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Honestly NOT trying to trash broadcast TV… just reporting what I see on my newsfeeds these days…
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[Oliver Peters] “This is true even at the local level. Many TV stations have very active and profitable websites that feature both repurposed and unique content. They also produce custom web-only content for some of their local clients. I’m freelancing at one station this month and guess what, the same folks produce the web content as do the on-air content. In this case, using Varicams, studio shoots, FCP 7, PPro and After Effects.”
I dunno. Personally I don’t think I know a single person under 25 that “subscribes” to – or regularly surfs – any local TV station web presence.
I agree the traditional media outlets are trying to leverate modern media. My wife writes and delivers web content for every show segment she appears in and the station religiously posts that content for viewers doing searches. But honestly,it’s kind of used as an promotional after fact rather than a creative driver of views.
And that a big budget TV station would use the big budget tools they already have in house to produce their web content is only obvious. In grade school I had a friend who’s dad ran a carpentry shop. When we had to build wooden Viking boat models for extra credit in history class his turned up clearly having gone through commercial planers and drill presses and shaping tools. You use what you have access to – and that says nothing about whether someone approaching the same task needs that level of equipment to do a good job.
My wife has a reasonable local fan base after appearing in more than 300 segments over the past seven years on local TV – with very loyal fans who look forward to her broadcast segments. Heck, hardly a week goes by without someone stopping her in our local stores to complement a segment she’s done that they’ve watched. And I don’t think I’ve seen a single interaction with one of those fans who struck me as under 30 and most of them are 40 plus.
Admittedly hers is the “stay at home” daytime largely female crowd that is the core audience for the show she appears on, but still, there are plenty of students and young wives and stay at home moms who are in her show’s target demo.
I just doubt they’re particularly TV oriented these days.
I actually hope I’m wrong about all this, because having a nice ratinings measured video content distribution system in place makes my whole business life easier – since I produce a good bit of ad related TV and Radio destined content. But I just don’t see much growth in the under 30 prime demos around here.
But maybe TV is succeeding in building relationships with young viewers and I just don’t see it.
As we say. Time will tell.
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[Oliver Peters] “This is true even at the local level. Many TV stations have very active and profitable websites that feature both repurposed and unique content. They also produce custom web-only content for some of their local clients. I’m freelancing at one station this month and guess what, the same folks produce the web content as do the on-air content. In this case, using Varicams, studio shoots, FCP 7, PPro and After Effects.”
Many (most?) stations and networks do have what I call ‘show support’ content online. I was thinking more along the lines of CC Studios, which is the online original content arm of Comedy Central, or Cracked.com. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom and Cracked.com is owned by Sony. While not a traditional media conglomerate, Microsoft hired away a CBS TV exec last fall and has studio space in Santa Monica as they gear up to offer original, 1st party content on XboxLIVE.
While there is certainly more room for startups and niche players in the streaming age than in the b’cast age I don’t expect the established players to roll over and die nor fade away. Also, judging by the success (and controversy) around hugely successful YT channels like Maker Studios and Machinima I expect many new media outlets to mirror the basic old media structure because it has benefits and it works.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Probably a difference between long form content, short form content and where people prefer to watch each.”
Undoubtedly that is the case. And, my files are generally for approval, so they are only going to a few people, and usually at their desks. At this point, though, when I receive a temp, I much prefer file over DVD.
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So my kids are 10 and 12 and they do most of their video consumption through streaming on a device (phone, tablet or computer) or on-demand through the TV. They don’t even ask us to record things for them anymore.
They are OS agnostic. We have MacBooks, an iPad, Android tablets, Android phones, Windows desktop, wii, PS3 and FiOS. These are all things they operate equally well and with no frustration if one doesn’t work right. They just move on to the next one to get to what they want. And good for them I say. They will never sit on a 3 hour call with Tech Support trying to get a printer to work.
They seem to know that most of the crap they watch on YT is crap given its production values (I’ll take all the credit here by all the amazingly, brilliant, stunning and flawlessly perfect editorial work of mine… that I FORCE them to watch :)). But the YT stuff is funny, and they don’t have any money anyway so who cares?
