The Content Challenge
By Neil Dodds
13 October, 2005
Where does content from small providers fit into the digital dream home?
It's now up to content producers to respond to the challenge posed by home media systems of the type Apple launched yesterday (see analysis here).
Apple's "digital life" strategy encompasses downloadable music, television, film, podcasts and video blogs, along with more traditional "new media" products like the Internet. This content can be viewed on the home computer, on television and now on handheld devices like iPods.
Music, Apple has tied up, with over three quarters of all legal music download purchases coming via its iTunes music store. Apple battled hard with record company executives to make their music available online. Only when it became clear that technology had reached a stage allowing everyone to download illegally anyway was the music industry convinced to switch to Apple's vision.
As of this summer, iTunes also distributes podcasts, and as of yesterday, it made video blogs available too. We reported yesterday how Yahoo plans a music and podcast application to rival iTunes, but with Apple's large market share - not to mention the fact that the iTunes-friendly iPod is by far the world's most popular music player - an intimidating stretch of track separates Apple from its nearest competitor in this field.
It's early days for Apple video and television, but the company scored some notable points yesterday with its first batch of downloads. The success of iTunes made music video an easy sell: For film and TV, however, Apple boss Steve Jobs had to use his influence with companies like Pixar and Disney to secure limited releases of material for download. Animation studio Pixar ("Toy Story", "The Incredibles") offered a series of short films of the kind that usually show up on the extras disc of their DVD releases. Disney, which owns the broadcaster ABC, made a deal to add five top TV shows to iTunes. US customers will be able to download episodes of America's two biggest shows, "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost", 24 hours after broadcast. At $1.99, that's the same cost as Pixar's shorts and twice as much as a single song from iTunes.
Not a bad start - and Apple is banking that where Pixar and Desperate Housewives lead, other companies will follow. Moreover, it will hope to catch some iTunes exclusives in the near future - perhaps season premieres downloadable before broadcast, for example.
So far, so big business. Pixar looks like a merry place to work and, compared to top-rated shows in many nations, Desperate Housewives is sophisticated and edgy - but they're hardly indie. Much like Apple itself. But this vision of the digital future looks like one which is dominated by studios creating multi-million dollar productions across multiple media. Disney owns multiple radio stations, record companies, broadcaster and television companies, as well as its famous film interests. It also has a stake in Tivo television recording. Even before its foothold deal with Apple, Disney was ideally placed to pipe multimedia content to homes across the world.
Where do the independent producers fit in?
Both Apple and Yahoo have pushed podcasts as a means by which individuals can play with the big boys.For its part, Yahoo also added weblogs to its news offering.
Podcasters submit their audio files to Apple for approval and publication on iTunes. Apple is pretty cool about what gets on, though it is certain that someone, somewhere is running a blog complaining that their effort was thought to be unsuitable for iTunes. Vlogs, video logs or video podcasts (they're quite new, so no-one has made up their mind what to call them) have just been added. You can now watch your daily dose of Rocketboom.com on your iPod on the way to work.
This is a good start for independent companies and individuals: It's fairly easy to record a podcast, somewhat more difficult, but not prohibitively so, to make a video log. Before iTunes, most podcasts were gathered on podcasting community sites or on individual sites: iTunes (and Apple) introduce the phenomenon to a whole new audience.
It's still early for video logs, but it's not difficult to imagine a trajectory for them as they become as mainstream and ubiquitous as blogs. Groups of individuals could join forces to create their own network of correspondents, either filing individually or having their output co-ordinated centrally. Others might make drama serials, like the old Flash Gordon dailies in the early decades of cinema. Still more will prefer to create idiosyncratic video journals.
Just as Yahoo isn't keen to put bloggers on a level footing with mainstream journalists, Apple might prefer to give paying content from the likes of Pixar more prominence than free subscriptions like Rocketboom.
Despite this, getting from the net onto the television has never been easier. With handheld video players like the iPod, getting into viewers' pockets is easy too.
Few visions of digital homes mention the Internet. This seems strange, especially considering that the Net is the means by which most digital content will be discovered and delivered. It appears that in many versions of the digital future, the Internet will be the delivery system for film, television and music to be enjoyed offline rather than a source of content in its own right.
This is unlikely. While studies show that reading the news is only one of the multiple uses surfers have found for the Net, it is hard to imagine a generation accustomed to reading magazines and newspapers online is suddenly going to stop doing so. If anything, readers might even want more internet access, as mobile phones, digital paper and hand held devices make the web even more accessible.
Unlike film and television, the web is proven indie territory. Some sites have appeared from no-where to challenge major corporations and individual bloggers regularly score hit rates above national newspapers.
Given an individualist marketing plan and a certain amount of determination, it's still the best way for unknowns and start-ups to make an impact. Conspiracy theorists might suspect this is precisely why the Internet remains very much in the background of the digital dream home - but more adventurous publishers will see the Net as a launch pad for ambitious multimedia services that could some day rival the big boys.
In the background it might be, but the Internet still offers the best opportunity for independents to get their foot in the digital dream home's door.
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