The overall problem is the expansion in the number of ways to make media has spread out scarce ad dollars such that there’s less money per production available. Plus, there are more ways to make a quick video for nothing, that then may go viral and draw ad dollars away from other productions that costs more to make. Think about PSY and Gangnum Style, shown here at the American Music Awards with MC Hammer.
And who’s video has been seen over 1 billion times, and we have to see it one more time:
Has altered the entertainment landscape forever.
CES Partners With Web TV Academy
If you want more proof that online TV is the next wave, consider that CES, the event of The Consumer Electronics Association, has partnered with the organizers of the second annual Web TV Academy Awards to be held on Tuesday, January 8th in Las Vegas at The Venetian.
CEA reflects executives of the consumer electronics industry, and some are noted for being conservative – but not so much so they can’t see an obvious trend that impacts how their customers determine what consumer electronic products to buy. The emergence of web TV directly impacts mobile players, and social media drives people to find these alternative shows, and which fuels the demand for smartphones and laptop computers and platforms to make the shows, including sound and editing systems. It’s no wonder that Dolby, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, AOL, DTS, and Blip.tv are some of the awards’ sponsors for 2013.
All Of This And Mad Men
Finally, 2012 will be remembered as the Mad Men year – the time when the most popular shows and movies had at their center characters who, when it all was said and done, were pretty fucked up people – even Don Draper, the lead character in the famed AMC show Mad Men – and remember Lane Pryce?
And witness ShowTime’s Dexter as the top example of the food chain of messed up heros. If you don’t know that story, Dexter is a mass murderer who’s main job is as a forensics clean up guy. I’m not sure how long this trend of having really bad or just plain screwed up people will continue, but my guess is for some time.
Social media, and hyper media have accelerated the rate of production of what we know about each other, and the process tends to reveal the negative so often that its changed how we view each other – there are no saints or sinners, and we’re all somewhere in between.
TV online will continue to reflect that.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll