McNamee's Vision of the Future
A must watch for anyone with vested interest in the future of media and the internet: some incredibly insightful speculation from VC Roger McNamee, from how HTML 5 changes everything to why social is over. (Video, 52:22)
(Source: Business Insider)
Web Originals Are More Engaging Than TV: Report
NewTeeVee is reporting on a survey commissioned by YouTube and Next New Networks (specifically Vanessa Pappas, VP of Audience and Strategic Partnerships at NNN) regarding the engagement and satisfaction level of original web entertainment when compared to television.
Click through to read the article, but the gist is simply that a large portion of respondents find original web video to be as (or more) entertaining than television, and are vastly more engaged with web video than with what’s on their TVs. Further, it mentions that the web video fans among the respondents tended to be in their 20’s and 30s, as opposed to television, which has a median audience age of over 50.
Not mentioned in the above article (but in the original press release) is that 4 out of 10 surveyed share their favorite videos with friends (37% via email, 36% via Facebook (or Myspace), and 10% via Twitter).
While it’s awesome to hear that 54% of those respondents who watch original web video say it’s as or more entertaining than television programming (and I mean really awesome), the social sharing aspect is perhaps the most important. It’s a differentiator that networks and studios have yet to truly harness, let alone quantify (networks continue to discount online views in a show’s ratings).
Think about it, there’s no TV Guide on the web to tell you what’s on, no expensive commercials for upcoming videos, no massive ad campaigns plastering The Guild or Annoying Orange or David After Dentist on billboards and subway walls. Web video is gaining views - massive amounts of them - through simple word of mouth and guerrilla marketing.
The data given in this report is indicative of a fundamental shift in audience viewing habits, and what continues to impress me is that we’re driving these numbers on an insignificant fraction of the production and marketing budgets.
Solving the industry’s revenue dilemma shrinks that budget disparity, and while difficult, it will be solved eventually. The hard part of the equation is finding an audience to monetize. If you have that, and we do, developing a scalable process to effectively monetize them is inevitable.
So what is the future of television, as original web content matures to increasingly higher levels, when a quarter of those surveyed already think the stuff on the web is better than TV? Both technology and audience demand are pointing (emphatically) toward a merging of cable/satellite distributed network content and internet delivered content. I, for one, can’t wait to see how this all plays out.
(Source: marketwire.com)
Online Resources for Webseries Beginners
These are starting points; this list is not intended to be all-inclusive. Plus, I’m sure there’s stuff I forgot. Please reblog and add to this list!
Webseries news/reviews blogs:
Tubefilter http://tubefilter.tv
NewTeeVee http://newteevee.com
Web Series Today http://webseriestoday.com
Webseries Theories http://webseriestheories.com/
The Rocket’s Tail http://rocketstail.com/
LG15 Today http://lg15today.blogspot.com/
Web to Watch http://webtowatch.tumblr.com/
Webseries news/reviews shows:
New Mediacracy http://newmediacracy.com (listen to all of them, this is amazing)
Indie Intertube http://indieintertube.tv (audio podcast, also has a message forum)
OK Good Stuff! http://www.maybehip.com/html/okgoodstuff.html
The Web Files http://thewebfiles.blip.tv/
Daisy Whitney’s New Media Minute http://daisywhitney.com/newmediaminute/
Web TV Workshop http://www.webtvworkshop.com/
Slebisodes Web Series Guide http://www.slebisodes.com/
Webseries People to Follow on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Jeff_Koenig/ultimate-web-tv-list
Production resources:
DVX User (filmmaking community) http://dvxuser.com
DVInfo (filmmaking community) http://dvinfo.net
Webseries distribution sites:
sites you can (AND SHOULD) upload to:
YouTube http://youtube.com
Blip TV http://blip.tv
sites that you have to pitch your show and get accepted:
Dailymotion http://dailymotion.com
Crackle http://crackle.com
IFC http://www.ifc.com/web-series/
Babelgum http://babelgum.com
My Damn Channel http://mydamnchannel.com
Koldcast http://koldcast.tv
Revision 3 http://revision3.com
NextNewNetworks http://nextnewnetworks.com
MingleMedia TV http://www.minglemediatv.com/
Hulu http://www.hulu.com/channels/Web/Web-Originals
Live Video Distributors:
The Stream http://thestream.tv
Justin http://justin.tv
UStream http://ustream.com
LiveStream http://livestream.com
Stickam http://stickam.com
This Week In http://thisweekin.com
Series Aggregation Sites:
(These sites are listings of series around a common theme)
SciFinal http://scifinal.com (Sci-Fi shows)
Digital Chick TV http://digitalchicktv.com (women creators)
OMFGeek! http://twitter.com/omfgeek (coming soon. Geek targeted shows)
WebSeries Listings on Video Sites:
(Submit your shows’ RSS feed to be included)
Clicker http://www.clicker.com/web/
-submissions: http://www.clicker.com/about/content_submit.html
VideoSurf http://videosurf.com
-submissions: http://www.videosurf.com/submitsite
Crowdfunding Sites:
Indie GoGo http://indiegogo.com
Kickstarter http://kickstarter.com
Webseries Organizations:
The International Academy of Web Television http://iawtv.org
WGA East New Media http://www.wgaeast.org/index.php?id=63
SAG New Media http://www.sag.org/newmedia
Major Awards:
The Streamys http://streamys.org
The Webbys http://www.webbyawards.com/
Festivals and Conferences:
LATVFest/NAPTE NextTV Competition http://latvfest.net/latvfestival/
ITVFest http://itvfest.org/
NY Television Festival http://www.nytvf.com/
LA WebFest http://www.lawebfest.com/
SXSW Interactive http://sxsw.com/interactive
Internet Week http://www.internetweekny.com/
Miscellaneous Resources:
The WebTV Database http://thewebtvdb.com (coming soon, sign up to beta test)
What is a Webseries? http://facebook.com/whatisawebseries (in development)
Web Series Network http://webseriesnetwork.com (social network)
Selected Articles:
Stuff on the web I thought was important enough to bookmark
http://www.delicious.com/broadcastassassin
Establishing a brand identity for an industry: What is a Webseries?
