<videovortex> The Rise Of Geek-Focused Online Video Networks (Business Models)

[Geert Lovink]

> From: Techdirt Daily <techdirt at techdirt.com>
> Date: 14 April 2012 11:01:01 AM
> To: geert at desk.nl
> Subject: Techdirt Daily Email for Saturday, 14 April 2012
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> The Rise Of Geek-Focused Online Video Networks (Business Models)
> by Mike Masnick from the and-the-geeks-shall-inherit-video? dept on  
> Friday, April 13th, 2012 @ 7:39PM
> There's been a really interesting trend going on recently. For all  
> the talk about how the entertainment industry must be dying (it  
> isn't), a whole bunch of internet-aware celebrities are  
> wholeheartedly embracing the internet as a new video platform -- and  
> this includes a bunch of folks we've written about before. The first  
> to make a big splash was Felicia Day, who already has been hugely  
> successful in building a massively popular online-only video  
> program, while also being thoughtful about new business models. On  
> April 2nd, she and some friends -- including folks like Wil Wheaton,  
> Veronica Belmont and Paul & Storm, -- launched the a wesomely named  
> Geek & Sundry, which includes both her existing show, The Guild, and  
> a variety of others (including Wheaton's Tabletop, which looks  
> awesome).
>
> That same day, Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist (or, I guess we should  
> now call it "Nerdist Industries") launched his special YouTube  
> channel with a variety of shows of its own:
> While some of the programming is based on already-existing Nerdist  
> properties, most of it has been specifically conceived for the  
> Nerdist YouTube channel. For instance, "Face to Face with 'Weird Al'  
> Yankovic" brings in the beloved song parodist (and frequent Nerdist  
> guest and contributor) to interview celebrities, and "Ain't it Cool  
> News with Harry Knowles" will adapt the infamous film gossip site to  
> a filmed talk show. Hardwick will also host "Chris Hardwick’s All  
> Star Bowling," a bowling competition/comedy show with a nod to  
> Hardwick's father, champion bowler Billy Hardwick. Nerdist will also  
> stream episodes of the legendary sketch show "Kids in the Hall,"  
> with new interviews and segments hosted by Hardwick.
>
> The Nerdist YouTube channel will also incorporate adaptations of  
> Nerdist podcasts, and plenty of wild cards, most notably: "Neil  
> Patrick Harris’ Puppetopia," "Gif Gif City," "Cute Things  
> Exploding," "Weird Shit From Japan," "Untitled Rob Zombie Project"  
> and "Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson," a video version of the  
> podcast hosted by the famed astrophysicist.
> While I note that there's a lot of overlap between these two worlds  
> (Wheaton and Hardwick are good friends and used to be roommates, and  
> I'm pretty sure Hardwick is friends with Paul & Storm too), it seems  
> pretty cool that they're both starting to flood YouTube with cool  
> content.
>
> Amusingly, when I first started writing up this post, I was going to  
> mention all of the cool things that Kevin Smith has done with his  
> Smodcast network, but I was realizing that was just audio. Well, no  
> matter. Just as I was reading up on the details of the other two  
> networks, I saw the news that Smith was launching Smodcast Internet  
> TV -- his own online video network too! Perfect timing, Kev.
>
> Like both of the other networks, the plan here is to take some  
> existing shows (in this case, from the Smodcast network), and then  
> add some new ones as well.
>
> Who knows if all of these (or any of these) will survive, or even  
> thrive. But, the awesome thing is that they can do these things and  
> just see what happens. They don't need to go through gatekeepers.  
> There are no gatekeepers anymore. They can blaze their own path and  
> find out for themselves what works and what doesn't work -- and  
> we're talking about a bunch of folks who all have pretty long  
> histories of really embracing what the internet allows, so I'm  
> excited to see where these experiments go, and I'd imagine we're  
> going to see plenty more like this. Some will succeed, some will  
> fail. But you have to be blind to think that creativity or the  
> industry is struggling. People who can't help but create cool and  
> amazing things suddenly have many more tools at their disposal for  
> creating, distributing, promoting (and, yes, monetizing) content  
> than ever before, and tons of new opportunities are opening up.
>
> Anyone who thinks that the entertainment industry is in trouble  
> isn't paying attention. The rest of us are over here checking out  
> all sorts of cool new content, which didn't require a big studio  
> exec deciding whether or not it deserved to be on TV.

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