NBC doubles video coverage of Olympics, still cuts staff

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:07:29 -0500

NBCU plans to do more streaming online video with fewer staff during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics later this month. Overall, on its broadcast, digital and cable platforms, the network plans to post almost twice as many hours of programming--835 hours compared to 419 hours--as it did from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. More impressively, it plans to have some 32 percent fewer staffers on hand and will broadcast all 835 hours in HD with multichannel surround sound.

NBC Olympics senior VP of Engineering Dave Mazza told Broadcasting & Cable that "For the first time since Salt Lake, we're doing a Games in our own language that we can drive to."

NBC will stream 400 hours of coverage live to NBCOlympics.com.

For more:
- see this B&C article

Report: 1080p HD coming to Netflix soon

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:47:37 -0500

Movie downloading service Netflix will be offering subscribers an upgrade to 1080p hi-def quality and 5.1 surround sound on some of the movies available on its instant streaming service, CNET reports. Aside from that, the details are pretty slim.

Although CNET doesn't say what boxes will support the HD streaming, Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox are a good bet, as well as Roku and--possibly--some Blu-ray players. Got a Wii? Probably out of luck for a bit longer as the industry wait for the Nintendo system to get the tech to support even 720 streaming.

Right now, only a small selection, about 6 percent, of movies from Netflix are available in even 720p, so the roll out could be glacial.

For more:
- see this CNET blog

Netflix says there's a big loophole in proposed net neutrality rules

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:54:04 -0500

Netflix is asking the FCC to look a little closer at its proposed net neutrality rules, warning that there's a major loophole that would allow Comcast-especially if it's NBCU merger is approved-and other major cable and satellite companies a major advantage in giving their own content a delivery edge. And, Netflix says, that would create a major hurdle for its business and keep its nascent, but growing, streaming business from gaining more than a foothold in the online video delivery campaign.

The company said the FCC's language in the "managed services" portion of its proposed rules needs to be readdressed and strengthened.

"If left unchecked, the ‘managed services' category could engulf the Commission's open Internet policies altogether. As such, the Commission must carefully circumscribe the network operators' ability to exempt certain services from the openness rules by classifying them as managed services," Netflix wrote in its filing to the FCC.

Cable companies are seeing services like Netflix, which often are delivered "over-the-top" on devices like Sony's PS3 and other gaming consoles, on Blu-ray players and, increasingly, on Internet-connected televisions, as a major threat. Increasingly, consumers are opting to add OTT devices rather than invest in more services from cable and satellite providers. Netflix and other OTT services also have prompted some consumers to drop their cable and DBS services entirely. A recent study said some 8 percent of high-speed Internet users planed to cut the cord to pay television, although critics of the data have said it's more likely that consumers will add OTT delivery in addition to their current cable or DBS service rather than drop pay TV entirely.

For more:
- see this Washington Post blog

Study: Selectable pre-roll ads show better recall, click throughs

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:14:32 -0500

A new study on monetizing online video says customizable pre-roll ads are more likely to be effective at holding a viewer's attention than traditional pre-roll ads. The study, by an industry coalition brought together by digital ad agency network Vivaki, looked at nearly 30 available ad formats over 16 months on trialing.

According to the study, the "Ad Selector" model, a Hulu innovation, allows users to pick a pre-roll ad from several options before watching online video content.

The report said Ad Selector showed higher click-through rates (106 percent), and significantly higher ad recall rates--as high as 290 percent--than traditional pre-roll ads. The study will be presented at this month's Interactive Adverting Bureau's Annual Leadership Conference.

The report seemed to stir little excitement in the industry.

"[With Ad Selector], we've given the user control over which ad they see, but...they still see a pre-roll," said Corey Kronengold, author of the OnlineVideoWatch.com blog and and VP, communications, at video platform Twistage. "Pre-roll still dominates, and is going to continue to be the king of the online video ad hill until something dramatically and fundamentally changes."

For more:
- see this ClickZ report

YouTube's Sundance play a 'humble beginning' to a real opportunity for online video, indie filmmakers

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:30:28 -0500

By Reed Martin

YouTube's new rental service, which launched by offering five Sundance films for $3.99 each, drew just over 1,000 paying customers nationally--not enough to shift traditional film distribution paradigms or overshadow Steve Jobs--but this humble beginning masks the opportunity for YouTube and for today's aspiring independent screenwriters, directors and producers. Just as text blogging gave unaffiliated writers new ways to connect to large audiences and even shape the national discourse, new avenues for distributing and consuming full-length independent films will now give anyone with the talent and drive to make movies, a viable and well-trafficked platform for getting their work in front of huge audiences and more importantly--sold.

YouTube's unrivaled ability to help content go viral will no doubt help the fledgling online distribution of independent feature films reach a tipping point. And if a few talented directors are discovered along the way by agents and studio executives looking for the next cool thing, all the better.

The opportunity for monetizable self-distribution on the Internet hasn't come a moment too soon for indie filmmakers who are left with fewer options after the winnowing of leading specialized film distributors such as Miramax, Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, THINKfilm, and New Line, all of whom have recently shuttered offices in New York and Los Angeles.

Over the past decade the economics of releasing a film theatrically have only gotten tougher. Competition forced distributors to pay more for marketing as increasingly-fragmented audiences turned to DVR's, social media, video games, and other distractions. Tough economics and disappointing returns from several high-profile theatrical releases drove most of the major studios to re-evaluate their aggressive push into the specialized film market, and either retrench or close down their specialized banners altogether. However, the ensuing distribution vacuum presents a business opportunity for YouTube, and other video-sharing sites that allow filmmakers to sell their films alongside studio content available for online streaming.

From now on, the Lee Daniels' ("Precious") and Kathryn Bigelow's ("The Hurt Locker") of tomorrow will be able to bypass traditional gatekeepers and monetize their hard work and creativity using only an HD camera, a fast laptop and a decent Internet connection. Indeed, the day when nearly everyone has made an independent film, in the same way that most people today have both an e-mail address and a Facebook page (and perhaps a blog and a Twitter account), may not be far off.

What will never go out of style is the desire to tell stories and the need for people to express themselves in the most creative way possible.

The big news is that the historically-pejorative idea of going "straight-to-video" (which often meant fighting for shelf space in struggling mom-and-pop video stores or accepting modest sell-through deals with big box retailers) will soon take on a positive meaning and present an exciting opportunity for filmmakers everywhere.

Reed Martin, an adjunct associate professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, teaches the course, "Film Marketing, Exhibition, and Distribution." He was a research associate at Harvard Business School and is the author of "The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn't Know You Need To Know About Making An Independent Film." Check it out here.