Daily Marauder

P2P Media Summit & Digital Hollywood LA by Marauder

It’s the first official day of Digital Hollywood in sunny Santa Monica, CA and things are off to a running start. 

Technically, Monday’s Digital Hollywood schedule was filled with panels under the umbrella of pre-day events.  I, however, spent my day heading to the P2P Media Summit to check out the Content Distribution panel.   Below, I do my best to try and give you a run-down of the most important topics from yesterday’s P2P Media Summit as well as today’s Digital Hollywood.  Enjoy. 

P2P Media Summit: 6/11 

 

Content Distribution 

Speakers:

Derek Broes SVP Digital Entertainment Paramount Pictures

Marc Campbell: Founder & CEO The Independent Comedy Network

Daniel Harris: CEO Mediapass

Brian McCarthy: SVP Business Development Revver

Key Takeaways:

P2P has been getting quite a bit of buzz as it is the driving force behind Joost, an IPTV service based on P2P technology.  Summing up the panel, the most conclusive insight came from Derek Broes, SVP Digital Entertainment from Paramount Pictures.  When most of us think of peer to peer, we think of the illegal downloading structure of the original Napster.  Even though peer to peer has morphed into a legal-based system whereby users can download and share content, users still see P2P as something to be feared and avoided if one wants to avoid the Paris Hilton fate.  Therefore, two things need to be done:

1. Re-market P2P so that the technology is no longer demonized and users feel comfortable to use it.

2. Leverage P2P in the mobile space as users are most likely to access the technology on the go.  Mobile service providers should embrace the technology as essentially this would be akin to a new roaming model for them.

Digital Hollywood: 6/12  

 

Television 2.0: Cable, Telco, Satellite, Broadband, & Mobile Redefine the Future of Entertainment & Communications

Speakers:

Herve Payan: SVP Content Services Orange

Ryan O’Hara: President TV Guide Channel

Peter O. Price: President & CEO The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

Rishi Malhotra: Director HBO on Demand

Martijn Lopes Cardozo: SVP Corporate Development Tandberg TV

Key Takeways: 

• Overseas, consumption for new platforms is growing at light speeds. 
  • Orange launched its IPTV product 4 years ago and will now command 1 million subscribers by summer’s end.  In the mobile space, Orange currently manages 7 million subscribers.

• On Demand, while at the mercy of the cable-developed user interface, is growing in usage. 
  • For example, HBO on Demand tracked 700 million orders in 2006.
  • 300K orders logged for 3 short form pieces created for HBO on Demand to supplement the new season of Big Love.  These 3 stories take viewers back to the beginning to see how the family came together before the start of season one.  These 3 short form pieces were available on demand before the first episode of season two of Big Love (linear: 6/11, HBO on Demand: 6/12)

• Monetizing content online is the biggest question for content providers. 
  • A TV household represents approximately $.50 for the broadcast content provider while comparatively; the same online household represents $.10 – $.15.  This signals a bit of a shift of power from distributor to the end user.  Changes are required to shift the economic model to increase revenue on all other platforms to make up the lost revenue generated on the linear TV platform.

• Joost
  • Pros:
    • Doesn’t have all the channels linear TV has available but does have a large assortment of European and Asian channels catering to the international marketplace.
    • Younger demographic may have a particular affinity for the product.
    • Because the program is downloaded to the desktop, the user interface takes over the screen much like watching TV.
  • Cons:
    • P2P supported–> May cause quality issues.

Hollywood & the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience

Speakers:

Shawn Gold: SVP Marketing & Content MySpace.com

Karin Gilford: GM Yahoo! Entertainment

Lewis Henderson: SVP William Morris

Jason Hirschhorn: President Sling Media

John Penney: SVP HBO Digital Initiatives

Key Takeways:

Cable Distribution vs. Online Distribution

• Online systems upgrade several times a year where the cable systems in comparison will upgrade once a year.  The speed of the online systems produces a considerable amount of competition to the cable companies.
• Physical set-top boxes cause limitations for the cable company because technology must be replaced for system upgrades to be accessed.

Net Neutrality

• Charging the consumer based on broadband consumption creates a two tier internet structure: 1) Those who can afford it & 2) Those that cannot.

 Advertising in the Internet Space

• ABC ad-supported episodes surpassing downloads of iTunes TV shows.  People have acclimated to an ad-supported free content model.
• Yahoo! talking about allowing users access to their behavioral profile to change as they see fit.  For example, a 35-year old male can change the affinity to sports to an affinity for financial news if he so wishes.  While the profile makes an assumption based on age and gender, the user can change these assumptions.

Hollywood Re-Invented! Internet Video, Mobile, User Generated Media, IPTV and Broadband as Next Generation Mass Media Programming and Big Business.

Speakers:

Walter Delph: Director Content & Programming Verizon FiOS TV

Mark Yackanich: VP of Strategy and Development >nbbc

Rob Bennett: GM Video & Entertainment MSN

Bill Stratton: VP Business Development Turner Broadcasting

Jon Cody: VP Fox Digital Media and Acting GM NBC/News Corp. Joint Venture

Key Takeaways:

New Site (Site Name TBD)

• A Partnership between NBC and Fox to bring professionally developed content produced by a variety of content providers to the masses via an online site.
• Online destination blended with distribution.
  • Distributors: MySpace, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL & Comcast
• Traffic Estimates: 50 million per month in video views

Joost·        Pros:o       Developed by the two co-founders of Skype.  Based on the success of Skype, chances for success are high.o       Interface is easy to use.·        Cons:o       Available content will be dependent on the relationships that Joost can form with content providerso       The downloaded program with which users need to use to access Joost presents a walled garden that YouTube and New Site don’t force users to contend with. YouTube Availability on Verizon Mobile·        Verizon partnered with YouTube to give its wireless users access to a large portion of YouTube content.·        YouTube content accessed to a much larger degree than professionally produced contento       User-gen’s preponderance on the mobile platform speaks to the platform itself and does not necessarily translate to the broadband platform Verizon’s FiOs TV

·        750K subscribers expected by the end of 2007

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