Tag Archives: Early Net Culture

Edward Wasserman: “The Next Rebirth of the Media”

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Edward Wasserman titled his piece “The Next Rebirth of the Media” but I came away wondering about the future relavence of networks as we know them. Wasserman is a professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.

“TV will migrate to the Net, and if networks can reach a national audience online, why bother with costly affiliation contracts? By cutting out the needless re-transmitters they keep the entire advertising dollar. But what becomes of broadcast affiliates once theyre no longer affiliates  indeed, once theyre no longer broadcasters either, since their audiences wont be getting them over-the-air either? When you click on to your online news and entertainment options, why will you choose your local ex-ABC affiliate? You wont, unless it has something unique to offer  namely, the very content that has been most sorely neglected in the current era of non-regulation: local programming.”

Four our five years ago I described the Web as a meteor, far out in space, headed toward earth. We don’t know how big it is… when it’s going to get here… or whether it will miss our little planet or smash ut so bits. But we better start building spaceships. Just in case. Don’t know how to build a spaceship? Better start learning. The meteor is big…and it’s close.

No Escaping the Blog

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“According to blog search-engine and measurement firm Technorati, 23,000 new weblogs are created every day or about one every three seconds. Each blog adds to an inescapable trend fueled by the Internet: the democratization of power and opinion. Blogs are just the latest tool that makes it harder for corporations and other institutions to control and dictate their message. An amateur media is springing up, and the smart are adapting.”

— Fortune.com (Why There’s No Escaping the Blog)

Music Choice, Sprint launching music service

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“Music Choice and Sprint are launching a music service that allows mobile phone users to view short videoclips and listen to radio-like programming on their handsets. For $5.99 per month, users can listen to a range of genres and formats, including R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and rock. Earlier this year, the company announced Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which delivers streaming audio and video content from NBC, CNN, ABC News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, Discovery, E Entertainment, and others.” (Reuters/MSNBC.com)

Fiber to the home.

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Brother-in-law Chris reports that Verizon is installing fiber-to-the-home in his neighborhood of South Lake, Texas. According to this Yahoo! story, the company expects to market video services on the new FTTP network next year. DSL? Cable? Shhiiiiitttt. Fiber will deliver “download speeds of up to 5 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps, with upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbps for the first two products and 5 Mbps for the third. The 5 Mbps service sells for $34.95 per month, when purchased with a package of Verizon services, and $39.95 when purchased separately.” Hard to believe I’ll live to see that kind of speed to our home but I’m happy for him. Sort of.

BBC Radio gives podcasting a try.

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“BBC Radio has for the last month been making some of its radio shows available for MP3 download. Is this news? Well yes, previously they’ve always streamed their content, so you had to be by your computer to receive it. With downloads you’ve been able to take it with you.” [via Scripting.com]

Our networks should be exploring podcasting but when I talk to people about it they think I’m nuts. The fact that BBC Radio is jumping in (and NPR and a shit-load of other pretty reputable broadcasters) is completely lost on them.

Play-by-play on line two

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Rick Bozich — a sports columnist for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky– isn’t sure he needs radio anymore:

“I followed the final 15 minutes of the Louisville-Florida basketball game while I was in Freedom Hall on Saturday. The game, remember, was played in Gainesville. I was courtside for Kentucky’s annual Basketball 101 lecture against Indiana. I did not have a radio. I did have my cell phone. I connected to the Internet. Clicked to an ESPN site. Another click, and play-by-play from Gainesville flashed on my screen. Stats. Time. The works. Actually, that’s not true  no greasy bacon ads. So tell me again, for precisely what do I depend on WHAS radio?

From my perspective, the most interesting part of this story is that the cheif operating officer of our company brought it in to me. He gets it and that’s very important. One more thing… Radio is not going away. I don’t want it to go away. But broadcasters must find a way to embrace new technologies instead of trying to lobby them out of existance or deny that existance.

Who needs broadcast television?

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From adrants: “Who needs broadcast television, when podcasting will literally allow for the creation of personalized media channels? In the future, the device referred to as a TV will carry your own personalized podcast that you create and modify to your heart’s content. Looks like growing old might not be so bad.”

Blog: Word of the year

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Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that “blog” was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year. It tops the list the 10 words of the year. I don’t know how you can read a newspaper or magazine, watch TV news or listen to the radio…and not have heard the word. But hardly a day goes by that I don’t find myself explaining. [Reuters story]