On being industry groupies

Today in Things Media Bloggers Love that No One in the Real World Cares About, Telemundo's Peter Blacker called pirates "super-fans" and said they're wonderful to study, to help, and to use for optimising proprietary channels.

It was the most magnificent thing in all the world ... and it happened just three years after Matt Mason said companies should use BitTorrent to do just that.

SCENE: I return to the newsroom with stars in my eyes and twitchy livetweet-mangled hands.

Me: "I'm in love with Peter Blacker." 

Stu: "Does this mean I can have Cécile Frot-Coutaz all to myself?"  

Two days prior, we decided to be mutually in love with the CEO of FremantleMedia, who's whip-smart and deliciously bullish about OTTs like Netflix.

Me: "Yes. No... no, no, yes." 

Stu: "We can have a double wedding." 

Me: "Let's have a double wedding, then go on double dates until we die." 

Stu: "This is not at all creepy." (Checks watch.) "It's Katzenberg time." (Smiles apologetically, then abandons me.)

The speakers are so good this year! I wish they had trading cards.

Meet Disruptomatic.

One of my favourite things to do in the year is attend MIPTV and MIPCOM as an official liveblogger. Both conferences serve as real-time deal-making spaces for TV networks and production firms, and the biggest thing this industry's been wrestling with is how their business models are changing as a response to online services and shifting user behaviours. The heads of networks fall at different extremes: open and experimental, or shut-off and defensive.

With that said, it's with happy surprise that I found Reed MIDEM (which runs MIPTV and MIPCOM) has been open to our experiments and discoveries in making the conferences themselves more social. In addition to liveblogging, we tweet, track progress and play around with new tech, like Soundcloud bytes and video posts. It hasn't just helped to make the conference seem more relevant to young producers and developers; it's also warmed me to an industry facing torrents of scary change.

On the train ride home this year, my fellow liveblogger Stuart Dredge and I were texting gossip and jokes back and forth. Between laughs about how often we heard the word "disruption" that week, Stuart -- half in jest -- suggested we start a disruption blog. I made up the name, he bought the URL and we quickly told MIPBlog community manager James Martin, who immediately joined us.

That's how Disruptomatic was born. It's the fruit of our tongue-in-cheek (but generally optimistic) wombs -- mine, James' and Stuart's. Our axe is "technology disrupting media" -- it covers significant changes in TV, gaming, publishing and mobile. (Probably more, once we think of them.)

It sounds general but I do think this picks at a scab nobody's fully ripped off: real lay coverage of how seemingly fixed industries are mutating, forging digital roots and mutating again. And most of these industries were lucky: they had years to cash in on a business model that hasn't changed much in over two generations.

As technology advances with increasing speed, so does disruption: some people are already demanding disruption in SoLoMo, which hasn't had time to sort out business models that are nearly as fixed.

I also think we are well-positioned to give these topics the balance and multiple perspectives they deserve: Stuart regularly writes about music and apps, James is deep in the trenches of music and TV, and I regularly cover ads, technology and user behaviour.

Note that this version of the site is basically our "beta". We'll be launching a new design in the month to come, as well as an official logo.

For now, read along for the fun of it and follow us on Twitter: @Disruptomatic.

The Boat Hack That May Change TV, and How Corporate Culture Affects Design

I just finished MIPTV, where I was liveblogging like crazy with fellow journo/blogger Stuart Dredge. This year MIPTV held an event called MIPCube, which focuses on better acquainting TV producers and network execs with the digital folks of whom they're so wary.

Over the weekend MIPCube hosted a Hack Day event in partnership with Rewired State. In short, a passel of hackers were put on a yacht and given less than 48 hours to hack something that would improve our TV experience. On Saturday night they presented all their projects, a whopping 12 of which 10 properly work and are now online.

But only one could win judges' hearts, and that was GrabMagic!, featured above. It was developed by Aral Balkan.

What I love about this Kinect hack is that it really does feel magical. It doesn't just produce a fluent connection between your TV and phone; it creates one between you and those devices as well. You behave like a connected organism, moving muscles without thinking, and that's beautiful.

During the Hack Day presentations I asked Aral how he avoids feature creep in his design. This was his response.

 As a designer, your greatest asset is the ability to say no. But that's simplistic - sometimes it's not your inability to say no, it's the structure of the organisation itself that doesn't allow you. If the organisation is design-led, it's easy; but otherwise designers may not have the authority.

A lot of organisations, because of their corporate cultures, because of their corporate structures, make simple design impossible. It isn't because of a team. That's very low level.

User experience begins at the top and trickles down.

See the other projects from the boat hack at MIPCube.

'Ever Wish You Had Sonic Hearing?'

No one ever needs to know that YOU have sonic hearing (yours for just $14.95 plus S+H)!

This commercial is amazing.

The Needle or the Pipe

Last month the CW decided to pull episodes of Gossip Girl off the internet, arguing it cannibalizes the network broadcast. What a backward and stupid thing to do.

That kind of behaviour punishes people for evolving. It also betrays a lack of creativity. But worst of all, the CW is suggesting TV and the internet cannot viably coexist.

One day these platforms will merge. Until they do, there is room for both: each boasts a benefit the other currently lacks. People with the money and the choice will, more often than not, opt for both.

