Content Strategy for the Masses

Last night, the Emmys were on… including illegal online streaming before NBC glommed onto the fact.

As each stream was shut down, users complained they hated the fact the live feeds were being removed, mostly spewing vitriol directly at the broadcaster. “Hey NBC,” they’d say. “We’re watching the commercials! What else do you want?!”

Good question. What else do we in the TV and digital entertainment media want? Why aren’t broadcasters streaming live video more often? It happened, and quite successfully, during the World Cup – which I can only assume helped slow piracy. Why not the Emmys? Well, it usually comes down to rights.

PaidContent.org wrote a great post about how NBC had great opportunities to turn winning clips from the show into potential viral videos. Within seconds of the opening sequence with Jimmy Fallon singing Born to Run with some cast members of Glee, Tina Fey and Jon Hamm, NBC should have posted the video up on You Tube to catch the viral wave. But they didn’t – seemingly because of their inability to secure online rights. The rights for the show were cleared for TV, but not for online.

Looking back, a similar thing happened this season with an episode of Glee, where a potentially embarrassing video of Sue Sylvester singing “Let’s Get Physical” gets viral at the fictional high school. Sadly, that clip wasn’t posted to You Tube for it to get viral in real-life. Another issue with rights clearances? Or was it an oversight to not include social media in the experience?

Granted, rights clearances are more complicated and resource heavy than most people would ever understand. But as a user posted, what else do we want?  For live events like awards shows or big finales, do we want to fight for online rights or do we want the fans to post our stuff online to share between themselves? What’s the solution?

In the past two months, I’ve made two trips to the States, which as a Canadian means loads of mobile phone data roaming charges. For someone addicted to the location service  Foursquare, this means I’m spending money to use the free service.

Why do I like Foursquare? It’s a social game that takes the conversation offline. I was a doubter at first, but then I became a mayor of a location, which is given to a user who “checks in” the most (plus a bunch of other secret algorithms only Foursquare understands). When I became mayor for the first time, I thought “cool,” but I wasn’t addicted to checking into everywhere I went.  And then someone took the mayoralship away from me. It struck a competitive chord in me. Soon I was challenging coworkers who could become mayor of the workplace, inadvertently stealing the mayorship from my bf at our fave restaurants… so much fun. I later learned it’s also a blast to earn hard-to-get badges.

On vacation, particularly in the States, Foursquare is an amazing recommendation engine. I check into a restaurant and then review the tips written usually by locals who suggest what to order from the menu, where to sit, and what to avoid. Thanks to Foursquare, I ate some amazing sushi, avoided another restaurant and felt like I was in “the know” in a strange land.

Data roaming charges, however, could affect my use of this service in cities outside of my own because of the high roaming fees. I suspect those without a 3G plan are in the same boat – even those who love services such as Facebook or Twitter. Say you’re in a new city on Twitter, your followers will give you advice on where to go – even if you ask for tips or not.

Starbucks’ free Wifi in all of its locations helped people like me get onto their social media where ever we end up. It’s also a fabulous marketing tool for the coffee chain as most people will tell their friends on Twitter or check in to Foursquare that they’re at Starbucks.

But what’s the solution to help location-based services blossom into this potential of tourism check-ins and become the recommendation engines they’re turning into? Should Twitter sponsor more wifi locations? Should locations that want to exploit the Foursquare marketing tool offer wifi? Thoughts?

A year and a half ago, I gave up cable television. I had already reduced my service to a basic account after realizing I was watching an episode of Scott Baio is Single and 45… for the second time. When I moved in with someone who did not own a television set, I decided to try living without cable TV. Since I was brought up on television and LOVED it, I didn’t think I’d last.

Here is a rundown of what happens when you quit cable:

- there is about a three month withdrawl period where I replaced spending hours watching TV to spending hours on the computer.

- I occasionally hear about new shows from advertising, but it’s mostly passed on from my peers. Twitter, blog posts and in-person conversations have helped me navigate new programming launches and figure out what’s worth my time/effort to find a way to watch it online. To be fair, however, I only started watching last year’s new shows (Modern Family, Community) after 10 or 11 episodes had already broadcast – when bloggers were emotionally invested in the show and their write-ups made it sound incredibly interesting to watch.

- Being the late-comer to a new show, I’d like to be able to watch all of the previous episodes to catch up. Since most broadcaster websites take down episodes after a few weeks, here’s where renting a show would really come in handy.

- I’m a little left out when people talk about shows that broadcast the night before. I bought a seasons pass to 30 Rock, but they’re not uploaded on iTunes until at least 12 hours after broadcast on TV. I feel like that guy who taped the superbowl and is trying to get everyone to shut up about the game until he gets to watch it.

- Even though a local station uploads full episodes about 24 hours after it’s on TV, I still bought a season’s pass through iTunes. For shows I like or ones that aren’t time sensitive, I’ll watch it for free online. Shows I know I’ll want to watch again, I’ll fork over the cash. I think if episodes were cheaper, I might buy more. At $2.50 a pop ($3.50 in high def) and 22 episodes a season, I need to pick-and-choose – even with the financial benefit of not paying monthly cable.

- I know NOTHING about new movies coming out. Seriously. When Inception came out, I had no idea what it was, who was in it, etc. Movie distributors are going to need to ramp up their advertising efforts to people like me who have cut the cable cord.

- I miss randomly coming across shows I may like. While I’m a fan of on-demand TV, think about the shows you stumbled upon while channel flipping that you ended up loving? Many people say on-demand television puts the control in the consumer hands, but I’m suspicious as the walled-garden, on-demand content aggregators will have a hard time making money while latching consumers onto unknown titles. Recommendation engines and free episode previews help, but online is missing the human touch of a human content curator who can create a playlist that isn’t based solely on similar purchases or keywords.

- I don’t miss commercials and yet, I still know about new products and services.

- I watched live streaming during the Olympics and the World Cup – and that’s it.

- When I mention I don’t have cable, some people react like I’m betraying the natural order of things. Keep in mind, however, I do work for a TV broadcaster.

Anyone out there also cut the cable cord and have observations? Thinking about doing it?