Interactive Publishing - Executive Summary (6) - Pircher - Lintula

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Executive Summary

This session made obvious why it is typically not the technology companies that come up with the ultimate content concepts. They are mainly interested in technological possibilities. It is - and rightly so - the task of the content providers to come up with the solutions of the interactive content realities.

Pircher presented Fantastic's concept for multimedia collection/distribution over multiple channels in broadband and narrowband formats (a "black box" that works on the different networks POTS (ADSL), Mobile (3G), and Cable). It encompasses every communication network but is not an open-source oriented software like java but a rather secretive effort. Go figure.

"When people talk about broadband it's usually the last mile they are
talking about and we don't think about the overloaded servers and interconnections points in the greater network. To avoid those bottlenecks, content has to move to the edge and then be redistributed." Fantastic's software is supposed to do this. He sees the content moving right out to the mobile phone or mobile device. Again, it is hard to conceive the practicality of such a statement ? but what an IPO.

Lintula says, "100 kilobit always on and anytime and anywhere is better than 100 Megabit/sec fixed." (We would rather see not an "Either/Or" but a "it depends").
Nokia sees opportunities to make opportunity-based content available. Someone waiting in a doctor's office with a few minutes to spare could be a good market for a jokes services or a short cartoon.
Never mind the example:"opportunity based content" is good. This is familiar to all of us who experience the commuter oriented newspaper "wars" around Europe. What kind of newspaper is right for the opportunity of reading a newspaper in crowded subways?
The ubiquity of cell phones creates some kind of market for content, but we have yet to see concepts that tie into the existing strengths of content providers.

The Golden Age of content
David Graves, Executive Vice President, Reuters New MediaBio

Reuters has been very successful in the interactive space in the last years and it was very refreshing to see the belief in quality content re-emerging.

"A certain level and quality of service and access to the Internet has still to be
reached before we can get to the what he calls "AlwaysOn" stage. When we reach AlwaysOn that is when the real revolution and growth in e-commerce and new media will take place. We are stuck at an earlier stage today. ".
Using the analogy of movies/cinema Graves showed how new distribution channels rather than cannibalizing the movie or content industry, it has expanded them. Larger amounts of money are available for production, more films are being made and so on. At the same time, as each new channel arrived, a new market for content specifically formatted for that distribution channel emerged. For example, TV created a market for black and white serials.

Graves announced that he is still looking forward to the emergence of this new type of content.
He is optimistic about the market for journalistic and content in general. "In the future people will consume more information. It's short sighted for venture capitalists such as those who spoke yesterday to discount content and say that it is not worth investing in. If I had been there I would have been saying exactly the opposite."

Someone asked him about the reasons that VCs are so negative on content. He said that it has to do with the fact that their backgrounds are in technology or software and they are "afraid of content -- don't know what to do with it."

Referring to the opportunities for content. "Internet and new media--- This is such a great thing for us, even we can't mess it up." It's important to serve up the content and index it and make it accessible and to fit it to the channel (just like wide screen film has to be cut down to narrowscreen TV).

There were a few questions from the floor about individual content creation, everyone is a movie producer or everyone can be a reporter. Graves said that content owners (professionals) don't have much to fear from amateurs. It's a quality issue. Nokia's Lintula suggested that quality is important but if time is more important then poor quality is not so important. It is in this segment of the market that he sees mobile video being successful.