Chris Anderson finishes his epic exploration of Long Tail TV with a great little expo:
... But first, let's crisp up what I mean by Long Tail TV. The definition of the Long Tail in this context is: "content that is not available through traditional distribution channels but could nevertheless find an audience." For the most part, that's niche content. It may not have been niche when it was made or niche everywhere but it counts as niche now where you live. This could include:1) TV shows that are made but not broadcast in your area:
- Channels your cable provider doesn't carry
- Foreign TV
- Local sports and events from places you aren't
2) Old TV shows:
- TV from the archives, from ancient to relatively recent
- Current shows that you missed and forgot to record
3) Video of any sort that is made but not broadcast (the video found on the Internet Archive's moving image collections, which ranges from the Prelinger Archives to SIGGRAPH animations, is a great example.)
- Independent films
- Commercials (which are broadcast but not scheduled and findable)
- Amateur video, including news
- Commercial/corporate video intended for targeted audiences
4) Video that could and would be made if only there were a good way to find an audience for it. (Steve Rosenbaum is blogging on this, too). The best sense of what that might be can be found by looking at the online video that's been made since the broadband web became a reality.....
(You get the idea) Essentially then cluetrain for TV, blogging for TV, microcontent (of a video persuasion) and a worldwide market.
Linked into yesterday's announcement about VOD and other initiatives like Telewest's Blueyonder TV, BBC's offering of online programming, you can see that some broadcasters and network service providers understand this. What I wonder is whether there could be a business model here (I'm very business focused today). Could this be the iTunes / iPod equivalent in video?
I mentioned previously that there are server - client and Peer to Peer models here. In addition I think from Chris's categories above there remains a distinction between mass consumables (although perhaps less mass than previously) and true niche products/offerings - which I think could well be micro-content or be in the same league as online comics / e-books.
Could this be video blogging or video podcasting?
Perhaps this could link to the kind of issues with online photo storage? I think I end up coming back to digital lifestyle aggregators.
Posted by Paul Goodison at January 19, 2005 11:04 AM | TrackBack