"The Future of Television" - Producer-Consumers
Tuesday, February 05, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: Apple unveiled new versions of its iPhone and iPod touch devices today with double the memory of before. It's the trend in new devices -- getting smaller but doing more. You can watch videos, listen to music, send email, surf the net and download photos. As Scott Gurvey continues his series, "The Future of Television," he looks at how new technologies are leveling the playing field when it comes to producing video content.
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Is this the future of television? Will Coughlan and Rob Millis are the creators and anchors of politicallunch.com. Their report covering the latest in political news is posted on the Internet at the lunch hour.
ROBERT MILLIS, CO-CREATOR, POLITICALLUNCH.COM : We like to offer five minutes where people who are interested in politics, but maybe not obsessed the way that we are, can get caught up with the election news and go on with their day. They can have a sandwich during lunch, watch us and move on.
GURVEY: A viewer who catches up at politicallunch or any of the web- casting sites may be less inclined to tune into the news and entertainment on broadcast TV. The availability of low-cost equipment for shooting and editing has made the television production process accessible. Anyone with a $50 web cam can make television and you don't need your own web-casting Internet site. Distributing television is now as simple as burning a DVD or posting the video to a free web-sharing site. Youtube is the best known. Founded three years ago, youtube had 61 million videos online at the beginning of this year. Youtube's Jordan Hoffner says there is a good reason for the site's popularity.
JORDAN HOFFNER, HEAD OF PREMIUM CONTENT PARTNERSHIPS, YOUTUBE: The one thing that youtube does, it creates a democratic platform, so there is no barrier to entry if you are a producer of television. You don't have to wait for somebody to green light your project. You can just put it up and go directly to the audience and see if there is an audience for you.
GURVEY: In truth, there isn't an audience for a lot of the television you find posted on the Internet. Just like broadcast TV, Will Coughlan of politicallunch.com says viewers are looking for interesting content and good production values on the web.
WILL COGHLAN, CO-CREATOR, POLITICALLUNCH.COM : The Internet is a meritocracy. Now if you don't deliver something that the audience appreciates, then no one watches.
GURVEY: For some, there's a simple gratification if your video is popular. But for the stand-up comics, garage bands and comedy troupes now playing on the web, the goal is still to be discovered on the net and then sign a deal with a traditional media company. Search giant Google bought youtube in 2006 for stock worth $1.65 billion. The company expects to sell advertising on the same web pages which display the videos. Most web- casters would like to sell ads. But attracting the big budget advertisers who now buy time on broadcast television is something media analyst Scott Kessler of Standard & Poor's says will be difficult.
SCOTT KESSLER, INTERNET MEDIA ANALYST, STANDARD & POOR'S: Right now, a lot of the content that youtube has is user-generated content. And frankly, a lot of "Fortune" 500 type companies are not necessarily so comfortable with providing advertising and marketing messages that are going to be embedded or alongside what I would characterize as lower quality or including content that is more questionable type content.
GURVEY: Those issues have not stopped some of the tech sector's biggest players from trying their hand at television. Microsoft makes both hardware and software for Internet video. VP Enrique Rodriguez runs Microsoft's TV division.
ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ, VP, MICROSOFT TV DIVISION: I think everybody is feeling pressure to understand their role in the future of television. I think Microsoft, like many other companies, is trying to understand what value we can bring to the consumer, what value we can bring to the industry that will, in fact, give us the right if you will to earn a portion of that value chain.
GURVEY: Of course, the over-the-air broadcasters are fighting desperately to retain as much of that value chain as they can. We'll take a look at some of their efforts tomorrow. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.
