Bright Future for User-Generated Video

By David Farquhar
European Editor

While it won't be a surprise to anyone in the know, user-generated video is growing at a rapid clip (excuse the pun!), with a lot of that growth coming from places like China, according to market researchers.

The forecasts for User-Generated Video (UGV) use and revenue have shifted upward since last year, says In-Stat, with an increasing effort towards developing more high quality content.

China is actually second to the U.S. in terms of the UGV's global reach and appeal, although participation is still stratified by age, says the market researcher.

Key findings of In-Stat's research:

- Total worldwide UGV revenue is expected to eclipse US$1.19 billion by 2012.

- 160 billion UGV served videos are forecast for 2012.

- Individuals who use mobile phones to participate in online video sites are most likely to contribute to the market (both financially and in terms of content).

UGV is also expected to increase in other parts of the world as so-called 'citizen journalists' pick up their cameras and video-capable cell phones and broadcast news outside of the restrictions of freedom of the press-impaired countries.

The movement toward higher quality and higher-definition video - as well as the development of more sophisticated and capable mobile devices - is also expected to add fuel to the UGV fire worldwide.

The Mobile Revolution: Concerns at the Water Cooler?

We've been talking to a lot of people lately about the future of broadcasting and the potential for mobile to make a significant impact on current mainstream broadcast models and strategies.

This is, in fact, a hot topic around the sushi bars and martini clubs in Los Angeles as broadcast and film executives wonder about the future of the industry and whether there is really anything to worry about in terms of 'grassroots' media.

Our conclusion, and that of many in the business, is that mobile will continue to be a much-talked-about subject for some time, but the mobile media revolution will not happen overnight. Even when it does, it won't be much of a revolution in the general sense, since mobile media will consists of a relatively small piece of the entire entertainment industry – a situation that is similar to that of Apple Mac systems, which are slick and neat, but at the end of the day make up a very small portion of the entire computer industry. That's just the way it is.

The real benefit of mobile media – as we have always said – is its ability to open the broadcast world to a whole new universe of creators and consumers, as well as expand options for current entertainment consumers. The key is to develop really compelling and great content; associate that content with clever and unobtrusive advertising; and make use of reliable and robust distribution channels to get it from someone's mind to the masses.

As you may know, things are in the works to make all of this happen. Handset manufacturers lime Nokia and Samsung are aggressively sponsoring mobile media competitions and providing platforms to distribute some really great content. As an example, you should check out Samsung's Fresh Films competition (http://www.fresh-films.com/). While not unique, it is one of the better approaches to providing a voice for mobile media content creators.

Distributors are also doing their part to further the cause. A long-time veteran in this space is MobiTV, Inc., which launched it's mobile television network in late 2003 and has since built that to include more than four million subscribers. (Truth be told, we were involved in the launch of a little distribution effort on the Sprint network called mFlix, which has been described as the Sundance of mobile media. Of course, the mFlix subscriber base is a lot further south than four million, but at least it has a stake in the ground!)

MobiTV (www.mobitv.com) is available on more than 15 carrier networks and claims to have added a million or so subscribers over the past 10 months. Math is not our strong point, but these numbers tell us that something is happening out there that is pushing this whole mobile media movement along quite steadily.

MobiTV founder and president Paul Scanlon (close to InsideMobileMedia's editor's name, but no relation!) admits that viewers are also spending more time on clips and mobile video than ever before – amounting to about a 50 percent increase in 2008. He also says the timing has never been better for interactive advertising, voting, polling and mCommerce. Maybe, but we've heard that song and dance for quite a while so we'll be a little patient as the industry and movement continues to unfold.

Meanwhile, the continued charge of devices like the Apple iPhone 3G and other smart phone is driving mobile data revenues at a growth rate of 16%, which will inflate the numbers from $24 billion in 2007 to over $100 billion in 2017. This marks a substantial growth spurt over the same period about a year ago. The number of data subscribers is also expected to hit close to 250 million in the U.S. by 2017.

If these forecasts don't make for interesting conversations around the watering holes and conversation pits of Los Angeles, then I don't know what will. But, the good old entertainment industry seems secure for now, right?

Broadcasting Leaders Convene to Ponder the Future of the Industry

It is to no one's surprise that the broadcast industry is feeling the pinch from the Internet, mobile and other new channels of content distribution - especially since the Hollywood writer's strike that brought production to a grinding halt and made even more people aware of the importance of broadband as a new and emerging broadcast medium.

