Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Virtual Worlds; Real Products

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Product placement is nothing new, of course: since the earliest days of film, advertisers have always wanted to work their brands into the context of the entertainment people were enjoying. So in today’s world where a significant demographic isn’t watching a film or TV, but pursuing other entertainment options, it’s no surprise that the latest frontier for the product placement is the videogame.

What is surprising, however, is that it has only really taken off in the last year or so. Naturally, the rise of online games means that placements don’t have to be embedded in take-home boxes, only to become immediately anachronistic, but things such as movie advertisments on billboards or marquees can change as new films come out.

It’s only a matter of time, I’m sure, before they start trying to target ads to other information they have gleaned from a particular player’s profile. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before a savvy game maker has an online user choose, for example, their background music from various bands, and then having that music come out of, say, a Prism Durosport.

The Weekly ‘Loper: February 19, 2006

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While you were busy returning your ill-gotten “Lazy Sunday” download to NBC and wondering whom Amazon was going to tap to make the player for their upcoming music service, here’s what else happened this week:

  • Toy Makers Hitch Products to iPod Craze – SpongeBob! SquarePants! Speaker! System!
  • Disney to Revive Video on Demand – Why do we have to spend $200 to buy a box for this service? I already have a box that delivers video to me. It’s called a cablebox.
  • The hidden threat to the digital future – Will privacy and security concerns kill business on the internet? Here are one expert’s ideas on how to keep that from happening.
  • ‘A sponsorship waiting to happen’ – Blah, blah, blah…the iPod is everywhere, just like Elvis.

    The U.S. snowboarding team’s pinstriped uniforms are already wired for the machines, with a nifty iPod-size pocket, speakers in the hood and a control panel on the left sleeve that allows the athletes to select songs.

  • I’ll Have My Media to Go, Please – Cable operators grappling with a world where users don’t want their content tethered to a specific place. Devices like the slingbox — which sends the contents of your cablebox to you anywhere in the world — point to the future.

Everyday Isn’t Like “Sunday”

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What happens when you are at least partially responsible for creating huge buzz for a show that hasn’t had huge buzz in years? You Tube and the “Lazy Sunday” video, you get a Cease and Desist letter from NBC. Back in late December, I was one of god-knows-how-many bloggers who, after seeing this either on Saturday Night Live or from email or a blog, posted a link to YouTube.

It seemed to be one of those win-win-win situations: the video itself was funny as frack and perfectly pitched; NBC originally posted it for free in iTunes a couple of days later (they charge for it now, and that’s OK, too); and SNL got a shitload of goodwill like they haven’t had in years. So yay! Until now.

However, according to Section 12 of NBC’s Privacy Policy, there is a bit of a Catch-22 for those of us who downloaded the original from YouTube and now might want to download a legal copy from their site:

NBC, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 512 as amended by Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “Act”), reserves the right, but not the obligation, to terminate your license to use the Service if it determines in its sole and absolute discretion that you are involved in infringing activity, including alleged acts of first-time or repeat infringement, regardless of whether the material or activity is ultimately determined to be infringing.

Isn’t that pretty much everybody who downloaded the video from YouTube? We are all criminals, and at any time NBC can keep us from using their site. But wait, I have an idea! Maybe if we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. Maybe we can ask for some kind of amnesty. Perhaps if everybody who stole the video using YouTube returned it to NBC, we would be then able to be able to download it from their site. So that’s what I would suggest: let’s all give NBC their property back. And luckily, that same Privacy Policy provides an email address:

dmca-agent@nbci.com

So everybody, let’s act in good faith, send them their video back, and promise never ever to do it again.

An iTunes Killer From Amazon?

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Anxious to find a business model where free shipping won’t cut into its profits, Amazon is reportedly working on a digital music service that could debut as early as this spring.

Insiders say the online retailer is “in advanced talks” with the four major labels. You will recall that the labels have been unhappy with iTunes standard pricing for some time now. The fact that Steve Jobs frequently calls them “greedy” hasn’t helped much either. As a group, the major labels aren’t much for an honest appraisal of their shortcomings.

The service will apparently be based around a low priced, Amazon branded, mp3 player. Early reports don’t address the issue of DRM, but it’s almost certain that an Amazon music store would likely use Microsoft DRM to protect songs.

In order for Amazon to succeed where others have failed, the new music store will need to offer the following:

  • Music that plays on an iPod
  • Reasonable pricing
  • Seamless end-to-end integration between the music store, the user’s computer, and the portable player
  • DRM that is minimally invasive and allows consumers the opportunity to burn CD’s and listen to tracks on a range of devices

Can Amazon pull it off? I think it’s unlikely, and here’s why:

The fact that Amazon is actively talking with all of the major labels is being seen as a major advantage for the company. I beg to differ on this point. It could actually be one of Amazon’s biggest weaknesses in this new venture. Let the record labels start meddling in any new online music venture and it’s likely the resulting service will be anything but what consumers are actually looking for.

