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People are watching less TV news and increasing number gets their news primarily from the Internet, according to latest studies. There are any reasons: plastic anchors with plastic words and smiles, artificial urgent presentations with teases about what’s up, next or tonight (nothing is in the moment), 20 minutes of commercials an hour, plummeting credibility… The Internet is clearly a superior medium for news, says Cory Bergman, an expert on new television.
“The straightforward, scannable delivering is refreshing, and when combined with a non-linear presentation, on-demand video and two-way interactivity, the Internet is superior.” “There is room for two thriving news platforms here –TV and the web- but TV has to get more real,” she explains.
Niche audiences targeted by new streaming services
Niche programming aimed at narrowly defined audiences that can’t find movies and television shows even on cable systems with 500 or more channels, is coming thanks to new streaming video services, and the fact that 47 percent of American households have broadband connections.
Take this five samples, featured on the New York Times:
- The Independent Film Channel streams 22 short films by a relatively unknown artist.
- FEARnet, “the first multiplatform horror network” which is a joint venture of Comcast, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate, also has its programming online; it makes its money from banner advertisements.
- The nonprofit Jewish Television Network streams music videos by Jewish performers, cooking shows, Israeli news programs and religious services. This short of broadcast is hard to find on mainstream television.
- Also, the DVD rental company Netfilx allows watching 3,000 television episodes and movies on demand in streaming high-quality video.
- ReelTime who rent titles, for $1 each, to be watched on computers’ screen or on television’s larger screen (once the computer is connected). Some of their contents comes straight from ReelTime, or if are pulled from subscribers’ that have previously downloaded from a peer-to-peer network.
A BitTorrent for cell phones
A Malaysian tech firm called mBit is setting up a peer-to-peer system to cell phones. It is a BitTorrent-like service, which grabs small pieces of big files from multiple cell phones simultaneously. So millions of users will be able to send large files, like 50MB movies captured on a cell phone, using a kind of mobile super distribution network.
mBit firm wants to sell its software to 3G and 4G providers across Asia, like NTT DoCoMo. And they are planning to charge $2.50 per user per month.
Also, BitTorrent software has been modified for cell phones before, but required an Internet connection, just like a PC.
A free DVR without ad skipping
Time Warner Cable, the U.S.’ second-largest cable provider, behind Comcast, will offer its customers in October a free service called Look Back, which will let them record any television show without skipping through the commercials. The fast-forwarding function will be turned off.
This radically different approach from other companies that sell DVR (Digital Video Recorder) services, gives a sort of control to customers over the television schedule, but does not avoid the unwanted advertising. Unlike DVR services, Look Back will not let people keep a library of older recorded programs.
DVRs are now in about 17 percent of American households, and that figure is growing rapidly as more cable operators sell the service. For this service, people pay $10 or so every month to cable companies or to TiVo.
Google Maps embed code coming soon
Make it easy to embed stuff onto blogs and sites, and you will have instant syndication. Coming soon Google Maps will allow people to embed a map with just a snippet of code, the same way you embed any viral video coming from an advanced platform.
