Tubefilter News

Oh, the anticipation. Next week is a big week for web series fans and creators. After weeks of Academy voting to narrow down the top web series of 2009, the final nominees for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards will be announced in a live streamed broadcast Monday, March 1, at 9:30 AM (PT) on Streamys.org. The live streamed announcement will feature web personality Shira Lazar from CBS News reading off ten of the main categories. The full list of nominees in all 35 categories will be announced in a press release immediately following.

Without Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in the running this year—the Joss Whedon (and family) musical took home 7 Streamys last spring—many believe that it’s anyone’s game this year across the award categories. With twelve new categories in the mix this year, including a new one that separates out what are now considered “Companion Web Series” or shows that have spun off of existing TV, film or gaming properties like The Office or Heroes web series. Other new additions include “Best Vlogger,” “Best New Web Series,” “Best Foreign Web Series” and “Best Branded Entertainment Web Series.”

The Streamy Awards ceremony itself is set for April 11, 2010 at the Music Box / Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. The live internet broadcast of the show will begin at 5:30 PM (PT) with the red carpet pre-show beginning at 4:00 PM (PT).

Big Fantastic has one of the more impressive track records in the web series circuit, tent-poled by their international breakout franchise Prom Queen. For years they have been the goto production house for studios like Michael Eisner’s Vuguru (Prom Queen, Foreign Body), 60Frames (Cockpit) and Warner Bros. (Sorority Forever). But now as the company prepares its first non-studio original series since their debut Sam Has 7 Friends, the company announced they have signed on as a new media signatories to the Writers Guild of America, West, under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement (“MBA”).

“The Guild has done a great job of recognizing and legitimizing the efforts of online creators like us,” said Big Fantastic’s Doug Cheney. “We chose to become a signatory now because it affords us tremendous opportunities as writers while allowing our company access to the vast WGA talent pool.”

There’s been a fair amount of coverage around the Writer’s Guild East’s (WGAe) efforts to organize new media creators, with as many as 22 web series shops on board as of last month. But out west, its sister guild, the WGAW, has been quieter, though no less successful in bringing in signatories in online content. Big Fantastic in fact is the 33rd web production company to become signatory under the WGAW’s recently won jurisdiction in digital and mobile.

So far 73 web series have been released from these WGAW signatories including Streamy Award-winning Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Web Therapy and Back on Topps. Other series like Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy and television show companion web series like those from Battlestar Galactica, Chuck, Heroes, Monk and The Office are also on that list.

Now the 4-man Big Fantastic team has a new undisclosed web project heading into production. We’ll have updates on this as soon as they are available. Their latest edition of the Prom Queen franchise—Prom Queen: The Homecoming—is still slated for a 2010 release from Vuguru, though no official launch date has been set.

ady, Set, HBO Go! Time Warner’s HBO network is one of the first pay subscription channels out of the gate to make (some) of their content available to HBO subscribers online. Time Warner, along with Comcast, are proponents of TV Everywhere, which aims to offer cable subscribers access to their shows online as well as via their TVs. [Mashable]

Google Buzz Update: Privacy Concerns, New Fixes and a Few Law Suits Too. Since Google’s new social network, Google Buzz launched last week, its engineers and PR team have been busy addressing privacy issues. These concerns stem from Google’s naïve assumptions that high-frequency contact between Gmail users means that users want these folks in their personal social network and also want them publicly acknowledged as a connection. This is an unusual example of Google being out of touch with consumers. [SFGate, Silicon Alley Insider, Google blog]

Free mobile digital TV is on the way. So far, 30 local TV stations have invested in new technology that lets them tap into the digital broadcast spectrum to push their local news, weather and sports to viewers who have new TV-DVD mobile devices, which will be available starting in April. [New York Times]

Heard of Coke Zero? Here comes Facebook Zero. This week at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, industry executives met to discuss all things mobile and announce new products. It was here that Facebook announced a new text-only Facebook mobile site that will be formally introduced over the next few weeks. [Inside Facebook]

Amazon and Apple are gearing up to battle for e-reader market share. Don’t want to splurge for an Apple iPad or Amazon Kindle to read electronic versions of your favorite books? Then check out Amazon’s free new Kindle app for BlackBerry users. [Associated Press]

Attending SXSW Interactive next month? You can keep track of your friends onsite by using mobile apps such as Foursquare and GoWalla. But if you want to know precisely where they are sitting in a conference session, check out SitBy.US. [ReadWriteWeb]

Gaming consoles begin original programming. Sony announced their first interactive episodic Web show, First Play, for gamers using PlayStation 3 consoles connected to the PlayStation Network. First Play episodes will be available to UK gamers every week from March onwards, followed by a roll-out across Europe. The show will contain previews of the latest games and access to exclusive downloadable content. No word on whether or not a US roll-out is planned. [MediaWeek]

Back in December Hulu, along with Clear Channel, MySpace, Ford and Pepsi all signed on as sponsors and production partners for If I Can Dream, a new online docusoap Web series by reality programming mastermind Simon Fuller (American Idol). TheWrap (along with Tubefilter) covered the deal announcement, but overall, it didn’t generate much in the way of media or Web series industry buzz. But it’s time to take a closer look.

