Google TV Could Change the Game for Black Media
Google TV has the potential to be a game changer for Black media. It won’t change things over night, but once the penetration is high enough, things will never be the same in TV land.
There won’t be any gatekeepers to decide who does and doesn’t get a show on TV in the future. No one will know what primetime is. If you want to watch something, you’ll search for it or go to the site directly and watch the video with ads paid for by the highest bidder. Sports events will be the only thing still locked into old school programming blocks.
A production house with a hot pilot won’t have to pray for a green light anymore. Clever combos of sponsorship dollars, product placement & display ad revenue will generate enough profit to bring the show to the people and let them decide if it’s worthy of existence.
And though there’s been no mention of analytics yet, there’s bound to be a version of Google Analytics that will make the current Nielsen sample system seem arcane. Said production house could send sponsors reports from their analytics as proof of popularity. If each episode is getting a million views on the day it airs, not to mention infinite replay opportunities, advertisers will want to be a part of it.
Sitcoms and dramas still have high overhead, so you’ll likely see rap artists take advantage of the benefits of Google TV first. There will never be a need to edit your video for MTV or BET again – upload it as raw as you like and your fans will find it and pass it around.
The largest potential lies with news. Google TV is a platform, so there will be apps for it in the near future. Imagine a channel guide that pulled all videos geo-tagged within certain radius of your home, allowing you to see the latest YouTube clips uploaded around you. Areas that receive little news coverage could recreate the hyper-local journalism we’re seeing at sites like Seed.com with simple on the ground reporting via Flip cam. The latest police brutality video could make it to screens around the world before a news agency is even aware, forcing them to sharpen their coverage in order to provide something valuable to viewers who are increasingly one step ahead.
All of this, plus the ability to beam pages from Android phones to your TV screen makes it official — once again, Google has changed the game.
Category: black media, Featured | Tags: BET, black media, Flip, google analytics, Google TV, MTV, Seed.com, Television programming, YouTube
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Google TV is a start but it still at this point requires a box unless you buy the Android TV. I think the more direct revolution is the combination of wireless TV with open-developer TV apps coming from Samsung, Panasonic and the like. In either case, adoption of either a device or a new TV is going to slow the process. The main benefit of Google TV over TV apps is that you don't need to develop an app to play, but it will be a lot harder to monetize and knowing Google, they'll want to own the money and give you a cut.
Hi ileane. Sports are usually broadcast live, so there's little replay value. Who wants to watch game 3 when everyone knows the Celtics won by 20? I also think the sports leagues have done the best in guarding their content online.
Hi KGibbs, what is unique about sports events that makes you feel this way? I'm not sure why they wouldn't be affected by this. Thanks for the insights.
Unless you own the means to distribute any kind of medium, then you will not be able to control who views, sees, or monitors it! PERIOD
Today's broadcast TV networks own or control radio spectrum — a form of infrastructure parallel to the telcos and cable nets' wired lines. Most Web 2.o video sites, like YouTube, have to lease access to such infrastructure in order to distribute their content. Therefore, web media in the U.S. will likely just as vulnerable to gatekeepers as today's filmmakers, TV producers, music labels, etc..
VOD is better described as video, originally produced in SDTV or HDTV format, then reformatted in one of several video formats that's then streamed to the consumer's STB over the web. It's for this reason what we call a TV channel will mostly become content producers or aggregators. The YouTubes and Vimeos still have to rely upon accessing wired or wireless telco operators to distribute their content.
VOD is a lot different. It's traditional tv, produced to traditional standards and within a traditional mindset, that you can watch on demand. Content coming directly from the web will be a complete anomaly. Think of YouTube as a channel. You could have a show shot entirely on flipcam. TV would never go for that. It'll also be interesting to see how programs broadcast through cable and online are measured, or their metrics presented (thinking Heroes network rating versus shows watched on the web). Does this mean an advertiser pays the same for the pre-roll that runs on the website as they do for the onair spots?
I think the you're right about the telcos, but not so sure about the networks. To mtony75's point, any site could be a network in this new world. But the higher bandwidth usage will finally give telcos a reason to justify metered bandwidth and other price hikes.
“There won’t be any gatekeepers to decide who does and doesn’t get a show on TV in the future.”
Oh.. there'll be gatekeepers, alright. As a matter of fact, what we're witnessing is a changing of the gatekeepers. Instead of the major networks, i.e.; Viacom, NBCU, Paramount, etc., it'll be the network operators — Comcast, Sprint, TimeWarner, et. al..
Google TV is a small evolution, however. While it will probably be more 'open' to 3rd party content than other STB software, Google (and their network partners) will undoubtedly try to influence viewers' selection of web video. Comcast's Xfinity service already does this. So, whatever potential Google TV has for 'Black' media is going to be directly affected by which network operators choose to offer the software on their STB.
I'd like to see some Black tech types get together on creating a proprietary STB and/or web interface software to compete against Apple, Google, Microsoft, Scientific Atlanta, Motorola, etc..
Another innovative and disruptive move by Google. While Google's Nexus One distribution model was a much needed attempt at disruption of the wireless phone industry that did not execute as successfully as planned. However, I too firmly believe the Google TV initiative will be a catalyst in the tipping point of the traditional television programming and broadcast advertising businesses.
But it is also important to note that GoogleTV is not really innovative or leading the way in delivering non-linear TV scheduling. This capability has already been a mass movement which has been led by Cable systems offering VOD as a way to differentiate themselves from Satellite and other pay TV offerings. The advent of TiVo, ReplayTV and other DVR devices also have already had a major impact on time-shifted television viewing habits.
Additionally while no analytics were announced around GoogleTV, effective measurement of viewership patterns and habits as historically measured by the likes of Nielsen, have also been revolutionized by new media startups and established companies. Rentrak (http://rentrak.com/), TiVo, ReplayTV and other firms have already made great inroads to delivering extensive metrics based intelligence on broadband and broadcast viewer activities, trends and the like. While this will be an important advancement, it will be a moderate part of the overall TV revolution. For hits on the future of TV, one can also follow @TV2point0 on Twitter.
Interesting. It would turn the current advertising model on its ear. The concept of putting shows out on the net first to gain popularity and then if it gets popular puttting ads in on the back in would be something to say the least different. Scared to think of some of the content that might be actually be pushed out then. Think of what The Box nearly did to music videos in the 90s.
If cable wasn't scared before they will be now though. Comcast just spent all that money buying NBC and now any web site could be a TV station. I was listening to the Adam Carolla podcast with Wichael Jai White ( http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/2010/05/17/a… ) and he brought up the idea of a TV pilot channel. The idea of a Black Soap Opera Network, Asian Fashion or JPop, 8 to 12 hours local news for every city and not market? Would love to turn on my TV or phone to hear or see the traffic for my town that is SO FAR away from the popular roads they put on the local news. Talk about servicing neglected populations.
Anything that allows us to control and put out a balanced perception of how black folks are displayed should be shouted from the rooptops