Do world events have you rattled? Ever thought of learning to live off the grid?

Follow Frank Belcastro as he attempts to drag his family (sometimes kicking and screaming) toward his goal of being able to live completely on their own, off the grid.

“Independence USA” premieres on January 18, 2012 exclusively on GBTV.Com, Glenn Beck’s new streaming Internet-based television network. “Independence USA” is produced by GBTV and The WorkShop, L.L.C. whose team has produced shows for History, ESPN, ESPN Classic, Animal Planet, HGTV, trutv, Travel Channel, Lifetime, Discovery Channel, TLC, The Golf Channel, and Broadcast Syndication. The show will air weekly on Wednesdays.

The “Independence USA” trailer has hit reality show written all over it. In my opinion this is going to be a real game-changer for the concept of streaming video and new media. This is the first professional-quality TV series aimed at a mainstream reality TV audience produced exclusively for an Internet-based television network. Though networks have played around for years with streaming re-purposed television shows and movies, this is the first time a network is being built from the ground up, one module at a time to create a pay TV network for exclusive distribution on the Internet.

Will people subscribe to an Internet-only high definition TV network? The answer is, yes they absolutely will subscribe provided that the content is there. It’s highly likely that the addition of the “Independence USA” reality TV series will get many people over the hump and cause them to pay.

People already in the new media/streaming media space should welcome GBTV, because it is going to be a game-changer. It’s success will likely cause a bit of a land rush towards streaming. Devices such as the Roku are in a great position to reap those land rush benefits. The presence of professional level TV networks on the Roku will potentially have a bit of a “halo effect” for existing new media creators.

Once in a while, a book comes along that contains ground-breaking insights.  Such is the case with a book I’ve listened to over the past couple of days, the Audible audio book version of ‘The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” by author Tim Wu.

“The Master Switch” is a compelling look into the history of major information industries such as the telegraph, the telephone, commercial broadcast radio, the commercial movie business, and commercial broadcast television. The book points out an identifiable, slowly-repeating cycle obviated by the fact that these industries were able to gain and hold monopoly status. Each in turn became quite adept at retarding disruptive technological innovations that threatened their respective business models.

Today we take an open Internet for granted, but these same and other forces are looking to take over control of the Internet and turn it into a closed, much more tightly-controlled system.

The book is extremely well written and well researched. The Audible audio book narrator Marc Vietor brings the book to life in a wonderful way.

Mr. Wu does a fantastic job of laying out the often-fascinating histories of companies such as Western Union, AT&T, NBC, etc. As consumers, we think we know these companies through their consumer advertising. The real history of these companies is often quite different and very eye opening.

If you enjoy stories about technology and business, you will almost certainly enjoy “The Master Switch” by Tim Wu.

Like millions of others, I’ve been glued to news sources to get as much current information as I can about the ongoing disasters in Japan following the massive earthquake, tsunami and ongoing nuclear plant disasters. This has to be the biggest natural disaster that has occurred in my lifetime.

In pre-Internet days, we had to rely on newspapers and television for news. Those forms of information have their problems. This is the Internet age. I want current information directly from the source NOW, not later. I want current information of my choice, not what news agencies that aren’t directly on the scene think is or is not important for me to know. If I want 24/7 disaster coverage, in the Internet age that becomes possible, allowing me to completely bypass limited conventional coverage.

It took a while for me to find, but there’s an iPhone/iPod/iPad/iOS app from Japan’s NHK called NHK World TV Live. The app is free. Once the app is installed, it operates very simply. You simply open the app and the live video directly from Japan’s NHK World news service immediately begins streaming. Search iTunes for NHK World TV Live.

The service has an English translator that talks over the lowered volume of the original Japanese broadcasts. The English translators aren’t slick and you can hear them become a bit confused from time to time.

There’s also an app from the Al jazeera TV English news network that operates live out of Doha, Qatar. Al jazeera TV English is highly produced from a beautiful state-of-the-art studio. The on-air newsreaders seem to be British nationals. Though Al jazeera gives more news from the Arab world than the typical American is used to, they do a pretty good job of covering international news, including the situation in Japan. Search iTunes for Al jazeera English Live.

Savvy TV news agencies in today’s world have to make themselves available if they want to continue to be relevant. News agencies such as the BBC, CBC, CNN, Fox, etc. seem to be dragging their feet regarding available-to-anyone-anywhere 24/7 Internet TV broadcasting. I believe they are already losing world market share.

Over the past five years I have been down in the trenches working like a dog to monetize new media content. While I have had significant success with a number of companies, every month I leave 10′s of millions of new media impressions on the table unsold. This is not from a lack of trying that is for sure, but one thing that continues to haunt new media, is that most of the companies spending money in the digital advertising space aka the media buyers are ignoring opportunities to reach audience that have largely shifted away from mainstream content.

In reality if the media buyers that were selling to Radio and Television were allowed to sell into the digital new media space all of 10′s of millions of inventory not sold each month would be sold out for the next couple of years. While Digital buyers have claimed us, they don’t understand how to execute buys that are more closer to TV and Radio deals.

If I take our gaming category over at Blubrry.com, there are 336 shows that are reaching several million hard-core gaming consumers each month. Yet when we reach out to companies that would be a sure fit for that category, they seem to not have an interest in those shows, yet they will not flinch at buying an ad in a print magazine, that they will spend a small fortune on.  But when you propose a reasonably priced ad deal, that would run 90 days and guarantee reaching those several million hard core gaming consumers they refuse to break out the check book.

When media buyers do bring and ad deal to us, they want to spend generally less than $10k and want us to deliver a $100k worth of inventory. While we do get a higher CPM than what they are paying for at YouTube, I am also guaranteeing that we will be hitting 100% of the exact audience they want to reach.

Frankly I don’t yet fully get it. I think most media buyers have a stack of insertion orders that they just re-date quarter after quarter, year after year and they simply tweak the dollar spends.  I think most media buyers which are typically younger are scared to try something new or present something to their managers that their managers don’t understand.  On a recent ad buy that we executed for a new client, the media buyers, manager told me they were blown away by the response they were getting and could not understand how we were able to deliver the ROI that we were delivering and said something else must have influenced the response.