I’m also skeptical that Amazon can deliver a user experience to rival iTunes. The Amazon shopping experience is looking more dated by the day and Amazon’s forays into Web 2.0 have only been minimally successful. I doubt that the team of new programmers the company has hired over the last year will have a substantial impact on the underlying cruftyness of almost everything Amazon does.

Then there’s the DRM issue. The Amazon’s hardware will have to be pretty amazing to encourage tens of millions of iPod users to swap their devices for an Amazon player. Not only that, but the major labels will have to be generous enough with their DRM policy that users have the same control over their music collections as they do with iTunes purchased music.

It looks like the only area where Amazon may be able to compete is on pricing, and even then only if they’re willing to give the player away for practically nothing.

More Troubles for Netflix

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It’s perhaps not the best month for Netflix. Recently, they’ve been publicly spanked (and sued, of course) for what may be one of the more dumbass policies in recent retail history: willfully ignoring their best customers for their worst customers. I mean, come on, do they know anything about the cost of acquiring a customer vs. keeping a customer or how repeat customers drive a business or did they literally stumble across their model in a cave? (Gee, Tennesee, we can use the Internet to rent videos.” “Good one, Chumley”).

And now Netflix has a new worry: disgruntled postal workers stealing their videos before they can make it to their destination. One carrier had a stash of over 500 videos. Hello, Newman! Of course, perhaps these weren’t disgruntled postal workers so much as disgruntled hardcore Netflix fans, angry that — despite the amount of money they spent — they suddenly couldn’t get the movies they wanted when they wanted.

Sports Illustrated Demonstrates The New Media Model

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I’m not sure how it happens that I’m the ‘loper who’s writing about this story, but life is funny that way. Yes, kids, it’s time for the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. For those of you who remain blissfully ignorant, this issue should not be confused with a catalog.

This year, fans of Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue will have an abundance of choice when it comes to formats for viewing the bikini-clad supermodels. In addition to the magazine, which appears on newsstands tomorrow, and on the Web site at sportsillustrated.com., fans will also be able to purchase any of eight specially produced videos from iTunes.com, Apple’s online store, for $1.99 each, or download content to a cellphone or to a hand-held device, through a partnership Sports Illustrated has made with American Greetings Interactive.

American Greetings Interactive? Partnership? Must puzzle that one out. Later. Let us instead dwell on the idea that avid readers* of the issue can get their swimsuits in any format they wish.

* – Surely, someone buys the issue for the clever captions.

Can Sony Stop The Betamax Curse?

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UMD, a format developed by Sony for the PSP market, is apparently being put out to pasture. Sales are simply not what were anticipated. Fair enough. There didn’t seem to be a focused plan for UMD.

But giving up on the UMD format might not be the brightest move. If studio executives would take a moment to listen to what consumers are saying (and doing), they’d realize that like shoes, there is no “one size fits all” format. We have entered an age where DVDs co-exist with memory cards which live alongside videocassettes which share space with hard drives sitting next to big pipes from the cable and phone industries.

While there are issues of price and accessibility, Sony can save the UMD from becoming the next Beta by realizing the fundamental truths of today’s markets, including the fact that UMD is settling into a niche market. Niche markets, by the way, aren’t such a bad thing if you understand them:

. . .Sony et al should see the writing on the wall: the only titles that are selling well are those that appeal to the young male market.

Sony has a massive software library — more titles than it realizes — yet continues to cling to old business models. Continually revamping internal business units and shoving square pegs into round holes isn’t the way of the future. Winning the game means playing the game smart (Sony, call us — we know from smart). It means listening to your customers. See example below.

Sony (and the rest of you movie execs), listen up. A company named Apple has sold millions more iPods than you’ve sold PSPs. Many of those iPods were sold long before there was an iTunes Music Store. How is this so? Simple: users could exploit their already existing CD collections (although the RIAA is now trying to stop this). Imagine being Apple and trying to sell the iPod if the only thing you could put on it was materials bought from iTunes. Still think those sales numbers would be what they are? Of course not.

RIAA: Ripping = Ripoff

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Over the past quarter-century or so, I have purchased the following incarnations of The Who’s Live at Leeds:

  • The vinyl album
  • The import version of the vinyl album (for the cool poster, which is still on my wall)
  • The cassette tape (road trip!)
  • The original CD issue (because vinyl is dead, mannn!)
  • The CD reissue (remastered! with extra songs!)
  • The “Deluxe Edition” 2-disc CD reissue (full live version of Tommy!)

And these are the ones that I remember! However, despite the fact that I’ve spent approximately $70 for this music over the years — and only once got that amazing poster, BTW — , apparently the RIAA has decided that they reserve the right to tell me when it is legal to rip it for my own personal use. Since this reversal of what they said as recently as a year ago, there is no doubt that they are going to eventually make it retroactive. I mean forget my iPod, or my hard drives, or even my CDs, are they going to get a warrant for those Who compilations I made and remade obsessively throughout the 80’s? Crap! I don’t even know where they are!

