From Trad to Rad?

NBC is no longer using iTunes to make its content available. However its working on other ways of providing content and spreading its services. NBC Direct is currently in beta but illustrates a modern, practical and flexible approach from NBC. Here is a traditional linear broadcaster reaching out to both VOD and peer-to-peer file sharing to provide a HIGH DEF service. (Techcrunch.)What an awesome combination! The continuing problem of bandwisth presents a problem for companies wanting to provide high resolution video. We guess that people want this - look at the sales of HD TV's. The trad Companies need some way of separating their content from Youtube's frame rate and frame sized reduced output. Quality is their selling point and they therefore put distance between themselves and UGC. If you get paid for your content does that make it professional? Well, YouTube wants to give you some of that crazy Google money. If you make the cut, that is. After half a year of testing out its Partners program with 100 lucky YouTube contributors, YouTube is now accepting applications from all comers. Tell them why they should give you the money and they might enroll you in their revenue-sharing program. If they feel like it.

what's THIS got to do with broadcasting?

Here is a thought provoking piece of video. It attempts to squeeze a huge concept into a small package. Does it make sense to you? Comment...

Free magazine - online

COW Magazine ISSUE 7 -- Nov/Dec 2007.

In this issue of Creative COW Magazine, you will meet one of the men that made Max Headroom such an 80's icon. He'll share strategies and how it all came about, including some of the techniques used. One of the members of the legendary Robert Abel & Associates team takes you inside some of the earliest uses of CGI and how these commercial techniques preceded their later use in the world of film. You will also be taken inside a direct response advertising expert's world and how it works and why. You will also learn how one man made a commercial that you would swear used 3D software but doesn't. You will discover five ways to get control of your billings and make more money with less stress. Watch as one woman handles 11 deadlines a day -- and you thought you had it bad, eh? Learn an artist's secrets for high-end graphics workflows. And take a tour of drive technology of the past, the present and the future. Well worth a look

User generated content

Here's a recent lecture from the man behind the Creative Commons movement that we have discussed in sessions before. He presents an interesting case for changes in copyright control which are needed as a result of technological changes and the way people use media.