5 Comments

  1. This is just (really) big mainstream media moving into yet another distribution channel to distribute their mainstream content.

    It’s to be expected.

    But what’s exciting are the opportunities for independent content providers, from movie-makers to the dad who always videos the games his son’s under 10s football team, to distribute their content (and revenue share) in a no-fuss straight-forward manner.

    As with all things web, it’s going to be about discovery rather than delivery and this is where mainstream has the massive advantage.

  2. Do you think that mainstream has the advantage on discovery? I can never find anything on YouTube unless someone sends me the direct link. The search doesn’t work. How do you discover your videos? Mine come to me as links from time-wastrels and are referenced in blogs and podcasts. I don’t think I’ve bothered with a mainstream sites Top 100 or similar in forever.

    I’m just not sure that aggregated mass media portals are the way forward. I personally become frustrated with YouTube – I can’t download and mashup easily for one. Most of the videos I view are in small social networks. YouTube hosts them sometimes, or there may be many hosts, but I hear about them through tiny communities. Not so much a pebble creating a wave that becomes tidal but a million pebbles creating a million small waves. Still gonna get drenched. 🙂

  3. The mega portals size will be their downfall, agreed, but the problem will be for the specialised and localised aggregators to get their message out there.

    No question that they’ll provide a better experience for the average punter (especially if they combine all forms of content) but how does the average punter become aware?

    Not by the offline channels because they are all owned by the same companies that own the mega-portals.

    By pebbles, I agree, and often the ripples can become very effective (your Jason.tv story a good example) but only if they can survive the mega-portals lobbing the odd boulder into the pond.

    Don’t get me wrong – there is potentially a revolution in “tv” coming (already here?) and I welcome it wholeheartedly.

    The only thing that tempers my enthusiasm is that a similar revolution was supposed to have hit music and all that’s happened, to a large extent, is that iTunes has replaced the record shop 🙁

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