Mike Butcher

On the weekend I went to the TV Unfestival, an “unconference” about TV, which is a sort of Fringe even to the Media Guardian TV Festival.

Although the event was typical of a tech/geek gathering in the unconference format – lots of healthy debate, discussion and networking – there was often a disparity between the ‘open rights’ and open source culture of the tech world and the locked-down, “copyrighted up to the eyeballs” culture of the TV world.

There was also not a great deal of talk about funding and where the money was going to come from to fund the brave new ventures online which TV firms will need to make to capture their audiences which are ebbing away. TV people are used to hearing about commissions, advertising, subscription models. They are not used to – or at least have yet to be convinced – that user generated content and ‘video ad insertions’ into online video clips will replace the millions in cash currently available to them in the traditional networked TV world. And to an extent, one can’t blame them. Its a brave new world we are entering.

Talking to the very few (I suspect they are not into unconferences!) number of real TV producers and the “geeks” at the event I got an unexpected difference in opinion. The TV people often felt they were at the cutting edge of the new world. And although the atmosphere was overall positive, some “Geeks” meanwhile would express frustration to me that the over-riding culture of the tech world was going to have a very hard time communicating what they had to offer to traditional TV.

In other thoughts from the event…….

• We had a presentation from Sclipo.com, a user-generated ‘skills sharing’ site. Users can sell teaching videos ebay-like or revenue comes from ads. Along with the usual ‘how to’ video there is one quite impressive feature where users can pay for lessons from a teacher literally live streamed via webcam, and there is an in-built payment mechanism. What’s the betting that’s going to be used for nefarious purposes fairly shortly? Based in Barcelona, they are looking for staff so if you want a warmer climate and can do flash, php, Web2 style stuff then get on to them.

• A Joost guy (unnamed) told me that they thought building legally ratified stuff – as in not going the ‘open rights/creative commons’ route – is ‘the way forward’ because it means building on stuff which doesn’t get taken down by the lawyers later on.

• The man with the most zeitgeisty name in the Web business “Paul Pod” demo’d a full-blown working site for Tioti which so far is still in closed Beta. They plan to have an API coming out in a month of so, which will show info on shows and TV characters. He also insisted TIOTI is not a ‘recording service in disguise’.

Jaman, California-based company that offers full length movies for either downloads or rental via a P2P client is planning to launch a European arm. The move is prior to an expansion of its programme of buying up rights to “mid-tail” independent and niche films.

Unlike Joost, which is really aimed at TV viewers, Jaman is going for audiences who want successful independent film (the kind of thing “Trainspotting” was once before it hit the big time) which they can’t get in their local cinema. (You might think that would mean that there would be a lot of Bollywood movies and Asian or Latin American cinema on it as a result. There is indeed much of this content, but so far 60% of Jaman’s content is actually English language based).

Babelgum is closest to Jaman’s model, with it’s emphasis on independent professionally produced video content, but unlike both of the aforementioned, Jaman is about downloading high quality HD film to rent or keep, rather than P2P streaming.

Jaman’s player works on Windows XP, Vista and Mac. Jaman has also developed an unofficial plug-in for the AppleTV device which syncs content downloaded via the Jaman player (they have their own proprietary DRM player which, like Apple’s Fairplay DRM, allows the sharing of the content across 5 devices) to Apple’s box. They’re lead engineer on the project actually came from Apple, in fact.

Founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon previously co-founded Informatica in 1992, which IPO’d in 1999. Jaman is not short of friends in high places. Backers include Hearst Corporation.

Although Jaman’s video downloads to a PC, evidently they expect people to hook up the PC to a proper HD-capable TV and watch it in all its glory there. Any user creating an account – the sites is on an open Beta right now – will get three free film downloads before they have to shell out any money.

So far Jaman has aggregated over 1,500 international movies, and plans to acquire more content after its series A funding round, which should be completed this Autumn.

I met with British-born Faisal Galaria, recently appointed General manager EMEA, who was at one point a European director of Skype…

[continued]

“Jaman is about attracting the cognoscenti. It’s about the ‘fat belly’ of the Long Tail,” he says. “According to Screen Digest 99% of films made do not get theatrical distribution, which leaves a lot of great films unseen by the public.” Jaman is able to offer those rights holders distribution in return for a revenue share.

