JANUARY 2, 2007
News Analysis
By Catherine Holahan
Long Live the Net Video Revolution
Vlogging, citizen journalism, and other facets of the online video phenomenon will shine on in the New Year
In 2005, Isam Rasheed hadn't heard about video blogging. The explosion of bombs outside his Iraq home had drowned out the buzz around YouTube, MySpace (NWS), and the new, user-generated Internet. But Rasheed, a 33-year-old former engineer turned video producer, knew well the power of images. So when 26-year-old Brian Conley came to Iraq asking for help creating a video blog about Baghdad, Rasheed answered the call.
So began Rasheed's work for Alive in Baghdad, a weekly vlog featuring interviews with Iraqis living in Baghdad and Ramadi. The work is dangerous. Rasheed and his colleagues do not have the protections afforded large news networks—and cameras tend to make everyone uneasy. In one case, two AiB vloggers were kidnapped by Iraqi forces and held for nearly 72 hours after filming a bomb-damaged gas station. "There are many suspicions of the camera from different sides," says Rasheed in a telephone interview from Iraq. "They think you are a spy… My life, all our lives, have become very dangerous in Baghdad."
But Rasheed, a father of three, says it's a risk worth taking. He's convinced of video's power to show truth and of the Internet's ability to disseminate images widely. And he became part of the vanguard that fueled an explosion of Internet video in 2006, evidenced by the millions of broadband computer users who shared, watched, and commented on independently produced video clips posted on sites such as Google's (GOOG) YouTube, Metacafe, Revver, and blip.tv. "I think we saw a tipping point in online video this year, and I think that tipping point is going to continue through 2007," says blip.tv Chief Executive Officer Mike Hudack.
Taking a Risk More than 79% of U.S. broadband Internet users watched video in 2006, according to a September eMarketer study. Roughly 32% of all U.S. Internet users said they watched more online video in '06 vs. a year earlier.
Part of that increase was due to the quantity of video available. After all, YouTube, the biggest video-sharing site, says it was streaming more than 100 million videos a day for much of the year (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/18/06, "YouTube: Waiting for the Payoff,"). In 2005, YouTube was just getting off the ground. Hudack also attributes the surge to the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, the financial recovery of investment firms willing to take a risk on new companies such as video-sharing sites, and the availability of server space to host videos, stemming from investments made by Internet service providers during the first dot-com boom.
But 2006 was notable not just for the sheer amount of online video but also for the quality of content that emerged. Sure, there was the torrent of porn, drunk college kids dancing, and parents posting cute videos of their kids. But there was also footage of the Mount Lebanon Hotel bombing, blogs highlighting environmental issues, video commentary on news and politics, and new made-for-online broadcast shows. More than ever, Internet video provided a platform for new voices and perspectives, giving even amateur filmmakers entrée to mass audiences traditionally garnered by established media outlets. And in 2006 people took advantage of it, using Internet video to influence everything from opinion about the war to notions about what constitutes entertainment.
Part of the Political Process Take Hosea "Ze" Frank, host of the The Show with Ze Frank a popular vlog that has a daily audience conservatively estimated at 30,000. Frank used his Webcam and his wit to highlight stories in the news he cared about. In the process, he helped foster discussion about news items some may have missed in the pages of their daily newspaper or otherwise have forgotten about.
One such story Frank and other vloggers kept in the public eye was an apparent racial slur by Senator George Allen. The Virginia Republican was videotaped using the word "macaca" in reference to an American of Indian descent who worked for the campaign of Allen's opponent, Democrat James Webb. The tape was disseminated widely on the Internet and clips were used in news video commentaries such as Ze Frank's show. In the end, Allen lost to Webb (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/2/06, "Digital Mudslinging").
It wasn't the Internet video alone that cost Allen the election, Frank concedes, given that the audience of the vloggers discussing the clip may have had a more liberal slant to begin with. Still, he doesn't deny the ability of blogs to keep issues in discussion. "What is interesting to me is the role of the blogosphere as being an echo chamber," says Frank. "It keeps the stuff alive for awhile."
