With the media landscape continuing to fragment, we posed a multiple-choice question to some of the broadcast networks’ big hitters, to gauge their take on the threat (or otherwise) posed by internet TV. Amid the light-hearted approach and the interesting replies, some Darwinian thoughts on survival emerged.

Q: If the internet TV network model is an asteroid hurtling toward Earth and traditional broadcast TV networks are dinosaurs, what is most likely to happen?

A: It will burn up on entry.
B: The dinosaurs will try to catch the falling star and worship it.
C: The dinosaurs will evolve, log on, hit delete and redirect any traffic in the comet’s tail with shinier, brighter stars.
D: Kerblam! Lights out. Goodnight mumma. We’re re-deploying staff to open a nice little bistro, nothing fancy, in West End once the dust has settled.
E: None of the above (and how dare you call us dinosaurs?).

Nine Network CEO David Gyngell

Answer: E

“The asteroid will make it to Earth, and have a bit of an impact. But the broadcast TV networks (who aren’t dinosaurs) will have more. The networks will keep giving people the content they love, delivered in lots of different ways. Broadcasters have the best content and they know how to use the internet.”

Seven Network director of programming Tim Worner

Answer: E

“Television continues to thrive. It has had a great ability to adapt to changing consumer demands over the past five decades and that ability to adapt continues today. Free-to-air television will continue to thrive as long as it produces content that matters to Australians. Content needs to be available across an array of platforms…we’re investing in time-shifting and content devices such as TiVo and exploring opportunities for content delivery through VividWireless.”

Network Ten chief programmer David Mott

Answer: C

“The dinosaurs will definitely evolve into a whole new species – hopefully one capable of interplanetary space travel. Who knows, this new super species could end up colonising previously uninhabitable planets capable of supporting whole new communities. Given there’s not much to do In the far reaches of the outer solar system, these colonies are probably gonna be hanging out for the next series of MasterChef.”

Up until the ’50′s a radio sat in the living room – a big brown thing with knobs – and Dad would sit there next to it. Dad and Mum controlled the radio. They listened to the serials and the quiz shows and the news. ”Then along came the portable record player and the 7-inch EP with one song on each side. The kids took that to their bedrooms. They spent a fortune buying these little cheap records with Rock Around The Clock on one side. Immediately an industry sprang up around that, to feed that market.

“And now we’ve got kids in their bedrooms with the computer, watching TV online, and there, there, is the new industry.”

Ian McFadyen is close to channelling his early comedic TV days as he animatedly details how the “great precedent” for internet TV is, remarkably, rock ‘n’ roll. The actor, comedian , lecturer and writer is the poster boy for Brisbane-based company Triptych Concepts, which last month launched one of Australia’s first internet TV channels VideoZoo.tv – and is producing and delivering original content alongside established programs Let The Blood Run Free and Paranormal Mysteries. McFadyen also hopes to bring online material from the show that launched his television career, The Comedy Company.

“Rock ‘n’ roll spread in an underground manner. The kids discovered it,” he continues. “Now we’ve got a generation of teenagers who discover most of their entertainment off the internet. They will watch back issues of TV shows – a generation of young people who are hunters and gatherers.” Online TV channels vary from traditional broadcast TV by offering programs on demand. They also don ‘t operate under a hefty government broadcast licence fee and can be subscription-based, advertiser supported or both.

Triptych managing director Adam Ben Lomsargis says Australia’s online video industry is still in its infancy but is expected to explode over the next 12 months, driven by the heavy promotion of web-ready TV sets. McFadyen says the picture quality of internet HD TV played back on large-screen TVs is already better than terrestrial analogue broadcasts.

The US is where the action is with several sites established over the past three years with decent audiences and unique content. WebSerials.com launched the successful online series Project X, Cataclysmo and The Black Dawn, while My Damn Channel has a runaway hit on its hands with You Suck at Photoshop, a “mockutorial” series that has been viewed more than 20 million times. Catching up to it is the channel’s sitcom Easy To Assemble, set in an Ikea store and starring Hollywood actor IlIeana Douglas. Ikea sponsors the series, which now has more than 9 million downloads going into a third season, but has no creative control, only asking it represents the brand in a positive light. Easy To Assemble has already attracted Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Ricki Lake, Jane Lynch and Ed Begley Jr as guest stars. “I see this as a different way to make entertainment,” Douglas told Variety online. “I knew there was a huge fan base out there that wasn’t watching television.”

