NBBC
Lost in all the craziness about iTunes 7, iPod, iTV, and the other Apple announcements yesterday was a pretty signficant announcement out of NBC that may just be a bigger deal in the long run.
I don’t think iTunes is going to be my video interface of the future. I think the web is going to be a much more compelling video experience.
And if you look at the number of videos watched per day in iTunes/iPod versus the number served on YouTube, I’d bet YouTube wins hands down. I’d love some feedback on that asssertion. But my point is video is being watched on the web and that’s going to move to the living room with or without Apple’s help.
Anway, back to NBC (or NBBC as they are calling it). Randy Falco, NBC Universal Television Group president and chief operating officer, said:
"We’re going back into the broadcasting business – on the Internet"
Indeed they are.
NBBC will syndicate video clips–produced by
NBC as well as other companies–to a variety of Web sites, including
those owned by NBC competitors.
NBBC is selling pre-roll ads to accompany the clips, and will share
revenue with the sites that distribute the video clips and the
companies or individuals who license them. If individual Web sites wish
to run their own ads instead of ones sold by NBC, they can do so, but
must agree to pay NBC a flat fee that will be shared with the clips’
owners.
I am going to go back to the four rules I outlined in my Future of Media post:
Here is the future of media:
1 – Microchunk it – Reduce the content to its simplest form.
2 – Free it – Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it.
3 – Syndicate it – Let anyone take it and run with it.
4 – Monetize it – Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk.
NBBC follows each and every rule. And so I am going to get a NBBC player and start running The Office or SNL on my blog and getting paid by NBBC to do that.
Finally a big media company that gets it. I suspect we’ll see others follow their lead.
And to everyone who commented on my YouTube’s Potential Revenue post, with the "it’s just pirated content" or "people won’t watch a ten second pre-roll", I’ll just say this. When YouTube starts syndicating NBBC videos, we’ll see what happens.
UPDATE: Saul Hansell has a story in the NY Times this morning about NBBC. Here’s a great quote from it:
“If we really want to compete with big aggregators like Yahoo and Google, we need our video in as many places as possible,” Mr. Falco said.
Exactly