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Television Remains Primary News Source for Many Americans

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July 9, 2013

According to a new Gallup poll, in which Americans were asked what they consider to be their main source of news about domestic and global events, 55 percent indicated television is their primary resource, while 21 percent said they mainly use the Internet. Nine percent said newspapers or other print publications, followed by radio at 6 percent. This poll marks the first time Gallup has measured Americans’ media habits with this open-ended question. Continue reading Television Remains Primary News Source for Many Americans

CNN BuzzFeed to Launch Today: Targets 18-34 Demographic

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May 28, 2013

In its effort to become a news destination for young adults, BuzzFeed announced it will debut “CNN BuzzFeed” today, a new YouTube channel based on CNN reporting. It plans to feature current and archival content (about three videos a week to start), designed for sharing via social media platforms. BuzzFeed already has several YouTube channels, but the CNN partnership marks its most comprehensive with a traditional media company. Continue reading CNN BuzzFeed to Launch Today: Targets 18-34 Demographic

Glassware: Google Announces New Apps for Glass Device

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May 17, 2013

Google’s Internet-connected Glass device will soon feature seven new apps, which the company hopes will makes the glasses more functional. The Glassware apps, announced at the I/O developers conference yesterday, include Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, reminder notes from Evernote, news alerts from CNN and fashion features from Elle. The seven additions join Path and The New York Times as the only apps currently available on Glass. Continue reading Glassware: Google Announces New Apps for Glass Device

Citizen Journalism: Ustream Covers Boston Manhunt Live

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April 25, 2013

The live streaming site Ustream increased its viewership recently with the help of citizen journalism. During the manhunt for Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev, live information was streamed from a police scanner via the free platform. The site drew an audience of 2.5 million, with 265,000 simultaneous viewers at its peak moment. Notably, nearly half tuned in from their mobile devices. Continue reading Citizen Journalism: Ustream Covers Boston Manhunt Live

Mobile Activity on Upswing, Opens Doors for Mobile Ad Biz

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March 1, 2013

According to Nielsen’s Vice Chair Susan Whiting, who was a part of a panel discussion analyzing disruption in traditional media usage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday, consumers are not abandoning one platform for another. Instead, they’re spending more time than ever viewing and reading news and entertainment content, using mobile devices as an access point. Continue reading Mobile Activity on Upswing, Opens Doors for Mobile Ad Biz

Debunking Tech Perceptions: If TV not Broken, Why is Everyone Trying to Fix It?

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December 7, 2011
  • Apple, Google, Microsoft, Roku and Boxee are just some of the companies working on ways to re-imagine the TV experience.
  • “But nobody seems to be able to answer the big question: what exactly is so broken about TV anyway?” writes Matt Rosoff in a commentary for CNN, part of a series designed to “debunk commonly held perceptions about technology.”
  • Rosoff acknowledges that channel guides are inefficient… “But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most TV viewers simply won’t care enough about any of this stuff to shell out $1,500 for a new Apple TV, or spend a few hundred bucks and countless hours fiddling around adding a new box to their TV set and figuring out how it works.”
  • He notes that while the tech industry wants to optimize the television experience, it is important to remember that TV is passive. We don’t want to work at it. It’s not too difficult to turn the set on, find your channel and you’re done. Even Steve Jobs sometimes just wanted to watch TV and vegetate.
  • “That’s why we love TV just the way it is,” writes Rosoff. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Proposed AS-10 Metadata Spec Aimed at Streamlining Video Workflow

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December 5, 2011
  • A new video metadata specification that would enable efficient interoperability of video between cameras, editing, playout and archiving may arrive as early as next year’s NAB Show, reports TVNewsCheck.
  • The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) has spent the past nine months developing AS-10, aimed at retaining and rendering readable the video metadata across devices that come from different vendors.
  • “Our goal is to have a single file that could move from camera to edit to playout to archive and back, really to be able to traverse the entire work flow,” says CNN’s Michael Koetter, who also serves as the AMWA director.
  • “I would love for CNN or CBS or whoever to be able to walk up to a [product] and see a little badge on it that says ‘AS-10 Inside’ and have some greater level of assurance than I do today,” adds Koetter.
  • The AS-10 effort has drawn support from CNN, NRK (the Norwegian state broadcaster), and vendors such as JVC, Sony, Harmonic, MetaGlue, MOG Solutions, Canon and Adobe.

A La Carte: Will the Future Apple TV Disrupt the Current Live TV Paradigm?

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November 1, 2011
  • Forbes speculates that the rumored future Apple TV would create a demand for single channels, which could potentially break up the cable pricing monopoly.
  • Rather than paying for a package of a hundred channels, users would pay a la carte for content just as single-channel apps have become popular in the mobile sphere.
  • “Presumably, Apple wants to disrupt this market the same way the iPod and iTunes made it easier for consumers to buy music, and the way the iPhone is slowly moving the cellular industry to data plans over voice plans (see: iMessage, Facetime),” suggests the article.
  • Providers such as Time Warner Cable, Optimum and DirecTV already have apps for live streaming of channels. And ESPN, CNN and Major League Baseball have their own apps.
  • “[Cable providers] might consent to separate channel apps as long as each still requires an overall subscription…that would certainly put a crimp in [Apple’s] potential plans to revolutionize television,” explains Forbes. “And if Apple provides incentives for channels to go it alone, the fight could be massive.”

Time Warner to Stream CNN and HLN Online

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July 19, 2011
  • As part of its “TV Everywhere” strategy, Time Warner is streaming live simulcasts beginning this week of cable news channels CNN and HLN to people who subscribe via distributors such as Comcast, Dish Network and Verizon.
  • “TV Everywhere” is designed to discourage service cancellations by subscribers (also known as “cord cutting”).
  • Media companies are hoping to gain additional revenue from streaming either directly from distributors or through higher TV ratings.
  • “We’re trying to lead by example. We’re trying to show that it works,” said Andy Heller, vice chairman of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting. “If we don’t give consumers those options, you run the risk of seeing the potential for cord cutting.”

YouTube: Studio System for New Era of Content?

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April 3, 2011

CNN reports that the debate regarding whether Google is a media company or tech company — a publisher of content or indexer of content — may soon be over, as the company prepares to morph YouTube into an online “studio system” for a new era of content production. CNN suggests Google is already a media company, but the question should more accurately address what kind of media company; perhaps “one that operates by the economics of the Internet, with no legacy ties to the economics of television, movies, or publishing.”

In recent months, Google has been investing heavily in its YouTube division, including: the hiring of content execs from Netflix and Paramount, recent acquisitions to enhance its current quality of offerings, plans to reportedly spend $100 million on developing new celebrity “channels,” and more. Google hopes to expand YouTube’s dominance in the UGC market to include niche programming and mass entertainment.

Of course, what makes the online video resource unique in terms of serving as a content provider, is that it has very little overhead. As compared to other media companies that are more directly involved in actual production, YouTube’s marginal costs are nearly zero. Advertising revenue is earned the same way whether viewers are clicking on a cute video about someone’s cat — or a professional basketball game (Google is in talks with the NBA and NHL to show live games on YouTube).

YouTube also enjoys the potentially infinite number of specialty channels the Internet provides, an approach that is not practical for cable. It may not matter from day-to-day which channels do well and which do not. As long as YouTube makes the platform available, the content can regularly evolve.

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