What’s the share? It’s 30/70 in Jaman’s favour. That sounds possibly on the high side, but if you think about it, all a film maker or rights holder has to do is allow their content to appear on the Jaman system from then on they need do nothing, since Jaman handles all the bandwidth and distribution.

Galaria says it’s taken $7.5m to develop Jaman over the last two years and it was launched in Beta in March.

Right now he is over in London talking to rights holders of libraries of content. Part of the Jaman strategy is also to strike deals with ISPs and portals to gain distribution and be a value-added service. In other words, “Sign up to our ISP and get movie downloads of independent cinema and TV”.

Downloading HD movies sounds like something of a nightmare. In reality the ‘weight’ is about 1 hour to one Gigabyte on an average broadband connections. So a 2.5 hour movie would be 2.5 hours long to download. At $2 to rent for a week and $5 to buy, that doesn’t sound too onerous, especially if its HD-quality content which you would just never see at your local cinema because the audience is too niche.

The downloading process is also “progressive” meaning that you can start watching the film before its finished downloading. A trailer appears in Flash on the site so you can ‘taste’ the movie prior to download.

Much of this would be impressive enough were it not for the fact that Jaman is ALSO a social network around independent cinema.

“We also have social networking built in for people to recommend movies and share lists – they can use it for content discvery. We think of it as ‘iTunes for Movies meets LastFM’ ” says Galaria.

This social element even extends to watching the film. It’s possible to watch the movie in ‘interactive’ mode where you can see comments other users have made in the time-line of the movie. Say the leading man punches the bad guy, someone might have said “That looks very fake” at that point – so that comment appears exactly as that scene flashes up.

Although Jaman is not strictly “UGC” – independent film makers can upload their own content using the “Open Cine” function. The community votes on it, and if it gets sufficient backing then Jaman flips the content into it’s main network and then will do a revenue share with the rights holder. No porn has appeared as yet – says Galaria – because the community can easily vote it down for deletion – plus its probably just not worth any pornographer’s while!

Jaman could also be fairly immune to competition from the likes of Joost of Babelgum, which rely on streaming to deliver their content.

As Galaria points out: “Joosta and Babalgum are streaming-based and standard defintion. We’re high definition and download. What happens if YouTube takes off their 10 minute limit on video? They have 100m users already. That’s hard to beat. Our approach is different in that it’s a compelling HD experience. So DRM and HD and community is a barrier to entry. A lot of our content is hard to get hold of. It’s not replicating Cable or satellite TV where there are 500 channels of crap. Thus is great quality content you can’t get it at the cinema. It’s not MTV or Daily motion. Again it’s quality. Hence why people pay to download it.”

Personally I should think documentary film is going to be one of the more compelling aspects of this service. There are plenty of niche documentaries released – especially at events like the Sundance Film festival – which here in Britain we never get to see unless Channel 4 or the BBC buy them up, and then months or years after they have aired elsewhere.

It’ll be interesting to see what content Jaman manages to acquire here in Europe as they ramp up, and how the European audience takes to their offering. I can also see a few TV channels will start to sweat a little more…

Live blogging from Mashup, "TV 2.0"

Introducing the event Simon Grice of etribes and Mashup says sites like TV-Links.co.uk and Joox.net are the reason he hasn't watched live TV for 6 months. And hasn't rented a video for 6 months…

Tom Weiss, CEO of TV Genius, is Chair.

John Varney
Sturart Prebble, launch CEO of On Digital, said digital TV is about turning 1 audience of 20 million into 20m audiences of 1.

But with no backchannel they could only create lots of channels that weren't very good.

The shift towards IPTV (BT Vision, YouTube, Titan TV, Aattoo, Jaman, Babelgum) headed towards 1 billions audience of 1. The entire Net population.

Is this TV 2.0? No. It's TV delivered by other means.

The events of 9/11 was the last event covered by major TV networks. The rest have begun to be covered by ordinary people with mobile phones like 7/7 or the Bali bombings. They gave this coverage to broadcasters. But the trend is towards user generated content, especially for major events. Future events go straight online not straight to the big broadcasters. This indicates a big change in only 4 years. Broadcasters are in effect helpless.

