Oh, Did I Mention iTunes Kills Television Advertising

Josh at Splintered Channels ponders traditional ad spots within the new iTunes-delivered TV programs.

The TV I’ve had for the last 10 years has a 30-sec timer button on it. Hit the button, change the channel, and 30 seconds later you’ll automatically return to the previous program. Tivo time-shifted both the program and this ad-skip behavior (though VCR instilled this behavior decades ago, albeit without the sexiness of digital).

Josh is right, ad campaigns have a shorter shelf-life than the programs they interrupt. In all but the biggest of primetime television programs, the ads are also region specific (if not local). So, inserting a conventional 30-second spot in a digital iTunes download wastes at least the same amount of money as one delivered via the air waves.

As I’ve mentioned in the Economics of Podcasting and Podcasting is Closer to Voicemail than Radio, the pains of conventional broadcasting (FCC licensing, antennas, etc) don’t exist in the digital realm. Combine that with customers actually paying per episode and the advertiser/distributor relationship turns from symbiotic to parasitic.

If iTunes starts to include interruption-based ads within the TV programs they offer, 2 things will happen:

  1. An iMovie Applescript will magically appear that automatically slices out the annoyances.
  2. The programs with ads won’t sell….at any price.

Catharine Taylor at AdWeek’s AdFreak concurs.

“…not only is the video iPod a watershed, but, sorry advertisers and agencies, that commercial TV may just be f*cked, and it’s going to hurt advertisers much more than it will hurt the networks.”

I’m glad someone inside the advertising industry said that and cursed while doing so.

Once television advertising goes the way of the Wicked Witch of the West, where does that leave Nielsen Ratings?

ABC affiliates are asking that now.

“The prospect of the new device [video-enabled iPod] distracting Nielsen-measurable eyeballs from its own over-the-air programming is generating some anxiety from stations all over the country…”

Just as I can read the same email in a web-browser, in a desktop application, and through VersaMail on my Treo, all other media will shortly be liberated from it’s exclusive distribution channel.

Quick rhetorical question: What’s a television program that isn’t originally released on television?

I’m pretty sure Chuck, Steve, and Amanda have an answer.

Amazing Race 8 – Episode 3

The mudding challenge – very cool. I gotta give the Aeillo family props for making 14 attempts through the mud bog.

The AOL laptop clue in the middle of the Rocket Center was completely dorky and worthless…well….aside from product placement. Reminded me of the ‘assemble something at IKEA’ challenge they had a couple seasons back.

I’m still not sure if it’s the 4-person teams, families, or all the time they’re spending on the East Coast, so far the season isn’t working for me or Jen. It feels much less exciting and exotic than the world travel of previous seasons. No language or currency issues, lots of driving. Makes armchair travel much less thrilling.

On the plus side, free BP and Arco gas – for life – is definitely one of the coolest awards ever.

Current Standing of Garrick’s Favorites:

  • Lintz – #2
  • Aeillo – #8, eliminated. Crap.

Word from Claire

“How can you not mention the all time best line in any season of TAR from last night’s episode: ‘If you haven’t noticed, gravity is currently pushing on me.’ –Phil”

iTunes Upgrades Destroys Record Store, Cable Company, Movie Theater

With today’s announcement of a Video iPod and the corresponding iTunes bump to v6.0, Apple felled 3 of my least favorite things; record store, cable company, and movie theater.

If for $1.99, I can purchase a past episode of Desperate Housewives and for a couple dollars more a feature length film, what’s compelling about a movie theater? Hell, Netflix might want to step up their digital distribution strategy (Hint, it now has to integrate into iTunes). Throw the Food Network’s, Comedy Central’s, and HBO’s worst, best, and experimental programs into iTunes and there’s as much reason for a Comcast subscription as there is for a landline telephone.
David at the Brand Experience Lab had the same notion:

“…potentially create an Apple media center that actually by-passes network TV?”

As an interesting side effect, by keeping prices below $5, Apple is effective killing Darknet usage by people with more money than patience (i.e. not students). Leaving the only reason to dig around the file sharing networks is for things not in iTunes (though even today, the bulk of music’s long tail absent from iTMS). Despite the DRM, iTunes is still my first stop for purchasing music – followed by Amazon. I suspect the same will be true of motion pictures by the end of the year.

Right now, BitTorrent is the only sustainable solution for handling the bandwidth demands of a popular podcast or video. Both iPodder and DTV offered built in BitTorrent clients very early in their development. Unless Apple also purchased miles of dark fiber, they’re going to feel the burn of multi-terabyte transfers very quickly.

I predict 2 additional features before iTunes turns 7:

  1. Integrated BitTorrent client
  2. iTMS Storefront for independent producers – with the same price points as big media.