If I had a crystal ball I sure would like to know how long it is before digital media buyers start putting a small portion of their budgets on new media and give this largely untapped advertising space a try. Frankly I would have thought with the economy, their would have been some significant pressure to spend ad dollars more wisely.  Honestly I think part of it is that most of the media buyers are so overworked that re-dating the insertion orders is safe and lot less work and so long as the clients are happy, most media buyers are with a company less than 2 years and the media buyers want to get their time in without taking any risk and move on to the next job.

So if you have a crystal ball, when will the media buyers stop ignoring new media. If you are a new media buyer and want to talk to me about the 6500 new media creators I represent at RawVoice drop me a line and let’s talk. After all as Om Malik says it’s not really new media it’s new consumption and we have been delivering it by the tanker load for the past five years and it’s reaching millions.

The smartphone’s in many consumer hands today are as powerful as the desktop computers we were using five years ago. They may be as powerful from a hardware standpoint, yet the smaller interface demands different methods of interaction. The smaller interface also places different demands on the software that runs on it.

Smartphone software apps typically need to be smaller and very narrowly focused in order to be maximally useful. Smartphones have turned out to be convergence devices, with the functionality of traditional desktop and laptop computers concentrated into a handheld phone.

The best smartphone apps tend to be apps that present a finely honed slice of functionality.

Many podcasters are coming up with their own smartphone apps. One I recently installed is called “Survive!” for Android. It is an Android app for “The Survival Podcast” available at http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com, hosted by Jack Spirko. It’s a great example of simple, functional design that places the web presence of The Survival Podcast in a neat little Android app package.

“Survive!” has a simple home screen that simply lists Survival Podcast Episodes, Videos (YouTube), Twitter, a link to the main website, and recent website forum posts. The single configuration option decides whether or not to download new Survival Podcast episodes automatically or not.

The inclusion of both Twitter and recent forum posts is a great way for the community that Survival Podcast host Jack Spirko has built up around the podcast and it’s website to keep up to date with the latest posts. Additionally the app includes instant access to all of the latest audio and video media.

“Survive!” is an excellent example of a well-crafted smartphone app that presents all of the main podcast and web-based elements in a simple, extremely easy-to-use package. “Survive!” can be found in the Android Marketplace by searching the term “survival podcast.”

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) July 29, 2010

ProMed Network shows are now available and easily accessible on the over-the-top box Roku, helping consumers and health care professionals find the latest and most comprehensive medical information directly on their televisions.

ProMed is a digital media destination on which medical and health programming producers share their shows with other medical professionals, students in the health care fields and members of the public interested in health-related programming. With Roku, ProMed enables health and wellness audiences to broaden their consumption options and content owners and publishers to reach a large and growing audience of digital media consumers.

“The members of the ProMed Network are very excited to expand our reach to the Roku platform,” said Jamie Davis, ProMed general manager. “We believe the future of web programming is in the living rooms and family entertainment areas of our viewers. ProMed plans to be there to share our knowledge with the world.”

ProMed was launched with 11 programs nearly two years ago and has expanded to 30 programs. Several other shows are expected to be added throughout the next few months. Topics include nursing, emergency medicine, primary care, pediatrics, psychology, neurology and disease and disaster awareness. Each show listed in the community is either produced by a medical professional or has been determined to represent peer reviewed or medically relevant information.

“Our producers are among the most popular shows in their categories in directories such as iTunes and we often have nine or 10 shows in the top 20 medical programs listed,” Davis said. “Clearly our listeners and viewers continue to come back for more. The programs on the network really do represent the best of the best.”

ProMed, powered by the RawVoice Generator platform, joins the Tech Podcasts Network and Blubrry podcast communities in providing content creators the ability to be seen and heard on television. The digital media communities are properties of RawVoice, a base for media sharing, discovery, publishing, hosting, measurement and monetization for a vast group of content creators and networks.

RawVoice delivers mass content through multiple platforms; the RawVoice media statistics system offers unsurpassed insights into user consumption: tracking audiences, listener-base demographics and geographical data with worldwide mapping – all delivered via web-based interfaces, custom reports and daily e-mail summaries.

Contact Davis at press@promednetwork.com.

About RawVoice Inc.:
RawVoice offers new media producers an easy, efficient means to get media online and measure audience behavior. The RawVoice Generator is a configurable, customizable, user-friendly media platform that combines the power of podcasting and new media with social networking. The RawVoice Generator lets you push content to portable and home media devices, such as iPhones, Roku and Boxee. RawVoice’s Integrated New Media Statistics analyzes downloadable and streaming media. It’s easy to use, powerful and flexible.

Brands:
RawVoice Generator, RawVoice Media Statistics, PowerPress Podcast Plugin, TechPodcasts.com, Blubrry.com, TravelCastNetwork.com, ProMedNetwork.com, Podcasternews.com

The year was 2005. The month was November. The setting was the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The event was the first podcast media expo. The phenomenon of podcasting, brought to life by Adam Curry and Dave Winer, was a bit over a year old. At least a couple of thousand podcasters as well as many podcast listeners showed up from around the world to meet each other face to face for the fist time.

Looking back in my own mind and the minds of many others who attended, it was as if there was a special magic that happened at Ontario. This first event brought a bunch of strangers together, yet it had the happy feel of a family reunion. Soon enough it would be over and time for us all to go our separate ways.

The Ontario Convention Center turned out to work especially well for in-person social networking for people who were heavily involved in this brand new form of social media. It was very easy to identify other attendees because of the convention badges. Most people were staying in the nearby hotels, particularly at the Marriot across the street from the Ontario Convention Center. People ended up milling back and forth between the convention center and the Marriot. Many people ended up meeting each other and striking up conversations at random as they accidentally met each other while walking around or just hanging out.

I was always up front about the reason I attended these podcast expos. I was there to meet people and hang out with podcaster friends. I did not sign up for or pay money to attend any of the expo’s sessions. I was there to socialize. I don’t believe I was the only podcaster who thought this way. From a social standpoint, the podcast expos held in Ontario were a tremendous success. Sadly, from an expo-promoting business standpoint, perhaps they weren’t so successful.

