The Boy Scouts and the MPAA

Another great and insightful post from Dave Slusher. The battle for the next generation of Internet users is on. What are we going to call these guys, the YouTube/Google generation? The GooTube generation?

Here is a link to the pdf describing this program.

Disney Orgy – Messing With The Brand

How out of control are companies with regard to their brands? Very. Check this video out; shot backstage at Disneyland Paris presumably by a Disney cast member. The combination of cheap, mobile video recording and media sharing social networks like YouTube make this kind of thing all to easy. I’m sure these cast members thought they were backstage and therefore in a safe place where they don’t have to be “on”. Backstage should be a safe place for employees but someone did shoot the video and it did get out. Disney’s new or reinforced policy will be, when you have the outfit on, you’re “on”, no matter where you are. Think of Abu Ghraib in Iraq. People casually taking digital pictures, but with the power of the network, they got out and created a firestorm.

It also means as a person living in this connected world, you have to be extra careful of what you do or say. You could be recorded at any time, by anyone. So where are the lines drawn? Does anyone have the right to record you with audio, video or a photo and share that to the world? Do you control those permissions? Will there be a wave of lawsuits by people who have not consented to have their image or voice published on the Internet?

Palm Treo Breaks News

Using a Palm Treo 700, a Fox News cameraman was able to shoot video and send it directly to Fox which proceeded to use it live on-air. This is the first time a major news organization has used live streaming video from a cell phone. The cameraman was actually on a completely different assignment but was close by when a single-engine plane crashed into an apartment building in downtown New York. The software technology used is called CometVision from Comet Video Technologies.

With so many cell phones now having camera and video capabilities, this kind of on the spot citizen media link to major new outlets will only increase. I can see the possibility for an affiliate citizen media program. For every photo I make available to a major news outlet, I can get compensated. For every minute of video I provide, I can make a little cash. How soon until we see fake, staged news events created by people who want to see their stuff on tv or who just want to screw with the system?

Google and YouTube Sitting in a Tree…

Internet video king YouTube is so valuable it’s almost impossible not for them to sell. But it will take someone with a good deal of cash and moxie to pull it off. Enter Google. Google has been trying to enter the video space for the past year but their Google Video offering has been panned by most observers. So, if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. Purchasing YouTube would rocket Google to the top of the on-line video market. It would also give them lots of juicy video content to sell Google Adsense off of. I think it’s a great deal for Google to do and I just hope when/if the to get YouTube, they don’t screw it up. Years ago, Google bought then leading blog firm Blogger and since it’s died on the vine. So far, Yahoo has done a much better job of integrating their purchases into their overall product.

CBS To Shoot “Genius Bar”

CBS is going forward with plans to shoot a pilot episode of a sit-com they are calling Genius Bar.

the series centers on the interactions between employees at the customer help bar in an Apple-esque store and the employees at a near by Abercrombie & Fitch-style store.

This show, if it ever gets past the pilot, will be a complete disaster. The biggest clue, beyond the insane concept, is that one of the people behind the show concept is a “consumer marketing expert”. Enough said.

The Knack Sues Apple – Too Little, Too Late

When in doubt, sue. The Knack(My Sharona) is suing Apple, Yahoo, and Amazon.com among others in a copyright claim over the Run DMC song “It’s Tricky”. Apparently the Run DMC song used an unauthorized sample from The Knack’s big hit My Sharona. It’ s Tricky came out in 1986 but The Knack says they didn’t hear it until 2005. The Knack is also going after Run DMC, producers, record labels. Hell, sue ‘em all! There is a three year statute of limitation that has way run out by now, but why let a pesky little thing like that get in your way.

What do you do when royalties from My Sharona have all dried up and you’re running out of cash? Sue somebody of course. It’s the new American way.

XM Growing but Sirius Gaining Fast

Satellite radio king XM added 285,000 new subscribers in the third quarter, bringing their total subscriber base to 7.19 million. Chief rival Sirius is gaining fast, however, adding 441,100 subscribers in the same third quarter. Their total subscriber base is now at 5.12 million.

Between Satellite radio, podcasts and iPods, who’s listening to the radio anymore? I haven’t turned on my fm or am radio bands in almost two years.

Fox TV Shows Comming To Myspace

Thumbs up for Fox as they announce a new Fox On Demand service that will bring popular Fox TV shows like Prison Break, Justice and Bones to social network website MySpace. The service will be supported by advertising and competes directly with iTunes from Apple. I am watching more and more tv on-line of late and I am not doing it from iTunes. I am watching shows that stream on-line and are advertising supported. I don’t mind the ads and the breaks are far fewer than on broadcast tv. I don’t like the idea of paying for tv shows because I am already paying the Satellite provider for the show. Why should I pay twice? I don’t have a video iPod, so there is no advantage of downloading for me either. But I would love to see a version of shows for iPod download that included advertising for those of us who don’t want to pay and will watch a show with limited ads.

If I could completely drop my Satellite service and get everything on paid for download, that might be a different story. Then you would have a complete ala carte system. But not enough shows or networks are available yet to make that a reality.

Kudos to Fox for bringing more television on-line. Looks like Fox is figuring out how to best leverage MySpace and are providing some good competition for Apple and iTunes.

Progressive Thinking From CBS

Well what do you know. Someone at one of the big three networks has grown a brain.

“We’re not rewarding bad behavior. That technology is here to stay,” CBS marketing group president George Schweitzer said of DVRs and its users’ ad-skipping habits.”We first thought it would be the boogeyman, and then we found out that people who use TiVo watch television more, they’re much more involved in what they see, and we want these people to watch our shows so they can tell other people how good they are,” he told Reuters.

So CBS is giving Tivo users one of it’s new fall shows, The Class, one week before it airs on the regular schedule. The package will also include trailers for other new CBS shows. Finally a major company says let’s not worry about how they’re trying to screw us, let’s figure out how we can use this new technology to our best advantage. We shall see about Hollywood, but the television industry has looked over at the music business and said, we’re not going to screw ourselves like those guys did.

Apple Movie Store – Almost Here

The typical press announcements are out. On Sep 12th, Apple holds another one of its patented events where they will announce most likely the iTunes movie store and a new iPod with a wider screen for better movie viewing. Now if they pair that with a set top box that connects to your living room stereo and tv, they will have hit a home run. Microsoft is close to getting Windows Media Center right so the time to strike is now for Apple. This could be the most significant Apple announcement since the Intel switch.