You said Communitainment ?

INCREASINGLY, CONSUMERS ARE AIDING AND abetting the melding of communication, community, and entertainment in a trend dubbed "communitainment" in a new report from Piper Jaffray.

In the 425-page report entitled "The User Revolution," the investment bank describes the emergence of "communitainment," a trend involving consumers moving communication beyond a mere exchange of information to facilitate an exchange of content, ideas, and entertainment within an online social context.
As Internet consumption continues to steal time spent with other media, advertisers need to learn how to tap into online communities to reinforce their brands.

"Communitainment" is a type of content consumption that is new to the Internet, says report author Safa Rashtchy, who researched developments supporting the phenomenon for nearly two years. Rashtchy is managing director/senior analyst of the investment bank's Internet Media (IM), Commerce and Marketing practice.

The report suggests that "Communitainment" will at least partially replace other forms of content--i.e., TV, magazines, and even big Internet sites in favor of niche content sites.
Piper Jaffray projects that one-half of all content consumption will be "Communitainment" over the next decade driven by IM, social networking, photo and video-sharing sites--up from around 30% in 2006.
(...)
"Communitainment" and time spent on the Internet and on so-called Usites such as YouTube, Heavy.com, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, Google Video, and MySpace has radically redefined content consumption patterns, in the process "creating confusion for advertisers and agencies alike. In a way, we believe Usites are the Internet's democraticized version of the reality TV trend with users placed in control of content creation," the report states.

The implications of "Communitainment" are profound.
"Not only are these consumers not available to see commercial messages from other [media] channels," Rashtchy said, "but they're also heavily engaged in activity that they would not like to be distracted from by commercial messages."

When consumers watch TV, he observed, there remains an unwritten contract that they get commercials in exchange for free programming. Of course, this contract is subverted on a daily basis by DVRs.
With "Communitainment," Rashtchy noted, "there is no such contract available. Content is created and shared by users. It's a closed system and advertisers have to find a way to get into it. But once you get in, you're actually part of the family." Part of the family, that is, if advertisers can indeed gain consumers' trust.

The report suggests that advertisers need to become more integrated in the activities in which consumers engage, offering free content and services to align themselves with consumers' interests: "If done successfully, this type of advertiser engagement could have a significant long-term impact as consumers will be willing and eager distributors of the advertisers' message and brand to the rest of the community."

In addition, the report states: "The importance of the Communitainment trend is not just in shifting traffic patterns but, more importantly, in the way users view content as a free-flowing part of the communication spectrum. As such, many participants in communitainment view content such as music or video as an integral part of their experience and not as a distinct entity for which they have to pay," the report states, qualifying: "Of course, beyond communitainment, there are other contexts in which users are willing to either pay for content or, at a minimum, receive an advertisement in exchange for the content."

Source : OnlineMediaDaily

Rupert Murdoch à Davos : Internet fragilise l’équilibre des grands médias.

Le patron de News Corp, qui a su percevoir à temps le potentiel et le danger d’Internet en rachetant MySpace, est intervenu à Davos pour expliquer qu’Internet entrainait des modifications profondes pour les médias. L’expansion continue du nombre de sites Internet, de blogs et autres podcast entraîne un nouveau rapport de force entre les consommateurs et les fournisseurs. Les fournisseurs d’informations étant les plus exposés à court terme face à ses évolutions comportementales.

La position de News Corp n’est plus de combattre l’évolution mais de totalement prendre en compte ces nouveaux modes de consommation de l’information. L’explosion des réseaux sociaux et de l’UGC doit être au centre de la stratégie des grands médias. Ces propos ont été tenus lors de la conférence "The Shifting Power Equation."

Source: Strategie Telecom Internet

Pour en savoir plus sur Davos ICI

Viacom Drops Out of Venture to Take On YouTube

Suite au Post d'hier....

