NBC Takes Wimbledon Online for Free

First, NBC did a great job providing complete online coverage of the final round of the US Open on Monday and now comes word that NBC will be streaming their coverage of Wimbledon for free:

On Monday, it said that next month’s women’s and men’s finals at Wimbledon will be streamed live on NBCSports.com. The network brought “Sunday Night Football” to the Web last year, a ground-breaker for the NFL.

In addition to the two finals, NBC said all of its Wimbledon coverage, starting this weekend, will be available on its site, as well as a separate locale under the aegis of the tournament. The network said online viewers will see different camera angles than what’s on TV for the semifinals and finals.     LINK

As I mentioned in my US Open post, I think these sorts of decisions are a clear sign that the networks are not going to sit back and let cable companies dictate how their content can be consumed.  Realizing that they are losing out to piracy entirely due to their failure to provide a valid alternative, NBC is doing the right thing bringing Wimbledon online for free.

We will have to see what their actual coverage looks like, though it sounds that with the exception of the finals, the stream will be the same as the one being broadcast on TV.  We will also have to see what happens with commercial breaks.  During monday’s golf coverage, the online stream did not include the televised ads but instead put up a placard saying, in effect, “be right back.”

It is not clear what sort of advertising will be embedded with the online coverage.  It would be interesting to know if NBC is sharing any of it’s ad revenue generated online with their cable carriers.

Wimbledon is an especially exciting offer for online viewing since, for US viewers, much of the best coverage occurs during normal business hours when access to TV can be impossible.

NBC Streams US Open Online – Cable Co’s Should Be Scared

Please don’t tell my boss, but I currently have NBC’s live stream of the final round of the USGA Open playing in a corner of my monitor.  Not only is the picture clear and steady but I have quick access to every stat I could imagine.

This should scare the bejesus  out of the cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast.  If NBC can stream live coverage of a major sporting event right to my desktop (which could easily be plugged into my TV) I find myself asking, once again, what the hell do we all need a cable company for these days?

The cable company, much like the major record labels, are quickly becoming unnecessary middlemen who will fight tooth and nail to hold onto their increasingly untenable position due to the wealth created by standing between a provider and a viewer.

Pre-Roll Ads Can Be An Effective Compromise

I just went to check out the weather for today and ended up, of course, at Weather.com.  There I decided to watch the actual video weathercast for NYC.  After clicking the link I was made to watch a 15-second ad for Pedigree dog food. And you know what, it wasn’t that big a deal.  In fact, it seemed like a perfectly fair trade-off since I was getting the video for free.

Now, had it been a longer ad, that would have been a different story.  I am always dismayed when a video provider tries to slap a 30-second spot in front of a 90-second video.  That is not a fair exchange.

Where people are eager to fast-forward through 2-minute TV ad breaks, it doesn’t seem worth the effort when it is just a 15-second spot.  There is a good lesson in here for all the advertisers out there.

Hulu Boosts Pirates By Blocking VPN Access

Saw that Hulu has implemented a block on overseas users who were accessing the site via an anonymous proxy server called HotSpot Shield.  The point of the VPN is to block the user’s IP address so that Hulu doesn’t know they are trying to access the content from outside of the US.

Currently, due to a slew of misguided and ill-conceived rules and regulations, Hulu will not provide its content outside of the US and is clearly willing to go to some lengths to keep out those dirty foreigners.

Of course, these are just regular people who really really want to see the content Hulu provides.  They aren’t trying to bypass the advertising or trying to download the content so that they can make it into DVDs to sell on the street.  They’re just fans.

By blocking their access, Hulu (and the studios providing most of their content) simple force those outside the US to use “pirate” services – either P2P bittorrent sites or streaming sites – that are easily accessible. Sites like Megavideo, Supernovatube and Ninjavideo.

Basically, by continuing to believe that they can somehow artificially limit and control where their content is consumed, Hulu (et. al.) are giving a big boost to “pirates” while simultaneously losing viewers who could help drive up the price of ads.

And of course, those who still want to watch the programming on Hulu but can’t access it will probably just go somewhere else — torrent indexes and streaming sites like Megavideo, Supernovatube and, my personal favorite, Ninjavideo.

Chuck Fans Go Subway To Save Show

A few weeks ago there was what appeared to be some mild uproar about an especially blatant product placement in an episode of NBC’s “Chuck,” in which not only were Subway subs featured, but someone on the show actually spoke the brand’s current tagline.

Many asked if this was going to far and if it was a sign of TV being destroyed by advertising.  They wondered if fans would stand for it!

Turns out, not only will fans stand for it, but if it will save their show from being canceled they’ll embrace it:

Chuck diehards are organizing a campaign to buy Subway sandwiches on the night of the show’s season finale next week in an attempt to influence NBC via one of the show’s main sponsors.

Got that? Fans clearly don’t mind product placement done reasonably well and anyone who blames a show’s failure on branded content elements should probably look at the writers and directors before blaming the products.

This weird “church and state” notion of original content and advertising is out-dated and instead of fighting the integration, the smart people are out there looking at how to maximize value of content to both the viewer and the brand sponsor.

