From Variety.com

It seems like non-Tivo homes have found another way to get their TV without advertisements and with a fast forward button! These numbers are fascinating.

====

LONDON -- Americans spent $2.8 billion buying TV shows on DVD in 2004, up from just $160 million in 2000, making TV product the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. vid biz.
The TV DVD sector accounted for 18% of the U.S. disc retail market last year, according to new figures from Adams Media Research and Screen Digest.

Growth in Western Europe is just as robust, with spending on TV DVDs up to $2.1 billion in 2004.

In the U.K., the worldwide pacesetter for this emerging sector, TV discs accounted for nearly 30% of all DVD purchases.

Prior to the advent of DVD, TV product had a negligible share of the video market in the U.S. and most European countries. Only viewers in the U.K. and France had an established habit of buying TV shows on VHS.

"In economic terms, this trend has been the equivalent for the Hollywood studios of striking oil in one's own backyard, as they discovered lucrative new vehicles for exploiting brands they already own," according to the Screen Digest report.

TV channeling the future

Adams and Screen Digest predict that TV product will outpace the rest of the DVD market for the foreseeable future, with U.S. business estimated to reach $4.4 billion in 2009 and Western Europe showing slower growth to $2.6 billion.

TV product on DVD typically retails for a higher price than features. Women and older consumers make up a disproportionately large slice of TV disc buyers, with the sector credited for broadening the demographics of the DVD market.

American shows dominate the DVD market not just in the U.S. but in most Western European countries.

Domestic dominance

In the U.K., the entire all-time top 10 is British made. Nonetheless, the size of the market means that it is still the largest and most profitable international outlet for American TV product.

Comedy dominates the DVD charts in the U.S., the U.K. and France; in Germany and Italy, sci-fi heads the bestseller lists.

Surprisingly, there's little correlation between TV ratings and DVD sales, since the buying demographic is markedly different from the viewing public. For the same reason, frequent broadcasts of a show do not damage its DVD sales.

According to Screen Digest-Adams analysis of Nielsen VideoScan data, the all-time U.S. bestseller as of the end of 2004 was "Friends," with sales of $211 million, closely followed by "Sex and the City," with $206.1 million. Next are "The Simpsons" with $199.7 million and "The Sopranos" with $198.5 million.

Who are the "Newsbreakers" and what is their 'agenda'? Well, the NY Times has a great tongue-in-cheek piece from Sunday that pokes around the edges of that. It's a fun read - but if you don't have the time - just take a look at their site.

What's really interesting is thinking of the "Newsbreakers" as a metaphor for what is happening to news as a closed-shop walled garden world. It used to be that only folks with a TV Transmitter and call letters (like WHAM in Rochester) had the tools and the network to tell the 'news.' But now folks like Newsbreakers want to "take over the news." And to some extent, they already are. BTW - read the comments of WNYT's Paul Conti in this Times piece A ray of intellectual understanding of the First Amendment among the humorless folks in local TV news.

Media Activists Who Smile and Throw Cheese
See Whole Article

By MARK LASSWELL
Published: June 26, 2005

A group devoted to monkey-wrenching live reports on local news, the Newsbreakers have a standing interest in media mishaps. But in this case their interest was personal: just a month before, an "Opie & Anthony" producer had approached them about joining in its Assault on the Media campaign of on-air stunts. And now one of those stunts, staged by one of the show's interns, had cost Mr. Chi'en his job. "We looked at each other," Mr. Landon recalled, "and said, 'That could have been us.' "

Well, yes and no. The Assault on the Media stunts are essentially a bid for free publicity, in the loutish tradition of Howard Stern fans calling television stations during breaking news events and blurting out references to Mr. Stern. The Newsbreakers, Mr. Landon said, are something else entirely.

See Whole Article

TiVo Names Rogers CEO

by Wayne Friedman, Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST
IN A MOVE DESIGNED TO encouarge deals with cable operators and advertisers, TiVo Monday named veteran TV executive Tom Rogers as its new chairman.

