Miptv '08: Fill & Download for Free

Hire a media buyer, they will have experience and contacts. Hiring them will save you money in the negotiations. You might say, ‘but surely hiring someone is more expensive?’ If you aren't spending more than 50% of you budget on content then you probably aren't doing IPTV right.If you don't want to do that then contact the person in charge of licencing at the channel. This will be different and t every channel so it is hard to know who to speak to.If you want international channels then go to the MIPTV event, it is in Cannes in April but you might get some information from their website that is useful.Also you can go to content aggregators like http://thematv.com and buy multiple channels.

There has been an interesting dynamic in the tv industry over the last few years. One of the biggest trends which has reshaped the industry has been the emergence of "time shifting", whereby viewers are increasingly watching their favorite shows at the time of their choosing, as opposed to gathering around the tv at the time of initial broadcast. This dynamic would naturally lead to tv becoming less social - people now have less impetus to gather around the "water cooler" to discuss the previous evenings show. Technology, in the form of dvr's and on-demand services, have enabled a more personalized and thus personal experience.But technology has given birth to another explosive trend that seemingly acts as a counter-force to time shifting - the huge surge of people commenting and engaging with one another in real time on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The real-time nature of services such as Twitter feed on a shared realtime viewing experience. This trend of socially engaging through status updates has been particularly prevalent around live broadcast events such as the Superbowl and the Oscars and has most likely been a major force behind the ratings resurgence of live events on tv. Shared tv events are much more enjoyable when you can share the experience with friends and strangers alike.If you are interested in understanding some of the high-end theory behind social tv, it's worth reading up on a field of study called "limbic resonance" . In simplistic terms, the limbic part of the brain is where we develop our social senses and limbic resonance is a mutually responsive emotional exchange. Turns out that humans actually have a positive physiological reaction when sharing an experience - thus watching a movie in a crowded cinema is a more enjoyable experience than watching the same film at home alone. And this is why the laughter track exists in comedies on TV - the simulated shared experience actually makes it funnier. I interviewed Kevin Slavin, co-founder of Area/Code, at the MIPTV event in Cannes last year. Kevin often speaks about limbic resonance in the context of social tv and audience engagement. In Kevin's own words "The laughter track is dead...from here on in the laughter is genuine and that laughter is going to come from everywhere."Interestingly, Area/Code have recently have been acquired by Zynga , the mega-successful social games company.Kevin and co are doing some interesting things in audience engagement and have launched a social tv platform called Starling TV. This is a new company focused solely on connecting audiences around broadcast tv and have done some groundbreaking work with Discovery Channel and MTV. They are working on algorithms to try and make sense of the flood of Twitter streams relating to TV broadcasts, allowing you to scan comments that are relevant to you, so that watching a show becomes an engaging social activity. In Kevin's words "where the audience becomes aware of the audience. It's like a real-time watercooler." Given their games background, Starling TV is one to watch as they are at the forefront of trying to understand what makes social TV work.In terms of tv services that try to integrate a social experience, there seem to be two main approaches: services and hardware that attempt to integrate the experience within the tv itself and services/hardware that act as a "second screen" that compliments the tv experience.So we can expect a range of solutions that aim to connect audiences. Twitter and Facebook will no doubt continue to play a central role, as they have the advantage of having already mapped our social connections. They will therefore likely play the role of social utility that services will tap into. Joanna Shields of Facebook alluded to the possibility of being able to "check in" to a tv show. I also interviewed Chloe Sladden at MIPTV last year - she is the person heading up Twitter's media dept. They have big ambitions in the tv space and they see Twitter as being the default interactive platform for tv. Twitter is at present quite a noisy tool when it comes a truly engaging social tv experience but we can expect more concrete and focused TV initiatives from both Facebook & Twitter in the coming 12 months. Twitter has recently launched Twitter for Google TV.We can expect to see more services emerge that make it simpler for people to broadcast what they are watching and to find others watching the same content, services like Miso. A new startup called IntoNow has developed some impressive technology to make broadcasting what you are watching super simple. We can also expect tv program makers to more fully exploit the social aspect by developing elements that allow real time engagement and particularly developing "backchannels" for commentary or integrated content. Have a look at shows like the The Million Pound Drop.In addition we can expect social tv will extend well beyond the main living room tv screen, as more and more content creators approach storytelling in a more multi-channel way. And as the worlds of tv, film and video games increasingly converge, we can expect to see more of the social elements that made the Xbox 360 such a massive hit.Online tv services such as Boxee do a good job of integrating social elements, focusing on sharing what you are watching with your friends with a Facebook/Twitter integration. I expect most online content services will move in this direction - so we can expect greater social integration into services such as Hulu, Netflix, etc. Yahoo is betting on in-TV services - their connected tv platform allows for Internet connected widgets to be run on your tv, although the current choice of widgets seem to mimic desktop widgets and lack truly innovative angles on social tv. But worth watching how that develops.I expect that the secondary screen will gain more acceptance with consumers as it seems a more natural fit, plus the only requirement to hook-in is a connected tablet. I expect that the iPad and the new flood of Android based tablets will play a central role in shaping the social tv landscape. So we should expect a wide range of social tv apps that can be simply installed on your tablet, allowing you to engage and interact with others around tv content and to perhaps interact with others in spin-off games or experiences that extend the show. This is already happening today and there already exists social tv apps but we will just see more refined and targeted experiences once content creators get on board.With all the talk of connected tv's, what is clear is that connecting the tv isn't the crucial thing - it's connecting the audience that matters and there will likely be a million ways that content creators, platform owners, social networks and app developers will deliver interesting social tv experiences. It is still very early days, so remains to be seen if any one approach will emerge dominant. But if i had to bet, i would put money on secondary screens like the iPad, running content specific apps that tap into the Facebook/Twitter social graph.

