent media scene. though we probably dont need to discuss what a vlog is anymore :) the quality of content is ALWAYS critical. so whether you are into making internet/tech/youth/entertainment culture tpye of news shows or you are making short films or documentaries or whatever.... it's gotta obviously be good if you are needing an audience (you are spending money, have started an actual company and have a staff etc). not much of this has to do with personal vlogging where youtube has become the mecca but also still many blogs out there with authors putting up their own videos. that's still the "audience of ten" genre. maybe rocketboom should be more involved? what better company than yours? sure there is blip.tv but they are no rocketboom. it may be too late for them in a sense.... to be much help here. yes no maybe? sull On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Drew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > " What concerns me most of all is that we really need companies like > > Revision3 to succeed. The independent content creator, and in turn, > > independent production companies and studios, are really being > > overshadowed by the efforts of the Hollywood studios and entertainment > > conglomerates. For example, look at the lineups at Digital Hollywood > > and the NewTeeVee Live conferences -- there was a terrible lack of > > independent content creators sitting on panels alongside people from > > LucasFilm and Hulu." > > This is a major concern I have too, maybe the biggest issue on the table. > > I don't really think of Revision3 as independent. They are "new", like a > new cable station, > but they have been trying to emulate an old model of TV and they are owned > now by > investors, so their #1 mission is likely to sell to a mainstream entity. > This is going to be an > uphill battle if rumors are true that this setback happened not due to an > economic > meltdown, but because they did not receive their next, anticipated round of > funding. > > In case anyone didn't notice, the people who you tend to think of as > independent, like > Kevin Rose, for instance, has no control whatsoever over the company and > apparently no > say even. From his blog post, we can infer that he didn't even know about > the layoffs until > he was told by Jim, without discussion. Maybe Kevin should be more > involved, that might > help. Not sure. > > Nevertheless, setting aside Rev3, what is starting to happen is that Hulu > and iTunes for > instance are becoming so popular, that they are starting to control the > programming for > the masses. ***Hulu is a place where MOST people are not allowed to > distribute.*** Same > old game as before. Because Hulu is becoming so popular, it's starting to > divide and this is > destructive not only for independents, but for the future of media in > general. Why cant > Hulu continue to curate their favorite content in the same way, but allow > anyone to > distribute on a back channel like iTunes? Probably because they believe in > a business > model that will not include open and democratic media. It's their right to > be closed, but > it's a decision that hurts the world for no gain and its gross. > > When people say things like Hulu is for "professional" content while > YouTube is for "User > Generated Content", the world is suffering even more and becoming further > divided by a > stark line between the two. > > The biggest threat of all is coming in tandem as Comcast started capping > internet plans. > Anyone who says this wont effect how much we can do online is naive. Their > first cap- > plan structure seems somewhat uninhibited right now but this doesn't mean > they wont > start tweaking the cap amounts once everyone accepts the reality in due > time. While its > easy to compete with CBS and Disney because now we use the same open > distribution > channels, it will be hard to compete with Verizon and Comcast, due to the > amount of > overhead needed to build out an alternative system. My hope is that a > teenager will > singlehandedly invent a new way to transfer data faster, without fiber - > one that may cost > almost nothing in terms of technological infrastructure. I'm certainly not > going to sit > around and wait for that to happen. > > What's to be done? At least a few things, I think: > > #1 Four years ago, I promoted the idea of saving up your coins for a year, > buckling down, > and investing in your own video company for a year. At the time, I thought > a year would > be enough but didn't understand how long it would take for a supportive > marketplace to > arise. Now, I'd say is an even better time to do it. If you can spend a > year, starting right > now, you may have an advantage due to a weak marketplace and the continuing > growth in > online audience demand. The market may be much stronger in a year when you > are ready > to monetize. If you can't do that, join another team who can. > > #2 Find the talent, dont assume you are the talent. This may be the biggest > problem the > independents suffer from. If you think you are really good on camera, there > is probably > someone who could do the job better. If you think you are a great story > teller and that > tons of people will enjoy your writing, you might be fooling yourself. > Build a creative team > of people who you think are better than you. > > #3 Start an iTunes/Hulu/Joost competitor. We know you dont need any > overhead. A few > talented programmers and UI developers should find a very open space. I > remember > before iTunes came out with their podcasting client, Rocketboom was getting > slammed by > literally 1000's of new and experimental audio and video distribution > aggregators, most of > which quickly faded away post-iTunes. It seems like there is room again for > a new spirit > and a better interface. > > #4 Be careful about the conversations you have: dont let this separation > become more > defined. Bring it all together in a way that people understand this is > about democracy, > choice and personalized content. This is where conferences hurt us if no > one is there to > discuss this. This is where Hulu viewers hurt us because they are closing > their doors on > things outside of their comfort zone. It starts with the lingo from us, > then the bloggers, > then the journalists, then the first adopters and then it becomes stuck > everywhere else. > Speak up before it's too late! > . > > _._,___ > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
