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Digital Media for Business is a primer on how to run your business in the digital age. Whether you're a business or an entrepreneur, this is a must-have. 

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Monday
08Feb2010

How I Met Your Mother - Interactive Platforms - An Interview with Bill Binenstock, VP of CBS Interactive

DateMonday, February 8, 2010 at 08:00AM AuthorAanarav Sareen

Over the next few months, I'll be speaking with various executives across the television and film world to discuss their interactive strategies. If you're interested in learning more, sign-up for our newsletter. 

In this first interview, I had the opportunity to speak with Bill Binenstock, VP of CBS Interactive. 

CBS.com is a destination for fans to learn more about their favorite CBS shows and immerse themselves outside the television set. During this conversation, we focused on numerous topics, including user generated content, YouTube and Facebook. 

How does cbs.com support prime-time programming? 

CBS.com is used in a couple ways when it comes to television programming. Prior to the show, the site publishes previews, so that the users are aware of what's coming up. After the episode airs, it provides additional content to keep the viewer engaged between episodes. CBS also extends the "water cooler" moment for engaged audiences. 

What are some of the common interactive tools that CBS interactive uses for its different shows? 

Today, cbs.com uses a wide variety of community tools, including blogs, profiles, games, emails, (mobile) alerts, iPhone applications, social web, etc. Even forums associated with daytime programming, which historically have an older demographic, are continuously buzzing with activity. CBS.com allows users to stretch and engage deeper with the show. 

How does Facebook help a popular show, such as How I Met Your Mother?  

The Facebook fan page for the show has roughly 1.5 million fans and is amongst the top 3 fan pages for CBS programming. However, that wasn't the case 12 months ago. Facebook helps the show in 2 ways:

  1. It provides another avenue to engage with the show. 
  2. It allows other people to discover the show through their friends. 

How I Met Your Mother also leverages YouTube by publishing previews. How does YouTube help the show? 

As a comedy, How I Met Your Mother is a better candidate for viral distribution than an episodic show. Short previews and jokes can go viral very quickly and can have a positive impact on the show. 

How important is it to publish frequent content for a show like How I Met Your Mother?

Preferably, it's better to have more and more content on cbs.com because there are multiple ways to acquire content digitally. Therefore, the greater the amount of content on cbs.com, the lower the chance of acquiring and viewing content on other sites -- legal or not. 

How I Met Your Mother has an Adobe AIR powered desktop application. Why create this application and how does it help? 

Different people access different assets in unique ways. As a show, How I Met Your Mother uses the web in many ways. All the URLs mentioned on the show are real and accessible. For example: www.tedmosbyisajerk.com, www.canadiansexacts.org, etc.

Adobe and CBS worked together to build this desktop application and while CBS won't share numbers, they were pleasantly surprised with the number of downloads, with Facebook being a major driver. 

What about mobile applications? 

Mobile is of growing importance for the company. The TV.com (a CBS property) Android application was the second most downloaded application in it's category. 

User-generated content and CBS. 

CBS has been aggressively using user-generated content as well as user-feedback across their many properties. One prime example was the recent Grammy awards, where users could vote on a music artist, who would then perform live -- during the show. Consumers were also asked to upload video, which was then submitted to the Grammy production team and used during the show. 

 

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Thursday
04Feb2010

iPhone vs. Nexus One vs. Blackberry Curve vs. Droid for social media purposes

DateThursday, February 4, 2010 at 02:22PM AuthorAanarav Sareen

Over the past year, I've done extensive posts comparing various devices. The table that follows is a visual representation of what has been published. The specific focus of the table is social media, which is being used by nearly every major media outlet. 

 

Key:

√ = Good

- = Average

x = Poor

 

2 conclusions:

  •  BlackBerry still has a long way to go. 
  • The newer the device, the closer the gap. 

 

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Wednesday
03Feb2010

Distribution on single vs. multiple platforms

DateWednesday, February 3, 2010 at 02:27PM AuthorAanarav Sareen

One of the big debates about online media has been the concept of 'long tail' distribution. For those that are not familiar with this concept, it loosely implies that the web allows creators to distribute their niche product to a wider audience over time. 

For example: If you have a video, it may not generate 1000 views in the first day. However, it may generate 10 views per day for X number of years. 

Many web video producers have used this model to distribute their content across the web, by posting their content on YouTube, Blip.TV, AOL, Vimeo, Viddler, etc. 

However, publishing on these platforms takes time and in this case, is the long tail worth it? Through my company, Visual Avenue, we produced a show called Craving Confidence. Our primary source of traffic was YouTube and it did OK. However, when we compared YouTube numbers to our other distribution channels, we were disappointed. 

YouTube stats:

Blip.TV stats:

 

As you can see, we've generated more views on the top 3 videos from YouTube than we generated from all the episodes on Blip.TV. 

However, that is not to say that Blip.TV is an inferior system. In fact, it is one of the best publishing systems out there. But, if there are no viewers on the platform, do you spend resources publishing video?