Attempts by the media conglomerates to form a network-backed rival to YouTube suffered a set back yesterday after Viacom executives said they are no longer part of the project.
"Yes, we're out of it," one executive confirmed. "We've got a lot of agendas right now. There was no need to do it and be a founding member. We can license our stuff to it. We don't have to be a participant." A Viacom spokesman declined to comment.

Down to Fox, NBC
The charge to spearhead a rival to YouTube appears now to be left to Fox and NBC.
CBS is not part of current discussions aimed at forming a rival to the Google-owned online video site, Ad Age has learned.

CBS representatives would not comment on the talks at all, though other executives said that CBS is not part of current talks because of a pending deal with Google over its CBS Radio inventory and that it dropped out of talks in recent days. Another executive close to CBS suggested that while they are not part of current discussions, they may re-enter should the initiative progress.

The talks are being led by Peter Levinsohn, the new president of Fox Interactive Media and by Beth Comstock, who is president NBC Universal digital media and market development.

Time Warner and Walt Disney Co. also confirmed yesterday they had no interest in being part of the venture.

Earlier this month, one person inside Viacom said it's difficult for the company to determine what kind of licensing deal it should negotiate with a Google-owned YouTube without first making its content as accessible as possible on its own and seeing what happens. Viacom owns video-clip destinations iFilm and Atom Entertainment and has one of the most popular online programming destinations in Comedy Central's Motherload.

"We're the prettiest girl at the dance. We have content that's driving a lot of these sites and we own almost all of it. A lot of people are interested in reaching agreements with us. They don't have to be exclusive," this person said. Viacom is still negotiating with Google over how it will be compensated for copyrighted material that lands on YouTube.

Still, even with Viacom's decision to exit, the core group is pressing on. One executive who is part of the talks explained that discussions are still ongoing over some central issues. "The business-model concept is to look at whether to license programming or be part of the asset that [delivers it]. That is the real question people are wrestling with."

This executive added: "TV is an advertising-based business model that will continue to be under pressure. We have to get our product to a platform that is more compelling and that has inventory that is ROI-driven."

Reports had suggested the group might be make a bid for a small video serving site called Metacafe, but this executive said numerous online video entities were trying to get in front of the group, and it hasn't even been decided if they will acquire a property.

Putting pressure on Google
"This whole thing is about screwing a better deal out of Google," another executive outside of the venture said.

The major entertainment companies are in talks with Google about how they will be compensated for the use of their content on YouTube. The threat of a rival might give the entertainment companies more leverage in negotiating revenue splits with Google. The outside executive also added that the threat of an anti-trust lawsuit could also be a deterrent to the venture.

The history of entertainment conglomerate-backed responses to entrepreneurial ideas that suddenly take off isn't exactly rosy. The music industry tried on-demand music venture Press Play in response to Napster, while the movie business tried Movielink, a Hollywood movie download service.

But the question traditional networks have to ask themselves is whether they gain incremental viewers by banding together rather than promoting their own sites as places to view online content. The only way it would work, said someone involved in early talks, is if each network agreed to make the commitment to promote the joint video site over its own site -- and that's a sacrifice not all are prepared to make. Indeed, while it seemed attractive to collectively launch a YouTube-killer six months ago, networks that have since put their shows online have gotten a taste of the revenue that can come from that -- and are considering going it alone.

One of the biggest challenges would be getting the various companies -- which are not only fierce competitors but also at various stages in their digital development -- to work together. "Would I want another network knowing how well my shows performed on the web?" said the executive who was privy to early discussions.

Creating improved technology
The reasons to do it would be for technology or marketing purposes, said Mike Vorhaus, managing director of Frank N. Magid Associates, and if the reason was to create a common technology for streaming, downloading and security, that makes sense. But he contends the networks don't need it for marketing purposes.

"I don't think you need to have [the networks] in a common TV download website for people to know about NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS's having video online. YouTube's success is not that it's a brand that is well known, but that it's a social network of video consumers -- you've got all these people who go there to share video," he said.

