Sony shapes snappier Crackle
New management, full-length content part of upgrade
Via The
Sony Pictures Entertainment is ready to make Crackle pop.
The studio is shaking up its online video hub with new management, headquarters and an infusion of full-length TV and movies from the Sony library to complement the increasing slate of short-form originals already rolling out.
Sony has been gradually transforming Crackle, which it acquired in August 2006 when the site was a user-generated content depository known as Grouper, into an online version of a programmed channel.
Eric Berger, who formerly oversaw strictly mobile entertainment at Sony, will extend his oversight to Crackle. He'll take the reins from Jonathan Shambroom, who was elevated to the top job at Crackle in February.
"What we want to do with Crackle is make it a next-generation TV network," Berger said.
Previously based in
Redundancies will mean a few positions will be eliminated, but some employees will make the move south, where Crackle will function as a 20-man team.
In keeping with its vision of Crackle as a cable network without actually being on cable, Sony will begin supplementing the originals with library films including "Jerry Maguire" and "Ghostbusters," as well as TV series including "Married ... With Children," "The Tick" and "Voltron." Most cable channel are built on a foundation of library content, supplemented with originals that shape brand identity.
But a key ingredient to Crackle that differentiates it from traditional television is a suite of interactive tools including DVD-like content extras and chats with content creators.
Crackle is something of a subtle but fundamental departure for Sony, which has always stayed away from the channel business in favor of remaining a content supplier. But with little of the barriers to entry that come with formal multichannel distribution, more and more content companies are bypassing MSOs and satellite services to go online, as Warner Bros. recently did with a resurrected version of defunct brand the WB.
"We're controlling our own distribution and building direct consumer relationships and that's critical for an independent studio," Berger said.
With a mix of comedy, action and unscripted material, Crackle is being positioned by Sony as a brand that transcends genre but appealing to video enthusiasts, particularly the demographic focus of men 18-35.
In keeping with its channel orientation, Crackle plans to roll out as many as five 13-episode original series each quarter. Each of those four seasons will be anchored by one main attraction beginning in the first quarter, with "Angel of Death," an action thriller from comic book writer Ed Brubaker.
In addition to selling advertising for Crackle video, Sony will seek additional revenue streams by repackaging content for DVD and licensing it internationally.
For original content, Crackle is expected to find new talent as well as bank on Sony to bring in more established stars. Crackle has already put TV stars including Brad Garrett and Penn Jillette in programs on the site.
In addition to the Crackle.com destination site, content will also be syndicated to leading portals including YouTube and MySpace. However, not everything on Crackle.com will be available with the content partners, which are expected to drive traffic back to the destination site.
Now senior vp digital networks, Berger reports to Sean Carey, senior executive vp Sony Pictures TV, the division led by president Steve Mosko.
Shambroom, who was with the site before the Sony acquisition, took over for original founders Josh Felser and Dave Samuel amid a layoff of eight employees in February.
Web Site’s Formula for Success: TV Content With Fewer Ads
Via New York Times
“THUMBS up” and “thumbs down” ratings for commercials. Choose-your-own-advertisement options before shows begin. Interactive games during advertising breaks.
In the last year these online advertising innovations have been popularized by Hulu, the online video Web site that will celebrate its first anniversary on Wednesday. For all that has been written about Hulu’s easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing interface, the advertising experience is equally important.
In the place of the long commercial pods that TV viewers have become accustomed to, only one ad is shown during each segment break on Hulu. Fewer ads make the ones on the site more memorable, Hulu executives say, allowing the site to charge higher prices for the ad units.
“The notion that less is more is absolutely playing out on Hulu,” Jason Kilar, the chief executive of the site, said. “This is benefiting advertisers as much as it is benefiting users.”
Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/media/29adco.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Broadband Content Bits: TidalTV-CNBC; Crackle.com Show
Via Paid Content
-- TidalTV taps CNBC for long-form content: Expanding its business offerings, the broadband TV platform has signed a deal with CNBC for streaming rights to The Hunt for Black Gold, The Millionaire Inside, and Saving General Motors, TVWeek reports. TidalTV will also stream news updates from CNBC.com; it already carries news features from NBC News and MSNBC, as well as WSJ, AP and AFP.
-- Actor fka Bud Bundy snags Crackle.com show: In case you were wondering what ever happened to Married with Children‘s Bud Bundy, the actor is slated to star in an original series on Sony’s Crackle.com, Variety reports. Star-ving is based on an exaggerated version of Faustino’s own life; in the show he runs his own struggling porn shop and loses his wife to a rap star. (Not sure we want to know what’s true.)
Brightcove Scores AOL
Via NewTeeVee
Brightcove, which just saw its investors at the New York Times fully deploy its product, now has fellow investor AOL using its video publishing platform.
Brightcove will take over from AOL’s terrible home-grown video product “beginning in early 2009,” according to an emailed press release. Brightcove will also be integrated into AOL’s Platform-A advertising offering.
This is a pretty big coup for a white-label video service, considering AOL is the ninth-largest
While AOL’s video player may not have been top of the line, the portal got in early to the web video space race, with its acquisition of Truveo nearly three years ago. It has expanded Truveo as a leading video search destination and tool. It was a launch partner of Hulu and is one of only two sites (the other is Veoh) with whom ABC shares revenue from its video syndication. But it also had failed efforts like a high-definition premium video service that required a download.
Brightcove has raised some $90 million in funding from investors including Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, AOL, Allen & Company, Maverick Capital, Brookside Capital, AllianceBernstein, The New York Times Company, Transcosmos, Dentsu, J-Stream, and Cyber Communications.
TMZ Drops Brightcove for Digitalsmiths
Via NewTeeVee
It’s hard to measure total reach for white-label video providers, but at least in terms of marketplace perception, Brightcove leads the pack. Be it thePlatform, Ooyala, Fliqz — it’s a long list — no enterprise video player comes through our door without mentioning Brightcove as a competitor.
And the video platform dogfight gets nastier by the day, with established relationships getting ditched for the competition. We learned recently that big-shot celebrity news site TMZ has ditched Brightcove, its long-time video provider, for the search specialists at Digitalsmiths.
Digitalsmiths only recently started offering its video indexing and ad targeting technology bundled with a white-label video service; in the past it had offered it as a plug-in for other platforms. After it executed a deal to power the new TheWB.com — including using picture (computer vision) and audio analysis to index videos and to figure out dynamically what relevant video to promote — Digitalsmiths got the call to redo its Time Warner sister site TMZ.
For viewers, one nice thing about the switch is that TMZ no longer automatically resizes your browser window to play videos, as it did with the Brightcove platform. But it still employs tactics like replaying the same annoying ad every other video (for me it’s Aussie hairspray on repeat — I guess they think that ad targeting really hits the spot!), autoplaying the next video on its playlist, and disabling sharing or embedding to encourage visitors to come directly to its site.
TMZ’s site as a whole had 10.5 million uniques in August, according to comScore. While we don’t have broken-out figures for TMZ video traffic, but when we asked Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire on The GigaOM Show at the beginning of this year what drives traffic on his network, the first thing he mentioned was celebrity news.
To be fair to Brightcove, it’s not that there’s any clear momentum to shift away from its service. Today AOL announced it will ditch its home-grown video platform for Brightcove starting next year. And just last week, the New York Times relaunched its video section, moving fully to Brightcove from its previous provider The FeedRoom. The lesson? White-label video providers, try as they might to ingrain themselves into the core of their customers’ video initiatives, know that no deal is safe. That goes for Brightcove, and it goes for Digitalsmiths too.
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