Rogers, who has been vice chairman of TiVo since last October, and a board member since 1999, will take over on July 1, succeeding co-founder Mike Ramsey, the company announced yesterday.

The shift has been somewhat expected since Ramsey indicated his intentions several months ago to step away from the business he helped to start. Rogers was to take over temporarily as chairman while a search was conducted.
Some months back, Rogers made a crucial deal with large cable operator Comcast Corp., in which the MSO would use TiVo in its fast-growing digital set-top box business.

At the time, analysts said they expected that other cable operators would follow the lead of Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States. At yesterday's press conference, Rogers said the company is indeed in talks with a number of cable operators.

But TiVo, with three million current customers, still faces some hefty challenges, said industry observers. "The question for Rogers still is, 'How do you fight the generic DVRs?'" said Dennis McAlpine, managing director of McAlpine Associates.

Analysts say TiVo is hoping its name--ubiquitous with digital video recording--will help cable operators market their digital set-top boxes. For some time now, TiVo has been selling the value of its software, not its hardware--software that technology experts say is still among the best in the business.

If customers want to 'Tivo' TV shows, then the company is on the right track, say analysts. "Make it a verb instead of a noun," said McAlpine.
Long the lightning rod for advertisers because of its commercial-skipping technology, Rogers also said the company is working on better relationships and deals with advertisers. TiVo also is developing local cable advertising systems, including one being developed with Comcast.

Analysts view Ramsey as a pioneering technology executive--but not a seasoned TV marketing executive. Rogers had been instrumental in the growth of cable network CNBC, as the president of the NBC Cable group. He had less success as the chairman of magazine group Primedia, when a plan to develop magazine content for the Internet failed to attract a significant revenue-generating audience.

The perception of TiVo as an ongoing business has been in doubt ever since cable operators increasingly have been pushing their own generic DVR technology to be included in digital set-top boxes.

Another cloud on the horizon for TiVo came some months back when its biggest partner, satellite distributor DirecTV, said it would no longer sell TiVo in DirecTV/TiVo packaged deals to its customers. DirecTV, now owned by News Corp., is working on its own DVR technology.

I've become pretty convinced that people's passion for telling stories, both about themselves and the world around them is pretty hard-wired in. But making that easy and fun is a trick. So that's had us thinking a lot about the process of making video, and the fact that not every person is good at every part (in fact certainly every person is only good at certain parts. So we've got on the drawing boards a number of elements, some simple, some quite complex. But all of them focused on making collaberation easier.

EditXchange is the one that's close enough to invite folks to begin to play with. It's beta - so don't expect perfection, yet.

Don't be shy. Feedback, feature requests, bug reports - you name it. The other tool that is super-cool is LogXchange. That code is locked, we're just integrating the sign on process with the new Xchange code and solving a few minor bugs, but logging has always been a chore, and the idea that it can be done in a collaberative fashion seems like it should be great for all kinds of videomakers.

Among the interesting things about the site is a philosphy that embraces both passionate amatures and working pros. So gigs that are barter- things that touch on art, politics, music, or other creative endevors that attract editors by feeding their creative hunger - build the sites community aspect. Gig's that are professional like family videos, corporate, music videos, sort features, docs, etc, allow professional editors to name thier rate and work for fees that are fair to them.

LogXchange is totally free - just a cool tool that should make life easier for all kinds of folks who wrangle video.

It's all pretty transparent, as any collaboration space should be.

So that's what's new - so far. Stay tuned.

For those of you keeping score - a few more sharing services arrived (or at-least i noticed them).

Vimeo has been poking around with it's interesting simple upload and sharing site. Last night i went to Central Park to see Camper Van Beethoven and Modest Mouse with Max and his friend. We sat on the lawn and enjoyed the show - this morning - there's video from inside the Summer Stage arena. Pretty cool. Still not sure how it sorts or scales, but maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe tags and traffic are enough to let the good stuff float to the top.

