There’s a bit of a discussion raging online right now about whether the a la carte nature of online video has economics that can support an industry, prompted by a research report by Craig Moffett over the weekend called “And Now for the News…The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Mark Cuban reproduced many of the best parts and expanded on them in a blog post of his own.
What’s got everyone talking is a sobering (for some) calculation by Moffett that implies that TV producers will have to reduce their costs by nearly 90% to be profitable in the new medium (Cuban thinks it’s even more). But many of the things Moffett and Cuban are responding to are the things we built into the business model of Next New Networks. Not because we’re visionaries, or have the answers to this challenge everyone’s facing, but because it was the only sensible way to launch a new media business in this landscape.
For one, our programming costs average in the hundreds of dollars per minute, which is one tenth or less cable television’s programming costs. We launch networks with the minimum necessary programming to build an audience, which may be as little as two minutes of programming a week — with the goal to add more programming as audience and advertiser demand grows. But most importantly, we made a decision to focus on communities that will embrace our programming. If you make something people love, questions like production value and how much money you spend become less important — what matters instead is, do they love you? Do they keep coming back every week? And do advertisers see undeniable evidence that you’re creating something that speaks to the people they want to reach?
I think our co-founder Fred Seibert addressed all these concerns really well in an interview he did with Beet.TV last week. Check out the embedded video below for his take on our take, which highlights some of the creative ways we’re trying both new and tried-and-true advertising models in our programming, and what he calls “struggling optimistically forward” towards a model that can support great video online. Will it look like TV? Who knows. We always like to say it will be better than TV.
The winners of the 11th annual Webby Awards were announced today, and in our business, all eyes were on the Online Film & Video group of categories, where we had four nominations in play. For every category, there’s a juried award and one chosen by popular vote, and sometimes both go to the same nominee, but most of the time they’re different.
Fast Lane Daily, our daily automotive news network, won the People’s Voice Award for the Sports category, in a category that also included nominees from CBS Sportsline, Heavy, and HBO Sports. Congratulations to everyone here at Next New Networks who worked on Fast Lane Daily this past year, especially the core team of Emil, Mike, Ian, Alan, Gene, and Derek D, the ultimate good sport. Below is a special video the team created for the Webby judges and voting public, and it’s a fun recap of how far they’ve come.
I mentioned before that Erik Beck was up for the title of Hottest Male Web Host and though you and I both secretly know there’s no competition, we have to let the others know too. He’s made it to the finals and he’s up against 8 other male web hosts.
So if you haven’t voted, VOTE NOW is your time to vote - you have until THIS FRIDAY, May 2 at 2pm PST. Be sure to tell all your friend because time is running out!
Have you ever watched Indy Mogul and thought to yourself, “Hey, this Erik guy is one sharp looking dude”? Well, you’re not the only one. Daisy Whitney from TV Week thinks so too. She’s compiled a list of The Hottest Male Web Hosts, and our very own Erik Beck is up against Eric Gunnar Rochow from Greenhouse. So if you’ve ever entertained those thoughts, now is the time to let those feelings rush forth. Vote Now! Polling ends Friday, May 2nd.
The advertising business has been increasingly taking notice of Next New Networks. Logical, since our networks have kept launching, kept growing, and gathering up more loyal viewers every day. The latest is Mediaweek, the media buyer’s bible, and Mike Shields’ astute profile of our partner Herb Scannell, and his leadership of our motley crew of nerds and misfits building a media company.
It’s Earth Day, if you hadn’t heard. I thought I’d see a lot more web series tackling the subject, but a quick look around came up with nothing I could really link to that was Earth Day-specific, even over at The Green (If you know of any great Earth Day eps from the web, please add a comment or link below). Of course, on Viropop and ThreadBanger, Earth Day’s a big deal. For starters, we have this special Zaproot episode (though, oddly, it’s their Paris Hilton episode that’s featured on YouTube’s front page today), which includes things you can do on Earth Day.
GEORGE: Amazing guys I love this site and it is almost unreal to see it be on NATIONAL TV after only a year. 2000000 views a month is insane, and I’m sure it grows every month.
PUNKANDSKA66: You realize you guys haven’t even been around for a full year. Think about what indymogul will be like at this time next year.
A special congratulations to Steve and Zadi at Epic-Fu for their second nomination in two years — last year, when the show was called JETSET, they won the People’s Voice for Music/Variety.
All of the nominated programming is eligible to win the awards, which will be announced May 6. They’re also eligible for the People’s Voice Awards — and everyone on the Internet can vote, so please visit their site and vote for your favorites.
It’s Alive!!! Alive!!!
That’s right Fredheads. We’re rolling out the 2008 Channel Frederator Awards site fresh out the oven and onto the secret laboratory floor.
Probably because I’m a “traditional” media guy –read: television– working in “new” media –read: blogging and internet video– I get a lot of people asking me “Do I need to do this?” and “How do I do this?” Usually, I say that my partner Emil Rensing gave me three rules to start blogging five years ago (”1. Blog often. 2. Blog short. 3. Post a picture.”) and leave it at that. This article in yesterday’s New York Times is much more helpful.
MARK CUBAN, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a full plate. Besides his basketball team, the busy billionaire also owns part of a media company, and serves as chairman of the TV channel HDNet. He recently competed for five weeks on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. How on earth does he find time to blog?
Yet his site, blogmaverick.com, is one of the top 1,000 Weblogs, according to the search engine Technorati. Thousands read Mr. Cuban’s posts every single day. If he can do it, why can’t you?