If you're a video publisher, I'd love to hear your take on this matter. 

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Monday
01Feb2010

With the iPad, Apple wins the digital media race

DateMonday, February 1, 2010 at 11:32AM AuthorAanarav Sareen

Many technologists have criticized the iPad for lack of features. Some have even compared it to a rock. While these complaints are fair, there is a much more important issue. With the release of the iPad, Apple has won the digital media race. 

Portable media: 

The iPod and the iPhone product line have grown at a pace that very few products have achieved in their entire lifespan. Nearly every person either owns an iPod or knows someone that owns an iPod. And, with each revision, the product continues to get better. 

Big-screen media:

To many, the Apple TV has been a failure. However, I disagree. While it hasn't pushed a lot of units, it is one of very few ways in which a consumer can view their iTunes collection on a big-screen TV. Apple TV also seamlessly integrates with the iTunes store, which makes purchasing and renting movies extremely easy. With season passes for TV shows, it is a great option for those that want to disconnect or downgrade their cable service. 

The biggest disappointment here is that Microsoft was in this space first with its XBOX 360 console -- a device that is superior than the Apple TV at a similar price point. However, Microsoft didn't make it easy for users. On the other hand, Apple did. 

Books and news media: 

One of the biggest announcements from the iPad launch event was the release of the iBooks store, allowing users to download and view books on the tablet. And, make no mistake, this is a big move. Amazon.com recently pulled all of Macmillan's books from it's online store due to a pricing dispute. Over the weekend, they all re-appeared with a higher price point. The price? Similar to the price of books on Apple's tablet. 

Amazon's statement:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

What most people fail to realize is that Apple has built an entire digital media universe -- one device at a time. It's relatively easy to sell products through an online interface (iTunes), but it is challenging to sell content without complimentary products. Apple has done just that -- and so far, it has succeeded. 

Apple is known for making good and user-friendly products. They're not known for making products that are chock-full of features. And the iPad matches that pattern. 

While this is expected to be one of the last major releases for the next couple of years from Apple, it will be interesting to see how Apple expands its content offering. 

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Thursday
28Jan2010

The impact of iPad on media and entertainment

DateThursday, January 28, 2010 at 01:11PM AuthorAanarav Sareen

First things first: This is the 100th post on this blog. Thank you for reading over the past year. If you're new to this blog, please subscribe to the newsletter or via RSS. 

Yesterday, Apple announced the iPad -- a computing device placed between a smartphone and a laptop computer. Everyone in the media and entertainment space should own one and here's why. 

Details

Price: Starts at $499 (16GB WiFi) $599 (32GB WiFi) and $699 (64GB WiFi). Add $130 to each for WiFi + 3G models.  

Capacity: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB

Battery life: 10 hours (use); 30 days (stand by)

Screen size: 9.7 inches

How it helps: 

For TV and Movies: If you're a TV and movie studio, you have to get your content up to the iTunes store immediately. For example, there are a few shows that I subscribe to via the iTunes. These shows are automatically downloaded to my computer the next morning and I can watch them either via Apple TV or on my iPod touch. However, with the iPad, the portable market is going to get a lot bigger. Imagine that you're sitting in a hotel room and want to download a movie. Simply open the tablet and download the movie (provided you have connectivity). This is much cheaper than renting a movie through the hotel and is instantaneously portable. 

For music producers: iTunes is one of the largest music portals on the world. However, at $.99, I'm not sure how much profit the labels are making. This is a perfect opportunity to promote music videos and other music collatoral that can be used in a group setting. For example -- if you're throwing a party, connect the iPad to a compatible dock and watch the huge screen play the music videos. Without any more investment, the music labels can start making a higher margin. 

For independent producers: Apart from YouTube, the iTunes store has been a blessing for many independent producers. It allows consumers to access independently produced content on a host of multiple devices, including  to access podcasts. For independent producers, new devices only help by expanding the audience size.

For newspaper publishers: Newspaper and magazine publishers have been extremely hard hit in the past decade, partly, thanks to the Internet and it's free content and partly because of their outdated print products. When you a receive a newspaper, the news it contains is at the very least 1 day late. The iPad creates new possibilities for publishers. If a publisher decides to create a paid app, it can do so. And, unlike many other devices, people might pay for a minor subscriptio feen. I don't subscribe to any newspapers at the moment and if someone gave me the ability to get the NYTimes.com on my iPad for less than $5.00 per month, I would absolutely pay for that. 

For book publishers: With the release of the iBook store, Apple is directly competing with the Kindle. However, the biggest hole is still the availability of content. Many books are still not available on the Kindle and if the same happens with the iPad, then the chances are success are low. Furthermore, with the Kindle app, it's also possible to view Kindle books on the iPad, making it a win-win for everyone. 

For marketers: Want to sell your services on the go? With the addition of Keynote presentations and HD video, it's now possible. If you're a marketer, you need to have the device for your entire team.  

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