Kassia Krozser

How To Save Network Television

April 30, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

Last week, I noted two seemingly contradictory articles. The first commented on NBC’s apparent low ratings. The second (nice of me to put the two in one post, no?) talks about DVRs being used in greater numbers and increasing viewership of shows. One other statistic that has been buried in the news about viewership these past few weeks was that during the recent spate of reruns, viewers moved on.

Once upon a time, reruns were space fillers — when there were only three networks, the networks held the viewers captive. What were they gonna do? Watch something else? Ha.
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Sleep: That’s What I Really Like

April 27, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a morning person. I once had a job where I had to be awake and alert at seven in the morning, five days a week. Everyone said I’d get used to it, but the truth of the matter is that every single morning was a struggle. While I’m sure that my particular fondness for sleeping late on Saturday mornings began long before that job, it was then that I began to covet those mornings.

Now, as I work nearly full-time (okay, it’s more than forty hours a week, it’s probably a little past “nearly”) on a consulting project in addition to my regular blogging schedule plus my other writing assignments, I find those Saturday mornings mean even more to me. I refuse to open my eyes until the sun is high in the sky.
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Looking At Bud.TV

April 23, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

Throughout the year, we are going to be subjected to various and sundry “YouTube killers”. One such animal is (was?) Bud.tv. Launched with the full faith and credit of the mighty Budweiser empire behind it, the site promised to be an edgy, Bud-oriented alternative to existing online video services.

Since then, numbers have declined from the reported 250,000+ viewers per month to approximately 150,000 viewers. These are not bad numbers, you might think, especially for a new venture. Today’s audience is fragmented enough that these numbers should not the be reason for the Bud.tv to commit the virtual version of hari kari (see: the short-lived Pirate TV or whatever it was called).
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Imus: Not So Much About The Free Speech

April 16, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

Over the past week, I have participated in several debates about Don Imus, and there were, naturally, two clear camps: those who believed his firing was the right reaction and those who believe that free speech was dealt a blow by MSNBC and CBS. Though I am a free speech zealot, I fall firmly into the former camp. The firing was proper and just.

First, nobody is denying Mr. Imus the right to say anything. He is not being muzzled — do you doubt that he’ll find another media outlet to host his program? In this day and age, Imus has more options than ever before to broadcast his show. His freedom to speak about what he wants, when he wants, how he wants remains untouched.
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Examining NBC Universal and News Corp’s So-Called YouTube Killer

March 27, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

It’s not easy being an industry leader these days. The moment you hit the top, every time your competition releases a new product, it’s going to “kill” you. The Zune was the iPod killer. Microsoft’s new and improved search was the Google killer. And NBC Universal/News Corp’s new service is, naturally, being touted as the YouTube killer.

All which makes for violent headlines, but the proof, as we all know, is in the audience. It’s not enough to release a new service into the wild and expect it to take the Internets by storm. YouTube didn’t become the go-to online video service simply because it was there. And that is the lesson big media needs to learn.

I think it’s important to review what makes YouTube, well, YouTube. It’s obviously not the only video sharing site out there. Grouper, Revver, and a host of other services allow users to easily upload video. If rumors are to be believed, Revver is the place to go if you’re trying to make a buck off your work. But the zeitgeist — that intangible thing — is with YouTube. Users cross the myriad cultural divides. My mother-in-law finds stuff on YouTube, because YouTube is pretty close to foolproof. It’s designed for the casual user.
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After The New Media Flood Comes The Niche

March 21, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

This is probably going to be the last time they allow me to write for Medialoper, but I can’t conceal the truth any longer: I can’t work the iTunes store. I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I just can’t get iTunes to work for me. It turns out that I’m a niche girl in a broadband world.

As online services strive ever-harder to be everything to everyone, I find myself retreating into my comfortable spaces. It’s not that I don’t enjoy finding new stuff — serendipity is still my favorite way to navigate the web — but when it comes to consuming media, I like to take a boutique approach to shopping.

I’m not alone in this. Chris Anderson, who will likely forever have to deal with issues surrounding his Long Tail and, well, I hear he’s addressing the crowd from Novelists’ Inc, and, oh, Chris, there is much I should warn you about), is talking again about the power of the niche. I cannot begin to tell you how much I believe that we are entering the Age of the Niche.
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NPR Starts A War

March 19, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

There is no greater enemy of the music business than the music industry itself. Never before in the history of mass entertainment have we witnessed an industry who worked harder to destroy itself. Maybe once upon a time, music companies tried to expand their business and reach wider audiences, but those days ended long ago…and if the RIAA has its way, they’ll be gone for good.

Let us count some the major mistakes the industry has made in our lifetimes: cheering on ownership consolidation that squeezes out diversity on local radio; standing on the sidelines while the Internet revolutionized the way listeners access music…and then trying to close the barn door after the horse had galloped to the next continent; applauding the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to raise royalty rates on Internet Radio.
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HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, and The Problem With Wal-Mart

March 13, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

So, yeah, wow, it’s 2007 and we’re having format wars. Hmm, that’s not entirely true. We, the people, are not a war at all. In face, we, the people, don’t care. The people who care, who desperately care, are the businesses who have staked the ground on either the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray side of the fence. To them, the battles and strategy matter very much. It’s almost like they’re holding a modern war in another century.

I’m doing the masochist thing at this year’s SXSWi (as augmented by the film festival) and attending all of the “The Future of…” panels. Sure, it’s hard to take “The Future of Online Video” seriously, when nascent barely begins to describe the phenomenon, but when the panel is about The Future of DVDs, well, now you have my attention. The future of DVD, as we all know, is keeping way too many media executives awake at night to count.

Not that you’d know it from this panel.
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