Unmediated pointed me to YouTube What is "YouTube?" Here's what the site says: "YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. With YouTube you can: Show off your favorite videos to the world. Blog the videos you take with your digital camera or cell phone Securely and privately show videos to your friends and family around the world ... and much, much more!"

finally - Susan Mernit's blog pointed me to kaneva.com which bills itself as "the worlds first digital media marketplace."

What's interesting is that Vimeo and YouTube are simple - but gettable. Kaneva is a viewing/publishing/games platform that doesn't clearly offer a digestible way in.

That's the state off affairs in video sharing/publishing on the web right now. Too Simple - Too Complex. Part of what this all points up is that people don't go to the web to look at 'clips' or 'video' any more than i search good for 'text' or 'articles'. I need something. When i get it - I'm happy.

That's why the Camper Van Beethoven clip is the only thing i'll remember from all the stuff i looked at this morning. I sent it to Max. He'll send it to his friend. It's media that connects to something real (for me anyway). Now all we need to do is to figure out how to sale both the production side and the filter/search side and we might have the glimmer of a new media model.

two tv projects i've been meaning to point to...

The First Ammendment Project:"
- on the Sundance Channel (with Court TV). I've seen two of them, both really strong. The first one was on the police activities at the RNC in New York last summer. Called "Some Assembly Required" directed by John Walter, it was the first coverage i've seen on the police tactics. I was there, shooting during each day of the RNC and i have to say that the image of police men with orange snow fencing coraling people by the hundreds and putting them into vans is one i'll never forget. What i saw - and the media didn't report - was that most of these people were average folks... out expressing thier right to public gathering and free speach. And lots of folks who got arrested weren't do much other than standing on the public street or sidewalk. This film was a really well made reflection of what really happened.

The second film in this series is Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus' "Fox vs. Franken" film. Another well made, funny, sharp look at the First Amendemeent. In this case, the most surprsing thing was the interview that Chris and Nick were able to record with the Judge, the Honorable Denny Chin.
The Judge gives a rare account of how the case appeared from his side of the bench - reading the transcriptgives you a clue.

It's out on DVDif you can't catch it on Sundance.

The second series is BULLSHIT! With Penn and Teller Here's a list of the season three topics: Circumcision, Family Values
Conspiracy Theories. Life Coaching, Holier Than Thou, College, Big Brother,Hair

You have to tune in to see what's going on, but as each season goes on, they seem to get madder and madder. It's like John Stewart, but with more cursing and a harder edge. Worth a look.

I was not at the OMMA Conf last week - but i've had the pleasure of hearing about Bob Garfied's Chaos Theory for months. Bob's an old friend (did i mention old?) who has been searching for a way to include the word Chaos in his public speaking gigs since Maxwell Smart fought the evil CHAOS villans back when TV was black and white. That said, the Choas Theory is making the rounds i advertising land (and stiring more than a few slumbering execs) so it's worth a read -

Here's what Shelly Palmer had to say after seeing bob speak last week.

Chaos and the Socio-techno Divide (from www.shellypalmerblog.com)

I had the pleasure of attending the OMMA Conference and Expo in San Francisco this week. One of the things that made the event truly interesting was listening to Bob Garfield's (Advertising Age, Editor-at-Large) Keynote address, "The Chaos Scenario: what happens if the old media/marketing model collapses before the new model is built?" Not only is Mr. Garfield a fantastic public speaker, he had a wonderful way of simply communicating some very complex concepts and technological realities.
Much of what he said is common knowledge to people who are schooled-in-the-art. However, I had a bit of an issue with his premise that the old model may collapse before the new model is built. And, I'm pretty sure that one of his thought-provoking predictions about the upcoming cataclysm that will divide classes in our country by the sociological and technological impact of broadband penetration probably isn't exactly right either.