Triptych is banking on statistics that suggest online video will comprise 90 per cent of the world’s internet traffic by 2013. “You can only watch so many video clips on YouTube before the novelty factor wears off and you search for better quality entertainment,” Lomsargis says.

VideoZoo.tv will offer a diverse mix of classic TV sitcoms, he says, along with “some of the freshest new original web shows”. It’s debut web comedy serial, The Verge produced entirely in Brisbane, follows a group of 20-somethings living in a share house. It is aimed at the online buyer demographic of 18 to 35-year-olds.

But while internet TV has been establishing itself parallel to technological advances, broadcasters Nine, Seven and Ten have not been ignoring the platform. They were quick to adopt it’s benefits for promoting their shows and providing interactive and “value-added” expansions. In terms of broadcasting on the net, they only use it for “catch-up” TV, offering a fairly quickly expanding selection of already broadcast programs for download. ABC TV was the first to go proactive with a broadcast of a Doctor Who episode in April on ABC iView two days before it went out on ABC1. In June, ABC iView offered more than 250 programs and for the month recorded 581,000 visitors – a build on its 2010 monthly average of 506,000 visitors.

Actor John Jarratt, who is working on The Verge, says network TV would be mad to ignore internet TV. “To me it is just another medium I can work in and I was very excited to be in on the ground floor, basically,” the Wolf Creek star says. He doesn ‘t believe it marks the beginning of the end of network TV. “Nah, whenever there’s something new that comes into the market people talk about it taking over. Like when television came in, that was going to be the end of radio; when pay TV came in that was going to be the end of the network television. I think there is a place for everything.”

McFadyen believes pay-TV provider Foxtel logically will be the first network to adopt internet TV. “Foxtel is still running on an imitation of a broadcast network you have shows running at specific times and if you want to watch something that’s on at 3.30 you’ve got to switch your set on at 3.30 or set your iQ recorder,” he says. ”Whereas with internet-based, you decide to watch TV, then go and find the show you want. I say within two years Foxtel will virtually give up programmed entertainment and that Foxtel cable will be a fast broadband connection into a HTML based system.” In terms of content, McFadyen believes online television will be shorter, sharper and more daring. And it will be more profitable for the producer who cuts out the need for a network middle man to derive advertising revenue. Traditional networks eyeing what’s being made for online as potential programs for their channels might just be in for a shock. “Up until even a year ago, people did web shows in the hope of being discovered by network te levision,” McFadyen says. “And now for the first time they are going ‘Well, we won’t ever need network television if we can get our advertising model or subscription model working’.

“Are they going to let themselves be seduced to the dark side and put their show on network TV? My view would be to say no, if people want to see our show they’ve got to come to our website.”

It’s only rock ‘n’ roll, his smile says, and he hopes they like it.

www.VideoZoo.tv

Written by Prue Corlette

SYDNEY: Fairfax Media should close its daily print newspapers and spend $50 million giving away 100,000 e-readers to boost digital consumption, according to a leading analyst. By cutting print editions in key Sydney and Melbourne markets, Fairfax would reduce print and distribution costs and save up to $275 million per year, analyst Macquarie Equities Research says.

If Fairfax was able to retain 40% of advertising revenues under a new digital content delivery model, the company could then lift earnings for FY 2010 to $55 million, up from Macquarie’s current year estimate of $50 million, with the numbers getting better as a greater percentage of advertising revenue is retained.

“The first step towards implementing this model is only likely to occur after initial figures of e-reader penetration hit a specific target – say 10,000 – at which point FXJ would be in a position to review elements of its print and distribution cost structure with a view to removing some print runs/truck rools/shifts,” Macquarie analyst Alex Pollak said.

“The other significant challenge for FXJ is to work its advertisers around to matching the print prices for advertising for the online product,” said Pollack.

“The iPad is an interesting test case. If advertisers are happy to pay as much for iPad eyeballs [on the Herald application as it stands today] then the pure online model would have a chance.”

By Esther Shein
InformationWeek
July 19, 2010 12:16 PM

Mobile video services revenue from video telephony, video messaging, video sharing, video on demand, VoD downloads, and other video services is expected to exceed $2 billion in 2013, according to the ABI Research Mobile Video Services annual global study.