Now one of my best clients is a family owned chain of health food stores. 90% of what I do for them is for their website. But what drives the content is…a TV show. Dr. Oz. Man, if that guy talks about it you can be sure the stores will be full of people asking for it immediately after it. So we have his program schedule in advance and get stories/interviews/how-to’s ready in advance whenever we can.
And we also run spots on his show. I cut these in PPro. I export them directly to the station’s FTP with custom specs (picky bastards). So, how’s that? TV drives what we do on the web and our presence on the TV is more like posting on the web than ever before.
The kids are alright.
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[Paul Neumann] “The kids are alright.”
Indeed. My fourteen year old and I are about to watch Doctor Who, as it plays in its proper time slot because its an event for us, then we’ll watch Warehouse 13 as a download from iTunes. Then, she will no doubt retire to join other nerd fighters and watch her favorite youtube podcast by the Vlogbrothers, while I catch up with Game of Thrones, on Demand. Or maybe I’ll pop over to Lynda and do a little Premiere polishing.
S’all Good, man.
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Lots of debate on whether FCPX really has a “unique” edge on creation and delivery in the new distribution age so I’ll just add directly to Bill’s initial post.
At the moment, FCPX biggest failing in the above regard is that, for a company that seems to be touting file based delivery, Compressor is very weak. It has a very poor H.264 codec and extremely limited access to codec tweaks whether .mov or .mp4. It can’t create a High Profile CABAC encode at all.
While they’ve made some improvements to QMaster, it still can’t match the simple clustering of multiple machines that Telestream Episode can.
For a company that supports HLS adaptive bit rate, there’s no easy way to create the files and playlist in Compressor.
On the other hand, I suspect Apple has some improvements in mind as part of their “10 year plan” for FCPX but admittedly haven’t seen any evidence of it yet. The real promise though is abstract in that since Apple was very willing to rethink the NLE, they may have an equally interesting rethink on file delivery. I wouldn’t be surprised that FCPX’s metadata/database handling will have some role in that. I can’t really debate this since it’s just my own subjective hunch.
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[Craig Seeman] “At the moment, FCPX biggest failing in the above regard is that, for a company that seems to be touting file based delivery, Compressor is very weak. It has a very poor H.264 codec and extremely limited access to codec tweaks whether .mov or .mp4. It can’t create a High Profile CABAC encode at all.
“Maybe they think ‘high level’ compression is a void best filled by third parties (same as tape layoff)? Apple’s history with post is certainly enigmatic with regards to how deep down the post production rabbit whole they want to go. Apple’s experiments, for lack of a better term, with Shake, Color and Final Cut Server all initially got people excited about how Apple could bring it’s ‘magic’ to those areas only to see Apple let the apps hither and die.
Time will tell.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Maybe they think ‘high level’ compression is a void best filled by third parties (same as tape layoff)?”
Apple has little interest in tape though since it’s “dead” as far as they’re concerned. In the long run it is as I don’t doubt HDCAM delivery will decline even if it takes some time.
On the other hand FCPX can export to YouTube and Vimeo but can’t export using High Profile which they would accept. Even recent iOS devices can handle High Profile. In other words, Apple isn’t even taking advantage of the best of its own ecosystem. That’s why I find this an issue.
An additional irony as that so many people who do like FCPX point out how fast they feel it is (even if it’s just subjective). Yet, encoding through FCPX or Compressor still isn’t all that fast and the clustering features that those who own multiple Macs would take advantage of to speed export, is not easy to implement. Granted some aspects have improved with GPU use during export but that’s only one of several things they need to improve for file delivery to complement perceived or real editing speed.
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Getting FCPX out the door and up to snuff is certainly ProApps priority number one so maybe we’ll see a totally new Compressor down the line. Apple is known for shifting team members around as needed instead of bringing on new employes so X might be taking up too many resources currently for the ‘supporting apps’ to get much attention.
Who knows.
I guess I’m saying given Apple’s history I wouldn’t be surprised if they left Compressor deficient in this respect even though it would appear to go against the grain of their tapeless world philosophy.
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[Chris Harlan] “My fourteen year old and I are about to watch Doctor Who, as it plays in its proper time slot because its an event for us”
Hey Chris majorly OT, but what ep are you up to over there? Is it the same as the ones airing in the UK now?
Are you a post 2005 fan or were you into the classic series as well?
Alex Hawkins
Canberra, Australia
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