I sat in some really interesting discussions about the future of broadcasting on the internet; specifically long form content. There seems to be two rather opposite and non-complementary views.
On one side we have the enthusiasts, these people that want to produce and share media longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Potentially expensive to produce, but for now (as with monetization of the web in general) we’ll ignore that. Their pro-long form content arguments revolves less around the media itself and more about where it is consumed.
The other side, led by the current new media content producers thinks that current 5-8 minute average is about right. There are lots of successful examples on YouTube, professionally produced webisodes and stand alone sites like “Funny or die” and “PG Porn”. It’s easier to produce, easier to digest, not too long that people’s attention wanders and is about long enough to tell a story.
A number of what I’d call “legacy” TV companies have dipped their toes into short format shows with some success. The SyFy channel made a series of 5-6 minute Battlestar Galactica internet only webisodes, they did the same for the spin off series Caprica. The BBC has done the same thing by making extra content available inline only for a number of their shows.
I sat in on a couple of discussions with content creators about the long/short format. Almost universally they see the big thing stopping production of web based long content is that there is no money available to make it. With a beautiful piece of circular logic, I was told that the main reason there is no funding is that the suits don’t believe the market for long for exists.
There may be some truth to that argument; people are not used to watching movies on their computer. I would rather sit on the sofa and watch a movie on the TV, rather than with my Mac on my lap or in the office. It’s a comfort and ease of use thing.
The hardware to integrate TV with the internet is becoming more available, the delivery method is there (iTunes and Netflicks) but it’s rather niche right now and requires a certain amount of tech knowledge to put together. Not a way to get a critical mass of the market onboard (see circular argument), but there seems to be belief among the pro crowd that the market is emerging and the future is bright.
The new Apple TV goes a long way towards bringing the Internet and internet based content to the TV. All you need is a broadband Internet connection and all the contents on iTunes are available for your TV.
I think that if you can watch long form content in the same way you watch a movie at home, namely on the sofa, then internet only long form content can be successful. I think we are almost ready for long form, but let’s not forget that no matter what we watch, it’s about the quality of the content.
7 Comments
Nice thoughts, this really is rather basic, produce quality content and deliver it in an convenient format and it will get viewed.
As a content producer I really don’t think it’s much tougher than that, but there does seem to be a mental barrier to overcome in convincing ourselves that people are interested.
Nice thoughts, and I do largly agree with what you have to say.
Concise and reasoned. Interesting, are there any other new media conferences you’d recoment other than BWE?
I think the most important line in this is:
“With a beautiful piece of circular logic, I was told that the main reason there is no funding is that the suits don’t believe the market for long for exists.”
It really is tough because a lot of people don’t believe there is a market, one or two companies are making headway into long-format material, but you are right until the decision makes fun high quality the market will not exist.
Bianca
Do you think that internet-enabled blu-ray players and dedicted units like apples i-TV and MS Windows Media server will drive the future of long content?
I think devices like Apple-TV and Windows 7-Media will make it possible to enjoy streamed internet content and make it look exactly like watching TV. I think the tech aspect is only part of the game, it’s quality media that’s needed. There are places creating it, but it’s niche markets today and the producers (either existing internet only producers or the big players with huge back catalogs of material) need to step up with content that the mainstream wants.
I do believe that sometime in the near future the mainstream will download content as their primary point of sale. I’m not sure of everything that has to happen to get there, it’s certainly already started with Netflicks and iTunes.
Great blog
Thank you – I liked this post.