Interesting research from the US is shedding doubt on whether podcasting is really a lasting phenomenon or just another fad.
The survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found 12% of US people online had downloaded a podcast, compared to earlier research this year that showed only 7% had taken the step. However, just 1% of respondents said that they would download a podcast on a typical day.
Podcasting has got a lot of media attention lately - Ricky Gervais etc - and it might be worth having a bit of a reality check to see just how much is hype and how much is substance.
Video will undoubtedly play an important part in the next evolution of the Internet and interactivity, but whether podcasting will remain in Vogue is debatable as IPTV. Mobile TV and other on-demand TV style services develop.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Show Me The Money
The NTL / ITV deal seems quite strange on the face of it and has confused a lot of analysts over the past week who have struggled to see the value in the deal.
Why would NTL, with debts of around £6bn already, want to take on a channel whose advertising revenues seem to be in terminal decline?
The answer seems to be Coronation Street and Emmerdale - namely the content production arm of ITV and the rights it owns.
It came as a bit of a surprise to me that ITV makes 65% of its own content and it is this that NTL wants to exploit, most likely through lucrative IPTV and video on demand services.
Having access to content such as all of the Coronation Street back catalogue will be valuable if it can be exploited properly and it will also possibly drive uptake of cable services, which are in decline at present as Sky’s dominance of the pay TV market continues.
The fact that a major broadcaster such as ITV can be the subject of takeover talk merely on the back of its content production, rather than its advertising model and revenues, is a clear indication of where NTL sees the value in the future.
Content was king once before in the dot com boom and with video becoming ever more visible online, it is set to be crowned again.
Why would NTL, with debts of around £6bn already, want to take on a channel whose advertising revenues seem to be in terminal decline?
The answer seems to be Coronation Street and Emmerdale - namely the content production arm of ITV and the rights it owns.
It came as a bit of a surprise to me that ITV makes 65% of its own content and it is this that NTL wants to exploit, most likely through lucrative IPTV and video on demand services.
Having access to content such as all of the Coronation Street back catalogue will be valuable if it can be exploited properly and it will also possibly drive uptake of cable services, which are in decline at present as Sky’s dominance of the pay TV market continues.
The fact that a major broadcaster such as ITV can be the subject of takeover talk merely on the back of its content production, rather than its advertising model and revenues, is a clear indication of where NTL sees the value in the future.
Content was king once before in the dot com boom and with video becoming ever more visible online, it is set to be crowned again.
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