Plus, he added, his company has learned from observation in its usability studies that many people use traditional search engines to find video they're looking for. Soon it will matter less where the video resides as long as people can find it easily.

"Do a search for video on Mt. Hood hikers," he said, referring to the ongoing story about the search for missing climbers on Oregon's Mt. Hood. "Sometimes a CNN link comes up, sometimes a YouTube link. I don't get the impression that the majority of average YouTube user is pouring a beer, taking their shoes off and going to YouTube and watching 20 minutes worth of video."

Buyers remain skeptical if a joint venture would work, but say if it did and created a repository of quality video, they'd be interested in buying media through it.

The challenge is the content
"Conceptually it would make everything easier if you think of this consortium as one-stop shopping for all of this great content," said Sarah Kim Baehr, VP-media, Avenue A/Razorfish. Often the challenge in advertising on a user-generated content site or on YouTube is the user-generated content, she said. With the networks' offering, "you know it's part of a series and the marketer has probably bought into it at some other level."

But she's skeptical the venture will become reality, given how the various competitive parties would have to work together. "They'd all have to be pretty altruistic and so focused on Google and YouTube as a rival and forego their own rivalries among each other to be successful," she said. And it would never be a replacement for YouTube, she said, but an "also" or a "nice to have" complementary site.

"Part of the entertainment value of YouTube is having all this user-generated content and that it's a meeting place," she said. "It's not about watching the whole clip but about watching the part that's worth seeing. ... It's about what are the top five videos that the gazillion people who go to YouTube are watching. What's new that's bubbled up?"

Will it be for the user?
The reason YouTube grew so quickly, said Ian Schaefer, CEO of Deep Focus, which has launched campaigns on the site, is that it's a functional website. "Chad Hurley will say this until he's blue in the face -- it's designed for the user with the conveniences, functionality, sharing," Mr. Frazier said. "If the networks put something together and do it right they would make it just as minimalist and democratic as YouTube." But, of course, that's not been the primary impetus driving the networks decisions.

However, he suspects the networks' advantage in such a site is that they could best pull off a pre-roll online ad model -- albeit shorter, more irreverent ads -- without angering users.

"I don't think they have to [come up with new ad model] but they can change the concept of the pre-roll to make it work," he said. "Pre-roll won't be the enemy, especially if it's in front of professional content, where there's a quality guarantee."

"Most interesting that they would even come together to talk about it," Ms. Baehr said. "That says a lot about how the whole digital world has put everyone upside down. It changes the whole paradigm -- there's no reason for these people to be in the same room or collaborate except for this enemy."

(AdAge)

Un groupement de grands médias américains pourrait annoncer le lancement d’un concurrent de YouTube

L’union fait la force et devant la puissance de YouTube conforté par Google, aucun des groupes de médias ne pouvait faire faire face seul. Même, semble-t-il News Corp avec MySpace.

Cette « association » un peu contre nature regrouperait NBC, News Corp, Viacom et probablement CBS.

Le concept est de proposer un site d’hébergement vidéo financé par la publicité qui serve de relai aux différents contenus de ces médias. Un peu à l’instar de ce qu’à fait CBS avec YouTube et qui a bien fonctionné.

Le site encouragera également les internautes à mettre en ligne des contenus auto générés. Le projet n’est pas gagné car réunir autour d’un site aussi stratégique des acteurs concurrents tant dans la diffusion que la production de contenus. Les enjeux ne sont également pas les mêmes pour tous les acteurs : News Corp dispose déjà de MySpace, CBS a un accord avec YouTube… L’enjeu est pourtant de taille car il est peu probable qu’aucun d’entre eux ne puisse seul concurrencer YouTube. Cela pourrait faire le bonheur de DailyMotion, Metacafe et autre Bebo… qui pourraient être rachetés par ce groupement. Ce serait même la seule possibilité si ces médias veulent pérenniser leur opération d’investir en commun massivement dans un acteur déjà existant (l’arrêt du projet n’en serait que plus difficile). De plus cela éviterait d’avoir à redévelopper une technologie éprouvée.