Last week’s article by Stuart Elliott of the NY Times (the advertising industry’s most influential reporter), profiled Pepsi’s new Pepsi Refresh Project campaign and mentioned the Web series production deal as the first original content deal for Hulu—calling attention to it one more time, but to a very wide and influential audience of top media and ad agency execs who are still cautiously dipping their toes into the branded entertainment space with their clients.

I’m sure fellow industry watchers are wondering, is Hulu seriously planning to enter the race to produce quality original Web series and if so, how would it impact a market that already includes producers such as Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, Sony’s Crackle, Dailymotion, Babelgum, Next New Networks, DECA and a slew of talented independents breaking new ground?

Going Where The Money Is

Branded underwriting and product placement is all the digital entertainment community talks about today (even as much as the storyline), and for good reason. They need to cover production costs and don’t have revenue assurances such as a subscription model (like cable) or pre-existing licensed distribution deals lined up in advance (like films and broadcast) that will cover costs and procure a modest profit. This upfront cash flow need is the perfect moment for a brand to have a significant (though let’s hope not oppressive) presence within the story as well as association with a certain series. The brand appeal factors include story genre, talent, and demographic reach, as well as ongoing social media engagement to build new customer relationships and retain existing ones.

With a reported 44 million users (and growing) Hulu is still dramatically smaller than YouTube’s reported 330 million users, but offers high quality curated content versus YouTube’s mix of licensed content from CBS for full shows (and official movie and TV show clips and trailers), plus a lot of mediocre user generated content not worth advertising against. Hulu’s audience is drawn to the site for recognizable entertainment franchises, but also offers a Web Originals channel with shows from a variety of independent and larger Hollywood production companies. (No doubt their future original shows will appear on this channel as well.)

“Hulu’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love.”

Social Media Reaches New, Galactic Heights. This week a NASA astronaut, with nothing better to do while circling the earth on an “important” mission, took time out of his day to send the world’s first LIVE tweet from space to the Twitterverse. Takeaway: Even astronauts need a work break. [CNET]

Get Ready To Open Your Wallet (or Purse) for Hulu Content. Rumors have been flying for months about Hulu preparing to offer a subscription model to watch shows. Not surprisingly, its owners NBC Universal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Company and private investors would like to make some money from this business. Are you willing to pay? [LA Times]

AOL Getting into a Video Groove. AOL will soon look more like YouTube as it struggles to redefine itself and regain its financial footing. The company has acquired StudioNow, an online platform for video creation and distribution for $36.5 million in cash and stock. Like YouTube, AOL is eyeing online videos, especially original programming, as a way to boost its bottom line. StudioNow will be integrated into Seed.com, an online entertainment manager and distributor for AOL’s more than 80 branded and niche websites. [Variety]

Is Apple’s New iPad a Game Changer for Content Creators? As the dust settles on yesterday’s iPad unveiling, both geeks and Hollywood are busy pondering what the potential impact of this “iPod Touch on steroids” means for consumer entertainment possibilities. [CNET, Variety]

Today at NATPE in Las Vegas, legendary Hollywood creative and entertainment business leader Michael Eisner, CEO of The Tornante Company and its digital entertainment studio Vuguru, shared his thoughts about originally produced content for the Web.

First off, Eisner is the first to admit that he doesn’t know how the industry is going to play out. “I don’t know if it will be evolutionary or revolutionary…but it can’t not happen” (the growth in content made for the Internet), said Eisner. He added that a “death march” has been going on for other media” (i.e., Cable, TV). They are in trouble because there is a more efficient way to share content around the world with the Internet.

Regardless of the distribution strategy (TV, Cable, DVD) – it’s still about making great, high quality content. He added that when his job was on the line a few times over the years, that “it wasn’t a new technology that saved his ass—it was a show.”

Advertising & Cost Controls

Eisner stated that as far as he can see right now, there is no set model for what works and what doesn’t for producing and distributing made-for-Web series. The industry just has to keep developing new ways of doing deals to attract advertisers, talent, and audiences. For example, they have sold Prom Queen by territory across 45 countries, offer product placements in shows, and also include embedded ads.

Speaking of advertisers, he cited that online ad spots for FOX’s The Simpsons command higher rates than for its broadcast spots ($30 CPM vs. $60 CPM). He also noted that no one thought that the “Brought to you by…” 3-second sponsor spot, or the 15 and 30 second ad breaks in a 7 minute episode would work. Neither have been met with significant negative viewer concerns. So apparently they do. It’s all about experimenting to see what sticks.

