Streaming Media East Panel – Creating the new television… (includes audio)

Here are my live notes from the Streaming Media East Panel, "Creating the new television" – Moderated by Jeff Jarvis. Download the audio (note that the panelists each showed a 3-4 minute video so there might be some weird sounds from the videos)

Jarvis: Purpose of panel is to meet people making new television.  Starts out with his disclaimers (like always)

Jay Crowley of Black20.com – they are a broadband entertainment network focusing on mainly young males. Shows a video of a cursor that got out of the pc and their mission to get it back. I didn't find it funny. They don't want to be a studio, they want to be a premium network that young males come to.

Mary Matthews – Pound Productions – produce 2 online series – one is a collaboration with Jeff Jarvis. They demo 39 second single which covers a woman in NYC. Keeps throwing in "jewish" for some street cred I guess. Cute video but still didn't make me "wow". Mary discusses how they created the idea… it stems from Liza's bad dating experiences. The key is to create tv that can be said in 4 minutes.

Adam from Wallstrip – shows a sampler of the show. Wallstrip is where stock culture meets pop culture. He owns a company that produces Wallstrip. He wore his sunglasses on his head for some reason.

Robert Scoble – "has no talent so he goes around and interviews people" shows his top clips with Gates, Edwards, Sun CEO, some groovy Microsoft paper. Talks about other shows on the Podtech network

Jeff Jarvis – talks about how he covered old television for TV Guide. Talks about how people are focusing too much on YouTube and the flaming farts. Talks about PrezVid, his newest venture to cover the elections from the online video perspective.

Jeff: Are you making new television?

Adam – I don't like to call it television because it is a different way of sending the information. We need to break free to something that is dynamic and flexible. 80% of Wallstrip visitors are not on Wallstrip.

Robert – We are building players that you can watch from other places.

Jay – we wanted to call the shots

Mary – she would like to get more into live streaming.

Robert – I don't need to get a committee to approve my videos.

Adam – you need to recognize what's different btw the mediums.

Jay – bigger media companies are learning from the new media companies. I am surprised that a lot of people are trying to use the new media to get back into the old media.

Jeff – what does it cost to produce your episodes:

Adam – to produce Wallstrip costs about $2500 per episode

Jay – I prefer not to disclose that because I like to mark up the prices to some

Mary – We spend very little

Adam – biggest differentator is the cost to distribute –

Jeff – how much can a vlog make?

Robert – I am paid 6 figures a quarter from PodTech – I fell into an audience that is very highly transactional and monetizational. That's where the easy money is.

Jeff – where does "live" go – what are your dreams?

Robert – Live is very exhausting work.

Adam – I think about small live – pieces of shows, microlive

Mary – I think live shows on television are so controlled and scripted. I want to see boring for 5 minutes.

Jay – Comedy is hard to be live. Live content on the web is a bit gimmicky.

Audience question – is this a replacement for television? Is it a companion?

Robert – I think it will be a companion.

Andy – I also think its a companion and won't replace tv.

Audience question – Some of you have used "unoriginal" music… are you ok with this?

Jay – the music in this presentation is for just that. When we submitted that for the emmy, we had to change the music. Sometimes it takes looking at the risk.

Adam – we believe in fair use.

Audience question – (another 10 minute comment… gee whiz) discusses something about the cost to create a show or commercial.

Audience question – If your content is on regular tv, how will that change what you do?

Robert – I am already on AppleTV and am having to deal with my viewers wanting better quality video

Adam – I make my content for the Internet

Audience question – As video moves out of infancy, companies might pick up the shows and will corporate governance ruin the creativity?

Audience question – Can you speak about the revenue side of the equation?

Jay – there are a lot more opportunities now. Internet is opening the floodgates to do things quicker than tv.

Robert – I use dynamic ads to show different ads per load.

Jeff – we don't have our act together yet.

Audience question – Do you plan to use or stay away from union talent?

Robert – I haven't even thought of it. In Silicon Valley there are no unions. The kids have no ideas about union cards.

Audience question – Do you think there will be a streaming media governance panel.

Jeff – we have to get together and see what they needs are as they move forward.

End.