Well, here's the shocker to the century, NBC and NewsCorp are holding hands in a new venture, which they obviously think will be the next YouTube killer. And, they may be right, I guess. Lots of good (or mediocre, at least) content. Some Web 2.0 bells and whistles will probably be included. Their deals so far (including MySpace, MSN and Yahoo) cover 96% of the American web audience.
But they haven't made the site, yet. And guess what happens when one large behemoth of bureaucracy partners with another. They become an even larger monstrosity of bullshit, red tape, approval levels and group think decision-making. This isn't a couple guys in their dorm room just trying to make something cool, it's turning farmland into Las Vegas overnight. And they'll advertise the shit out of it. And, they'll have people. Lots of people.
Until, those people decide they don't really like the flashing lights and pre-roll ads. But it won't matter. That one show sponsor will become two. And one minute commercial breaks will become three. And, executives with dollar signs in their eyes and pacemakers in their hearts will ruin anything good they may have created in the first place.
But, by then, we'll probably need a DVR to battle the minefield they've created. Good thing there's already people working on that.
Good luck with all that mess. And what the fuck happened to Mark Cuban? He used to seem like such a man of the people, even with that massive war chest.
I am waiting for a disruptive play here ... I don't know what it will look like (otherwise I would be on the beach with my millions, baby), but suspect it is going to be left field. Could be Joost.
But it needs new models for content and community ... it needs to sort out or overcome copyright and creation.
What happens we start pumping bandwidth down the power lines? We all get plugged in ... and that's what it is about.
[Resuming usual programming, getting off soapbox, pulling head in]
Posted by: Gavin Heaton | March 22, 2007 at 09:02 PM
Ever the optimist, Paul? ;)
Sounds like you've worked agency side for a large client.
I think Gavin's dead on as well. The contender is going to come as a disrupter... Just as YouTube came unseen and disregarded as not a competitor.
Posted by: Sean Howard | March 22, 2007 at 09:32 PM
Memo to Fox/NBC/Yahoo whoever:
Communities don't form around the idea of being monetized.
Posted by: Mack Collier | March 22, 2007 at 10:22 PM
I agree with Sean.
Not that NBC won't make some money on their version. They will. But this is a me-too move. Some might call it a refinement. It exploits an existing audience. It doesn't really break any new ground. Except, perhaps, legally.
I predict that by the time NBC et al tie their ass to their head, the entire entertainment paradigm will shift AGAIN-probably due to the efforts of some garage startup. NBC's pockets are deep enough to chase that one too.
Posted by: James-H | March 23, 2007 at 09:08 AM
So get this Paul - a guy from my team calls our contact from nbcu who runs the digital innovation team. The guy doesn't know anything more than we do about this because - yes it gets worse - nobody in digital innovation was consulted on this or provided input into what this thing should be. And now digital innovation will be responsible for getting the project off the ground. Gotta love big media. If we announce it, it shall be so. G
Posted by: Greg Verdino | March 23, 2007 at 04:54 PM
A great possibilty there but, as you say Paul, the bean-counting suits will screw it up. What Greg reports is a sign.
Posted by: David Reich | March 24, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Gavin- we're speakin' the same language, man. I think it's a safe bet that however it goes, it's going to be more social, so Joost and the like seem pretty primed to take advantage. I just hope the infrastructure can handle it.
Sean- Joost, joost, joost. I love you Joost. Muaah! What do you think? Is that the one?
Mack- THANK YOU! It's shocking they haven't gotten that yet. I guess that's probably because they don't really care to get it.
Greg- See comment above. What you said is just proof that the really don't even care, and aren't trying to get it. It's a pure money play, and those things just tend to not work so well in such a populist realm.
James- The fundamental problem is still control. NBC has this mindset of some sort of utopian business universe where they still control what's happening. I can't imagine someone won't continue coming along changing the game.
David- I think they may not just come along and screw it up, but they screwed it up from the time it was conceived. I guess we'll see. I've been proven wrong before.
Posted by: Paul McEnany | March 24, 2007 at 01:44 PM
Paul,
I agree with everyone's points. The whole point of a community is to create something that delivers value and good TO THE community, not to the creator of said community. Though even more importantly, how is NBC/News Corp going to keep their videos on just their community? If a video is liked, it will go viral or are they not going to allow that? By the time they get these questions, there will be 13 new technologies out which will make them obsolete.
Posted by: Cord Silverstein | March 26, 2007 at 09:43 AM
I don't if this is there yet, but acceptable.tv has an interesting model. Bacically, it's YouTube with product placement.
http://acceptable.tv/
Posted by: makethelogobigger | March 26, 2007 at 06:48 PM
Cord-
I think they made some mention of embeddable videos, but I'm guessing that was in the middle of some sort of buzz word soup. I'm sure they've all read a few articles about web 2.0, but I seriously doubt they get it. It's hard to become a participant in something you disdain.
And, Bill, I haven't really spent too much time with it, but I love the writing. Good stuff...
I'll spend some time and report back!
Posted by: Paul McEnany | March 28, 2007 at 11:21 PM