A British football team has done a deal with YouTube.
Posts about Exploding_TV
How to
Steve Garfield and company have a nice guide to video blogging.
Well, if Sonny Bono could win….
Presidential candidates should take a lesson from Al Franken and his YouTube video announcing his run for the Senate. (Well, that radio thing didn’t work out so well so it’s time to get a job.) The video is a bit long but it has the right tone as Franken talks about his and his wife’s poor families and how the government helped them get their starts in life; it is a fine illustration of his liberal progressive outlook. Franken is not cracking jokes; he’s not talking to a big audience on a big camera; he’s talking to one person: whoever clicks below.
39 seconds of fame
One of my favorite shows in any medium, big or small — the vlog 39 Second Single — is going to be featured on Weekend Today this Saturday next Saturday, the 17th. It’s a hip Valentine’s thing.
I’m delighted to see this small TV getting attention on big TV. For this is a great example of how talent can emerge in our new world. Mary C. Matthews produces the show; Liza Persky is the star. I feel like I discovered them because I happened upon their show one day on Blip. But that’s the beauty of the internet: We can all discover such talent. The world is our casting couch.
What’s brilliant about 39 Second Single is that it creates a show appropriate for the medium — small, fast, intimate — and manages to hook you in two minutes and make you want to keep coming back each week. I showed it to my class at CUNY and they loved it (Mary came to speak to the class and they loved her, too). The only sad thing is that we need to keep rooting for Liza, the star, to continue her rotten luck at dating because we don’t want the fun to end.
So watch their show. Then watch the show about their show. And first, watch this show about the show about their show:
: LATER: Just as I posted this, I got email from Mary with word that Blip is holding a screening of some of the best series TV on the service this Sunday night. Details here.
: UPDATE: Mary emails that the date on Weekend Today just changed to the 17th. That’s TV.
OurTube
Comcast says that 4 percent of its bandwidth goes to YouTube and they say that’s great news.
See also NewTeeVee’s compilation of audience for the new television:
* YouTube: 41.1 percent market share, 86.8 million sessions, 29.7 million unique visitors
* MySpace: 19.3 percent share, 40.9 million sessions, 17.6 million visitors
* Google: 10.2 percent share, 21.6 million sessions, 12.1 million visitors
And so on.
Though it’s comparing apples and kumquats (networks v. shows), note the latest big-TV ratings: 33.9 million for American Idol. But consider also that TV penetration is roughly double broadband penetration, still.