Don't be fooled by all that hype of a 'special' treat for viewers of commercial-free programming and news broadcasts. It simple means the ad folks couldn't sell spots because they are priced way too high, the prime audience demographics have shifted, or there is no clear way to measure who is watching what and when (if at all!).

At the end of this month, some leading television broadcasters and executives who are involved in one of the largest segments of television broadcasting - TV drama - will gather in Los Angeles to talk about new approaches to content creation, delivery and distribution as well as the impact and potential of cross-platform distribution channels like the Internet and mobile.

Drama Summit New Frontiers, New Partners, created and produced by MediaXchange Ltd., will take place from June 25 - 27 place at the elite London West Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. It is an intensive three-day event exploring options and opportunities in global TV drama and associated and evolving new media applications. Leading TV professionals will tackle the issues of storytelling and content creation, new financial models, multi-territory production, new audience demographics and cross platform distribution and marketing.

Sponsors of the conference include: NATPE, Fox Television Studios, CBS, Telefe Int'l, RDF/Pangea Management, Yankee Group, Avot Media, C21 Media, The Hollywood Reporter and others.

A key focus of the event will be a strategic look at how future audiences will best be
accessed and serviced in a multi-platform world, and what the impact will be on existing and evolving revenue channels.

The Drama Summit will also include a new media technology lunch and exhibition spotlighting some of the more innovative approaches to content creation and distribution. The exhibition will be hosted by John Jackson, vice president of Yankee Group's Enabling Technologies team, who will will introduce companies and organizations that have developed technologies and approaches have the potential to impact the future of broadcasting. These organizations include: the AFI Content Lab, presented by Suzanne Stefanac; Avot media, hosted by CEO DeWayne Nelon; and Sweden’s Interactive iEmmy Winner, Christopher Sandberg (thecompanyP).

Presentations will be followed up by a panel discussion, moderated by Yankee Group's Jackson, that will include all the representatives from exhibiting companies who will discuss the potential opportunities and impact of these new technologies on broadcasting's future. Audience members will also have the chance to ask question of this highly qualified cast of experts.

Sessions and Speakers include:

Keynote
- Emiliano Calemzuk, President, Fox TV Studios

Cross Platform Distribution
- Brian Seth Hurst, CEO, The Opportunity Management Company
- Philip Jay, Head of New Services, Future Media, BBC
- Christopher Sandberg, CEO, thecompanyP, Interactive iEmmy Winner 2008
- Christian Cussen, Director of Content and Marketing, MySpaceTV
- Jim Brooks, Cap Gemini/Vodaphone

Content Creation and Adaptation
- David Stapf, President, CBS Paramount Network Television
- James Duff, Creator/Showrunner, The Closer, TNT
- David Zucker, President TV, Scott Free Productions
- Emiliano Sarconna, SVP and Managing Editor, Fox Latin AmericaChannels
- Jeff Wachtel, ExVP Original Programming, USA Networks
- Chris Coelen, CEO, RDF USA/Pangea Management
- Alex Holmes, Executive Producer, House of Saddham, BBC/HBO

New Financial Models
- Peter Tortoricci, Global Executive, Group M Entertainment
- Sandra Stern, ExVP and COO, Lionsgate
- Rola Bauer, MD, Tandem Communications
- Daniel Hetzer, VP Programming & Co-Productions, FtvS
- Julie Meldal Johnson, Granada USA
- Sandra Stern, ExVP and COO, Lionsgate
- John Jackson, VP Enabling Technologies, Yankee Group

Production Advances
- Marc Lorber, SVP Production, Marvista Entertainment
- Gonzalo Cilley, Head of International, Telefe
- Diego Suarez, SVP Programming, FtvS
- Nathan Mayfield, CCO, Hoodlum Entertainment

Summit Round Up
- Rick Feldman, President, NATPE

Closing Keynote
- Lee Bartlett, COO, ITV Global Content

Registration for the event is now open. To find out more and reserve a spot at this unique and important event, please go to the Drama Summit Web site at:

http://www.mediaxchange.com/dramasummit/index.php

Taking Care of Mobile Business. Not!

While you might get the impression from the postings in this blog and elsewhere that mobile media is strictly reserved for consumers who have way too much time on their hands, there is a definite enterprise angle to the medium.

In fact, a number of companies in the U.S. are now using mobile video and graphics-rich messaging to channel information to customers and suppliers, and improve their customer-facing capabilities. Companies are also driving new revenue and expanding channels of opportunity through mobile media.

More on this in later postings, however. Today, I would like to present the findings of an interesting study commission by Visage Mobile that focuses on managing the increasing flood of mobile devices in the enterprise.