There would be a total of three of these expos held at the Ontario Convention Center before the gathering was moved to the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada starting in 2008. The 2008 expo ended up being sort of lost in the middle of a mega-building probably most well known for housing the annual (and gargantuan) Consumer Electronics Show every January.

With literally thousands of Las Vegas tourists, combined with other conventions going on at the same time, meeting and socializing with the reduced number of podcasters that did make the effort to show up in Las Vegas in 2008 and later in 2009 became difficult. Gone were the happy accidental meetings. Pretty much gone was the accidental social networking aspect that had happened every year at the convention center in Ontario.

Those three magical expos at the Ontario Convention Center will never be repeated. Many of those early podcasters have moved on to other interests, as well as many of the early podcast listeners that also made a point of showing up. The social aspect of podcasting has seemed to wane a bit as larger commercial and educational organizations expanded into the space.

Podcasting is alive and well in 2010, and is taking its place in this new and continually evolving world of Internet-distributed digital media production and distribution. There are more podcasts available for download than ever before. Priorities change, and people move on.

Those first three podcast expos at Ontario, California were exceptional social networking events where many exceptional friendships were formed.

I remember it well. Back around October of 2004, I first heard the word “podcast” used on The David Lawrence Show via my XM Satellite Radio. It sounded interesting, and I wrote it down on my driver logbook cover with the idea of looking it up later. I heard David mention it again once or twice over the next few weeks. Finally, in early December of 2004 I finally got around to looking it up. I found Adam Curry’s podcast, realized what it was, and knew that I felt compelled to not only listen to podcasts but get involved as a podcaster myself. This was exactly what I’d been looking for for many years – a wide variety of content that I could choose, download, and control the playback/consumption of on MY terms.

Podcasting took previously-existing elements and applied them with a new twist. MP3 files had already existed for a number of years. Virtually every computer already came with a sound card and had the basic ability to both play back and record audio. Portable MP3 players had been around for a while. Apart from Adam Curry’s and Dave Winer’s contribution of the podcasting concept and making it work, the one key element that suddenly made podcasting viable and actually inevitable was the fact that Internet bandwidth got good enough to make it practical.

Practical is an important key.

We have now passed another important milestone in terms of mobile bandwidth. Mobile bandwidth, while not yet perfect, has improved dramatically in both terms of data delivery and coverage. About three or more years ago I had experimented with streaming audio via my smartphone while driving my truck, and quickly determined that it wasn’t viable. I couldn’t listen long at all before I would lose the stream. No problem, I had plenty of podcasts to listen to.

I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk about Pandora.Com lately, so last week I finally tried the Pandora Android app out on my new Sprint HTC Evo. To my surprise, it worked amazingly well – even in Arizona and the western third of New Mexico along Interstate 40 where Sprint still has 1XRT service. The streaming music sounded great, and the few times it did briefly drop out in a couple of mountainous areas, it automatically reconnected and reestablished the playback stream.

(By the way, a side note – I was surprised to learn that Verizon has NO data card coverage around the Kingman, Arizona area – my Verizon aircard would NOT connect in the Kingman area.)

Streaming radio via the Internet in a moving vehicle is now practical. Smartphones have also reached critical mass to the point where they are really beginning to move into the mainstream. Even though streaming Internet audio has been around for quite a few years at this point, I believe the automotive market for streaming audio is about to open up in a massive way.

Up until this point most people have felt that streaming Internet radio had plateaued or was only going to grow slowly. I believe that improved cell networks along with smartphone proliferation will create a new market for streaming audio services. The automobile has been the traditional stronghold of terrestrial and now satellite radio services. An old kid that’s been around a while suddenly has a big and growing shot at a new lease-on life.

I believe opportunities exist for streaming Internet radio stations that deliver highly specialized content. For us geeks, imagine a 24/7 tech-centric streaming station. The sky really is the limit. The cost of running a streaming station can be very low, so therefore it becomes possible and practical to narrowcast to relatively small audiences.

How social media points the way forward for journalism. It’s a real example of how traditional media are becoming social media-aware and are using Facebook, Twitter and their ilk to get the news stories out faster and with more information.

However, what really registered with me is at the very end of the article.

There is a word of caution that goes with trusting what we read on this great “word of mouth” network.  Recent rumour mill stories on Facebook on the private lives of footballers ended up in the press and were proven to be totally wrong. So while this new technology can speed up the newsgathering process, journalists will need to make sure they do what they have always done – double check the facts.

I have real concerns about the loss of the old news media.  Obviously there’s no single cause but the rise of new media, the Internet “no cost” expectation and the “now” culture are all taking the toll.    But what will be the cost to our society when we no longer have professional journalists?

What will happen to investigative journalism?  What will happen when hysterical but unfounded rumours sweep across the social networks?  How will politicians be held to account when there is no-one to report on their mistakes?  How much more easy will it be to cover stuff up?

I can’t think of a single other instance where it’s become acceptable for amateurs to take over the role of professionals.  Would you want an amateur doctor to treat you?  An amateur engineer to design a bridge?  An amateur firefighter to attend an emergency?  No, I want these people to study for years to become competent at what they do.  Why should journalism be any different?  Just because you can string a sentence together, doesn’t make you a journalist.

Now, you may think that it’s a bit rich coming from a blogger for a major new media site but to tie this back to the original news story, I think it genuinely points the way ahead.  We have to get away from old media v. new media, it has to be co-opetition not competition, symbiotic not parasitic, and we have to find a way to reward news organisations and professional journalists to keep doing what they’re doing.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know is that it will be social disaster if we lose professional journalists because we were too cheap to buy a newspaper.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) July 12, 2010

Podcasting industry leader RawVoice has recorded a phenomenal 31 percent increase in revenue for the second quarter of 2010, which ended July 1. The increase reflects new advertising buys on 27 percent more shows within the RawVoice family, including Blubrry and Tech Podcasts Network and other network partners compared to the first quarter.

“Advertisers are confident in us delivering a healthy return on investment,” explains Todd Cochrane, RawVoice CEO and host of Geek News Central. “Advertising with RawVoice enables them to expose their brand to audiences that are consuming media on a variety of devices in the home and on the go.”