Controlling production costs is also critical. He maintains that other digital studios have gone out of business because they spent too much on making the content and couldn’t recoup their costs fast enough. Vuguru made one of their shows running at 150 minutes for $250k. He also mentioned the Hollywood Guilds (e.g. SAG, WGA) as playing an important role in helping this young industry get off the ground, citing flexibility for independent pay negotiations with talent on productions that cost less than $25k per minute.

uguru’s Latest Series: The Booth at the End

Vuguru, producers of the hit Prom Queen web series franchise, Foreign Body, Back on Topps, and the upcoming original series The Booth at the End, plans to produce 10 to 30 shows per year. The launch date for Booth has not been set yet, but the trailer, which screened at NATPE, was compelling. “For Vuguru, we are concentrating on the first window only—the Internet.”

Web 2.0 startups are now well versed in the the so-called ‘freemium’ model of doing business. Give a basic level of your service away for free and then charge users for premium services. Everything from project management tools (Basecamp), collaborative learning (Grockit), online radio (Pandora) and business networking (LinkedIn) all have made this the core models of their businesses.

As we first noticed last year, the freemium model is now making its way into the online video business. Today comes news of two different sides of the web video platform spectrum—premium content site Hulu and live streaming site Ustream—hinting that they too are heading towards this model. The slower adoption of freemium in online video is in many ways linked to a decades old reliance on ad supported entertainment business, particularly in television. But recent moves are sending signals the industry may be on the heels of a turning point on the idea of paid content.

The LA Times today has outlines Hulu’s plans to allow users to watch the five most recent episodes of TV shows free, but then require a subscription of $4.99 a month to watch older episodes. Roll out of this could be as soon as six months from now, according to the newspaper’s sources. And Ustream just launched its Pay-Per-View service with comedian Dane Cook being the first guinea pig to try it out, charging $5 to watch his “ISolated INcident” stand-up routine on February 6.

Independent web series like Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny and Tiki Bar TV have both rolled out their own freemium offerings in the past year. Loyal viewers, of which both shows have a decent amount, pay for ‘memberships’ that give them higher-quality versions of the videos, along with bonus content and early access to new episodes. The results have been mixed, and for a long-running web series like Tiki Bar TV, it’s still just one of the multiple revenue streams it relies on.

“The Tiki Bar Membership model worked relatively well,” producer Tosca Musk told us. “Unfortunately, not well enough to sustain the show, but it certainly did help. And the response from fans was enthusiastic. At the end of the day, Tiki Bar TV events and merchandise have brought in more revenue than memberships. It still seems that paying to watch a show you love, after watching it for free for years, is not as appealing as supporting through others means.”

YouTube debuts charging for select videos tomorrow. YouTube is testing to see if folks will pay to watch movies on its site. The Web’s most popular video sharing site will offer five films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance Film Festival for a fee around $5. [Paid Content]

Apple’s infamous Tablet, a type of digital content reader similar to Amazon’s Kindle, is set to be unveiled next week – finally! There’s so much buzz about the name (rumors are leaning towards “iPad”) that some media outlets are offering a Name Guessing Poll. Cast your vote here: [All Things Digital: BoomTown]

Retired Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates made big news this week by simply joining Twitter and re-joining Facebook. After a few hours of tweeting and about 40 Follows later (including actor Ashton Kutcher and High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale), @BillGates had over 200k followers, which depressed many who have been on Twitter for years trying to get numbers like that. [TechCrunch]

Have a PlayStation 3? If so, you’ll be waiting a while longer for the anticipated “Wii-like” motion controller. Sony announced yesterday that it will be delayed until Fall 2010. [Wired]

Next week’s annual State of the Union Address by President Obama will be available for viewing live on the iPhone (or iPod Touch) for the first time via a new “White House App.” Yes, that’s the name of it. (Clearly there are no tech marketers on staff.) It also delivers other content from the whitehouse.gov Web site. (The White House Blog) Download the app.

Who says virtual goods can’t make a difference in the real world? Zynga’s gamers have donated more than $1.5 million in the past five days for Haitian earthquake relief. They did so by making donations directly from within Zynga’s top four games on Facebook (including FarmVille). [VentureBeat]

Say goodbye to free access to NYTimes.com starting in January 2011. Yesterday, the Times announced that they will create a “metered” pay model. Under this plan, a visitor will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; but to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Details of the subscription fee and how the site will “know” how many times you personally visited remain unanswered. With ad sales tanking, all publications are seeking new streams of revenue to stay afloat. [New York Times]

Mobile text donations for Haitian earthquake relief has set fundraising records for the American Red Cross – demonstrating the charitable power of mobile devices. They’ve raised over $20 million so far thanks to the generosity of people like you! [The Washington Post]