One major point revealed in the study, which involved some 600 mobile users: Although IT managers have spent the last decade working to get their technology infrastructure under control, many are stumped when it comes to managing employee mobile assets such as smart phones . In fact, IT departments are stretched thin to support these devices, and as a result may be holding off on buying decisions (our theory, anyway).

Most employees are uninformed and disengaged when it comes to monitoring and managing their corporate issued mobile devices, says the study, pointing out that more than 60% of the respondents in the survey report not having a formal policy for managing mobile devices.

Other key findings:

-- More than 60% of employees waited three weeks or longer to be issued
their mobile devices after being hired.

-- 80% of respondents are using their corporate issued mobile device for
personal use.
-- 8% of respondents have had a corporate-issued device with potentially
sensitive enterprise data either lost or stolen.

Add cellular wireless cards to the mix, as well as the looming presence of WiMAX and truly capable mobile broadband and you have a magilla that goes way beyond just IT into sales, human resources, finance and that guy on the loading dock who spends more time thinking about lunch than doing his job!

Want more info on the study? Visit Visage Mobile at http://www.visagemobile.com. Have your own thoughts on the problem? Drop me a line or comment and start a dialogue.

Welcome to the 4th Screen!

Robert Redford at MWC in Barcelona

By David Farquhar

Here's something that most of us already know: Mobile devices may be the most rapidly spreading technology in our history.

Right now, there are over six billion people on the planet, of which three billion own a mobile phone. Only two billion of us own a toothbrush and only one billion of us have a PC connection to the Internet. So, not only can more of us talk to each other over great distances than can brush our teeth, but also it’s likely that most of us will see and experience the Internet and all its possibilities for the first time via a screen smaller than a playing card.

The network operators have invested billions of dollars putting in place the infrastructure to offer ever-increasing bandwidths. In Australia, 14.4mbps service is now available, making the viewing of ever-richer content feasible. The handset manufacturers are focused on shipping ever more capable 3G integrated devices (those with multimedia and Internet functionality built in) - the Apple iPhone and the Sony Ericsson W910 being prime examples. Almost every technology company on the planet is supplying electronics and software tools components and applications to these players.

But, it’s not just about the technology, or even about the services. One message that was crystal clear at MWC in Barcelona is this is an entertainment medium, and the sooner we recognize that connecting the entertainer to the audience is what matters most, the sooner everyone will start focusing on audience and delivering quality mobile content.

Why did music group Radiohead invite people to download their last album for a price determined by the user? Why do musicians and acts like will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas encourage fans at their concerts to film them using their mobiles then distribute that content? Why do they make tracks and videos for free distribution via YouTube and MySpace? Simply because they make more money from selling tickets at live concert venues (since pick-up-and-go mobile media enhances but doesn't replace the live experience), and from merchandise and downloads than they do from CDs. But, the content has to relevant and current.

The mobile Internet is a powerful persuader. When Barack Obama made his “Yes We Can” speech on Super Tuesday, will.i.am cut the video, overlaid a sound track and performance involving celebrities and made it available free via the Internet and mobile within 24 hours. Within a week they had more than 20 million impressions, andn sicne that time Obama has gone on to virtually sweep every state primary – up until Hillary Clinton's recent comeback kick. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk).

Clinton has made some use of the Internet – most memorably through her Sopranos parody with husband Bill – but has done relatively little since then. She does make use of the talk show route – appearing on popular Saturday Night Live – but she'll have to do more than that to get her messaging to people who are mobile and rely on their phones for mobile information.

Mark Selby head of Multimedia at Nokia agrees that we should stop using phrases like “user-generated content” and realize that people with smart phones are content creators and distributors and should be getting paid; not patronized or stopped.

The same is increasingly true of other genres: British Violinist Tamsin Little made her last album “Naked Violin” free to download to encourage listeners to hear new composers. Jazz, opera and traditional music styles are also reporting increasing interest from mobile and PC download media.

BBC Worldwide see mobile as a subset of IPTV and web TV: a place to push out diced and sliced repeats of its key brands such as Top Gear and Dr Who. Some times this works but on the other hand the BBC has appointed a Controller of Mobile, Matthew Postage, whose remit to understand better how we interact with and relate to the mobile medium, which requires specialist content and services. And do we really think that we can replicate the shared, cinema experience on a phone? Iconic director David Lynch certainly doesn’t think so (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWkWGXXIHw8).

