Tag Archives: streaming video

12 Jun

ThisWeekIn On Everything Bubbling On The Social Web

What for a year ago started with This Week In Startups, a live podcast by Jason Calacanis to embrace entrepreneurship and help out startups, has now turned into a web television network ThisWeekIn, covering a wide range of topics from tech to entertainment. Together with co-founders Kevin Pollak and Mark Jeffrey, Jason is now airing 12 weekly shows from their Santa Monica studio. Whether you want to catch up with funny YouTube moments, Twitter trends, coolest Android and iPad apps, or get the latest Internet industry deals and juicy insights, there’s a show for that.

The latest edition to the schedule is This Week In Social Media with the highs and lows of the social web, hosted by Alana Joy and Sean Percival. The very first guest on the show was none other than Brian Solis himself, who got to give his view on the all time trending topic Internet privacy, as to reflect on the impact social media and social networking have on our very own behaviour.

Catch up with the entire interview and social media blunders of the week.

Broadcasting 2.0 – turn your audience into fans and co-producers

The statistics on the two-screen experience keep showing an increasing trend, at the same time more devices are being connected to the Internet. As Justin Kan of Justin.tv already pointed out at the LeWeb conference last year, two-screen experience also counts for 15% of the revenues of the traditional TV.

So, now that services like Justin.tv, Ustream, Bambuser, Qik and soon YouTube (?) are democratizing live broadcasting, and together with social networks making it possible for almost anyone to reach an audience, what is it that makes ones audience to turn into fans?

Include and Engage. I talk based on my own experience: This Week In Startups has managed to keep me engaged since the very first episode, because it stays relevant to its audience by refusing to become an echo chamber and a megaphone for marketing messages. It’s a show built together with its audience using all the interactive tools and possibilities of social media, both before, during, and after a show. The audience becomes the co-producer in choosing guests, topics and participating in the show in a sincere way.

I think Scooter Braun, manager of Justin Bieber, summarized it well in his advice regarding Justin’s engagement with his fans across social media:

“The moment you think you’re too big for your fans, they’re gonna abandon you”.

Which leaves us with one thing that’s certain: The future of broadcast media is social. #EngageOrDie

Paula is online strategist and startup evangelist. She blogs at paulamarttila.com and here at Bub.blicio.us.
Follow her on Twitter: @paulamarttila
Drop her email at paula.marttila[at]gmail[dot]com

21 Sep

When it Comes to the NFL Games Online, NBC Gets It

Football is back! With the second week of the 2009 NFL season wrapping up there aren’t a lot of legitimate choices out there for catching a game on online. Sure you can do a quick internet search and find plenty of sites proclaiming live streaming of NFL games but these sites are sketchy at best with most games going “offline” rather quickly (have to think the NFL is out in force on game day). I do have to give kudos to NBC for bringing their Sunday Night Football games to the online world for free.

With cable and satellite TV costs skyrocketing and many people opting to cut this luxury from their dwindling budgets, the average fan looking to get their NFL fix is stuck. Last season NBC started airing their Sunday night games and continued the trend this season. I just wish the NFL would add to the mix some more games. Granted, it would be incredible to catch every single game online for free, but I understand this could definitely undermine the potential revenue stream of the league.

NFL on NBC

This is where NBC is the real winner. With one prime-time game a week, NBC is creating a great opportunity to brand itself and create a solid fan base. Heck, throw commercials my way! Give me a game for free and I’ll watch a two-minute video, I’ll even pay attention to the commercials you air on the broadcast network! You are giving me the opportunity to watch an exciting game, offer an HD experience with DVR-type controls (major plays are even tagged along the video time line, if you miss one with a simple click you are taken to that key play and with a click of a button can return to the live action!), plus as a bonus the opportunity to view the game from other camera angles during the action.

Television networks are coming along slowly but surely with the online experience. Just looking at the success of sites like Hulu will show there is a hungry audience online. We aren’t rogue “kill your television” consumer out here. For whatever reason we have made the choice to consume content online and still have great loyalty to our favorite shows, maybe even more than the average couch-bound channel surfer.

It seems that the typical way to give consumers online content is either in a delay-based, on-demand format or making it a premium. I don’t think this approach will necessarily work well in the long term. Advertising is the major way TV stations make their money and having the ability for local affiliates to sell advertising locally is key. How about having to enter in your ZIP code when you watch online content? This way you can feed localized advertising into the mix of your national advertisers making all parties happy.

I think the NFL would go a long way and find they are including more people by giving some things away. You don’t have to have every game on but by giving away an early and later game on each Sunday, you are exposing your brands and teams to a wider audience. NBC gets it and has proven this with its Sunday night games. More exposure brings more fans and more fans equates to more people coming through the gates, buying branded merchandise and giving your advertisers a captive audience. Hopefully more leagues will see the value in this and is just not “giving it away” with nothing in return.