LINK

How Much is Cable TV Worth Online?

Time Warner is announcing plans of its own to offer broadband streaming access to their channel offerings, for a price.  Right now it sounds like they will include access in existing bundles and may have an option for broadband only access in the future. (more here)

This raises a few questions:

1) If the majority of the content is streaming only, does that mean all programming will be available on-demand at any time or only when it is “aired” on TV? There isn’t a lot of value-added if all one gets is to watch what would be on TV, but on your computer.

2) Considering almost everything on TV is already available online what will Time Warner offer that I can’t already get, often for free?

3) What’s really in it for the broadcasters?  Why should NBC let Time Warner distribute their content online when they seem to be having plenty of luck doing it themselves via Hulu?

4) It seems highly unlikely the Time Warner offering will include the ability to download content meaning that there will still be plenty of reasons to pirate.

To say that I am skeptical of these plans is not over-stating things.  The whole notion of a centralized distributor like TWC that actually doesn’t provide a legitmate service feels dated and increasingly obsolete.

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Hulu Back on Boxee Without NBC OK

Once again, a big media company has made a big fuss over trying to control where and when there content is viewed only to discover that a) it pisses off a number of their viewers and b) doesn’t stop anyone who really wants to see the content where they want to see it.

Last week, NBC, reportedly bowing to pressure from cable companies, pulled Hulu off of the increasingly popular computer application Boxee.  And the internet responded as it often does, by proving that people can do whatever they want online if they are clever:

A hacker’s plug-in can put streaming Hulu content back into your Boxee media center on Linux, Macs, or Apple TV. Let’s take a walk through removing the busted Hulu and dropping in the new hotness. (via)

One has to wonder if “big media” will ever learn to work with consumers to provide them with exactly what they want instead of forcing and challenging their potential customers to form workarounds that make the efforts moot.

Cable Companies Fight Losing Battle for Exclusivity

The cable companies have had it pretty good for quite some time.  A virtual monopoly over TV-hungry Americans often not even facing the competition of another cable company led to skyrocketing rates and consistently poor customer service – but there just wasn’t an alternative.

Now, with the explosion of easy-to-use online options for viewing traditional TV programming the cable companies are facing their first real threat (sorry DirectTV, a strong rain knocks out your service…) and they are responding my lowering their rates, offering ala carte pricing and overhauling their approach to customer service…Jusk kidding.  They’re not doing any of those things:

SNL Kagan pegs overall subscription revenue from telecoms, satellite companies and MSOs at around $22.5 billion in 2008. Cable companies want their deals to include online and set-top VOD access to everything they already pay for with cable network license fees or, in some cases, retransmission fees—and they don’t want to compete with services that don’t pay.

That would include Boxee, the media center-like service that easily can deliver HD-quality internet video to the TV screen but is losing access to Hulu content Friday at the request of the JV’s content providers. That access is being pulled, at least in part, because of ongoing negotiations with cable providers. They also aren’t thrilled by Hulu, which has the rights to everything it distributes. (via)

The problem for the cable companies is not all that different for the one facing record labels – there is no longer a true scarcity and without that scarcity it will become increasingly difficult for the cable companies to convince viewers they’re worth the expense.  If they lose subscribers they will not be eager or able to pay the hefty licensing fees charged by the networks.  Unfortunately for the cable companies, what they offer is becoming obsolete and the networks won’t need them for distribution and will find another way to make money (or not) by offering their programming more directly to the consumer.

While they may fight it for a while, the cable companies will be a thing of the past, at least as we know them today.

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NBC Direct – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

One of the few things that keeps me downloading TV shows from “illegal” P2P sites is that the networks, while offering up great content via streaming, have been quite stingy when it comes to downloading shows for viewing on portable devices.

NBC is trying to move in that direction with the introduction of NBC:Direct.

Windows only: Sure, almost all the offerings on NBC Direct can be watched at streaming site Hulu. But if you’re an HD fiend and want offline access, NBC Direct’s player might be worth checking out.

NBC Direct is definitely powered by DRM and ad-powered software, so if you’re not cool with that, well, you probably know a few other places to look (like, er, Hulu). But if you dig the idea of subscribing to, and downloading higher-quality videos of your favorite NBC shows, it’s not a bad way of getting them guilt-free. (via)

There are still ad breaks, which is fine, but the continued presence of restrictive DRM, being Windows-only and far from “one-step” means that it is unlikely to stem the tide of pirates.

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GM No Help to Christian Slater or Vice Versa

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The news for GM has not been good these past few weeks.  It looks like it is going to be up to the US government to decide if they are even worth bailing out at all.

Adding insult to injury, GM’s big marketing push was dealt a bad blow when NBC pulled the plug on the Christian Slater vehicle “My Own Worst Enemy.”  The show featured GM cars and GM touted that fact all over their own advertising.  They also paid a lot of money for the privilege.

Now the show is officially canceled but will continue to air soley due to contractual promises made to GM.  So, the show goes on but if your product placement falls in the forest and nobody hears it did it ever get placed in the first place?

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