Accenture's Global Broadcast Consumer Survey recently found that consumers are loyal to favourite programs regardless of medium. At this point in the development of media -- where new shows are online and on TV, but streaming broadcasts are generally a day late -- how consumers want to experience their vice (pipe or needle?) will determine how they consume it.

For the latest episode of a favourite show, or maybe just for an undemanding escape, they'll turn to television.

To fill holes in the plotline (that is, to watch extras or episodes missed) or research past seasons of a show they're thinking about following, they'll turn to the 'net.

Benj and I follow Lost and Desperate Housewives with the perseverance normally reserved for cause-oriented marathon runners. It was a pleasure to find we could stream them from the 'net because it meant we wouldn't need to get a TV.

Two weeks ago, while I was away on business, Benj bought one.

"It's just for DVD watching," he said casually. "Don't you think it'll be nice to have a big screen for movies?"

The logic made okay sense. To celebrate, we had a Lord of the Rings marathon with a friend. The bigger screen definitely brings new dimensions to Hobbiton.

The week I left for Manhattan, Benj suggested we get cable.

"Why do we need cable?" I asked, perplexed. Online TV aside, we have whole seasons of shows we haven't even begun watching.

"Because then we can watch new Desperate Housewives episodes THE NIGHT THEY AIR instead of the next morning!" Benj said brightly. "Come on. It's only $15 a month."

I'm still not sure why (curiosity? His daily harangues?), but I ultimately gave in. Since then, it's impossible to get our asses of the couch. I have never experienced anything as magnetic as TV -- with the exception of the internet, which has rather lost luster now that I depend on it for financial survival; and my BlackBerry, which feels more like a leash than a Pandora's box of vice-ridden treasures.

On TV, even the ads are more exciting.

We're back to where the spendy advertisers want us, thanks mostly to the internet. So who says the 'net and networks can't survive in tangent?

---
*I think I'm sort of into Tyra. And Benj? He's definitely into Oprah. His word for her show, uttered fresh today, was "soothing."

Whopper Freakout.

I realize how late I am to the ballpark, but I wanted it on record somewhere in the universe that I think Burger King's Whopper Freakout was clever and brave and just generally neato.

What, you mean you didn't know? Silly you. Get this:

• For 24 hours, BK told customers the Whopper was discontinued.
• For another 24 hours, BK slipped equivalent burgers from McD's or Wendy's into people's bags when they ordered Whoppers.

Both instances caused outrage, dramatic angst, and multiple instances of my favourite red-faced phrase, "I'd like to speak to your manager, please."

The "manager" is the King in full regalia, creepy plastic head and all. He comforts the moody, the hurt and the generally freaked-out with a Whopper on a tray.

And BK is validated -- on camera and all.

Read Robert Gorell's reasons why this is among the best TV and web campaigns EVAR (emphasis added by me).

Super Bowl Advertiser Website Traffic

Unless you're Bud Light, is $2.7M per :30 spot worth an avalanche of visitor hit-and-quits?


More data at MarketingCharts, which has been reporting on the aftermath of Super Bowl 2008 non-stop.

Joost: Fast Adopting All the Crap It Left Behind

It's been four months since I nailed my Joost beta invitation, and I think by now I'm in a fairly decent position to review the offering that either puts television to bed, or marries television to its longtime nemesis, the computer.

Cool things about Joost:

• The occasional brand-spankin'-new music video
• The occasional good show
• Throwback television (remember Ren and Stimpy? Hell yes)

Less than cool things about Joost:

• The ads, however short and occasional, are getting to be a drag. I don't know how many more times I can look at a Ballpark Frank
• The ad logos in the lower right-hand corner are not much better and, to their misfortune, remind us a lot of the logos that appear on the right-hand corners of daytime network TV
• The 'occasional good show' leaves room for improvement: I Hate My 30s was pretty funny at outset, but increasingly looks like it'll go in the same direction as That '80s Show: the bin. It's a cute idea in theory, but otherwise has a short shelf life. Can't wait for more competitive fare to start popping up, because...
  
• Most of the rest of the shows are trash. Really, The Guinness Book of World Records? Did I really need to see a dude juggling basketballs or a man who can pull tractors with his beard? This is the kind of stuff you feed people who can't afford cable

Will Joost put TV to bed? With TV already on its way out the door in terms of viewership, we probably can't attribute its death to Joost alone. But the service is certainly proof that we don't need the original king-sized tube to suffer the same angst.

Will it wed TV to the monitor? Joost proves, and impressively, that democratic TV-on-yo'-comp is doable, and well.

One awesome thing about the service is my newfound ability to zone out and watch a show in the middle of a coffee shop. That, coupled with Joost's On Demand-esque feature, is as hard as a coffin nail that's sealing in the television monarchy.

I definitely wouldn't pin Joost a YouTube killer; it's a totally different value proposition. I can't imagine kids uploading their dog chases or acting impersonations onto the Joost platform, and I don't think that's what the founders want either.

It goes without saying, I think, that the service could do with a little competition to inspire improvement. Increasing adoption of broadband in more rural areas certainly can't hurt, and the iPhone presents a savory opportunity to bring the platform to a more mobile place.

If it wants to be the TV of tomorrow, it needs to go mobile (these days, aiming for the desktop just isn't high enough). Overall, I'd say Joost has a couple of years to go before it sees ready mainstream adoption.

Update: MarketingVox reports Joost is also too heavy for US broadband speeds. Well, hrm, that sucks.