NBC announced today that its online video player has served a third of a billion video streams since launching last October. Never one to be outdone, Mr. Murdoch's 'MySpace' just launched the Minisode Network. Shows such as T.J. Hooker, Charlie's Angels and Diff'rent Strokes culled from Fox's vast archives, condensed into about ten minutes and served hot. The perfect convergence of traditional media and modern consumerism - "Microwave TV"!
And this is just the beginning. Television is experiencing the most dynamic evolution in its history, already morphing into a beast even our own Grandparents would never recognize. Gone are the days when "watching TV" meant sitting at attention in front of a vast, oak-paneled box in servile obedience to an implacable, dictated schedule. Today's viewers want their content in numerous formats for a growing list of platforms, and Advertisers are scrambling for attention as their formerly acquiescent consumers experience the long-denied joys of watching TV the way that suits them for a change.
For the Networks, the result is a potent blend of fear, greed and creative turmoil, Boardrooms are alive with intense and passionate discussions on how and what to create for this nascent frontier; The suits all desperately want to own a part of the new landscape, and the financial rewards of getting it right are leaving their socks in drool-sheared tatters. But they still expect their new digital dominion to obey the same rules forged by years of adherence to the traditional model that has served [and paid] them so well.
This is myopic insanity. The Internet is the single greatest advance in mass communication since the printing press, and those in the media who do not immediately master the vast, inherent potential for creation and distribution of entertainment-related content will be crushed to insignificance by the exponential growth of those with more vision.
The counsel for the Networks is simple, and pivotal: Stake your claim and serve your audience. Now! If you don't, 'You Tube' will. And you can't 'monetize' that.
And this is just the beginning. Television is experiencing the most dynamic evolution in its history, already morphing into a beast even our own Grandparents would never recognize. Gone are the days when "watching TV" meant sitting at attention in front of a vast, oak-paneled box in servile obedience to an implacable, dictated schedule. Today's viewers want their content in numerous formats for a growing list of platforms, and Advertisers are scrambling for attention as their formerly acquiescent consumers experience the long-denied joys of watching TV the way that suits them for a change.
For the Networks, the result is a potent blend of fear, greed and creative turmoil, Boardrooms are alive with intense and passionate discussions on how and what to create for this nascent frontier; The suits all desperately want to own a part of the new landscape, and the financial rewards of getting it right are leaving their socks in drool-sheared tatters. But they still expect their new digital dominion to obey the same rules forged by years of adherence to the traditional model that has served [and paid] them so well.
This is myopic insanity. The Internet is the single greatest advance in mass communication since the printing press, and those in the media who do not immediately master the vast, inherent potential for creation and distribution of entertainment-related content will be crushed to insignificance by the exponential growth of those with more vision.
The counsel for the Networks is simple, and pivotal: Stake your claim and serve your audience. Now! If you don't, 'You Tube' will. And you can't 'monetize' that.
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