Drew of Rocketboom writes a very lengthy post about the stats behind Rocketboom, trying to demystify the things he takes into account. Except towards the end (when he starts to take more and more pot shots at Ze Frank) he does a fantastic job. The thing I think is apparent in this and Ze’s view is that there is no real standard accounting method for hits. Everyone has some segment they can promote as indicative of their popularity, but the important part is to compare apples to apples, and handicap the results appropriately.
Definitely worth a read, and maybe someone out there can take a stab at creating a “video audience calculator” formula?
Business Week has an article about Amanda Congdon’s jump to ABC as well as HBO. It covers the usual turf, including such great concepts as the web being a farm for old media. I shan’t get into how backward that thinking is, mostly because my intense Actionscript session over the last few days has left me fantastically inarticulate.
However, I will say this: I think agents for various people in the web world should stop looking for big Old Media deals and start looking for corporate partners to beef up the online presence. Looking at the budgets and salaries out there, you can get paid a nice hefty amount for appearing on a weekly TV show, but if your vidcast were sponsored for a year by one company at a rate comparable to just a single primetime TV ad spot, you would make a lot more cash, and have more freedom.
I guess it’s the fame thing, too, though. People want to know people know them. If you believe Nielsen ratings are accurate, vidcasts still have a ways to go before they are in the same league… but the gap is closing fast.
So to some enterprising former-advertising-exec out there: start a new business connecting vidcasters with sponsors, take a cut, and become rich quick. All the other agents are looking in the wrong direction!
The New York Times has an article about the Ze and the Ninja and other web celebs. The thing I find interesting is that they both seem very intent on not making half-assed deals with Hollywood for a bit of money. $2,000 per episode for the Ninja? These shows have audiences quite a bit larger than most shows on that CW network, which are made for hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode, not $2,000. It still shows that Hollywood doesn’t take the “online auteurs” seriously. I’m all giddy that my favourite vidcast stars are taking themselves seriously at least.
Now I guess the big question is whether the next generation of shows will be made for millions of dollars, elevating the current web class, or if this means the slow demise of the hugely-expensive broadcast show? Probably somewhere in the middle, I reckon. Hopefully, anyway.
An article at Backstage.com details Amanda Congdon’s plans for the future. Apparently a show at HBO. From zee article:
Details of the project are still being hammered out, but Congdon said she’s aiming for a multiplatform property that will be integrated with original video content online. She intends to write and star in the series.
The word “multiplatform” makes me cringe these days (it’s like “pervasive in 2000), but other than that, this sounds like a great gig. I’m interested to see how far HBO is willing to go down the multiplatform road, especially with a New Media player’s show. Their recent efforts have felt a lot like “the web’s a promotional medium only”, rather than giving it any kind of real weight. Hopefully this’ll help turn the tide.
Drew of Rocketboom writes in his blog today about having to step away from some kind of deal with Microsoft about the Zune. While the details of the would-have-been agreement aren’t clear, the wording makes it clear it’s never easy dealing as a significant player in the media space. If you control eyeballs, those who want and need eyeballs will flock to you. I guess the difference between the Big EyeballSeekers and the Small ones is that the big ones carry a long list of conditions they want fulfilled before they’ll play ball. It’s up to you, as the gatekeeper to your eyeballs, to decide what conditions you can stomach. It sucks that sometimes (like this) you have to walk away, but I’m happy to see New Media folks buckling down and holding on to integrity over a quick buck.
Again, having no real info on any said deal, I wonder who stood to benefit the most, Zune or Rocketboom? On the one hand, getting mentioned by Microsoft might be worth a lot of eyeballs… but I’d think the credibility of probably THE major vidcast giving you a thumbs-up would have been golden for the Zune.
Anyway, kudos to Drew, regardless of how painful it was. Next time, the deal’ll feel better.