By contrast, video services revenue will only be about $121 million in 2010, according to Mark Beccue, senior analyst. But the growth curve is “very steep indeed,” he said, and will continue to accelerate through the end of 2015, which is the end of ABI Research’s forecast period.

ABI Research predicts video telephony, video messaging, and VoD will make up the majority of this revenue, while video sharing will comprise a small percentage. Video telephony — similar to voice telephone — is real-time video streaming between two 3G or 4G network connected devices, said Beccue. The study found both video telephony and video messaging have the most subscribers in Western Europe, followed by Asia Pacific, and then the United States.

One of the prime factors driving the market is the availability of 3G networks, increasing consumers’ demand for mobile infotainment, ABI Research said. As more mobile network operators (MNOs) segue to 4G, growth will continue, coupled with the continuing development of connected mobile devices, the firm said. Further propelling demand is the availability of real-time collaboration, communication, and networking from Web 2.0 services, ABI Research said.

But this growth could be limited by certain factors, including the continuing poor economic climate, which could affect usage, notably in industrialized nations, the study found. Mobile video services provided by MNOs also face stiff competition from so-called over-the-top (OTT) video services, which have strong popularity and adoption rates, the firm said. There also aren’t many video-capable mobile devices on the market and the ones that are remain “immature and imperfectly matched to consumers’ preference,” given that the industry is in the early stages, according to the firm.
“MNOs mustn’t settle for the role of undifferentiated mobile ISPs that manage ‘dumb pipes’,” Beccue said. “They should provide a variety of mobile video services and leverage strategic ecosystems until they upgrade their networks to provide quality video services.” He suggested that to optimize mobile devices, the MNOs should consider partnering with device makers and software solution providers. “This will contribute to an already significant investment, but the rewards will be great.”

If the carriers aren’t aggressive about bundling premium services and incorporating the charges into their existing mobile bill, someone else will, Beccue warned. He said he believes that when it comes to mobile devices, not many people will watch long videos since the form factor is bad, so streaming video and VoD will be more of the “snack” types of video. “So offering it as a one-time or subscription service on a mobile bill is a convenience consumers will prefer,” since they are already approved and don’t need to enter additional information. “Those APIs are very valuable,” he said.
The Mobile Video Services study focused on branded or co-branded regional MNO video services including video telephony and video messaging, peer-to-peer, and Web 2.0 video sharing and mobile video entertainment provided to mobile consumers for either a subscription-based or per-unit transaction fee. Video voice mail, chatting, ringtones, and dating are other mobile video services ABI Research expects to see emerge in the next few years or are available now on a limited basis.

AT first glance, The Verge, the story of a group of 20-somethings in a share house, looks like just another reality television show, giving the audience voting rights on plot outcomes. But Adam Lomsargis, managing director of Triptych Concepts, which produced the series with Ian McFadyen (The Comedy Company), says that’s not so. “Big Brother is not really reality TV, it’s an unreal situation that never occurred,” he says. “The Verge is all about connecting everyone in everyday life through a shared experience.”Actors, including John Jarratt, pictured, follow a script but the story can be guided by the audience using social media. Lomsargis hopes The Verge is one of many local productions to be offered by Video Zoo, the nation’s first online video portal focused on home-grown content, to be launched on Friday night and run by Triptych Concepts. “In the early days we’re looking to build a strong foundation of Australian shows,” he says.

BRIDGET CORMACK

The Verge producer Adam Ben Lomsargis with Matt James Deane and Laura Meldon

A Twilight vampire and a classical singer are two of the actors featuring in Brisbane online TV show The Verge.

Matt James Deane and Laura Meldon play share-house 20-somethings in the series that is being launched at The Edge tomorrow night.

Three episodes have been filmed around Brisbane, but Meldon, who has sung to 23,000 people in Asia, says the acting doesn’t stop when the cameras are switched off.

“Just like any other share-house of young people, we’re all on Twitter and Facebook and sometimes we get into fights, or chat.” she says. ‘We were given the freedom to extend our characters online and explore the dynamic between their relationships and people can become friends with us, ask us advice, anything.”

Deane, who played a newborn vampire in Twilight Saga: Eclipse, says the interactive medium creates quick turnaround times behind the scenes. ‘We want people to watch an episode, vote what they want to happen, and then we film it.” TripTych Concepts managing director Adam Ben Lomsargis says the show will also let viewers vote for alternate season endings. ‘That’s the beauty of online television,” he says. “I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of it too. I think the Internet is going to revolutionise ‘TV.”

