Production - Rough cut - User content is king.
on Broadcast, June 23, 2006
Some broadcasters are piling into user-generated content, others remain sceptical. Andy Bell asks what will set the winners apart.
Back in April when Mark Thompson set out his creative vision for the BBC, one of the key themes that the director general thought would future-proof the broadcaster was user-generated content. He's not alone. Over the last month a whole raft of user-generated TV initiatives have been announced. Flextech has launched Trouble Homegrown. MTV is launching an "audience-controlled channel brand" and both the BBC and Channel 4 have discussed their plans for user-generated comedy sites. Recently, I heard a C4 Interactive commissioner saying he hated the term "user-generated". But he admitted that of the eight projects he was most excited about, every one had a user-generated element. So, why has everyone gone user-generated crazy?
Perhaps the first reason is because the internet is about participation. What it does best is get people involved. The second reason is that these sites put the user's creativity at the heart of the process. MySpace is now the second most popular site on the web (after Yahoo). Launched in February 2005, YouTube now gets 50,000 clips uploaded and 55 million viewers a day. It's also a good snare for broadcasters hoping to hang on to youngsters between the ages of 12 and 16. Last November the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 57% of American teenagers have created content for the internet. Hanging out online - and creating material that showcases your digital identity - are increasingly part of the teen experience.
Yet some producers and execs take fright at the rise of user-generated content. If users are creating great content, who'll pay the mortgage? But user-generated TV will co-exist alongside other forms of content, just as blogging lives alongside newspapers. There are also great opportunities for TV formats that harness the power of user-generated TV. We've been talking to a bunch of TV producers over the past few months and have been amazed and impressed by the range of formats they come up with once they understand the promise of user-generated content.
Mark Burnett (of The Apprentice and Survivor) put it well when he asked: "Why would anyone who's a professional content maker fear user-generated content? In the end it makes you better at your job, which is to give the advert-watching public what they want. And there are incredibly talented undiscovered film-makers out there, who are using YouTube to get things out."
And this is the real battle in the world of user-generated content. How do you frame the question to spark the user's interest? With so many channels launching user-generated initiatives, it will be the ideas that engage the user to create (as well as consume) media that will be the massive hits.
Some broadcasters are piling into user-generated content, others remain sceptical. Andy Bell asks what will set the winners apart.
Back in April when Mark Thompson set out his creative vision for the BBC, one of the key themes that the director general thought would future-proof the broadcaster was user-generated content. He's not alone. Over the last month a whole raft of user-generated TV initiatives have been announced. Flextech has launched Trouble Homegrown. MTV is launching an "audience-controlled channel brand" and both the BBC and Channel 4 have discussed their plans for user-generated comedy sites. Recently, I heard a C4 Interactive commissioner saying he hated the term "user-generated". But he admitted that of the eight projects he was most excited about, every one had a user-generated element. So, why has everyone gone user-generated crazy?
Perhaps the first reason is because the internet is about participation. What it does best is get people involved. The second reason is that these sites put the user's creativity at the heart of the process. MySpace is now the second most popular site on the web (after Yahoo). Launched in February 2005, YouTube now gets 50,000 clips uploaded and 55 million viewers a day. It's also a good snare for broadcasters hoping to hang on to youngsters between the ages of 12 and 16. Last November the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 57% of American teenagers have created content for the internet. Hanging out online - and creating material that showcases your digital identity - are increasingly part of the teen experience.
Yet some producers and execs take fright at the rise of user-generated content. If users are creating great content, who'll pay the mortgage? But user-generated TV will co-exist alongside other forms of content, just as blogging lives alongside newspapers. There are also great opportunities for TV formats that harness the power of user-generated TV. We've been talking to a bunch of TV producers over the past few months and have been amazed and impressed by the range of formats they come up with once they understand the promise of user-generated content.
Mark Burnett (of The Apprentice and Survivor) put it well when he asked: "Why would anyone who's a professional content maker fear user-generated content? In the end it makes you better at your job, which is to give the advert-watching public what they want. And there are incredibly talented undiscovered film-makers out there, who are using YouTube to get things out."
And this is the real battle in the world of user-generated content. How do you frame the question to spark the user's interest? With so many channels launching user-generated initiatives, it will be the ideas that engage the user to create (as well as consume) media that will be the massive hits.
posted by Gripplly at
10:22
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