It doesn't mean IPTV will be irrelevant but it does mean that it will fail if it doesn't take account of the community of viewers and users.

TV: 15 mins of fames
YouTube: 15 secs of fame
Twitter: 15 characters of fame

Summary: It's not about TV 2.0, it's about version 1.0 of 'something else'. The web becoming a media in its own right. The winners will use content as a community experience, broadcasting every single life to billions of people. The losers will just put TV onto the web.

Mike Short, 02 and Mobile Data Association

Policy from government is not helping paid-for content.
He says Brussels announcement's preference for DVB-H is not helpful.

The mobile is the "fourth screen" and it's not just TV, but messaging, downloads you name it. By the end of next there will be 100m GPS enabled mobiles in the world. So maps and applications anywhere anytime is heading to a visual world.

Video capability of handsets is not great. BUt the mass market fourth screen needs to be more imaginative than just TV.

We need to think about personalisation of content and interactivity. Premium rate mobile means that you are partly more in control of getting involved in TV shows, but it has to evolve.

We also have to think about advertising. So the transaction basis may not continue… so a Mobile Sky or sponsored advertising. Adverts where you can influence the outcome on the screen.

1 billion phones shipped a year. 4bn phones by 2012. We need to plan for this. Some innovation will come from Asia, not just Europe.

Nick Brown, Cube.tv part of a2a Groupl PLC
(Inventor of the Red Button on Sky)

How do we generate cash out of this fragmented audience. We all have cameras now but who cares? Where's the revenue? Audience? How do we fund it till we answer these questions? How to drive and retain viewers?

In the next 8-10 years while there is a shift to watching OUT of home, there is also a stable revenue stream for watching IN home.

Trainers Eye is a new channel he is working on. It's a niche products, – trainer stables for horse racing. Why not buy a channel like toy buy a magazine in the newsagent? Move it into pubs and clubs and outdoor screens

Idea is to push meaningful content to outdoor screens, instead of BBC News 24 but comedy with SMS interactivity.

They want to launch a 'red button for outdoor'. Want to switch interactivity from the phone into the email in-box, which will be a TV mail. Supported by ads and driving audiences into and out of content. TV in your email basically, possibly using a Flash player.

All of the content ITV has only 15% were hitting on-demand button. Most people still want linear lean back TV.

What do viewers want. There is 3/4 bns of pounds spent on TV? So where's the cash?

PANEL DISCUSSION

Existing speakers joined by….
Peter Miles, Sub.tv
Richard Griffith, BT Vision, Strategy dir.
Mateo Berlucchi, LiveStation – Microsoft's Joost Killer) (Sign up for it and mention Mashup to get a beta invite)

Mateo: Old TV model based on lack of choice. People have become a lot more time-poor and the audience is now fragmented. But the Red Button never took off. So people now want real interactivity and that's what the web delivers.

Richard: In theory we could do a lot more interactivity because we will have a broadband backchannel. But we have to be smart. Ordering a pizza via digital TV is torturous. The remote control is not the right device. So doing interactivity right is really important.

Peter: IPTV is just more clever TV. Yes, return path and interactivity. But TV 2.0 is a lot more about integrating messages and people can consume it in different ways. Young people don;t really use email now they use IM, so it's that kind of leap. It's about finding a community and delivering content that relates to them to a niche audience where people want it and they can in turn create content for the community.

The BBC and ITV are losing young audiences they.

Richard: Young people are going to get jobs and old and people get home form work and want to watch stuff on the big screen and sometimes on demand. But it's not just about what young people do.

John: Every study over the last 15 years shows that 30-45 year olds are not the same as their parents who now just watch Newsnight.

Question:
Paul Cleghorn, tioti.com: People under 40 are watching TV while doing something else like doing email.

Peter: Youth are great at filtering out ad messages because they are multi-tasking and consume media in a different way. They are digital natives, not immigrants.

A guy from Three: We run TV through DVB-H and TV on demand and have done it for three years. People's interest can be satisfied by a small as well as a big screen interest. In Australia where we run live TV over the mobile. We see drop in mobile voice. People switch on mobiles to see BB when the ads come on the TV. So it's about understanding what individuals want at any one time. Choice drives a lot of it.