And forget The Who and Live at Leeds (or who’s next, which I’ve also bought a half-dozen times, too), what about all of those records that I purchased only once or twice? Especially the ones that I only bought twice, because those usually had songs that I loved and went on any number of mix tapes that I made for myself and — ohmygod!– other people. Oh no! I gave music to other people!

Well, there is plenty of evidence out there against me, so I might as well admit this: of the hundreds of cassettes and CDs that I’ve made over the years, not all of them were for my personal use. Some of them were for personal gain. Not financial gain, but something even worse: sexual gain. I totally stole music from R.E.M. and U2 and Nirvana and Bob Dylan (which never worked) and The Rolling Stones and The Replacements and Whiskeytown and so many many others just to get girls to like me. I exploited these artists; their blood and tears and their years and years and years of toil and sweat for my own selfish purposes, never once even thinking that someday, the RIAA might decide how completely wrong and illegal anything even remotely close to my activities were. Me and my stupid mind! Stupid! Stupid!

So I spent hours, days, weeks, months, years copying vinyl to cassette, CD to CD, mp3 to iPod, never once realizing that — instead of this copying of music I so stupidly, foolishly, selfishly thought that I owned just because I spent my own money on it — I should have been buying the actual albums and cassettes and CDs for these people. Sure, it would have been impersonal, and I — like many other idiots — thought that there was some kind of art in recontextualizing songs for other people, but it would have been legal, according to the RIAA.

There is no way of getting around it — despite the fact that I have purchased thousands of albums and cassettes and CDs and downloads over the years, as recently as last week — in the eyes of the RIAA, I am nothing but a common criminal. And since there is nothing I can do about it, and they are no doubt gonna get me anyway, I figure that the least I can do is stop spending all of that money on music.

The HD Jungle

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Anybody who has made the leap into watching HD programming has seen the wild divergence of the actual HD-ness of the various programs, as well as elements of the programs themselves. Now that we have upgraded our cable service to include a HD DVR (about which will be a different post), we are now watching many more things on the HD broadcasts. Some channels — HD Net, PBS — pretty much look great all of the time, but others are more hit and miss. For example, our local ABC affilate in Los Angeles recently made their news broadcasts all HD, with great fanfare, but their weather maps that show the temperature are still SD, necessitating the use of blue bars on either side.

This is all fine, because we are in the infancy stage of the HD revolution, and as TV Week points out, a lot of networks are still trying to decide how their HD offerings are going to be structured. The feeling here is that, just like with color vs. B&W programs, it will take some time before the HD shows outnumber the SD shows, and we will be living with a mix until at least a couple more years.

In the meantime, the early adopters are just going to have to live through the transition, nagging their Cable/Satellite providers to add more HD Channels, until eventually, the fact that we still can’t get first-run HD versions of Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars will be nothing but a fond memory.

“CBS Corp. Doesn’t Perform As Well As Expected”

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That’s a headline that CBS CEO Les Moonves says would be the scariest he could imagine in the next year in an interview he gave to Newsweek this week.

In addition to denying the slow death of Prime Time, discussing their flirtation with iTunes, and how the need to make the network news more “accessible”, there was this exchange:

You say that people want to see content when and where they want it. But copy-protection schemes your industry is endorsing may make that very hard to do.

We have to respect the [content] property owner and not get into a situation, like the music business did, where people were taking the properties for free. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, said at our retreat this morning that the public doesn’t want to steal product, as long as you make it available at a reasonable price. That’s exactly what we did with our Google deal. We’re making it available to [the public] at a reasonable price [$1.99], so their tendency will not be to try to take a property that doesn’t belong to them.

Er, no. I mean, yes, he’s right about the reasonable price point, and the public not wanting to steal, but the simple fact that he calls shows like Ghost Whisperers (which is how he referred to it in a different part of the interview) “properties” (three times in a single answer!) shows a mindset that is far far removed from his potential audience.

The simple fact is that people think of songs or films or TV shows as “entertainment” that brings them “pleasure,” not as “properties” that bring them “revenue.” Yes, it’s a business, duh. And yes, a certain part of the audience is not going to pay — especially if you consider all of the burning and trading that goes on offline; that has always gone on, as a matter of fact. “Home Taping is Killing Music.” “The VCR will be the end of the film industry.” “Television will kill the radio.” Same as it ever was. All of which were wrong, and all of which were ideas floated by executives who clearly had no idea of who their audience were. Or really care, for that matter.

Moonves comes across like one of those, totally out of touch with who he says he’s trying to reach. As if his only real competition were ABC and NBC. But with a zillion different choices, the audience isn’t going to wait; it’s just going to go somewhere else.