After many conversations on branding, outreach, and education for the webseries industry, I’m happy to announce my intention to launch a new community project, http://whatisawebseries.com, a web site that serves a very basic purpose: it answers the all too common question “What is a Webseries?”
The simple truth is we need an easy to remember location that provides an explanation of what it is we do, whether for our families and friends, the media, future creators, or potential sponsors and investors.
WiaW will serve as an encyclopedia with only one entry… a university with only one subject. In it’s most basic, top level form, it will be a place for the idly curious to grasp in a few seconds the concept behind our industry. Eventually, I would like the site to become a comprehensive overview of the industry and its history.
I can really only work on it on weekends at this point (this project is unaffiliated with CJP, and my work there comes first), but I hope to have the site launched within a few weeks – at least in a basic form (this is what a webseries is, these are some examples of shows, these are a few sites you can watch them on).
In the meantime, anyone who would like to help with the project is welcome to contact me. Help with writing content, graphic design, or coding are all appreciated.
Prior to the site going live, I welcome your thoughts and input on the project. I’ve created a FB fan page with a Discussions tab for an ongoing discussion of what content the site should have, and how that content will be organized. You can find it here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-is-a-Webseries/133448053356220
The site also has a Twitter account for announcements, just follow http://twitter.com/WhatsaWebseries
In order to mitigate the costs of developing, launching, and maintaining the site, I’ve created a modest crowdfunding project on IndieGoGo. Obviously, supporting the site with a financial contribution is not required. However, as an incentive to helping me get this off the ground, I’m pre-selling ad spots for webseries shows for anyone who contributes $50 or more. (The site will NOT be for profit or ad supported, I’m putting ads for shows on the site to help you promote your work and use your show as an example for visitors of the site, similar to what I did with Broadcast Assassin.)
If you don’t have your own show (or even if you do, I guess) you can certainly reserve ad space on behalf of a show you like but aren’t involved with.
The IndieGoGo project can be found here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/What-is-a-Webseries
I’ll be making the site available to the IAWTV Communications Committee for certain things, if they wish, and welcome the Standards Committee to leverage the site for passing along whatever recommendations they eventually arrive at. Additionally, I will be exploring possible ways to integrate the site with Clicker’s web originals directory, WebTVdb (when that gets going full steam), the broadband content networks, and the community at large.
This is not my project, really. It belongs to and benefits all of us. I’m just taking the initiative and getting the ball rolling.
And when the site is live, not only will the industry finally have an outlet for branding itself, but we’ll finally have an easy answer the next time someone asks us “Webseries? What’s that?’
What's in a Name? Only the Future Growth of Our Industry
An excerpt from an otherwise useful blog post:
By serialization in video blogging, we can be talking about doing video that’s published or produced in regular installments (series), typically chronologically, like in a novel or television drama. AKA – a web video show, video series, webisode, episodic video blogging, etc…
The Advantages of Online Video Web Series
Further proof that even a professional blogger from a site that covers the video industry (ReelSEO) doesn’t know what to call this… “Web Television” gets its own share of griping (rightfully so, unless we really do just want to make TV on the web), but “Online Video Web Series” is not a name that sticks in the minds of our audience. We seriously need to come up with one easy to remember, keyword friendly name for web shows and start using it unilaterally across the industry.
We need a standards committee, STAT!
(How to Approach a Web Video Series as a Marketing Strategy found via Larry Kless, http://klessblog.com)