Audience growth was fueled by the increased quality and quantity of podcasts available within the RawVoice community — Blubrry.com alone has more than 5,500 shows available for advertising — and expanded media accessibility on multiple platforms. “Our strategy of multi-platform distribution is exposing new audiences to our content creators on venues that accommodate their lifestyle needs,” Cochrane said.

Digital media content technology enables viewers and/or listeners to subscribe to, receive and consume their favorite podcasts how they want, when they want on any number of mediums, including the Internet, over-the-top boxes such as Roku, Apple iOS and Google Android-based smart phones.

“Advertisers are accessing exactly the audience that they want,” Cochrane said. “We are the only advertising medium that can guarantee they are reaching their target audiences.” Viewers and listeners in turn gain exposure to great products and services matched to their needs. The end result is that hosts are able to sustain and grow their shows “ultimately resulting in more ad deals for our content creators,” he said.

The RawVoice Generator network services measure a show’s reach through its media statistics platform, helping creators to monetize their shows and guaranteeing that advertisers reach their delivery and branding goals. “We get direct input from content creators on their audiences and we can cross validate that data with listener and viewer survey data,” Cochrane explained. “Without this trifecta of data, we would not be able to execute such large campaigns effectively.”

As Quarter 3 gets under way, Cochrane is confident the advertising and audience growth will continue to the benefit of media creators. “We are continuing to focus on multi-platform distribution for the shows that are part of the network,” he said. “The show producers are reaching millions of people monthly. We want to continue to take the lead in finding ways to help content creators maintain sustainable incomes for their shows.”

About RawVoice Inc.

RawVoice offers media producers an easy, efficient means to get media online and measure audience behavior. The RawVoice Generator is a configurable, customizable, user-friendly media platform that combines the power of podcasting and new media with social networking. The RawVoice Generator lets you push content to portable and home media devices, such as iPhones, Roku and Boxee. RawVoice’s Integrated New Media Statistics analyzes downloadable and streaming media. It’s easy to use, powerful and flexible.

Brands: RawVoice Generator, RawVoice Media Statistics, PowerPress Podcast Plugin, TechPodcasts.com, Blubrry.com, TravelCastNetwork.com, ProMedNetwork.com

OTT, short for “over-the-top-television” is an up-and-coming acronym that we are all likely going to become familiar with in the near future, provided someone doesn’t come up with a different marketing name. The concept is simple – it’s TV that comes “over the top” of traditional channels on a cable system via the Internet delivered in digital packets. It can either be live streaming video, on-demand streaming video, or in the form of a pre-recorded on-demand podcast.

There are many aspects of over-the-top TV that have yet to be shaken out. Specifically, here in the early stages there are some still-murky areas when it comes to details of how advertising is going to work.

Things that we know about how OTT works successfully so far:

People are willing to pay for bundled on-demand professionally created OTT content in the form of Netflix on-demand streaming of movies, TV shows, and other content. The bundled Netflix price for all-you-can-eat on-demand streaming OTT offers the consumer a real value. In most cases, a great deal of marketing money and effort has been spent promoting the majority of individual movies and other content that are available on Netflix, so the consumer has a fairly high degree of familiarity with much of the on-demand streaming content they offer. These are essentially repurposed movies that are already on the shelf.

People are willing to watch on-demand streaming OTT of professionally-created content with embedded ads as demonstrated by the ongoing success of Hulu.Com. The consumer is likely already familiar with a portion of the content, but Hulu also allows the consumer to discover and explore previously unknown TV show content in an on-demand stream with embedded ads. These are essentially repurposed TV shows, some movies, and other content.

Live streaming OTT of live content is still catching on. The most successful live OTT content as typified by what Leo Laporte and company are generating still offers an on-demand podcast version that can be downloaded later. Currently, on-demand, after-the-fact podcast versions of live OTT generated content end up with many more downloads than people watching via live streams. Both live streaming OTT and the on-demand podcast versions can contain ads. For the ads to be effective in this format, they need to be relevant to the audience’s needs and desires. The old “shotgun” advertising approach does not work in this format. This specific type of content is closely associated with word-of-mouth promotion.

There are a few questions that remain to be answered. Will consumers pay for on-demand streaming of TV drama-type content they are unfamiliar with — in other words, will consumers pay to watch an on-demand stream of a new TV show drama, documentary or reality show? Using myself as a gage, I wouldn’t pay for individual on-demand episodes of a TV show or movie I wasn’t fairly familiar with. Promotion and word-of-mouth still has to take place.

If consumers will pay-per-view for an unfamiliar on-demand TV show, can the content still contain ads? I think the answer to this depends on the content and its perceived value – i.e., how well it is promoted, and the resulting perceived value that is generated in the potential consumer.

Once “Lost” was a hit TV show, would the fanatic fans have paid for on-demand streams of new episodes? Probably they would have, if they could have gotten them, say a week or so in advance of the actual broadcasts. “Lost” fans would have also put up with ads in the advance on-demand stream. They might have grumbled about it, but if that were the only way it was available in advance, many of them would have opened-up their wallets and paid the price monetarily and with their attention to the embedded ads in order to satisfy their “Lost” habit. Clearly, the producers of “Lost” – ahem – “lost out” on a time-sensitive revenue stream opportunity.

Bottom line, I believe it all revolves around the content and the real and perceived values that the content delivers.

I liked last season’s remake of the old “V” television series. If I could be assured the production values remained just as high, I might pay to subscribe in some manner. If the “V” series is picked up again by ABC next season, I would also pay to subscribe if I could get episodes via on-demand streaming before they were broadcast.

In the meantime, we are still dealing with the death-throws of the old broadcast model with its old appointment based viewing schedule combined with the old shotgun advertising approach. ABC broadcast TV affiliates would have had a cow if “Lost” episodes had been made available as a paid on-demand OTT stream before the episodes were actually broadcast via the network.

The final destination of OTT and when it ends up at that destination depends on what is right for the time. Both delivery infrastructure capabilities and consumer demand will make that determination.

I was listening to a podcast where the hosts were chatting back and forth about the newly offered Hulu Plus, where for $10 dollars a month, you can get Hulu on a wide variety of devices including smart phones and over-the-top Internet TV boxes. Hulu is also offering a somewhat wider, but still incomplete back catalog archive of shows. One of the hosts was saying he wouldn’t pay for content, he wanted it “for free.”