From avoiding trends to keeping patient when your views are in the low double-digits, Spanish vlogger’s advice: ‘The way people consume content is changing..."Luzu used to work at a TV production company, but in 2011 he launched his own YouTube channel called LuzuVlogs. Four years on, the Spanish-language vlogging channel has nearly 1.6 million subscribers, with Luzu now running two others.“I actually have a bigger audience in my channel than the TV company I used to work for,” he said in an appearance at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, in a session that aimed to provide practical advice to any creator trying to build their audience on YouTube.“The greatest thing about this is we are defining a lot of things. The way people consume content is changing, and this way of doing content responds to the needs that they have rather than telling them how they should do it,” he said. Here are the highlights of his advice.Don’t just follow trendsA lot of budding YouTubers look at what’s popular on the online video service, and copy it. Luzu suggested that there might be a much better starting point based on what they’re not watching.“For me, from the beginning it was ‘What am I missing? What would I like to see?’,” he said. “A lot of people were concentrating on ‘What do people watch? What is the most famous and cool thing right now? Maybe that’s not the way to go because there is someone really good doing it already.”Be patient in the early daysAlmost no one uploads their first video to YouTube and becomes a massive success straight away – and when they do, that doesn’t mean they can repeat it. Luzu encouraged creators to be patient and keep plugging away.“You have to keep in mind that it takes a long time. I spent a lot of time having 30 people watching my videos!” he said. “And then there is one moment where everybody shares it, and they go back to your old videos. So there isn’t a moment wasted along the way.”He was being interviewed at MIPTV by YouTube’s David Ripert, who had similar advice. “We think it’s best to start consistently with a show, and be patient and start building the audience from zero,” said Ripert.It’s worth investing in equipmentWith a background in TV production, Luzu started with an advantage over the average bedroom vlogger. Even so, he noted that nowadays, people can get up and running at zero cost if they have a decent smartphone already in their pocket.“Flip it and you can do video. You are spending zero dollars and you can monetise those videos and when you grow you get money,” he said. However, once that money comes in, it may be worth investing in a proper camera, which may be more affordable than you think.“Nowadays it’s not expensive to have equipment that will make your content look good,” he said. “My vlogs looked a little bit better because they had depth of field and a little bit more texture.”You don’t necessarily need a large crewLuzu runs his channel with one other person, his girlfriend. As he has grown, he has resisted the temptation to start hiring a large crew.“We don’t need crews,” he said. “You really just need one or two people. I could do some of these formats by myself, but it still reaches hundreds of thousands of people and that’s because it’s based on personality and what you’re saying.”He added that he relishes the ability to write, present but also market and even handle the accounting. “We get to wear all these hats that in a production company different people on the team would wear,” he said earlier in the day, during a separate session.Invest time in social mediaA common theme for YouTubers is that they don’t just interact with their fans on YouTube: most spend a lot of time on Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms and apps – it’s as important a part of the job as making the videos in the first place.“I definitely spend a lot of time on social media. There is a constant dialogue with the audience,” said Luzu. “Here people are looking at someone in the eye when they are watching a vlogger, they are feeling connected and they want to talk to that person.”Earlier, he’d expressed similar sentiments. “It’s something that comes with YouTube: people feel extremely connected with content creators. Creators are connected with people who watch their videos, and you want them to feel like that,” he said.“It’s very different to traditional media: you keep a constant conversation. Social media is a great way to engage with the audiences when you’re not uploading videos, to help them feel part of what you’re doing.”Collaborate, but bring something original to the tableOne of the proven ways for YouTubers to build their audiences is by collaborating with one another, with emerging channels able to quickly pick up subscribers through a canny collab with a bigger star. Luzu said one key to finding collaborators is to look for people at your level who are also on their way up.He also suggested that it’s not enough just to want to collaborate: YouTubers need to think what they have that’s original to bring to a new video with someone else, rather than sitting in on whatever they do already. For example: animation or musical skills, or access to an interesting location.Luzu also suggested that email may not be the best way to contact a popular YouTuber about a collaboration: “I have about 200,000 unread emails!” he said, before noting that when he was growing, he’d found Twitter useful for connecting with other creators.Consider multiple channels as you growAll YouTube creators start with a single channel, but Luzu said that as his had got more popular, he felt the need to launch the others to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to his videos.“Depending on the target that you’re trying to get to there might be a different language to get to them. Kids like certain things, and teenagers other things, and adults different things,” he said.That’s why Luzu has one channel focused on gaming, which reaches a younger audience, and another with more of a question-and-answer format, which appeals more to teenagers. “And then adults want more content and more meat. That’s why I have three channels,” he said.