Bob's chaos question makes the assumption that someone gets to build the new model. Not likely. Business models evolve like ecosystems, and no matter how they are designed; they will metamorphose into whatever they need to be to survive. Lifeforms that survive do so by evolving evolutionary stable strategies - they are not "designed" or "built," they evolve. On a macro level, they look stable. However, if you get out your microscope, every ecosystem in the known universe is always in a chaotic state. It's not a scenario; it is the way of all things.

Need a non-business example. Take a look at the most bucolic vista you can find -- a pastoral scene with rolling green hills and a lush beautiful landscape. Now, get in really close and you will find literally trillions of organisms fighting for survival. Tipping points do occur but sans total destruction, the systems' self-regulate. And, yes, things do go extinct -- anyone have a film-based computer-photo-typesetting machine they're not using?

All we can really say about the current technological transition is that there are going to be winners and losers (if you are keeping score) and, more importantly, a significant redistribution of wealth. My money is on the law of unintended consequences, not Chaos theory. The X-factors are people and big money. When human beings and large stores of economic value are in play, any prediction about how and when the paradigm will shift will just be wrong. Yes, there are only a few big players, but there are hundreds of millions of people using media in as many different ways - the transition will be painful, but seamless.

Now, about the concept that broadband penetration will cause a sociological divide as measurable media metrics allow marketers to concentrate their efforts on the wins they can count while ignoring the half of America that doesn't have high-speed access … No.

Bandwidth is a commodity and it is going to become less and less expensive as time goes on. Mobile devices, not personal computers, are already the computer of choice for the vast majority of computer-illiterate Americans and these devices are practically (and literally) given away. The downward price pressure on distribution networks is almost unbearable. Pretty much anyone who is interested in being part of the "digital experience" can afford to get in the game. To be sure, there are (and will be) other socio-economic forces that cause dramatic class distinctions, but the exclusivity of media penetration is not on the list.

Rant being over, I have to tell you that Bob is one of the most informed, smartest people speaking about the space. If you have a chance to read his work or hear him present, you should not miss it.

LINK

interesting interview from CJR daily with Rebecca MacKinnon as to why she left CNN for the the blogosphere.
===

Rebecca MacKinnon is a research fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. For more than ten years she reported for CNN in China and Japan, working her way up from assistant in the Beijing bureau to bureau chief in Beijing and Tokyo. She currently spearheads the Global Voices blog and posts at North Korea Zone and at her own personal blog, Rconversation.

Thomas Lang: Last year, you took a break from CNN to work on a fellowship at the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard, then resigned [from CNN] shortly thereafter. What prompted your decision not to go back to CNN?

Rebecca MacKinnon: Well, a couple of things. One was that over the year leading up to my resignation I had been growing increasingly frustrated with the direction CNN was going in. [I was] feeling that the ... trend [toward] less interest in serious news was accelerating and the trend towards more infotainment, from anything but a war zone, was also accelerating. I'm neither a war correspondent nor an infotainment news bunny, and I was beginning to wonder whether there was any place for me in international news at the network.

more at CJR

Have you seen the movie Network lately? It's so prescient - it makes you wonder if Sybil the Soothsayer was able to show the future to Paddy Chayefsky.

The film was made in 1976 (30 years ago) yet baked into the film are an endless number of referances to oil, the Saudi's, the the media's culpability in lulling us to sleep with a numbing stream of pointless headlines, violence, and out of context warnings of danger. Fearmongering has certainly come into its own in 30 years.

I couldn't help but think of Growing Up Gotti as i watched the William Morris agents and the Network business affairs lawyers negotiating ancelary rights. I wonder if anyone has pulled a gun a any of the reality show negotiations that are currently under way?

But perhaps most poignent - Howard Beale's varies rants about the state of the world.

for your reading pleasure (remember, 1976!)

"Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide. Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I'll tell you what happened. I just ran out of bullshit."