Whether we realize it or not, we are all paying for content, either directly or indirectly. Even if we have only a TV antenna and watch only the local TV channels, we are still paying for content indirectly via advertising. When we buy consumer products of virtually any kind, part of what we pay goes for advertising, which pays for content creation.

If we are paying indirectly only, someone else is deciding for us as to the quality of the programming content. We can either consume that content or not, but we still pay as consumers buying products. We have very little indirect control over what gets put on the air. On the other hand, if we pay for content directly, then we have far greater control over the quality of the media we are consuming.

If Hulu can offer value for the money, then it will succeed What they have to do is figure out what people are willing to pay for. Perhaps that value revolves around putting highly-sought-after content on as many devices as possible. Perhaps it revolves around coming up with the absolute best back catalog of old TV shows. Imagine having instant streaming access to every TV show ever produced in every country in any language, and every movie ever produced anywhere in any language. Something like that would be well worth paying for. Imagine a site such as IMDB.Com that lists every movie and TV show ever made, except as a subscriber you could instantly stream it – now you’re talking. Hulu, anyone else out there – are you listening?

I personally would be willing to pay for a service such as Hulu, except for one small glitch. There are no back catalog shows on the site at the moment that really excite me. Network drama shows can sometimes be quite good, but my tastes are somewhat different.

When I had Dish Network, I was watching a few selected shows on only 3 channels – Discovery, TLC and History. I can get most of these shows if I really want them at some point via Netflix. To my way of thinking, Netflix is a much better value. Netflix has a far wider variety of content, plus they also offer the handy rental service of DVD’s and Blu-ray discs.

The verdict is currently out whether Hulu will be able to figure out what value it needs to best serve its customers. If people are paying Hulu money directly, then Hulu had better quickly figure out exactly what those customers want and do its best to deliver it to them.

Hey Hulu, here’s an idea to try. Offer first-run streaming movies, but do it the Hulu way. I would be willing to pay for a first run movie streaming for a nominal pay-per-view fee, say $5.99. Vudu is offering streaming first run movies, but you have to have a big fat Internet connection to be able to use Vudu. The Vudu service demands way more bandwidth than my Internet service can currently deliver.

Here’s yet another idea for Hulu – offer exclusive, Hulu-only content consisting of well-produced material revolving around the “Entertainment Tonight” type of concept. Do exclusive interviews of movie and TV stars. Do exclusive interviews of directors. Give people real value for their money. Make your customers want to not only see you succeed, but motivate them to help you succeed.

A few years ago remember seeing all those “Joost” commercials pushing their Internet TV application? “Proper TV – Joost” the sophisticated-sounding British spokesman endlessly blurted out towards the end of the ad.

Of course, the initial Joost experiment ended badly. The Joost application stopped working December 19, 2008. Literally millions of dollars went down the drain.

I remember downloading and playing with the application and watching a few minutes of the various included streaming videos. I wasn’t impressed, and never opened the application again.

What went wrong? Why have Hulu and Netflix ascended to near household name status, and Joost flopped with the thud of a drunk elephant tripping over it’s own trunk?

There’s something the Joost folks, savvy as they were, failed to take into account. It’s a little something called choice. Joost failed for the same reason that broadcast, cable and satellite providers are losing viewers and subscribers. The “choice” offered by channel surfing revolves around searching for the least-boring junk content that is currently playing. It is choice, but not a very good one. People sitting in front of their Internet-connected computers watching the Joost application trying it’s best to replicate the conventional channel surfing TV experience lost out to the Internet itself. Joost – b-o-r-i-n-g, close it and move on to another website and find something more useful and/or exciting.

The lesson is choice. Enlightened, sophisticated content consumers will choose that content based on three primary criteria – Entertainment, Information, or Character – either any single one or a mixture. By the way, these are the same three filters you apply to your choice in selecting friends.

The failure of the initial Joost experiment was inevitable, and should serve as a warning for all content creators and marketers. Sitting in front of an Internet-connected screen and the conventional channel surfing model don’t mix well. The Internet will easily win the battle.

Our relationship had always been so full of promise and fun. Being gone so much of the time due to my job was certainly a strain. Even so, when I was around, I didn’t make many demands.

Something was coming between us. Lately I’ve been looking elsewhere and slowly began finding satisfaction on the Internet. The thought of divorce has been crossing my mind over the past few months. It was a painful decision, but I knew it had to be made.

Today I decided it was time to sever our ties.

I’ve been a Dish Network customer for about 10 years – until today.

What came between us? I’ve been experimenting with the idea of getting TV content from various sources on the Internet. I’ve tried connecting both Mac with Front Row and Windows Media Center laptops to an LCD HDTV. A full-fledged computer is very flexible in that it can play virtually any file type, but the clunky, complex hands-on Interface is not designed to be operated from an easy chair. I want as much content as possible integrated into one place.

In the meantime I stumbled across some software called Playon TV available at http://www.playon.tv. The software comes with a 30 day trial and works with the DLNA and UpNP network device standards. The software sells for $39.95. Playon TV is designed to be installed either on a computer or a home server on the home network. Playon TV enables streaming of Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Videos, Pandora, etc. to a DNLA/UpNP device like the WD TV Live Plus, X-Box 360, etc. There are also plenty of free third-party plugins for Playon TV that add a mind-boggling and growing variety of content to the Playon TV network share. It works well with my hacked Apple TV with XBMC.

Yesterday I visited my local Best Buy store and bought a Western Digital WD TV Live Plus to connect to the small HDTV in my kitchen. The WD TV Live is a very small set-top box that comes with a small remote control that has an Ethernet port in and an HDMI port out. Straight out of the box it does an excellent job of playing Netflix and is capable of playing back 1080P content. Only the Plus version plays Netflix.

The WD TV Live Plus combined with the Playon TV software convinced me it was time for radical measures. This afternoon I cancelled my Dish Network account and will save $97 dollars per month. I also bought a second WD TV Live Plus unit to connect to my main HDTV/surround sound setup.

At $97 dollars per month savings the two WD TV Live Plus units will have paid for themselves within 3 months.

Can I live without access to Dish Network? I think it’s going to be similar to a few years ago when I dropped my wired phone line. There was a bit of an emotional attachment that I had to let go of, but once I cut the cord it was no big deal.