Matteo: Broadcasters will have an upper hand because they still are in the market for broadcasting fantastic content. A guy with a Web cam still won't be able to compete with CNN.

Nick: Youth don't spend money. Their choice is to find content without paying any money.

Richard: Joost is not the death of BT Vision. Great pictures if you are on a PC but not great for TV. Apple TV has an advantage as it gets to the TV. Both have the same problem which is content. Wither you own the right or you are a firm like BT where you are buying content rights. You need money to play in that game and the problem with a lot of companies

Nick: Joost does not work well with UK broadband networks. Quality will go down and as they try to scale they will hit products. They have great marketing and hype. BT Vision and Apple – the bar is already set at Sky Plus. With has 2.5 units in the market. Apart from a few issues you have

My problem with BT vision and Ale is how to you sin-post non-linear TV. Watch more o to E4?

Peter: Is Joost disrupting? Yes. Kill TV ? No. People want to watch rugby on 42inch plasma screen not PC. We show student sports on Wednesday afternoon as we know student groups are watch TV. So they can send messages to eachother.

John: There is room for Joost and ITV and Channel 4. The question is what is the percentage that moves online away

from the networks.

Nick: Will be more like the original Sky model. Before Sky it was The Big Match etc. People predicted the death of live Football when Sky came on but the opposite happened. So Joost and other players will bring in gross numbers of niche players, like fishing or chess. There is going to be a space for them.

TechTV. John Robinson: We're still looking at broadcasters if we want to watch a movie. We're not looking at values in packets. The value is in the technology not TV. TV is just a way of gathering people to sue the technology. americans can build these networks because they have a very big market. So it's best to devise a device where you can track the audience. The tech is there, we have to find the way the advertiser wants to pay for it.

Peter Daw (Dawe Vision): Will users cease to distinguish between PC and TV screen? Is the concept of TV of lean back only one of four other ways.

Mike: Interactivity still has to be built around rights. In the digital world we need rights that can flow across platforms. Mobiles are becoming projectors not just small screen.

Question: Most channels are rubbish on digital. Interactivity is not what will save niche channels.

Peter: Most UGC TV is crap but even there there is an audience however small.

Q: What about data?

Mike: Media on demand rather than video on demand is where I start. It's all about the personal experience. Place, time and personalisation.

Matteo: 1.1m subscribers . 1 pay per movie per month and fill up their DVR and the rest is linear TV because they can't be arseed.

Simon Grice: All the historic content created like classic TV shows means there is a lot of stuff to watch online and TV is not needed as much.

Q: Can discovery be generated ?

Answer (my interpretation): Social networks help with discovery of long tail TV.

RAN OUT OF LAPTOP BATTERY AT THIS POINT…

Check out the TV 2.0 event in London this week. Blog coverage to follow……

Joost is hiring talent scouts Creative Artists Agency to get Hollywood programming onto its service. Along with well known programming and a clutch of top advertisers Joost wants to offer shows from independent professional video makers rather than “wild” UGC/social media. Joost has $45 million from five backers and signed Viacom and sister company CBS for content recently.

The English Premier League will sue YouTube in the US for alleged copyright infringement and claims the site "knowingly misappropriated" its intellectual property by encouraging videos of matches to be viewed on its site. YouTube already faces a $1bn (£501m) lawsuit from Viacom over similar issues. US music publisher Bourne joins the League in the legal action launched in New York.

Doe the League "get it"? It sounds like they don't, and perhaps they have been pressed into this action by Sky, which pays handsomely for the rights to broadcast matches in the UK. Sky is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who owns MySpace, and is something of an adversary of the Google/YouTube combo these days.

James Cridland, head of new media at Virgin Radio, is leaving after six years to work for the BBC, as Head of Future Media & Technology, Audio & Music. "It’s a massive change for me, and a thrill to work with such a great team," he wrote on his blog today. Cridland has spearheaded Virgin's new media strategy and in many respects has enabled the radio station to use new media to punch above its weight, including overtaking Capital Radio's early lead on the web in the late 90s. The move presages another big change tbites is aware of, where a BBC big-hitter is about to switch to a rival broadcaster. Watch this space.