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Not Surprising
Saul Hansell has a story in today's New York Times about Lloyd Braun's new strategy at Yahoo!Media Group. Lloyd is backing away from long form video and focusing on user generated content and "content acquired by other media companies".
Lloyd is quoted as saying:
"I didn't fully appreciate what success in this medium is really going to look like," he said. "This is not about creating one-off hits like in my old business. That is not going to create a sustainable competitive advantage over the long term."
Frankly this is a good thing. Nobody really knows what "this medium is going to look like". So weaving and bobbing is what is required right now.
But I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I saw this coming last September when I posted about another article in the NY Times about Lloyd Braun. At that time, Lloyd was promoting this strategy:
"more immersive," "more engaging," and most of all, more "original programming"
I said in my original post:
My initial reaction was, "that's not going to work". Original programming isn't really what the Internet is all about
Lloyd's challenge, and the challenge of anyone coming from the traditional content world, is to forget what they learned about original programming. That's not where its at on the Internet.
The challenge is all about how to take the work of the masses and assemble it into compelling content. The company that figures that out will do very well.
It's good to see that Lloyd and his colleagues at Yahoo! are figuring that out quickly before they throw lots of time, energy, and money down a rat hole.
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Posted March 2, 2006 in Venture Capital and TechnologyComments
I'm a little disappointed Yahoo is getting it's act together.
A lot of people smarter than I have said that Yahoo is basicly lost when it comes to new media and what audiences want. In a lot of ways that's true but Yahoo, fortunately for them, has the money and the resourses to be able to make mistakes.
The fact that they are screwing up in a lot of ways is a good thing for those without the same money or resources becauses they can look a see what not to do.
I have a yahoo360 page. My cool friends laugh at me but I think hanging out with the proletariat is a good thing. Folks on Yahoo360 complain about censorship, spam, harrassment from friends and various other things.
Anybody interested in the new media future should jump headfirst into whatever Yahoo is doing.
Kick the tires and talk to the real people using the stuff.
Yahoo's a great place to look around and learn. But I wouldn't want to live there.
Posted by: chartreuse | Mar 2, 2006 9:49:17 AM
It takes guts to do a mea culpa in public like that, and I for one have new respect for Lloyd. Hopefully, this marks a new beginning for YMG and I'll be eagerly waiting for new initiatives that reflect their new understanding and direction.
Posted by: Robert Young | Mar 2, 2006 12:13:11 PM
From the sounds of it Yahoo expects to chase after Youtube, and Google video in regards to the bottom left quadrant of online video: Low Quality & Independently created.
This seems to be smoke and mirrors because as we have discussed at length before... much of what most people go to Youtube to see is copyrighted work. Thats all I go to that site to see. Apple has 15 million video downloads all quality if not Mainstream video. Rocketboom one of the most popular QUALITY podcasts Boasts over 120k viewers daily.
So let's not be fooled. Realistically, quality is still winning out. That's what people REALLY want to see. And Yahoo may just be following the leader as the blind lead the blind here into the world of poor independently created video.
Am I biased? Of course... but that doesn't change the facts of the matter.
Posted by: David Dundas | Mar 2, 2006 12:48:57 PM
I agree with David regarding User Gen video. Most of the amateur stuff that has done well isn't amateur at all - it's either copywritten or it's made by professionals who haven't been "discovered" in other outlets yet (like the Lonely Island crew).
Braun's announcement is more an acknowledgement of the longtail than anything else. The reality is that a big budget one-off hit on Yahoo! is not a sustainable business model. Duhhh. But that doesn't mean that today's television audience is going to be browsing through cell phone videos of tweens lipsyncing Madonna songs in order to find that next great user gen video.
If you're going to produce successful video content on the web, you have to produce video content FOR the web. Very few people out there are doing that right now. Certainly not Yahoo! Rocketboom is an example of a show that works on the web (and really nowhere else). So far, they're successful.
The production model that results in shows that cost $2 million per episode is not, and probably never will be sustainable on the web. We shouldn't be using the networks as even a basis for comparison - instead look at cable, where the 20k-60k/episode cooking or design show has become the norm, and where quantity has a quality all its own.
Posted by: Adam Elend | Mar 2, 2006 5:59:06 PM
I think Braun's announcement is more about him beginning to understand the Long Tail than support for your proposition that "original programming isn't really what the internet is all about."
One-off's and hit shows that cost a ton of money are not what the internet is all about, but certainly user gen content is not the brass ring here either. Other than the copyrighted stuff, the viral videos that catch on are just as produced as what's on tv - it's just being produced for a lot less money, and by people who have not been "discovered" yet in traditional media (like the Lonely Island guys).
I think there's a place for high quality produced video that's made FOR the web and mobile distribution. As David mentioned, Rocketboom is a great example of this. At this point, the show is working and attracting an audience. The format couldn't work on traditional broadcast outlets, but it works perfectly online and on your iPod. But I don't see a lot of other original programming out there that approaches both form and content from a truly web-centric perspective.
The production model where shows cost $2 million per episode will never be sustainable on the web. I don't understand why network television is even part of the discussion. Why not look at a more reasonable model like the $20k-$80k cooking, home improvement and design shows that populate cable television?
Posted by: Adam Elend | Mar 2, 2006 11:11:08 PM
Lloyd's problem is he wouldn't recognize an online hit if it came up and bit him on the ass.
Compare for instance, Y! Games (a product I was responsible for creating when I ran the Y! Entertainment group) with Lost (one of his products).
Y! Games has (and my numbers are old) somewhere about 25 million viewer hours each and every week. Lost has about 10 million viwer hours a week (about half the time, when there are new episodes).
So let's define "online hit"...
Posted by: Erik | Mar 3, 2006 1:02:24 PM
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