The Reach - Podcasting and other Portable Media Strategies

This morning finds a well written piece by Richard Siklos on the current state of radio here in the U.S.  There has probably not been a time in the history of radio that so many variables are changing at once.  To Siklos’ credit, the writing is well balanced.  Large radio conglomerates, such as Clear Channel and CBS Radio are looking to sell stations and invest their cash in other technologies - whether that be greater web presence, HD Radio, or satellite.

At the core of the matter is the changing listening habits of the new generation.  He even quotes a surgeon over 50 yrs of age listening to his iPod in the operating room rather than radio, along with what we would expect - a college student who doesn’t listen to radio at all anymore.

Other than drive time, listening in all hours of the day in terrestrial radio are down.  Way down.

The US Wall Street Journal Online has an article today (subscription required) on audio and video search tools that are now coming into focus.  The proliferation of audio and video on the web, combined with the hope for becoming the next “Google” has thrust Podzinger, Blinkx, and TVEyes into the spolight, much to the delight of their PR teams.

Podzinger partnered with BBN Technologies of Cambridge, MA to bring their product to market. 

This is a market that has a pretty huge barrier to entry, considering the technical complexity - so, assuming they are able to satisfy advertisers with results, these companies that hope to become the new “Google” very well could.  The article mentions that Blinkx states that there is about 60% accuracy on amateur voices and near 100% on professional voices.

This proves to be an interesting space to watch - keep your eyes open, but don’t expect the original Google to sit back and watch.

My continued discussion on Media Swamp with Giovanni regarding the Google Radio advertising platform that is due for release in October.  The discussion centers on how this advertising model can make a dramatic impact on the radio ad model we’ve come to know.  Additional discussion regarding the capabilities of MSN VS. Google VS. Yahoo! and the relative strategies for each.

Ed and Giovanni continue to discuss the Long Tail and it’s real value.  Advertising models are discussed, both local and long distance - meaning international.  Check it out over on The Media Swamp.

Much like the Real Estate world (location, location, location), the new digital media world slogan may end up being “licensing, licensing, licensing”.  The YouTube discussion continues via Ben Werdmuller, following John C. Dvorak’s MarketWatch article from last week.  Ben mentions that YouTube has been named the “Napster of video”, which suggests illegal distribution of media.  This also pertains to Google Video as well, or for that matter, any website that is allowing uploads of video.

Similarly, this issue was addressed in an interview with Bill Gates, by a panel of journalists from WSJ Online on June 19, 2006.  Bill was busted at the end by admitting to watching pirated content on YouTube.

We just thought this related to music and the RIAA, but it appears that digital media everywhere must change their expected models of distribution and compensation, otherwise we’ll be fighting over this after I’m dead and gone…

Giovanni and I just finished a podcast discussing this - stay tuned for the publish date!

What is the long tail? With Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft and going to PodTech, has he been surprised by being confronted with being responsible for discovering and developing podcast and vodcast talent and creating quality, compelling content now? Click here for the new episode from The Media Swamp.

This comes under the heading of “the customers don’t get it yet, so let’s make them pay”.  Reuters has this article which is posted on Yahoo! News this morning regarding Alltel’s launch of a “new” service that allows downloads or streaming of podcasts directly to your cellphone.

While I agree that one has to develop a business model to support the use of new technologies, I’m concerned that the window of success here is about 6 months.  Why not download the podcasts to your computer using a podcast client/reader and transfer the content over to the phone (Smartphone, etc) that will play the media?

Now, to Melodeo’s credit, they’ve built a podcast client that loads on the phones - but are people dying to get their mission critical podcasts to the second on the fly?   In my opinion, we won’t be using this model a year from now.  Just my 2 cents.

Saturday, July 29, the NY Times had an interesting article that generated some buzz. You might look at the title of this post and wonder the connection between the three. Well, let me explain. There has been a lot of discussion both here and other blogs, articles, etc. regarding phones as media players. As a matter of fact, as many of you may know, I believe it will ultimately replace the autonomous mp3/mp3 player market.

3G wireless systems have been the buzz in the U.S. for 6 years or more. Will WI-FI or WIMAX over mobile handsets make 3G irrelevant? In the short term, probably not. In the long term? Maybe so. By demanding access to multi-media files on the handsets, consumers will definitely be pressing for this ability. I don’t think 3G has the download speeds to satisfy over the long haul.

As podcasting becomes more mainstream, this too will increase demand from consumers for true broadband (1.5 MBps download speeds) over their wireless systems that support their phone calls. I believe the downloads/portability drives this, rather than “streaming live” in the short term - in that too many things have to be perfect to support that. I can’t always get a perfect live streaming experience over a wired broadband connection today - I think the frustrations would be disastrous in today’s U.S wireless market.

That being said, Japan has been watching live video on their cell phones for 6 or 7 years now. South Korea appears to have at least 1 million receivers (as of June 2006) that have been sold to utilize a system that allows this.

Everyone is trying to get everyone else to adopt their standard. Standardization gets to be a problem when pride gets in our way. On top of that, we have business models that “guaranteed” a certain return to investors - they’re not going to be happy about watching that change. That is a macro discussion that will affect Wi-FI, podcasting, and phones. If the current wireless carriers push the consumers to accept less speed for downloads by lobbying against WI-FI or WIMAX adoption, then the consumer will suffer and the related adoption of media downloads of all types to phones will be delayed. Hmm. Big potential problem, don’t you think?

Well, to join in all the other iPod giveaways on the market these days, The Media Swamp is going to draw straws, roll dice or whatever is necessary to select from registrants to the ‘Swamp podcast network on August 15th.  Make your way over there and register before it’s too late.  Check out the latest podcast for The Reach while you’re putting your name in the hat, so to speak.

After a firestorm of angry bloggers picked apart the new Nielson//Net Ratings’ report on podcasting, host Ed Weaver and producer Giovanni Gallucci discuss the accuracy of the report. Are the Nielsen//NetRatings figures skewed when they say that 6% of the US adult online population has downloaded an audio podcast? Probably so.  On Media Swamp