Robert Redford sees mobile as a medium where another classic genre, this time short film, can have a new lease of life. Better suited to the way we interact with mobiles, short film used to be highly popular in cinemas but now a new generation of filmmakers see mobile as a way to revitalise the type. Redford’s Sundance Channel has recently commissioned a series of short edutainment films from Isabella Rossellini about the sex life of insects (www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno).

Other examples of made-for-mobile films can be see at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama’s mobile media portal www.rsamdmobile.com and the GSM Association’s www.mofilm.com.

So the industry as a whole is very confused about what the viewer really wants but it seems to recognize that its priorities lie in a cross-platform future that includes mobile devices, wireless Internet appliances, and even your automobile. More on that in a later posting. Meanwhile, welcome to the world of the 4th Screen!

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Word that the Writers Guild of America has finally reached an agreement with production studios over compensation for online and mobile media is spreading like wildfire throughout the content-parched viewing community.

The people who have gone for so long without fresh comedies and dramas on their large-screen TVs and wall-mounted plasmas can finally splash with abandon in new episodes of Ugly Betty and How I Met Your Mother. We are at last saved from reruns and even more reality television.

The question lingering in the back of everyone's mind, however, is not how much compensation writers and other creative types will get from new media channeling and whether it is enough to keep a future strike at bay. The question is has the content-starved public learned - by going cold turkey - that there are other avenues and channels of entertainment out there besides traditional broadcasting. This includes the hundreds of thousands if not millions of video snippets that are zapped across the Internet each day and channeled to stationary PCs, mobile phones and wireless personal entertainment devices.

The viewing public, driven by their own blood lust for fresh content, has turned to the Internet and discovered that some of the stuff out there is actually quite good. Television executives have also caught the scent of a new community and are taking a serious look at rising new stars in new media. A few are even being offered a shot at the big time, since the challenge now is to bring back all those distracted viewers who have wandered far from the corral in search of greener content pastures.

One of these new stars is Jodie Rivera, also known as "The Venetian Princess", a 23-year-old video blogger with a knack for creating clever and professional artsy videos and celebrity parodies. Her videos have been viewed more than 6.5 million times on YouTube, where her channel has well over 21,000 subscribers. Her talents have not only helped her win a national talent contest sponsored by Samsung Telecommunications America Inc. (and $10,000 in studio equipment), but has also reportedly attracted meeting offers from the likes of NBC and others, who recognize the power of grassroots entertainment.

If I were a scriptwriter packing up my pencils and story-line index cards to go back to work I would be more than a bit concerned over the Pandora's Box opened by the strike. Just as the Gutenberg Press and movable clay type allowed the great unwashed masses to wrest the power of books and reading away from the upper class, the lack of fresh episodes of House or Two and a Half Men may have tipped the scales in favor of a new media revolution.

'Touch and Feel' of Good Content Often a Mystery

 By Adam McIlwaine

EU Editor

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which pretty much dominated the technology and business press this week, is like one of those mystery  boxes little kids are asked to put their hands into to guess what is inside by the touch and feel.  You'll get ten different answers from ten different kids, and then when they finally discover what it actually is they will scream with glee that they knew what it was all along.

The CES is just like that, only more confusing.  You are never really sure of the what trends come out of each years event because the massive gathering tries to be all things to all people.  Sure, consumer electronics dominates the show - which is expected given its moniker.  However, there is also a fair amount of non-electronics stuff as well, ranging from furniture to high-tech floor mops. 

Okay, maybe I made up the thing about floor mops, but you get my drift.  It is that box with some very strange things inside, only on a much larger scale. 

This year's show was a bit different since thee was a heavy emphasis on entertainment, especially Internet-based and mobile video entertainment.  This is perfect, since the current writers strike in Hollywood has pretty much decimated traditional television, leaving a sad trail of reality shows, home improvement programming and an even more vast wasteland of drivel. If anything, the strike has dramatically driven home the importance of writing and content when it comes to broadcasting and programming.  

My recommendation:  Give the writers everything they want or get used to that huge sucking sound, which is made by people running away from their TV sets in droves.  I wold be really, really upset if I spent a few thousand dollars on a neat 1080p high-def television to watch funny guy Conan O'Brien spin his wedding ring for a minute or two.

The good news is that  these ex-pat viewers have discovered the Internet and mobile content as they pathetically search for a broadcast fix.   Even better news is that they have now realized how really bad most of the current Internet content is when seen in the cold light of a dark and dismal prime time.    