There was a recent article at Arstechnica.Com describing how The Times in the U.K. ended up cutting its web traffic in half by simply requiring registration so that viewers could read their articles. Prior to this, the articles on the site were freely available. The registration requirement is in anticipation of their future paywall plans.

I have to admit that I’m one of the people who left their site more than once when I clicked on a link and was presented with the registration requirement. I’ve done the same thing on other newspaper sites as well. Will people pay for online news?

At its essence, news is often glorified gossip.

There are plenty of successful paywall sites. Here are three sites that incorporate paywalls that I personally find worthwhile enough subscribe to: Netflix.Com,  Rushlimbaugh.Com and FHU.Com.

Netflix began life as a DVD rental service and most recently added a very popular streaming service as value-added subscriber benefit behind a paywall. The Netflix streaming service helped convince me to sign up and become a customer, as well as the availability of Blu-Ray discs. If Netflix had DVD’s only, I wouldn’t be a subscriber. Streaming and Blu-Ray make me willing to open my wallet.

Rushlimbaugh.Com puts the site’s massive and growing archive behind a paywall that includes access to the Rush Limbaugh podcast version of his radio show where they perform the courtesy of cutting out all of the network ads. Being able to receive the ad-free podcast of the daily Rush Limbaugh radio program is why I subscribe. I rarely sign into the site and go behind the paywall. I want the ad-free daily podcast, so I pay, even though I could get the program for free by listening on the radio.

FHU.Com also puts a massive and growing archive of radio programs, books and video behind a paywall. I want access to this material, and since it’s a charitable organization, I am willing to donate to gain access behind the paywall and support them.

I don’t envision myself ever paying for access to a newspaper website. I have never subscribed to a printed newspaper. I used to subscribe to a number of printed computer, stereo and photography magazines, but somehow that lost its appeal a number of years ago and I let the subscriptions run out.

For a paywall site to be successful, it must have something behind that wall that people want access to. They must offer something of value that revolves around the essence of what they do best.

I want to Introduce TechPodcasts.tv which is part of the Tech Podcast Network. TechPodcasts.tv will centralize the best tech video content in the new media space. Content for the site comes from member shows.  TechPodcasts.Tv like the Tech Podcast Network will be a central place where you can get family safe content by a variety of content creators.

We built the best audio network, now it is time to segregate the video content into its own channel. All from well established shows in the tech space. As opportunities of distributing video content is exploding we are well set to capitalize on well established shows making the jump from Audio only, to add Video.

With TechPodcast Network member shows currently reaching 10′s of million listeners each month, we know that the market for video content is exploding.

While in its early days of launching we will be adding more shows to the lineup in the coming weeks.

Rumors are circling that Apple is proposing an online TV media subscription model.  For just $30/month you could possibly have access to the archive of syndicated shows and the new shows as they come.  Later in the day I read of a favorite tutorial site, which shall remain nameless until I do a proper review, was bumping its fees to about $15/month.  Many of my favorite podcasts have donation links on their site for $2/month or so.  Please understand, I am a believer in paying for labor.  I am just beginning to wonder when this evolving online monthly subscription model will break.

Some people believe a service like Apple’s would get rid of the need for Cable or Dish and save some money. I don’t see that.  The streaming system is not ready for the high-def load and most people will keep the Cable and Dish for their instant viewing.  For those that jump into the online media, how many monthly payments do you want to sign up for?  I just can’t keep signing up for more monthly payments.  The inflation on monthly tech and media services is getting pretty high.

Cable and Dish consolidated traditional media into a monthly package.  What about online media?  It will forever and always be a mix of traditional and common man media.  How many packages can I pick up?  One traditional media package, ten small media packages, one cell phone media package. . .  A revolution in content delivery is underway and will continue to occur, I just wonder where and on what there will be a price tag.

Check out this screenshot. Tell me why it’s an Oxymoron:

If you said “This is an Associated Press article – I CANNOT share it on Mixx, Buzz, Digg, Reddit, Facebook or Newswire”, then you are correct!

If you go to the A.P.s site, you do not see any sharing widgets. However, if you go to the sites that pay for the content, they could have these little add-ons to try and promote their brand. But with these widgets, they could be in breech of their contract.

The Associated Press has said it doesn’t want to squelch new media, but it will go after sites that post it’s content and make money on it. Isn’t that like EVERY site on the Internet?

Back in June, the AP told their reporters to police social media like Facebook and Twitter. The idea would be to identify and irradicate any posts that violate their usage policies. So you could get a take down notice if you post  or “Re Tweet” those A.P. articles.

If you have a website and you have A.P. content on it, you might want to think about those little blurbs to suggest sharing the articles. You may be inadvertently breaching your contract.

I wonder if someone should start a list of Websites that use A.P. so we all know not to share the data from it. Of course, I am not going to rock that boat. However, if you know of a website that is an Associated Press site, you might want to comment on it below…

We, humans are social animals, we communicate with each other by any means possible, originally it would have been by voice, or drum or smoke, what ever  worked. Let’s face it though those methods are not very reliable and the messages tended to get muddled. Then came the written language which was more reliable, but only a few could read or write so knowledge was controlled and available to only a few.

In the 20th Century most people gained at least a rudimentary level of reading and writing, which meant knowledge became available to almost everyone.   Individual’s communicated either by letter or by phone, both were for most people a one on one conversation. Mass communications, such as newspapers, magazine, TV and radio all cost a lot of money, so a very few still controlled the distribution of the news.  Then  computers and the Internet came along opening up the world of mass communication to everyone

This didn’t happen immediately, computers were too complicated and dial up Internet was too slow too make distributing media sensible for most people. Starting in the early 90′s things began to change.  First Windows 95 came along.   Then  Netscape and Internet Explorer came out opening the Internet up to the general public.  In 1997 RSS was developed  Dave Winer and others.    In 1999 Pyra launched Blogger, which began the blogging explosion.  Finally around 2004 podcasting became available, when Dave Winner with encouragement from Adam Curry created a way to enclose an audio or video file into RSS.  Around this same time, there was an explosion of the use of broadband, which made streaming video and audio more reliable and realistic.

