Talpa and Endemol trying to make money with pull services

Talpa as well as Endemol are trying to get people to pay for their content. Talpa is selling its serial Van Speijk price 1.50 Euro per episode. Endemol is selling one minute versions of the popular soap GTST. price will be around 0,50 Euro up to 1.00 Euro per minute.

X-media club, a party it was!!

I had the pleasure of moderating a very interesting debate on crossmedia at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. There is a stream available, total duration is 3 hours, but every minute interesting.

We had

concept developer Theo Meereboer of Sanoma;

Krijn Schuurman as a media trendwatcher

Annelies Kaptein, one of the first interactive television programmers in the NL, who has won several international awards for the work of her company Stoneroos,

Paul Naber of Microsoft about XBox 360 Live and the mediacenter

And finally Johan Pouwelse (TU Delft) to disrupt all the earlier presentation with his work on P2P television, it may change the nature of broadcasting completely.. remember Napster and the music industry..

Obviously it is in Dutch..

Take a look

http://home.interactievemedia.hva.nl/x-mediaclub/

the guys that wrote the ' we media ' report

Take a look:

http://www.hypergene.net/blog/weblog.php

50 million for Dutch crossmedia-fund

Joop van den Ende, the other half of the famous Endemol enterprise is back in the mediagame. He has started up a crossmedia fund. Together with Hubert Deitmers (former board of directors Endemol) Van den Ende plans to bring his passion for media back into new companies that operate on the converging marketplace. Van den Ende has been active in the world of theater with his VandenEnde foundation after he left Endemol. His work has had a significant influence on the developments of the theater market in the Netherlands and as far as I know also in other places in Europe. He explained in an interview that he was making money in two ways, by exploiting the theater buildings and by selling tickets for the plays in these theaters. One of his last projects is building the new DeLaMar theaters in Amsterdam, by reconstructing this old theater in the center of Amsterdam for new glorious theater moments. Not all projects are highly profitable, also high culture productions are supported. Van den Ende was bound to a non-competition agreement with Telefonica untill 1 January of this year, after John de Mol and Van den Ende sold their company to the spanish 6 years ago. Both of them earned billions with the sale. The new fund (VandenEnde &Deitmers) aim at smaller but innovative enterprises. A return on investment of 20% per year is achievable in this field. That is very probably a good informed estimate and means good news for all of us operating in this field.
Another 100 million is reserved to help middlesize companies, such as Eyeworks grow (although I doubt if Eyeworks is still middlesized, they are a pretty large player by now). There has been a long term relation between VandenEnde and Oerlemans (Eyeworks) as Van den Ende was the first to recognize Oerlemans talents as more then a soappie. On the verge of the convergence in the mediamarket to seriously take up, both big mediaplayers are back in the game. And both de Mol and Van den Ende have been very succesfull in the broadcasting market, signaling a good view on the possibilities in the mediamarket. Since both are aiming at crossmedia developments, that is good news for the development of the crossmedia market in the Netherlands and Europe. The flip side may be that again the same people will be dominating the media market. In general it is good news for all crossmedia missionaries out there.

how writing will change in this century, says christy

Christy Dena is a well appreciated co-thinker on crossmedia. Here's what she has to say on the future of the noble art of writing:

http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/index.php/2006/01/06/writing-predictions-for-the-next-decade/

reserve in your agenda 23th of January

Yours truly will moderate the discussion at the X-media event on 23th of january:

http://x-mediaclub.blogspot.com

It's free and inspiring

newsvine, news by you

In Korea they already have a website that is made by the readers (Ohmy).
On Frankwatching I saw this tip:

http://www.newsvine.com

It is still in beta, but looks very interesting. This can function as a "portal", sorry for using that out of date term, but that is what it is, for the news you would like to receive. You can publish articles and if you do that good, meaning you have high relevance, you will make more money on the ads that accompany your articles (you get that money). Next to your own rss feeds, that generate your personal news window, you can browse the newsvine for new points of view. Not everybody will do that, but I can imagine (as a former journalist) it is a very rewarding source for professional journalist to skim for interesting items. Big and small news..

My source; http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2006/01/07/newsvine_iedereen_kan_nieuws_m

inscript sponsoring is to safe broadcast budgets

The new European directive for the audiovisual industry will 'loosen' the rules for product placement. This will help the broadcasters to grow their budgets and keep on pace in the market of emerging on-demand services is wat the commission expects. Because this will be more effective commercial communication thereby generating higher income for broadcasters (again).
Off course this will not be enough. Broadcasters will have to get into the on-demand field as well if they plan to keep their position at least almost stable. They have a big advantage opposed to newcomers, they are known and trusted brands to the public. What is very interesting is the 'country of origin' principle. Meaning your service has to be build to the rules of the country you are established in AND may not be hindered explicitely by the law of the country it is aiming at, besides the country of origin. If I look at the UK for instance, rules for lotteries and gambling are much more liberated then in the Netherlands. Off course the Dutch can hold on to many of their rules, claiming on public policy. However if harmonisation is required, these will have to be liberated too. Working from UK territory and offering services to the other Member States, what is the freedom to offer your service in the whole of the EU? Is Luxembourg still a good country of origin to be based? If so, it will be even busier in this small country (where Viviane Reding, commissioner of IST and Media originates from). On demand services will only have to conform to very basic rules regarding protection of minors and from discrimination and hatred etcetera. Because people decide themselves to consume this content rules are very basic. The consumer has to take his/her own responsibility on what to consume. One market that is definitely going to boom under these rules is the on demand market for adult content. A category per se that will be demanded by consumers. Short reporting (news and sports) are to be offered to other countries on reasonable terms. Foreign sales of news is a source of income under fire. What will be the role of the international news agencies? Will they see their positions harmed. Owners of sports rights may have to see into their estimates on income from short reporting too. In favour is the consumer in any case because more easily they will have access to relevant information.

NSE, last attempts..

NSE the news sport and entertainment show on newcomer Talpa is currently still in heavy weather. A newsprogram always needs more time to grow, the same applies here.

NSE has to question itself.., What is my true added value to the newsparadigm that is already offered? And that is not in the form of your newspresentation it is in the news itself. What is the point of view? Are you going to kick ass, well go out and kick some real ass! Are you going to tell the true story of people, well go out and paint me the portraits. I want to see interesting people that are touched or part of the news, it may take a 6 minute portrait a day.. I want to see politicians, the guys and girls in charge confronted at their spot, not with a sneering remark in the studio. Play it straight, put it in their faces and tape their reactions. Be the rebel on the court, instead of playing the role. Don't make it easy on yourselves.. Go all the way, time is almost up..

http://www.nse.tv