The show will be available at www.videozoo.tv.

“In Australia, there are quite a few webisode shows but there aren’t really any that do it professionally to a standard that you could see on one of the major stations,” he says.

“I think (reality show) Oz Girl does a great job, but I wan t hundreds of thousands of people around the world to see our show.” The Verge is being launched at The Edge tomorrow from 6pm.

To see the first episode, RSVP to contact@triptychconcepts.com.au

Steve Jobs and the Macintosh in 1984

It’s a valid invention, the Apple movement is. And what a bummer it can be when you don’t have one. Among friends, workmates and peers, it’s easy to feel left out of the party when not being able to access what seems like a limitless world of potential creative permeation.

But it can be a caustic way of life. The product and innovation cycles by which we can measure our progress in work, social settings and play have easily affected our psyches and the industries renowned for original, thoughtful ideas.

The Denver Egotist’s Felix Unger speaks to this point in his recent piece, where he dissects many of the often-pondered habits of today’s advertising folks:

“Why?

Because in advertising, you go big on ideas and small on technology. At first, anyway. You throw down as many ideas as you can, as quickly as you can, and to my knowledge no one has invented something that helps you do this that’s better than paper and a pen/pencil.

Your big ideas stay big by being loose. They have endless possibilities. The sketch does not paint you into a corner. There is no elaborate work that people are afraid to comment on, because it’s finished already. The client feels like part of the process too, because they are along for the ride to help shape that big idea into the finished ad. And as several great designers and advertisers have said, it’s hard to kill a baby if you birthed it.”

The trending methodology behind new work has morphed, Unger points out, to teams channeling creativity through the computer rather than the conception, which greatly discounts the natural progression of ideas and the relationship with clients, where big-picture execution has suffered greatly:

“If you’re a “modern” CD, you have no doubt become accustomed to seeing work that’s of a more finished level in the initial stages.

You know as well as I do what happens when you present something that looks like a finished ad to the client; they comment on the intricacies of the ad. They don’t like the color, they don’t like the texture on the background, they think the smile on the guy’s face is off brand, and they have an issue with the size of the logo. They can’t see the big idea because you’ve hidden it under technique (and if the technique IS your idea, I hate you and everything you stand for).”

And on Unger’s advice to today’s creative professionals:

“Here, the emphasis is on thinking. And if you want to be thought of as someone who has great ideas, you need to cut the cord between you and your Mac when you’re concepting.

Blow the dust off those Prismacolor grays. Break out the bleedproof marker pads. Buy a big box of Sharpies (my preference, as a writer, is for Ultra Fine or Extra Fine) and write down ideas until your pens run dry.

So, sorry Steve Jobs. As much as I love your products, they should be banned from the thinking process; even in 2010, the pen is mightier than the Mac.”

Feature article on Triptych in Australian Financial Review – 15th June 2010, p17

Article featuring Triptych in Brisbane Business News June 2010

Please note corrections to the above article are italicised below in bold:

* Lomsargis says research shows the online video industry will be worth $6.5 billion in 2011, with expectations it will make up 90 per cent of the world’s internet traffic by 2013…

* …So far the company has $100,000 from investors and is raising a further $1.6 million.

This Week In already has 8 shows and a steadfast plan for growth. They’ve been casting for new talent and will be launching additional shows in the coming months.

“The long term vision is to have 30 shows that each have a natural audience of between 10,000 and a million people,” Calacanis explains. “Maybe they have on average 100,000 views each which means we could have 3 or 4 million people a week watching these shows pretty easily I think. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if in 2 or 3 years we’re sitting here and each of the shows has a quarter or half a million people watching on a daily basis and now you’re looking at a network that has 10 million people watching and that starts to look a lot like cable TV and that’s a real business.”

With the recent announcement of GoogleTV, it’s easy to envision a future where mainstream entertainment and online content converge. Imagine being able to search through not only cable programming on your TV, but also through video content on YouTube and streaming networks like This Week In from the comfort of your couch and the viewing pleasure and clarity of your home entertainment system. Calacanis understands that the overhead costs involved in creating quality web series pales in comparison to that of mainstream television and seems to see the opportunity presented by allowing web series to run alongside the mainstream content we are used to.

