Medialoper

Chasing the long tail of new media

YouTube

Why MySpace Won’t Live To See 25

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It was only a few weeks ago that MySpace was claiming to have passed Yahoo as the most popular site on the internet. Now it’s being reported that YouTube has passed MySpace. MySpace’s reign at the top lasted about three weeks. I’m guessing that’s not what Rupert Murdoch paid over $580 million for.

Has MySpace peaked? Probably yes. There have been plenty of reports indicating that MySpace’s target demographic no longer finds the site to be cool. Part of the problem is that dozens of new social networking sites seem to pop up every week. MySpace has lots of competition and no longer seems cutting edge to a generation of kids who live online and spend a good deal of their time looking for the next great thing. You only have to look back to the rise and fall of Friendster to realize just how bad things might get for MySpace.

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How Can I Get My TV Pilot Picked Up?

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Dear Lopy:

I just made a pilot for a big (OK, big-ish) TV Network, and it was rejected for being different from other TV shows. How can I get it picked up by another network?

Signed,

Hapless in Hollywood

Dear Hapless,

Here’s how to get your rejected pilot picked up by another network, in six easy steps.

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How The Pilot That Nobody Watched Got Itself Seen By Everybody

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The one thing sure to suck the soul out of a television show is a test screening audience. Generally, this group consists of non-entertainment industry professionals, hapless souls plucked from the street, folks willing to waste a few hours of their day because, well, there’s nothing better going on. Naturally, test screening audiences are the most powerful people in Hollywood.

Now you would think the highly paid, generally experienced executives at networks and studios would know from a good television show (or movie, no need to be exclusive here). These folks do not trust their own taste. It is imperative that they find a group of citizens to closely parallel a “real” viewing audience. The funniest show ever produced? If deemed dumb or confusing by the test audience, it will be shelved in favor of yet another reality show.

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New Online Media Sharing Service, New Model, Same Problems

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The video wars are coming, the video wars are coming!

Okay, fine, it’s probably not worth invoking the spirit of Paul Revere (but, hey, it’s the Fourth of July). These video wars won’t equal Beta versus VHS battle, much less a fight for a nation’s freedom. In this day and age, the wars are over viewers of user-created content. Even before YouTube has managed to fully define what YouTube can be, sites are vying to become the next YouTube.

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More RIAA Madness: Part 2, The All-Seeing Ear

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Yesterday, you may recall, I discussed the RIAA sending cease-and-desist letters to the people who upload videos of themselves lipsynching to popular songs.

But that’s just the beginning: we’ve learned who they are targeting next, and in a Medialoper Multiverse Exclusive, are revealing it to you today.

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More RIAA Madness: Part 1, In League With The Terrorists?

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It just seems like harmless fun: people filming themselves lipsynching popular songs, and then sending the results to YouTube and Google Video. People have always done stuff like this: probably the fifth film ever made — after an accidential shot of the floor; sex; a cute puppy running around; and someone else filming the filmer — was somebody pretending to play a Scott Joplin song.

And people have been doing it ever since: it’s a Great American Tradition to totally make a fool of yourself on video pretending to perform a song you love. God bless the U.S.A.

Of course, sometimes other people see these videos, and there are unintended consequences.

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Lopetop Theater – Series One, Episode The First

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Tonight on Lopetop Theater . . .

  • We check in with our close personal friend Lucia Pamela (may she rest in peace) for a rare live performance of her stone cold classic “In the Year 2000.” It’s like she had a crystal ball.
  • Agent Rod Brickman defies the odds and save copyright from evil-doers. But who will win?
  • The original incarnation of Television performs a blistering version of “Foxhole”.
  • In our feature presentation, Heat Vision and Jack, featuring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Christine Taylor and Ron Silver as “Ron Silver,” we learn the truth about man and motorcycle.

Tonight’s Lopetop Theater was made possible by the generous sponsorship of Top Brass Dandruff Cream, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola.

See You Next Year!

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Probably one of the quaintest holdovers in television history is Season Finale Season. You know, that point in time when all series wind down and head off on summer vacation. See you in the Fall and all that.

Possibly, and I’m not one for apocryphal thinking (ha!), this could turn out to be the worst year ever for the major networks to take a summer vacation. Think about it — the general public is thinking, “Hmm, I’ve been hearing good things about that YouTube. Now might be the time to become addicted.”

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“Number Slevin” Making Its Own Luck?

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So I just finished watching the opening sequence of the new thriller Lucky Number Slevin on my TV. I wasn’t watching a bootleg or an illegal download. Rather, I was watching the teaser that the Weinstein Company has made available on YouTube in the hopes that it will go viral and goose the box office.

According to the Weinstein Co and YouTube, this is yet another first in terms of using the Web for film cross-promotion, and it’s a pretty interesting experiment, at the very least.

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AOL Launches In2TV

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AOL launched their In2TV service today, featuring an eclectic mix of 30 Warner Bros. TV shows from the past half-century. Some good, some bad, some on DVD, some not — and all available for high-quality streaming in their entirety with “minimal commercial interruption.” 1 to 2 minutes, for now. Though if it’s successful, that will no doubt sneak up a bit: the whole point, of course, is another revenue stream.

We haven’t yet had a chance for a test-drive of the service through the Medialoper Review Labs — the pilot ep of Welcome Back Kotter, prior to Travolta becoming a superstar, will be just the ticket — but here are a couple of random initial impressions:

  • The home page is clean and well-organized: less clutter than iTunes, and easier to find stuff than Google video or YouTube.
  • Don’t come here looking for full seasons. Looks like they’ve launched with about 10 eps of each show.
  • They’ve also launched with features and interactive games.
  • There is more than one way to find an individual show: they’ve categorized them, have a search feature, broken out clips; and have a “show all feature” that actually lists more than a few at a time.
  • One of the best ideas: “Pilot Theatre,” which is exactly what you would think.

All in all, a nice auspicious start for IN2TV: one can only hope that they add more shows, and more episodes for each show.