Content Strategy for the Masses

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?

There are reports NBC didn’t make massive amounts of coin for its online Olympics coverage…. estimates are at about $5million - a whole lot less than the $1billion it reportedly made off of its traditional TV coverage. But is making $5 million online a failure? Really? Given NBC’s relatively non-user friendly approach (such as only offering its online video content by downloading a Microsoft product and, as Wall Street Journal noted, the user’s inability to share favourite videos) this amount might be quite impressive.

The games are over for another two years and Vancouver’s winter games will probably be the real test for online ad revenue for NBC, especially if it learns to open up its video player to social apps and more common video players. Yet I guess that’s what happens when you partner with Microsoft – exclusive vp rights.

The only thing I was tempted to watch online was the closing ceremonies – in particular, the bad lip-synching and weird dance moves.

Speaking of bad lip-synching and weird dance moves, check out this video of what Britney Spears’ microphone really picked up during her concerts.

I know it’s a jump in logic, but it’s something I had to share.

Shut your office door. Pretend you’re on a conference call or something. Or if you don’t have an office, get a wifi-enabled laptop and sneak into the stock room. Why? Because these videos are important.

The first is an interview with Ze Frank. I’ve mentioned him before. He managed to turn a small experiment into a worldwide phenomenon all by giving power to his audience. He explains it way better. This is amusing and enlightening. 

Next, snoop around the online video player for Ted – Technology, Education and Design. It’s an amazing collection of lectures – and there are great snippets of what’s next in technology.

Kevin Kelly, says the web is less than 5,000 days old and everyone thought it would be “TV, but better.” But it’s so much more, and he looks at the next 5,000 days.

Don’t understand the long tail that everyone keeps talking about? Watch Chris Anderson break it down. Want to know why is a mobile phone an important tool for humanity?   

Sure beats Dancing with the Stars.*

*Please note I have never seen Dancing with the Stars

I only call the math horrifying because I still panic when presented with simple math equations.

As I previously mentioned, Joss Whedon’s online experiment Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a hit.

Now someone has been nice enough to answer the age-old question “But how do we monetize this?”

Jeffrey McManus did some math on the distribution model for Whedon’s blog experiment, and while he admits it’s just an estimate, the video’s success “could signal the beginning of the end of television as the medium of the least-common-denominator and the beginning of the profitable niche market.”

Lorne Michaels has decided to give Jimmy Fallon’s debut as the new Late Night talk show a testing ground – online.  Even though he won’t debut on the traditional media until Fall ’09, he’ll start his web debut in the coming months.

It’s a clever way to kick some tires before committing to a traditional TV format. Michaels told the New York Times this web-exclusivity will allow Fallon to experiment more with content. Hopefully this means the online version will actually take advantage of the internet medium and engage its viewers rather than provide passive entertainment. 

One format that should draw inspiration is the now defunct The Show with Ze Frank. Frank started the online video program as a one year experiment from March ’06 to March ’07 and I have yet to see anything like it since. Subscribers (named sportracers) dedicated themselves to help make this show even better than Ze Frank could have imagined. They directed a lot of the show content and were challenged to do things such as make the ugliest MySpace page (easy!) and create an Earth sandwich. Frank also created a social app for those fans who needed solace after The Show ended with TheOrg, which also only lasted one year.

Of course, I’d be OK with a Fallon-led passive experience if it were 5 to 10 minutes of the Barry Gibb Talk Show.