The CEO of This Week In, Mark Jeffrey (author, podcast pioneer, and former CTO of Mahalo) is especially excited about the standard GoogleTV is setting. “For us it’s incredibly good news because that means now that we are that much closer to having This Week In content appear on the living room television set and that’s ultimately the goal. To be on par with cable channels and regular TV. The difference between a video podcast and a television show is blurring really fast and that process is going to happen now a lot faster than I thought it would.”

This Week In's Mark Jeffrey, Jason Calacanis and Kevin Pollak

Says Calacanis, “The quality level of most web video is very low. They don’t use proper microphones or lighting or cameras and people don’t prepare and that would be the same kinds of things people would say about blogs early on. They weren’t spell checked, they didn’t have proper grammar, the sites looked terrible, they had bizarre names like ‘blahblahblah.blogspot.com’ and essentially that’s the state of web video as well. It’s very amateurish, and it’s unwatchable in some cases.”

“In other cases you have people who understand how to use these things and have good technique,” he continues. “They have personality and timing. What web video lacks in professionalism today it could easily add, but what TV lacks today in terms of authenticity is kind of harder to add. If the person who’s hosting a show on television doesn’t really have their heart in it but they have perfect delivery and the person on the web maybe doesn’t have the perfect delivery but has passion for the subject and knowledge, I would pick the person with the most knowledge and passion for the subject and I think most people would too. Television doesn’t give you much of a choice, you get one type of thing and whether it has substance or not is debatable.”

Whereas mainstream programming dilutes its message with broad topical content that appeals to the masses, Calacanis thinks that providing targeted shows to specific audiences brings about more relevant and loyal viewership, in addition to a more effective advertising model.

“We don’t have to reach a huge audience, we have to connect deeply with niche audiences, and they in turn respond deeply to the advertising message in it,” he says. “If you get the right 10,000 people who are into the iPad or Android or the right 25,000 people who are into video games those could be very big spenders on specific products.”

So how does CEO Mark Jeffrey plan to utilize the recent investment to make This Week In stand out from competing streaming web networks? Jeffrey explains:

“There’ve been a lot of people who have tried this before and there’s been a lot of failures, to be completely blunt and honest. There’s also been a few success stories, like Leo Laporte being one obviously, Revision3 being a second one. There are now people doing full shows online, but in order to make money at this you have to keep your costs low. Because we’re operating like an Internet company and not an entertainment company our psychology and the way we do things is a lot different. I think that’s one big advantage we have over traditional network television. We can basically reinvent how a television network operates. We’re going to move conservatively but quickly. We understand upfront who the advertisers are and who is going to watch the show.”

There’s been a buzz around the Interwebz regarding Calacanis’ use of the name “This Week In” for the network when pal Leo Laporte had “This Week In Tech” and “This Week in Google” on his TwiT Netcast Network, but when asked directly if there was any drama there between them about it or if it was just a lot of noise about nothing, Calacanis said:

“The name was available, ThisWeekIn.com. I asked Leo if I could do ‘This Week In Startups.’ He said no problem. I don’t own the This Week In name… there’s many more shows out there named ‘This Week In’ other than the two or three he does. I think people like to see a fight, I don’t think there’s some kind of fight between Leo and I. I think maybe Leo was caught off guard by how fast I was moving in terms of building out the network and maybe that was a little — I don’t want to say ‘scary to him’ — but a reason for concern. I offered him, if he wanted the domain name he could have it. He said no so I bought it. If it was going to be a problem I would have had him take that and I would gotten ‘The Week In’ or ‘Weekly,’ a different domain for a weekly program. A weekly roundup just seems to be the right number, thus 60 Minutes is weekly. I think it’s a little bit of a tempest in a teacup.”

Another distinction between the two networks would be in the type of content they feature. Says Calacanis, “We could potentially trip over each other but I think our network will be mostly non-technical information and his network will be almost solely technical in nature. We’re going to have 10% of our shows be tech and he’ll have about 95% of his shows to be about tech. We’re going to go after the categories that we went after with Weblogs Inc. which was movies, television, parenting, financial, travel, video games, maybe gadgets or music.”

With networks like This Week In beginning to sprout up and more high profile entertainment industry players trickling into the online video space, one could imagine that more advertising dollars and better production value is inevitable. Some might argue that web video will never be able to compete with what we see on prime time TV, however I think both will benefit from sharing the limelight. As a host on the This Week In network, I’m excited to be along for the ride.