"Television is not the truth! Television is a goddamned amusement park!"

"We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell."

"You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal! You do! Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing, we are the illusion."

"Right now, there is a whole generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?"

"All human beings are becoming humanoids. All over the world, not just in America. We're just getting there faster since we're the most advanced country."

"I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell: I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

"All I know is, you've got to get mad! You've got to say: I'm a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!"

C4's FourDocs vision launched in Banff: Monday, 9am (from c21media.net)

If you are in BANFF this week don't miss the first chance to see Channel 4's new broadband portal FourDocs, which will be unveiled during a keynote session at The BANFF Springs Hotel. At 9am in the Ivor Petrak Room (level M2) documentary icon Patrick Uden and FourDocs channel producer Emily Renshaw-Smith will outline how this revolutionary IPTV site will change the face of television. This will be the first demonstration of how FourDocs will work – stimulating the creation of a new style of production which allows viewers to create and upload their own four-minute films to a free-access website. So what's in it for Channel 4? How will it change the entertainment landscape? And how can you replicate the model in your market?

Extracting Dollars from Content

A Streaming Media Europe 2000 panel session on revenue generating content business models revealed some compelling advice.

By Greg Frame
October 11, 2000

One of the biggest questions asked by attendees and exhibitors at Streaming Media Europe 2000 this week is “how can we make streaming content pay?” Not only content producers, but also the suppliers of production tools and hosting, encoding and delivery services are concerned about how streaming content will ultimately draw substantial revenue.

Content business models based purely on banner and pop-up advertising are going quickly out of style, as they have failed to produce meaningful revenue, panelists said. “Advertising is the bottleneck,” said Steve Rosenbaum, president and CEO of CameraPlanet.com and BNNtv.com.

Thursday night the The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
(NAMAC) sponsored a panel to discuss the GBN report "Deep Focus: the future of independent media".

The report is staggeringly accurate in it's portrayal of both the current media 'ecology' and the future of content creation.

The author is Andrew Blau - who's got an almost savant level understanding of content creation, and media economics. I say that not to puff up his ego (he's on a world tour presenting the report to all kinds of groups of media makers) but rather because the work is absent much of the 'crystal ball gazing' or hand wringing that seems to permeate the consultants take on the media universe.

Instead, this presents facts, trends, and the future in a clear headed unapologetic way. It has become an essential tool in my toolbox, as i try and explain the changes that are impacting media makers, networks, and consumers alike.

In the audience at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian were a number of media luminaries from indie media. Danny Schechter from globalvision and MediaChannel.org, POV's EP Cara Mertes, Jamie Daves - one of the Founders of Al Gore's new network Current, as well as folks from Media Rights.org, Drazen Pantic from Unmediated and Location1, MTR's Ron Simon, Alyce Myatt independent media consultant and former PBS and MacArthur exec, and a bunch of other media folks I met in a blinding rush of introductions.

The mix of media makers, distributors, new media folks, foundations, and bloggers is a clue about how people from varying disciplines and worlds are beginning to coalesce around independent media as a new way to reach out to their constituencies.

When the panel ended, and after a moment of awkward silence, I jumped in and asked a question - as much to kick things off as anything else. My query to the panel was how we can connect the divide between free media distribution and filmmakers trying to find a livelyhood in the expanding indie-media space.

Not only did it land like a thud - but it seemed to ratify the whole "all media should be free" culture movement. This is one of those gaps that has to be closed, because no artist that I know wants to keep their work from being used down the road to remix, comment on, and explore issues and ideas. At the same time - they need to eat now, and most of the filmmakers I know are either working day jobs they don't like... Or living off the past success of a film that is funding their rent and food... But also burning a hole in their savings account.

If only we could connect passionate storytellers with empowered audiences who want to get them paid- the result would be explosive (in a good way).

Tonight at 9pm HBO premiers the first episode of the final season of Six Feet Under.

