DoTube
I've said numerous times on this blog that it's not so much about what the content is online but what you can do with it. And I've suggested that the big guys are going to struggle with this aspect of web video. Many people have told me I am wrong. They say that the big guys get it and are going to make their video content truly web native.
So I am going to start playing with the web video services from the big guys that seem to be popping up almost daily now. And let you know what I think. I'll call this series of posts DoTube.
I can't resist starting with this one from Comedy Central's Motherload.
The Motherload service does support the basic things you'd want to do with web video (rate it, link to it, embed it, send it, create a playlist). But you can't comment on the videos. And worse, this video is going to expire on April 22nd. So I guess if you are reading this blog post after April 22nd, you aren't going to see this video. Comedy Central explains that:
Due to licensing agreements we're unable to keep this clip available on the site past the expiration date. We hope you enjoy it while we have it up.
This is the kind of stuff that's going to hold the big guys back. Putting up content that's going to expire in a month is not going to create the best web video experience.
what a classic clip. that kid is a star
Posted by: howard Lindzon | March 26, 2007 at 09:21 AM
fred - yeah...i wrote about this last month. and, if you go there now, you'll see that the video i embedded is "no longer available." this simply won't fly - users won't publish / embed videos if that's what happens.
it reminds me of links to newspaper articles that end up behind pay walls in 30 days. the nytimes was smart early on as they made all articles "open forever" (first page only) for users coming from special rss links...as a result, the blogosphere referenced the nytimes like crazy...
--don
feedburner
Posted by: don loeb | March 26, 2007 at 10:54 AM
RE: your comment on the "big guys" making their content "truly web native", it's interesting to see what the broadcasters have tried vs. the smaller cable nets.
The biggest strategic challenge they're all having is speed to market. The sharing/self publishing technology evolves so fast that by the time they learn to spell RSS or XML or AJAX the market has moved on to a bigger/better/more integrated and useful set of tools.
Inevitably, any "new" video sharing feature they custom develop will be co-opted by their competitors or comoditized within weeks. It's the classic example of the innovator's dilemma.
The advantages the "big guys" have are obvious: largest pre-existing base of advertisers (and ad sales infrastructure), brand awareness among consumers, and access to large volumes of data and cross-media platforms. That's a wheel that turns itself: the biggest advertisers need the high-volume of data and the large audiences. That's not to say there's no room for longtail players, but to build a business of any significant size, the "big guys" present a pretty tough competitive advantage, no matter how many earnest community members RocketBoom entices to watch them daily.
Making it possible for consumers to "do more" with their online video in truly ground-breaking ways ...that's not a game that the "big guys" are in a position to win. Instead I see them competing on more familiar front: scalability.
Posted by: Megan | March 26, 2007 at 02:46 PM
Sorry - prematurely published. The only real example of innovation (which I'm actually writing about right now) is BravoTV.com.
They've done at least 5 truly innovative "DO TUBE" things, with almost every one of their shows. In fact their marketing of their programming far surpasses the quality of the programming itself. If the team that just scored the NBC/News Corp deal listens to the BravoTV team and implements those strategies, it could be enough to put the whole network ahead of the pack.
Posted by: Megan | March 26, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Fred, I salute on two counts:
1. You are willing to visit lame bigco MeTooTube sites so that we don't have to.
2. You managed to restrain yourself from quoting the following sentence from the Motherload FAQ: “We hope you enjoy it while we have it up.” I was not as strong-willed:
http://changingway.org/2007/03/26/stoogetube/
Posted by: Andrew | March 26, 2007 at 05:16 PM
Obviously, "business" is much easier when you completely ignore the legal rights of artists and publishers. Just ask Napster :)
Posted by: Andy Swan | March 26, 2007 at 07:34 PM