The latest stage of this story started with the advent of Twitter, which allowed people to send out short messages to their followers around the world. At first it was used mostly by early adopters, who used it to send out messages to their friends. The true power of Twitter became clear when it was used during the attacks on Mumbai, to send the news as it was happening from people on the site. That event and the use of it in the 2008 election helped it exploded among the general populous

What is the future of the media is it real time or something else, only the future will tell. The one thing that is certain communication, both one on one or one to many is no longer dependent on having a lot of money or being a part of big media.

There are many articles comparing the pros and cons of physical print news versus the online/blogging news.  The following lists are not pros and cons but what each group has that the other side wants.  What could happen with the merging of the two?  Thanks to Tech Crunch for stirring my brain.

What Newspapers Have and Bloggers Want/Need:

1. Bloggers have less official access to many press conferences and meetings. Who gets the press pass?  How do you get the press pass?  Will it not eventually recreate a few sources for news as different agencies pick and stick with favorites?  Newspapers made narrowing it down easy.
2. Bloggers have less incentive/time to investigate and search out multiples sources. Bloggers seem to surf the web not pound the streets and interview people face to face.  Newspapers live that way.
3. Bloggers write about what interests them, not what interests others. With no boss giving assignments, who will report on those needed but sometimes mundane happenings?  Will we be stuck piecing together all of our news from 500 RSS feeds?  Newspapers make basic world, national, and local news easy.
4. Bloggers are not the one “go to” place for news. Difficult to find a local blogger.  I do not know of a single blogger reporting on news in our area of 175,000 people .  I guess I would have to look if the paper shut down.
5. Bloggers have less accountability/oversight to preserve the truth. I know, I know, that the community could police itself just like Wikipedia.  I’m not sure they will or really have the ability.  Besides, most people believe whatever they read and probably won’t go back to see any updates or corrections.

What Bloggers Have and Newspapers Want/Need:

1. Print Media has a narrow chain of command that dictates what and when news is published. It is no wonder why dictator, communistic, and extreme governments want control of the media?  Why are news agencies tending to endorse political candidates? The news has been far from fair and balanced for a long, long time.  Blogs are more numerous, yield less individual influence, say what they think, and allow more free interaction.
2. Print Media has a need to make a larger profit.  Bloggers hope to pay the bills.  There is nothing wrong with this.  It is the goal of every business owner to make money.  Why should newspapers be any different?  The problem is that it is a very low margin/no margin business that is about to go on a ventilator.  The motivation and ability to survive is decreasing.
3. Print Media has a high overhead for getting the news to the reader. Ouch this is number one.  Manufacturing and delivery is expensive.  Presses are extremely expensive, paper is expensive, labor is expensive, management is expensive, delivery is expensive.   The web does it on the cheap.  I can deliver the same news to as many people for pennies on the dollar as a blogger.  And it won’t take much ad revenue to pay for that delivery.
4. Print Media has few ways to guage how much of their content is read. The newspaper does not create a log file ever time my eyes read a certain article or ad.  Advertisers are left to subjective decisions on whether business increased because of the ad most of the time.  The web brings freedom and analytics.
5. Print Media locks down the content and its distribution. There is no open source in this land.  Republish the AP article and receive a DMCA.  Everything is copyrighted.
6. Print media now publishes old news. 24 hours is not soon enough.  12 hours is not soon enough.  2 hours is not soon enough.  What do you mean “The game was not finished as of press time”?  By the time your article reaches me 36 hours after the game, you have lost me.  I can visit a site, use an RSS reader to get the headlines, or subscribe to email updates and text alerts.  I do not even have to wait for the “top of the hour”, “quarter of the hour” news on the radio.

Enough of my opinion.  What is the real truth?  Will you, the community, let me know?  Are we really ready for this new world of news?

Gary had a great response to some things Howard Stern has to say about social media. For those of you that have been holding back from jumping into new media you should listen to this.

On a side note you all know that I have said since 2004 that the new media evolution will continue to force those in the traditional media space to change or become irrelevant.

Check out Gary’s site today.

I got a tivo a few years back & have had a dvr of some kind ever since. I now have dish so I use theirs which is a good one but not quite as good as the tivo. The biggest plus is of course the time shifting factor. But the ability to skip past commercials is a close second. I keep wondering how the advertisers are going to spend their money in the future on ads. I very rarely even see an ad now but I still know more people without dvrs than I do people who do have them. So the ads are still being seen by a large percentage of people. But at some point the scales will tip and advertisers will no longer be able to justify the huge dollars they give to have their products displayed only to have them skipped over by the consumer. If 50% of people have dvrs then the value of advertising time is greatly diminished.

So what do companies do to avoid being fast forwarded into the red? Well they can place ads in sporting events which are more enjoyable if watched on time instead of the next day when you may have already found out the score. Also they could use the new media as a venue to put ads inside. Instead of paying for ad space during Lost (a popular show on ABC which I hate since they pretty much make up the story line as they go. If you are hooked on it, get out while you can!) a company could pick a popular blog or podcast that covers Lost to advertise with. Not only are people less likely to fast forward a podcast to avoid commercials, they are more likely a super fan of the tv show thus more apt to support a product that supports their show. Another thing I see happening is tv channels placing ads on top of the show in the corner like they do with their network logo (ex. NBC placed in the bottom right corner of all their shows). Or they could place “crawling text ads” 24 hours per day. However it comes about I do not know, I just know it change is on the way.

I sure hope the IQ of new media consumers is higher than that of the average old media watcher. I do not watch much news on TV. It is a waste of time. Well last night my friend is telling me about gas going up. We are in Georgia. So apparently the hurricane has disrupted a refinery in the Gulf of Mexico ….again. The talking heads on the news are saying gas will be in shorter supply and the price will rise. They say you might want to fill up before it happens. Well this sends the thundering herd of idiots out to line up at the gas stations. What do you think happens when people are lined up to buy a product whether or not there is a shortage? The freaking price is going up big time. If I am a barber & I see a line of people out my shop doors, I only have time to do so many haircuts. So my time becomes more valuable so I can raise the price. Supply & demand people! I have no doubt the news people are right when they say prices will rise but they cause a panic by promoting fear as usual. So the prices go way beyond what they would naturally. New media providers are hopefully more responsible than the old school TV people. They don’t have to promote one bad thing after another to keep consumers watching or listening. What if CNN said that drinking bleach is absolutely necessary for good health? I bet 5% of the population would wake up dead the next morning! The herd mentality has to stop. If all I can do as a part of new media content is call out people for doing dumb things so be it.