I'm told - from a good source - that it is an "Amazing" episode.

And just how do i know this? Well because i was in a meeting with Showtime Development Exec VP Ann Foley and VP John Moser. But wait - are they promoting an HBO series - no way!

So what can i tell you about the meeting ???

Well - virtually nothing other than that Anne has a terrific candy collection on her conf. room table, and how she is able to stare at mini Kit Kat's and York Peppermint Patties and remain so amazingly thin will remain one of the great mysteries of all times.

Can i say more - i don't think so.

Well, ok - Bob Greenblat was there. You know Bob because under his shingle Greenblatt Janollari he produced "6 Feet Under" for HBO - (which premiers tonight). And now he's the head of programming at Showtime - doing some very cool new things for them (which i can't talk about).

But really - that's all i can say. Oh, ok. Bob told me about how great tonight's episode is... and he should know. But, i'm not giving away any plot points... i promised.

Truly - it was a fun hour... about a topic that I know intimately. A topic that may in fact be the basis for a project, or maybe not. That's up to Bob.

Oh - one more thing.

Michael Wolff was there. You know, the Vanity Fair columnist. The former columnist for New York Magazine. The guy who just finished writing the latest Norah Ephron script. The guy that Page Six loves to tear up into tiny little pieces (sorry Michael, but you know it's true).

Ok - that's it. Wolff. Rosenbaum. Greenblatt. Moser & Foley. Sounds like a law firm. But it's not.

That. Is. All. I. Can. Say.

It was off the record.

Oh, one more thing. It was raining.

Back in January - Tivo CEO Michael Ramsey gave a barn-burner speech at CES. He proclaimed that tivo's allegiance to cable was over - and that the service would now move full steam ahead into IPTV. A terrific talk, and impressive given that Ramsey had almost no voice left (perhaps he had been screaming had his board?).

The project was called "Tahiti" and it was an exciting development for Tivo users and developers.
read the press release from the TIVO website here

I blogged about it then saying: " at CES, next stop was Tivo. The CEO Mike Ramsey had said this morning that he was abandoning their cable strategy and going for IPTV."

Back then ZD net quoted the one of the key Tivo exec's Howard Look saying:
"the TiVo service is much more than about DVR," said Howard Look, vice president of application and user experience at TiVo. "All the great ideas don't have to come just from us."

ZD Net: Tivo Seeks new ideas from developers

But a lot has happened since Tahiti was announced... Comcast did a deal to embrace the Tivo box as the cable/dvr solution. And given the VOD vision of Comcast's Brian Roberts, IPTV would seem to be at cross purposes.

- HOWARD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING - DID TAHITI GO WITH HIM? -

Well - seems there there are other changes afoot. While there's been no company announcement - Howard Look, a Tivo employee for the 7 years - is gone. And the rumor mill is now buzzing with suggestions that Tahiti may be postponed, adjusted, or killed. Could Tivo's shot across the bow of cable back at CES have gotten them a pair of golden handcuffs?

So who is the open source Howard Look guy: From the Tivo website: "Since joining TiVo in early 1998, Howard has led the engineering team that is responsible for developing the entire TiVo viewer interface and personal television application, including TiVo's exclusive recording management system and personalization engine. He also helped lead the production of "TiVo Takes" and "TiVolution Magazine."

Howard Look's leaving is big news for Tivo owners and potentially for IPTV as well.

Tivo was a big player - with an installed base. Media Center XP (Microsoft) is building in the IPTV space as well - but they're still in computer section of Best Buy (not the consumer TV section). Apple ? ??? No sign of a product. And Akimbo is a service that is - at this point - a closed system (though they could become IPTV i suspect with the flip of a switch).

Is the death of Tahiti the real cost of the Comcast deal for Tivo?

I don't know for a fact that it's off the boards - but I've got three independent sources that say it's being 'scaled back' considerably (though one says for technology reasons).