First Crack 64. Urban Exploring with Filmmaker Melody Gilbert

Just in time for a mid-production fund drive, St. Paul, MN-based independent filmmaker, Melody Gilbert and I talk about her latest documentary, Urban Explorers into the Darkness and the independent, DIY, MacGyver, hack-your-environment, attitude shared by Urban Explorers, podcasters, and other high-tech geeks.

Check out excerpts of film and support Minnesota independent filmmaking by attending the sneak preview of Urban Explorers into the Darkness on October 15, 2005 – $12 / ticket (or $35 for VIP).

Listen to Urban Exploring with Filmmaker Melody Gilbert [26 min]

Star Tribune Re-arranging Deck Chairs

This week the Star Tribune launches their much (internally) debated redesign. It’s been previously dissed by City Pages and MNSpeak.

This morning, I read the special 8 page pullout outlining the “new features” and the editor’s comments on it. I’m less than impressed and – even with 3 cups of coffee – still un-enthused.

Here’s a short list of the major innovations we’ll see next week and my view on them:

  • Lileks off Sunday, moved to every other day. A good thing. Since I don’t think he’s very good and I get the Sunday paper, this is perfect
  • “Variety” renamed “Source”, “Signature”, “Stupid”, “Sucks”
  • Masthead, now with more serifs, wider columns, more bullets, easier to skim. As an ex-graphic designer I can confidently say they spent too much money on the logo redesign and their new skin.
  • Oh, and something about writers having the same stories online as in the printed piece. That’s a good thing. Hopefully this will give reporters the opportunity to publish more interesting articles, in varying degrees of depth. You know, the whole ‘go niche’ / ‘long tail’ thing.

Now that I’m done shredding the redesign, here’s a couple of actual innovations I’d like to see from newspaper land:

  • Customized dead-tree edition: only the sections I want from the columnists I like. In my world, I’d be without the Sports, Travel, and Classifieds. This means fewer pages printed, fewer pages delivered, and fewer pages recycled.
  • Provide access to archives for free online.
  • Write above a 4th grade level. I’d like that very much.
  • Include URLs in the newspaper edition to continue the story online. Links to the story itself, the reporter’s sources, and competitive coverage. This means embracing and acknowledging the internet exists. (That’s where younger – and older – readers are going)

Until then, the Star Tribune is simply re-arranging the deck chairs of a sinking industry. Giving someone with a few dollars a huge opportunity to redesign the industry…not just the paper.

First Crack 63. Coffee Technology with Timothy Tulloch of EuroRoast.com

Timoth Tulloch, CEO and Roastmaster at Minnesota-based European Roasterie (EuroRoast.com), and I talk coffee technology, from brewing to packaging, and why he’s aggressively moving into the single-serve coffee pod program (declaring the Black & Decker Home Cafe the best pod brewer). We wrap up with the culture of specialty coffee and how independent coffee shops can win against Starbucks.

I’ve been really enjoying their Mulawi and the new theme song is by Jeremy Piller.

Listen to Coffee Technology with Timothy Tulloch of EuroRoast.com [27 min]

Help, Help, I’m Not Being Oppressed

There’s a renewed DIY/independence/hacker vibe going around, Dave Slusher says it needs a name. I agree.

From my perspective, this vibe is about all of us making effective use of cheap tools – to serve our own individual/custom purposes first, and offering the finished product to others to extend and enhance. I hesitate to use the phrase “finished product” – for the end result is not a static, defined product – it’s another tool.

I’ve done enough home renovation to know building materials and tools are not expensive and the renovation is not extraordinarily difficult. It simply takes time to do.

There’s a tinge of Populism in here, but without the belief that the common person is being oppressed by the elite. It’s not socialism or communism – for despite the people owning the means of production we are acting as individuals, not a collective.

My library has far too many Ayn Rand books on it not to consider Objectivism. But it’s not, because everyone expressing the vibe in question places value in being starchy rational and subjective and emotional.

All this digging around makes me wonder if the formative philosophies of our time were defined around striving to get something – rather than what to do once you have it.

Back to the problem at hand….

In the television cartoons of my youth, the “good guys” always seemed to be more unified, more of a collective, more in unison than the disorganized albeit nefarious “bad guys” (the phrase “Herding Cats” comes to mind). Considering how we’re all working in parallel (not unison) on this and in honor of the Dave for throwing down the gauntlet, I suggest the moniker “Evil Genius“.

And since those of the cyberpunk/diy/hacker vein are not without their backup, I also offer: “MacGyver“. ReadyMade Magazine has a regular MacGyver Challenge.

On third thought, perhaps “Dennis” from Monty Python’s Holy Grail, he inspired the title of this post.