Jumping to the Big Time It also gives individual perspectives on the news that are missing from some of the major outlets. "I think that you have a trend in the U.S. where there is a lot of fracturing [of opinion], and when you have this kind of fracturing you start having a place for more color commentary in which personality and opinion get fused with news," says Frank.
There is clearly a demand for such commentary. Vlogger Amanda Congdon made a name for herself as the host of an online news commentary/humor show called Rocketboom, one of the Internet's most popular vlogs. She became so popular that Disney's (DIS) ABC picked her up as a regular on the network's 24-hour digital channel ABC News Now. She will also occasionally appear as a correspondent on the network's TV news broadcasts and has a deal to produce an online and on-air show for Time Warner's (TWX) HBO (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/14/06, "From Rocketboom to ABC,").
Congdon has covered environmental issues for a regular blog on blip.tv as well as political events. She interviewed former North Carolina Senator John Edwards earlier this year. Edwards later helped validate the increasing importance of online video when, on Dec. 17, he released a video on YouTube showing he would run for President in 2008. The video was released a full 10 days before he made his announcement in the more traditional forms of media.
Advertisers Waking Up Congdon believes that 2006 was a breakout year for online citizen journalism and she believes more people will become involved with vlogging news commentary next year. "I think we are just starting to see citizen journalism being taken to the next level really," she says. "There was a time when all you could really cover was your local parade. Now people are covering the 2008 Presidential race heavily online," says Congdon. "And candidates are reaching out and approaching the Internet as its own medium, separate from television."
Advertisers are reaching out, too, hoping to get in front of the younger, tech-savvy audiences that vlogs attract. Congdon's blip.tv blog, for example, is sponsored by Dove and Paltalk, a video chat community. Advertisers spent an estimated $410 million on online video advertising in 2006, according to eMarketer estimates. That number is expected to grow to $2 billion by 2009 as sites that specialize in video get beyond obstacles to using copyrighted material and find ways to creatively include advertising with independent and network content.
As advertisers have gotten into the game, more creators have begun developing online entertainment shows in hopes of cashing in. New online networks, such as Heavy and ManiaTV, are emerging, and not only airing but also creating original online content. For example, ManiaTV hosts a daily, live online broadcast featuring comedian Tom Green and his celebrity guests, and is working on a show with musician Dave Navarro, former guitarist for Jane's Addiction.
From Amateur to Pro Though ManiaTV does not yet have advertisers in Green's show, ads are served on the site and in other shows through product placement in video, online commercials, and scrolling on-screen text messages. Its major advertisers include Nike (NKE), Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon (VZ) and Vodafone (VOD), and Rockstar Games (TTWO). "A year and a half ago, P&G (PG), Chrysler (DCX), and GM (GM) said they were moving a huge chunk of old school advertising money to the Internet," says ManiaTV founder and CEO Drew Massey. "Then all the other players out there said, 'Look, we have to start spending money on the Internet.'"
The increase of ad dollars and prospect of profit means 2007 will have more would-be celebrities showing off their quirky talents or dance moves online. (Remember the history of dance video on YouTube or the Mentos and Diet Coke experiments?) But it also means more professional or semiprofessional content will be produced with online audiences in mind. "If you want to attract serious people and not just the amateurs, you have to pay people," says Metacafe CEO Arik Czerniak, whose site shares revenue with video creators. "Since we have been paying, the content has improved drastically."
More money means more shows such as the online soap opera Lonelygirl 15, which gained national media attention as YouTube viewers wondered whether lead character Bree was really a teenage girl trapped in a cult or if she was just an actress. The staged soap won its creators the title of Biggest Web Hit at Viacom's (VIA) VH1 Big in '06 Awards. It also means 2007 should bring more serious news programs like Alive in Baghdad. "Now that we got these great tools, what are we going to do with them?" asks AiB's Conley. "The onus is on us to do something revolutionary."
Click here for a slide show of online video's 2006 highlights.
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