(StrategieMedia Telecom Internet / Edgeminded.over-blog.com)

Comcast et Endemol pourrait lancer une émission de divertissement sur le net

Au conditionnel donc...

Il semblerait que le géant du câble américain et la société de production européenne soit en négociation pour concevoir des contenus de divertissement qui serait diffusés exclusivement sur le site Ziddio. Ce concurrent, modeste, de YouTube est la propriété de Comcast. Les internautes sont sollicités pour soumettre des idées dans un épisode pilot d’un budget de 50 000 $. Si le projet est un succès, cela pourrait déboucher sur une série complète d’émissions.

Quand on vous dit que les diffuseurs traditionnels sont menacés…

(Strategie Media Telecom Internet / Edgeminded.over-blog.com)

Yahoo's Millard Cautious About User-Generated Content

Not everyone is excited about the marketing possibilities of user-generated content -- least of all Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo, who defined the success of YouTube as "a lot of page views. What was their revenue this year?"Not everyone is excited about the marketing possibilities of user-generated content -- least of all Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo, who defined the success of YouTube as "a lot of page views. What was their revenue this year?"

Online inventory has skyrocketed since the explosion of user-generated content, but, Ms. Millard said, "the reality is that there are very few companies -- if any -- that are doing what you would call a good job of monetizing it."

UBS conference
Marketers have been genuinely interested in harnessing this phenomenon for the past two years; it's Yahoo's job to show them how, she told analysts at the UBS media conference.

"All of a sudden, technology has facilitated the rise of the consumer voice in a way that is startling to many of us. But the reality is nobody's doing a great job helping a marketer understand how to leverage this stuff."

Ms. Millard was also none too impressed by the move to viral campaigns, having seen results on her own "test lab" at home.

"I have a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, and they don't want to be [MySpace] friends with the Burger King king," she said.

Leading the social-media charge
Yahoo has long led the social-media charge with its e-mail, instant messaging and gaming services, tripling MySpace and quintupling YouTube in size.

"Social media is hard to monetize because that age group is so fickle," she said. "Think of all the failed magazines in this world. Nobody's ever been able to put their arms around it at the time. To hold them, you have to be very, very careful not only about the content but about the advertising."

"The question from a business standpoint is: How do you make money at this? It's fun, it's a blast, trying to figure this out, but I don't think anyone is doing it particularly well," she said.

'Peanut butter' memo
The panel's candid vibe continued when an audience member broached the topic of Yahoo Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse's now-infamous "peanut butter" memo from two weeks ago (the internal memo criticized the lack of focus at the company, comparing Yahoo's efforts across all its properties to peanut butter spread too thin).

"I had a really hard time deciding whether I wanted fluff or jelly with that," Ms. Millard quipped. "The reality is, if you really look at that, you could take Yahoo's name off of that and put on almost any company you've ever worked for. This company has grown from $720 million five years to nearly $6 billion today. Is it challenging to grow with that accelerated pace? Is everything perfect? Can we make decisions as fast as a company with 100 people? No. So I looked at it as pretty silly in terms of the noise that was made of it.

"But the reality is," she continued, "we are a company that has grown at an extraordinary rate, and that doesn't come without questions about your ability to move with competitive speed."

(AdAge)

Vidéos en ligne : Deal Yahoo-Reuters

Yahoo ! et Reuters lancent le service You Witness
Le moteur de recherche américain Yahoo ! vient de lancer, en partenariat avec l'agence Reuters, le service You Witness, système de contributions de nouvelles par la photo et la vidéos envoyés par des internautes (http://news.yahoo.com/you-witness). Reuters aura la possibilité de publier les photos et vidéos de son choix. Yahoo ! publiera sa sélection d'images dans le cadre de sujets mis en avant sur son fil d'actualités Yahoo ! News. Le service est destiné pour commencer aux images d'actualité générale, mais pourrait être décliné au sport ou au divertissement. Yahoo ! et Reuters élaborent un plan de compensation pour les contributeurs de contenu, lorsque leurs images et vidéos seront sélectionnées en vue d'une souscription.

