<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">Techdirt Daily <<a href="mailto:techdirt@techdirt.com">techdirt@techdirt.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">14 April 2012 11:01:01 AM</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:geert@desk.nl">geert@desk.nl</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><b>Techdirt Daily Email for Saturday, 14 April 2012</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">Techdirt <<a href="mailto:list.bounce@techdirt.com">list.bounce@techdirt.com</a>></font></div></div></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; ">Techdirt Daily Email for Saturday, 14 April 2012</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><div id="lite" style="padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 5px; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 3px; ">(Click<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/blog/techdirt/">here</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to visit the site)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 3px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; color: rgb(26, 81, 143); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-weight: bold; "><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120411/20501318459/rise-geek-focused-online-video-networks.shtml">The Rise Of Geek-Focused Online Video Networks</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(<i>Business Models</i>)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3px; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; color: rgb(137, 78, 1); ">by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Mike Masnick</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>and-the-geeks-shall-inherit-video?</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>dept on Friday, April 13th, 2012 @ 7:39PM</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 3px; ">There's been a really interesting trend going on recently. For all the talk about how the entertainment industry must be dying (it<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/skyisrising/">isn't</a>), 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<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100818/13503710673.shtml">hugely successful</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in building a massively popular online-only video program, while also being<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20110818/03462515572/response-to-felicia-day-how-video-gets-funded-fragmented-digital-world.shtml">thoughtful</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>about new business models. On April 2nd, she and some friends -- including folks like Wil Wheaton, Veronica Belmont and Paul & Storm, --<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://geekandsundry.com/" target="_blank">launched the a wesomely named Geek & Sundry</a>, which includes both her existing show,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Guild</i>, and a variety of others (including Wheaton's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Tabletop</i>, which looks awesome).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br>That same day, Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist (or, I guess we should now call it "Nerdist Industries") launched<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/chris-hardwick-announces-new-nerdist-shows-youtube-channel_n_1362798.html" target="_blank">his special YouTube channel</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>with a variety of shows of its own:</div><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><i>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.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br>The<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/nerdist">Nerdist YouTube channel</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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.</i></blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Amusingly, when I first started writing up this post, I was going to mention all of the cool things that Kevin Smith</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100903/04294010890/kevin-smith-once-again-demonstrates-how-connecting-with-fans-leads-to-something-special-and-profitable.shtml" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">has done</a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">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</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><a href="http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=431" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">launching Smodcast Internet TV</a><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">-- his own online video network too! Perfect timing, Kev.</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Who knows if all of these (or any of these) will survive, or even thrive. But, the awesome thing is that they</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">can</i><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.</font><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> </span><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">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.</font><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 3px; "></p></div></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>