Web Telly or Telly?
The last 6 to 8 months has seen a massive explosion in the world of online tv-like video, or more in more friendly terms: web telly. 18 Doughty Street started broadcasting on 10 October 2006 and since then we’ve noticed a great array of other web telly operations start up, some of which asked us for advice, like the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster while others were more interested in our studio space and time, which is something start-ups in this new age will still struggle with.
While it’s quite simple for anybody with a webcam to get going on YouTube things get a little more complicated when you try to take your productions to ‘the next level’ - certainly setting up a whole web telly operation has its pitfalls, as we found out at 18 Doughty Street. The production costs are probably the largest expense in a fledgling web telly operation, with distribution costs fairly low at first, but soon catching up when popularity results in higher bandwidth bills and the inevitable demands from your viewers resulting in more development costs.
But, What’s the Big Deal? Why Bother?
The movement away from schedules towards a more on-demand style of television is part of our efforts to find yet more ways to save time in our increasingly busy lives. Spearheaded by Sky Plus, the rise in consumer demand is for TV “when you want it” - no more having to wait until 9pm for your favourite programme to start and no more having to set the VCR.
The new technology means we can all watch whatever we fancy whenever we fancy it and boy are we embracing it! BT Vision recently entered the fray with their set-top-box offering Premier League action and services like 4 On Demand. Other providers are springing up too. Our very own 18 Doughty Street is already available on set-top-boxes from GDBTV and although it’s early days the kit looks amazing and I personally can’t wait to see them flying off the shelves at Christmas. When the next generation models come out in a few months they will have Freeview, internet channels, email and a hard-drive recorder built in for a shade over £100. Bargain.
With the lure of potentially big audiences for web telly delivered through the old-fashioned telly it’s not hard to see why so many online TV stations are springing up. But, with so much competition will it really be possible to achieve millions of viewers for a single programme ever again?
Join Me Next Time…
I’m Mike Rouse, the Head of Technology over at 18 Doughty Street, one of a few people standing in for Matt Wardman while he pops on holiday for a while. Today I have touched very briefly on the emerging online television market. Tomorrow I want to take a closer look at the consumption of video over the internet through a traditional browser or desktop and why its creating challenges for traditional and even new internet broadcasters. Hope you can join me.
[…] an honour to be standing in for Matt Wardman while he’s away for a bit over at the excellent Wardman Wire blog. I’ll be writing about online television and, if I get time, about political campaigning […]
The key issue for this technology is the ability to receive it in a technologically satisfying way. We have 512K here in Adelaide, which is what we can afford and even YouTube is challenged by that.
[…] watch. The old style was watching whatever was on, but now you can choose what’s on and when. In my last post I touched on this change and how the likes of Sky Plus has led a cultural change in the demand for […]
Mike
I draw a strong distinction between video-podcasting and what you do at 18DS.
Video-podcasts put in perhaps 0.5 to 2 man hours of editting time for each minute of final video, but can work to a professional (broadcast) level with perhaps £2000 of kit.
At 18DS you have a *lot* of facilities (your studio and filming/editing/support operation cost - what? - £25-£50k or so plus you have a dozen staff to run it). Yet you are putting out 20 hours + of programming relatively cheaply each week (once the setup cost has been done). How many man hours of editing-time goes into each minute of final video? I’d punt on less than 0.1.
The difference as I see it is that 18DS is geared up for live production - which requires higher standards of operation at record time and more infrastructure, but saves it on labour in editing the videos (basically, you don’t). The tradeoff is that you need more kit to handle the volume of data and traffic.
18DS puts out more programming in one week than the top videopodcasts (Rocketboom, Ask a Ninja, Tiki Bar, Wallstrip etc.) do in a year - but it is less intensely produced and post-produced.
Matt
[…] Web Telly or Telly? […]