(Satellifax)

Video-sharing makes move to TV

Après Fame TV - déjà en Angleterre - Sumo TV...

The Sumo TV channel, available on Sky Channel 146, will show clips from the Sumo TV website.

Every time a clip is broadcast, the originator of the content will receive a percentage of the revenues generated

Broadcasters, alongside mobile operators and web firms, are keen to play a part in the current obsession with user-generated content.
Social networking sites are creating a huge stir, with high-profile deals to buy two of the most popular video-sharing websites, MySpace and YouTube.

15 minutes of fame
Participants who upload video clips to the Sumo TV website will have a chance for them to be broadcast on national TV.
Which clips are broadcast will be down to how popular they prove online. All content will be closely monitored by Cellcast, the interactive TV company behind the channel.
Viewers of Sumo TV will also be given the chance to participate in live TV shows, via text messaging, webcams, video messaging and 3G streaming.
Andrew Wilson, chief executive of Cellcast, said it would put the viewer in the driving seat.
"It is the first service to integrate user-generated online content into a dedicated television channel, and provides users with new ways of finding that 15 minutes of fame," he said.

According to a recent ICM poll, some 32% of the UK population watches video online. Of those, 43% were watching less "normal" TV, the survey found.

Cellcast expects the amount of user-generated content to increase steadily as the channel matures. At launch, it will feature a three hourly selection of the best user-generated content from around the world every afternoon.
It is hoping to encourage viewers to submit content via talk shows, game shows, talent shows and citizen journalism.
Sumo TV will make its money in a variety of ways, including a share of the call revenue from premium-rate mobile and voice services, and more traditional advertising via the website.

Other UK channels launched by Cellcast include Psychic Interactive and Bid 2 Win.

(BBC News)

La convergence numérique élève le téléspectateur à la fonction de programmateur

ne télévision ultra-personnalisée, à laquelle tout le monde participe et accessible partout, sur Internet ou sur téléphone mobile : c'est le défi que veulent relever les professionnels des médias et des télécoms(...)

"Le consommateur voit ce qu'il veut, quand il veut et où il veut, sur sa télé, devant son ordinateur ou sur son téléphone", résume Julie Cruyt, responsable de l'acquisition de contenus à Belgacom. L'egodiffusion ("egocasting"), par opposition à la télédiffusion de masse ("broadcasting"), c'est le terme inventé (...) pour désigner cette nouvelle forme de télévision.

"HYPER-PERSONNALISATION DES MÉDIAS"

"C'est une mise en l'avant de l'ego, qui entraîne une hyper-personnalisation des médias et une moindre importance des médias de masse", explique Laurence Meyer, directrice d'études à l'Idate. Internet joue un rôle essentiel dans cette évolution, permettant de créer ses vidéos, de les diffuser sur la Toile mais aussi d'y regarder la télévision et de composer ses programmes, adaptés à ses goûts. "Le téléchargement de vidéos devient une pratique courante et 48 % des internautes français ont regardé la télévision sur Internet cette année", selon M^me Meyer. Des émissions de télévision traditionnelles, de plus en plus mises en ligne après leur diffusion, mais aussi des contenus créés directement pour Internet, voire des chaînes qui n'existent que sur le Web.

Les chaînes traditionnelles vivent-elles alors leurs derniers jours? "Non, bien au contraire", estime Anne Bouisset, directrice du développement de TVMI, société de conseil spécialisée dans l'audiovisuel : "Comme il y a de plus en plus de contenus, leur mise en valeur est plus que jamais essentielle, et les chaînes ont la légitimité pour le faire."

