BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
29 Jun 2008
related tags: Internet & Web | Management | TV Networks | NBC | GE |

I love nothing more than to blast traditional media, the technology bellwethers and the VCs that back them… but sometimes I think the media covering them goes overboard.

Take for example the reaction by some very respected members of the media surrounding NBC’s policies for coverage online for the 2008 Beijing Games. Sure, it is restricted and definitely not as viewer-friendly as viewers would like… but why should everything be given away?

I won’t make too many friends amongst the hippie love crowd… but here’s some wild, crazy, revolutionary thinking for y’all: if NBC is forking over billions to have the rights for the Olympics Games, should it not decide what it can and cannot do with those rights?

So it wants to air content on the Web after it airs on TV… can you blame them? TV is a $75B ad market, the Web is a $20B market as a whole, with video being a $1B market.

Don’t get me wrong: I am all for free, ad-supported content… but I can bet you that had NBC decided to make everything for free, on-demand, in real-time but had the audacity to air pre-rolls, we’d be having a cow over that, too.

No? Don’t lie… This is why the licensing model will give a run to the ad-supported play, not because it’s optimal, but because viewers have been conditioned to avoid video ads, where we’ve yet to even anoint a standard.

I also totally get why they want to restrict video to NBC properties. It’s not what we do at WatchMojo nor is it what many media are doing… but again, there’s an element of scarcity at play here and I think it’s folly to overlook it. Read more on this is “Does the law of diminishing return apply to content is king and ubiquitous distribution?”

Bottom line: no, it’s not what users want… but users want everything for nothing.

What NBC is doing is actually pretty progressive… especially when you consider how restricted things were in 2004 and 2006. What they are allowing in 2008 is net-net a step in the right direction, and this is obviously because the Olympics come every two years (alternating between Summer and Winter) which is an eternity online… just imagine where they might be in 2010 for Vancouver.

But reading some of the reactions online, you would think that NBC is being lambasted for deciding to run the stuff on their websites and on their terms… it’s like “hey man, just put it up on YouTube… and pass the bong”.

Part 2: Will Beijing Come in Between NBC and News Corp. and Cause Rift over Hulu?