The blip.tv blog

Very short service outage

Hey guys, we had a hiccup there for about 5-10 minutes. We were in the middle of a MySQL CHANGE MASTER procedure and some of the software behaved badly. Sorry if it caused anyone distress.

Building a rising tide

Television networks, despite being mired in a distribution and business model first unveiled at the 1939 Worlds Fair, have some good ideas. One of those good ideas is cross-promotion.

Television networks use anywhere from five to fifteen percent of their advertising inventory to promote shows other than the one you’re currently watching. They do this to launch new shows, grow the audiences of troubled shows and build on the success of successful shows.

Starting this week we’re starting to experiment with ways to help shows build their audiences through cross-promotion. We’re doing this by reserving a small percentage of ad inventory (overlay and postroll) for promotion.

Our initial test will promote only a small number of shows. If this initial test is successful we will gradually expand the program to cover an increasing number of shows. We haven’t yet developed formal criteria for participation, but we’re generally looking for high quality shows that are either already proven to be very sticky (in other words they’ll make the most of each incremental viewer) or brand new shows that need an extra boost.

We’ll be running these promos on all shows that are opted into overlay or postroll advertisements. They will not preempt — in fact, they will be preempted by — high paying advertisements. They may occasionally preempt low paying “filler” ads that we use when there are no appropriate ads to show to a particular viewer or in a particular situation.

We’re optimistic that this experiment will give us new weapons with which to build show audiences. Let us know what you think.

So much more work to do

If you haven’t checked out Blip.tv Wraps Up Whirlwind 2009 with a Sold Out December, check it out. It’s a great article.

Things are going well. But, as Eric Mortensen, our Director of Content, points out: there’s still a lot of work to do. That’s an understatement. 2009 has been an amazing year for independent video, and it’s been an amazing year for blip. But — and this is incredibly important — there is a ton of work left to do.

We’re working hard to build the next-generation television network. CBS began broadcasting television in 1941. The television model — defined as it is by scarce linear distribution — hasn’t changed appreciably in 68 years. It’s about time that television gets shaken up the way that the music industry, the publishing industry and almost every other great American industry has been shaken up.

We see a day in the relatively near future where you can watch any independently produced show — let’s not call them TV shows or Web shows — on your television. Using your remote control. It shouldn’t matter whether you choose to use cable or IPTV or Boxee or Roku or TiVo or your Internet-connected television set or your game console. You should be able to seamlessly switch from watching “NCIS” on CBS to watching “Meet the Mayfarers” from blip.tv.

And as a talented individual or small group you should be able to produce a show — a sitcom, a news magazine, a how-to show, a drama, a sci-fi show, you name it — and get the same distribution that CBS enjoys for the shows they invest millions of dollars in. You should be able to access audiences with the same ease. People should be able to watch your show wherever and however and whenever they please. And you should have access to major national advertisers to fund the show, just like CBS does.

Put simply: the playing field will level out. The intrinsic advantage of the television networks — scarce linear distribution — is eroding. It is being replaced by infinite distribution. By an economy of plenty. And this is already benefiting and will increasingly benefit the “little guy.” It’ll benefit independent producers and it will benefit audiences who will get more choice than ever before.

There are inherent challenges that we still face. Discovery is going to be a big issue as we move a big catalog — tens of thousands of shows and millions of episodes — to the television set. We’re going to have to double down on our relationships with our growing list of distribution partners. We’re going to have to deliver significant and meaningful value to advertisers and to show creators and to distribution partners. We’re going to have to grow without losing our soul.

And, of course, we face considerable execution risk. Blip and independent Web shows in general are making great strides. 2009 has been a banner year. But it’s not over. It’s not done. This is all about being heads-down and executing.

We’re incredibly humbled by the support that our partners have given us. By the faith that show creators have put in us thus far. The faith that our distribution partners and advertisers have put in us. And we hope that we’re delivering. If not, e-mail us. We’ll work very hard to make you happy. We want you to be happy. And it’s only through you telling us what we’re screwing up that we can become better.

It’s my hope, our hope, that we can continue earning the trust of show creators. Of distribution partners and of advertisers. But we know this: content creators form the core of blip. Without show creators blip simply would not exist.