DEVENIR PROGRAMMATEUR DE SA TÉLÉVISION

Au Royaume-Uni, Sky a coupé ses bouquets de chaînes en petits "morceaux" personnalisés et moins chers, et envoyé à ses clients un questionnaire pour connaître leurs goûts et adapter ses offres. Plusieurs chaînes, comme la BBC ou LCI, font de leurs émissions et journaux télévisés des podcasts vidéo. En France, TF1 lancera samedi une émission hebdomadaire constituée de vidéos envoyées par des internautes et recueillies sur son site. Elle veut à terme créer une chaîne spécifique.

La télévision par ADSL marque une autre opportunité de personnalisation, grâce aux "box", de plus en plus perfectionnées. "Les consommateurs deviennent programmateurs de leur télévision", se félicite Marie-Christine Levet, PDG de Club Internet. Certaines box permettent de "construire" ses propres chaînes, dont les programmes sont enregistrés de façon automatique, selon ses goûts : "Dans les pays qui utilisent déjà ce système, 30 % à 40 % du temps passé devant la télé correspond à des programmes enregistrés", dit-elle.

Enfin, les opérateurs télécoms misent sur le décollage commercial de la télévision sur mobile, prévu fin 2007 en France, et certains, comme SFR, commencent déjà à produire des programmes adaptés.

(lemonde.fr)

Can Daily Motion Challenge YouTube?

Ce n'est pas tous les jours que les médias US mettent à la Une les entrepreneurs français; aujourd'hui donc Daily Motion à l'honneur dans BusinessWeek online Europe

As the video-sharing phenomenon spreads worldwide, one of the few local sites to tackle the YouTube behemoth has emerged in the heart of Old Europe. With 9,000 new videos pouring in each day and daily page views surpassing the 16 million mark, Paris-based site Daily Motion looks poised to grab a piece of Europe's fastest-growing online audience.

It's not surprising that France, with its strong cultural and linguistic identity, should give rise to a non-English video-sharing site. In fact, Daily Motion (www.dailymotion.com) actually was online before YouTube, which formally became a part of Google (GOOG) on Nov. 14. "Any country that has its own language is absolutely ripe for specialized content," says Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Jupiter Research in London. "There's a clear opportunity for the competition to steal a chunk of the French market."

The question is, how much? Despite its late entry into France, YouTube already has managed to grab 9.1% reach there, compared with 10.3% for Daily Motion, according to figures from market tracker comScore. Across Europe, YouTube has around 10% to 12% reach, vs. 2% for Daily Motion. About half the video clips on Daily Motion are in French, with many of the rest in English.

Outflanking Google

Of course, Daily Motion dreams of big growth. But in recognition of YouTube's clout, it is also adjusting its strategy to exploit other opportunities. That includes enabling uploads to the site directly from Webcams (something YouTube hasn't done yet), and drawing heavily on local content—say, highlights of the latest Perpignan-Béziers rugby match, or presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal's most recent TV interview.

"It would be foolish to claim we can compete directly with Google," says Philippe Collombel, a partner at venture capital firm Partech International, who sits on Daily Motion's board. "We want to do something different, more European, more creative." To fire up growth, the company has raised just under $9 million in venture capital from marquee names Partech and London-based Atlas Venture.

One of Daily Motion's most intriguing moves to date is a deal with leading French TV station TF1. The startup has developed a Web site for TF1 called Wat TV, where users can post and view videos. Starting Nov. 17, the best clips from Wat TV (www.wat.tv) will be broadcast every Friday morning on TF1, thus linking online and traditional video in a way that YouTube hasn't done internationally.

Targeting Francophones

That may run counter to a trend in the video-sharing market toward fragmentation and more specialized sites. But Daily Motion also could benefit from this trend if it becomes the undisputed francophone video-sharing destination. "There's more than one way to succeed [with Web 2.0 sites]," says Josh Bernoff, a media analyst with Forrester Research in Boston.

Some sites will go for sheer size, à la MySpace (NWS). Others will chase niches. Concludes Bernoff, "It's a mistake to say that if you're not as big as YouTube you haven't got a business."