Bearing in mind ‘Old” Media’s search for the internet’s Holy Grail do you think Murdoch et al would go for something like :

http://www.finditfir.st

Full disclosure (we own the domain)

Here’s my trois cents worth. I have this image of Peter Chernin (c.1995) at a Fox staff get-together. As I recall, everyone was watching a big screen presentation and he arrived by busting right-out through the screen in a Bus (anyone remember Keanu Reeves in Speed, one of Fox’s big hits at the time).

For such a quiet, smooth operator, Chernin has a sense of the dramatic and a way of getting media attention, plus a good sense of humour (AND he’s a Democrat). Murdoch ‘lite’, he aint.

“NewTube” will do well. It may not be what any of you want to see but there are plenty of people out there who don’t know what they want and so NewTube will tell them what they want to see and deliver it. With Chernin involved the new venture is in good hands. Sorry I haven’t mentioned you, Mr Zucker . “Hi boss NOT”, as Borat (Fox distrib’s character might say).

By comparison, on an infinitesimal scale last week we ‘launched’ filmcommunity, so quietly that to begin with no-one will notice but that’s deliberate. It suits us and our resources. We’re so quiet and in relative stealth, we’re practically invisible. In the ecosystem we’re probably not even in the category Debby Davies calls plankton’. But I may as well give you some details :

• http://www.filmcommunity.com
A Social Media Network for Film

• http://www.filmcommunity.org
A Wiki for Film

Two entities running in parallel – not your average or recommended business model – but definitely Web 2.00. The Dot.Com evolving out of Marc Andreeson’s NING network / the Dot.Org being one of the first of Jimmie Wales’ Openservings. This combo will probably get me laughed-off of TechCrunch forum but for those of us with neither rich ‘friends & family’ nor guardian ‘angels’, its a viable alternative. Seems to me it could be the new low-cost start-up model. Heard of ‘New2.00′ anyone?.

Garth Hall
ceo & founder of filmcommunity

This is an indicator that truly successful new media will not originate from people like this. Their lack of imagination is tied to devices as a platform and not the internet itself.

Because of the net-crowds inherent dogma about IP protection and big media, a few things seem to be getting missed.

Here are some of my observations:

Their thinking for the future

This is about ubiquitous distribution, something America still has a problem with, free(r) from the considerations of infrastructure.
A richer seam of their content available to more people.

Google’s network of adsense hosters is where they’re probably thinking of in terms of places to find that content. If they become such a mass aggregator, and allow self-publishing/UGC, then why would people need to visit youtube or Brighcove, Akimbo, etc.
And if they have the most “reached” content, then people will be going here anyway for the best version of that legal content, and then staying.

Another, major thing that’s being missed is that if this full legal quality official site/service is available, then it become a lot more easier to force the copyright violators off the radar of the masses.
All the free hype that’s been given over to Youtube over the last year+, how often is that going to get credited/mentioned once this launches.

I still think they could let un-pragmetism and ego get in the way of success, but they might just pull it off, Fox gets to sock youtube and have the myspace eco-system grow, NBCU gets primary access to Myspace and everyone else. It’s also going to be the longest tail in the industry

They’ll come up with the techniques to minimise hacking, probably why they’ll have close-knit hosting partners.

Much of the technolgy and platforms are already available off-the-shelf, so they could well launch early enough. (unlikely.)

Blue-Chip content, Wide (neutral) distribution, Quality Image…

Two questions:
Will this stuff be available for download, keep, or will it always be stream-controlled, so what about ipods and pmp’s? (traditional d/l? )
will this content be on the landing pages of the distribution partners, or will they be available from wider services like geocities, what about things like xbox-live, and AIM.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak

this just might be the one YouTube killer!!

LOLZ

No you are not! Here is a list of reasons why this company will fail miserably on its rear end:

1. business men don’t know anything about computers, or even monetary value of a website.. what that really means (think web 1.0)

2. they will have no mindshare and there will be grassroots rebellion against this service. they should of payed their cto more monies.

3. this is laughable even with the kingmakers and owners of the successful websites we visit today. why? because they know just how risky the web business is. LOOK at GOOGLE, for example. look at their revenue, where is it coming from?

4. tech stocks are funny, i have a feeling that they’ll be more cyclical faster than most.

do you have a vested interest stake in any way, shape, or form?

It will be late. It will be unusable. It will be a failure. They will have to buy someone else.

Yet many news sources are reporting this joint venture will create a “video portal site” for distributing their content.

I understand their intention to distribute content through a network of players, probably something akin to a widget, but is this or is this not going to be its own website?

Does he not realize users like us hit the mute button and use Alt-tab to switch to Firefox to check email during commercials?

(Perhaps overinflated viewer surveys about their willingness to watch adds also contributed to his perception.)

Prediction: Sites will find a way to disable mute and switching to another application during commercials.

YouTube has the format people want and the popularity. The media companies want control and more money. If and when this fails, YouTube will reap the benefits and have the upper hand in negotiations.

Seriously, should we start a Deapool Pool? This is supposed to launch in the summer, so I say the site will be officially called a failure (by that I mean either NBC or Fox pulls out of the agreement) by February 08. My bet is on NBC though, Fox is too stubborn.

I like this format for the post. I think it’s quite appropriate to break this sort of news in this “notes” format – it seems more authentic somehow then a full blown blog post that’s been proofread and spell checked.

Anyway, nice insights, keep up the good reporting.

I watch Trump every Monday morning, but I have to tell you ABC has the best video on the web platform so far, CBS is 2nd best, NBC is third. Very often NBC is slow downloading the video.

Zucker, if you make your site faster, people will watch more.

Are they going to pay us for our content? Will they protect the IP of our submitted videos with the same pitbull tenacity they use to protect their own?

If I submit a video that proves to be as or more popular than the native canned content will I be offered a lucrative content development contract?

Props to “Kelli” 5….4….3….2….1….and Deadpool