Maybe this is why major organizations like Disney, NBC Universal and  others are setting their development sites on creating better Internet content, and digital poster boy Bill Gates (who is clearly not much of a boy any more when seen through the eyes of a 1080p television set and HD cameras) devoted his swan song at the CES talking about Microsoft's plans to pull everything together under one digital umbrella.   Thanks Bill, and good luck with that philanthropic  2.0 thing!

The danger, however, is that some of the very same people who have wisely decided to shut television and 'old media' writers out of new media movement are also shifting gears to bring their baggage to the Internet and mobile broadcasting.  This means, I fear, that this so-called new wave of content for this brave new media world will in reality be more of the same old thing.  Worse, since mobile devices have the capability of knowing who you are and where you are, this spiffed up content will be saturated with ads and messaging that targets particular demographic groups and individual communities.   

Internet service providers like Comcast have already started promoting this fact, oddly enough with an add that shows a product smacking a consumer in the face and knocking him done.  Sort of like retailing with an attitude. 

There is clearly a lot of work to do as we move toward better content on the Web and on your handheld, involving not only good writing and production but a respect for the limitations of these new media devices and personal privacy concerns.  

Unfortunately, most big name producers and distributors will probably opt to make mistakes and learn from them rather than put some thought into it and avoid mistakes altogether - which means we are back to the land of mystery boxes and trying to guess if something is worth our time in cyberspace.

Online Content the Apple of Jobs' Eye

By David Farquhar

European Editor

Say what you will about Apple co-founder, company ex-patriate, returning corporate hero and present CEO Steve Jobs. The guy is no slouch when it comes to recognizing a marketing trend, even if it is an 800-pound gorilla staring everyone in the face.

He was among the first to understand that when it comes to music most people want something that is simple and slick (which accounts for the incredible success of the iPod and its successors)and is gradually pulling the company's computer business up by the suspenders by doing some really cool stuff with the MacBook and desktop systems - again by making things really simple and developing software that appeals to a generation that is absolutely saturated and jaded by all things digital and drenched in special effects. Who cares what the critics say about the new Leopard OS, isn't it neat the way those windows flip around just like what you see on the network news?

Steve's latest epiphany is to offer movie rentals through iTunes to compete with the likes of Amazon and NetFlix, which follows his previous epiphany of selling movies and television drivel via iTunes. Critics may scoff that this is simply a tactic by Jobs to shore up its creaking AppleTV effort, but we know deep in our hearts that master marketeer (note the Disney reference?) Steve Jobs has yet again parlayed the obvious into something that is sure to pump up Apple's stock to even greater heights.

Is there anything in this world that can stop Apple in its conquest to be the worldwide entertainment endpoint? Maybe not immediately, since the legions of dedicated Apple followers will predictably plunk down their digital dollars and use their Christmas iTune gift cards to rent movies and other media for the next few months. Then there is the coming Macworld gathering in January that always rallies the faithful and the salivating headline-starved press - although the rumored introduction of a Mac sub-notebook may throw a blanket on that furor since we all know how much of an impact limited-capacity PCs have had on the industry (I think I still have my Toshiba Libretto banging around someplace).

Apple's foray into sub-notebook computing, iTune movie rentals and even the also-rumored resurrection of it's early and fondly remembered Messagepad may actually provide a small window of opportunity for competitors looking to get a piece of the mobile media action. In act, the companies best positioned to chip away at the Apple kingdom may be the cellular handset makers - especially Nokia with its really cool mobile Internet device.

Recent studies show that demand for mobile services and mobile devices is at an all-time high - especially among people in the U.S., which has been a bit delayed in jumping on this tsunami. Roughly 38 percent of U.S. consumers are now watching television shows online, while 36 percent are using their cell phones as entertainment devices, according to a survey conducted in late October by Deloitte & Touche. This compares with 24 percent of consumers entertaining themselves with their cell phones, as reported in a prior Deloitte study.

Not surprisingly, more than 60 percent of the these cell phone users are young people (13-24 year olds). But surprisingly, an increasing number of 'experienced' consumers (25-41 year olds) are also using cell phones to tune into mobile media broadcasts and downloads.

We're sure that a portion of Steve Jobs new strategy is focused on these slightly older individuals, who may take him up on his offer to buy and channel movies to mobile devices.

However, there are opportunities for others out who recognize the potential to package content for specific age and interest groups as more and more people rely on mobile devices to take their entertainment and information with them. There are also opportunities for smaller companies to develop broadcast channels that combine entertainment with useful and location-specific advertising and personal info blasts.

Steve, if you are reading this why don't you kick back, take a little breather and play around with that new sub-notebook a while to give someone else a chance to ride the wave.