Jeff the content director and I were joking at the beginning of the New Media Expo that the saying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” would not apply during the New Media Expo.

We joked that with all of the video cameras around and live streaming that our wives would very easily to get Intelligence on exactly what we were up to just by watching live qik.com videos and watching the Twitter stream.

I explained to my 10 and 12 year old tonight at the dinner table is that one thing that they have to remember in this new world where everyone has a video camera built into a cell phone that they have to mind their P’s and Q’s, because one never knows who is watching while at the same time recording and or streaming live what is going down.

New Media / Podcasting is here to stay and will never be put back in a box. I have a Flip Camera in the glove box of both my cars and I carry one in my computer bag, my wife has one in her purse each within quick grabbing distance. Thus if something goes down we are going to  be able to capture it.

While I have several multi-thousand dollar high definition video cameras that shoot great video the camera I carry in my pocket will capture something really big someday, and it cost less than a $100.00 bill.

So next time your out and decide to get an attitude with someone do not be surprised if it is being streamed live on the Internet. My Podcast reaches 40,000 – 50,000 plus highly devoted fans twice weekly and you can bet they get first hand accounts of peoples antics. They then spread the word to their friends and the next thing you know people are getting fired.

So before you do something stupid that will get you highlighted on a national television network, or even on a small show like mine think twice and watch your P’s and Q’s

If you are a fan of Joss Whedon’s work (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc), and I’m presuming there might be a few in the audience, then make sure you check out Dr Horrible’s sing-a-long blog this weekend. The third episode is up now and the series is only going to be available for free until the end of Sunday. After this it will disapear from online and only be available on DVD.

Apart from being an entertaining production it is also an interesting experiment in new media production. The idea came to life because of the recent writers strike with the plan being to discover whether an alternative method of high production quality media distribution can actually make money. While it is not the most expensive production ever put together it has a number of sets and locations and some fairly big television names writing and starring in it.

The plan looks to take advantage of the propesity of their intended audience to like to view programs multiple times. Many people will see it and a large number will presumably want to not only watch it again, but to also see the extra content that will undoubtedely be included with the DVD version. That is if it works. It will be interesting to watch the result.

Was watching Justin.TV and Alpha Geek at Gnomedex party when he chatted with Dave Winer for a few moments only for Dave to realize mid conversation that the conversation was going out live.

This is a question new media creators are going to have deal with. Filming and streaming live without disclosing it is not cool. Alpha Geek called the Justin.TV folks and asked for advice, seems form the call that they did not have much advice to give.

Alpha geek made a make-shift sign that said he was recording and streaming live. But this does not solve the problem that people are still being recorded without their knowledge and when people have paid to go to a private event and their conversations are being recorded then this is a real issue.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 9 2005

CONTACT:
Jeevan Padiyar
718.928.9961
press@rawvoice.com

RAWVOICE INC. TO INTRODUCE PODCASTER NEWS NETWORK

ONTARIO, CA – November 11, 2005 – Internet media company RawVoice Inc. plans to unveil the PodcasterNews Network (PCN) at the Portable Media Expo this weekend. The Podcaster News Network allows listeners to assemble and download personalized podcast news shows with incredible ease. The PodcasterNews Network can be found at http://www.podcasternews.com.

“This is the ultimate customized audio news program,” said Todd Cochrane, President and CEO of RawVoice “The PodcasterNews Network lets someone pick the topics they want to hear and puts them together into one program feed, called a MyCast. You want a little tech news, some sports and some fashion tips each day, then that’s what you put in your MyCast.” Cochrane, who is also host of Geek News Central and author of Podcasting: The Do it Yourself Guide, said PCN is the next step in personal media evolution. The site focuses on user experience and will be a terrific advertising opportunity to reach targeted audiences .

Jeevan Padiyar, the CFO of RawVoice and an admitted geek, said PCN is for anyone who wants free, on-demand, customized news. “PCN is for people who are tired of waiting to hear what they care about. It allows them to construct and download a news program that is 100% in tune with their interests.”

Podcasting is an increasingly popular form of audio content delivery that requires far less equipment than what is needed for over-the-air broadcasting. Podcasts are radio shows that can be downloaded from the internet and listened to on an mp3 player like the iPod.

The podcasters contributing to PCN inject their own opinions into their shows. “By being passionate about their subject areas, our podcasters bring the news to life,” Cochrane said. PCN contributors already have established long format podcasts. The best part about PCN, according to Cochrane is that each news segment has fresh ideas and commentary, and runs just five minutes.

PCN is designed to work with iTunes, Yahoo, or any other podcast software that syncs a user’s mp3 player. Visitors can also listen to shows from the website directly. “We want to ensure complete user satisfaction, and the best way to do that is to give the end user as many choices as possible,” added Brian Yuhnke, the companies Creative Director, “but the greatest part of the site is the MyCast which allows visitors to create an account and pick only the segments they want included in their MyCast.” The proprietary PCN software then takes care of the rest. It automatically updates each MyCast with the newest content from only those categories already selected, so that a fresh news show is available each day, living up to RawVoice’s philosophy of providing “Fresh Organic Media.”

The diverse podcaster line up includes Mental Health Guru Dr. Fran Babiss, New York GLBT activist Allen Roskoff and Bay-area pastor and commentator Reverend Tim Hohm. Users can include segments from as many podcasters as they want, and podcasts on a variety of topics are being added to PCN every day.

More information about PCN can be found at http://www.podcasternews.com.

About RawVoice, Inc.
Founded in 2005 in Reno, Nevada, RawVoice, Inc. distributes fresh organic media with a commitment to avoid the one-size-fits-all corporate blandness of the major media outlets. The Podcast News Network is the premier product of RawVoice, Inc.

I have been getting some e-mail asking me what RawVoice is? I am not yet at liberty to say, but will be able to talk more in the near future! [www.rawvoice.com]