Next-generation TV metrics

After social networks, social content on the web, and social mobile apps, we entering the age of social TV. According to this article in Mashable.com, television show producers, sponsors, and even the actors themselves are aware of the new shift in content and connection offered by the social networking apps. There are also proposals for new ways of measuring tv viewing, largely through the posts, shares, links and chats that accompany a program's airing. This article, also in Mashable.com, discusses Bluefin Signals's groundbreaking metric and software, all conceptualized and developed in the MIT Media Lab (*sigh*).

This comes at a most opportune time. I would love for them to try out their software here and see how people, former audiences, can begin to make deep impacts on television's program content. Though only 30% of Pinoys are wired, I am confident that this number will double in a year's time and we will nearly have reached critical mass.

For the most part, television stations need to take social tv seriously, and not, as described in the article, feature social connectivity as a "bolted on" component. There is a purpose for connecting to one's audiences, and it is not simply to brag about numbers. I think most producers think that, if they connect to Facebook and their show is popular, they should get an approximate number of "likes" and posts as well. Clearly, it's a different situation. They cannot expect all their viewers to be posting opinions on FB. For one, not everyone is connected. Second, even if they are connected, they may not have the technological literacy to navigate a social app. Third, they may not have the literacy to comment, period. Fourth, they really don't give shit.

They will not get the numbers, but they will get opinions, reactions, suggestions, and these, in my opinion, are far more richer nuggets of data than hard numbers will ever provide. Based on their reactions, it will be possible to see what it is they connect to in terms of content. Viewers, especially the last three generations of media consumers who were born into a mediated society, know when they are being played with. Well, that's what I want to believe. It's not enough anymore that tv producers sit around and try to make money by churning out template stories and spectacles, thinking it's "what viewers want."

Newsflash: viewers want to be taken seriously. That's why they go online and talk, rant, praise, recommend. So tv networks better listen, and take the emerging social tv phenomenon seriously. That, or risk losing more audiences to torrent sites and cable.

The Music lives on in Many forms

I found it ironic that I should be listening to the last few minutes of NU 107's broadcast on my cellphone, while watching and reading tweets of devotion and kudos on my laptop, via the internet. I suppose it's a symptom of the digital times, a far cry from the way radio was once experienced.



The "Home of NuRock" fashioned itself as an innovator on the FM band, differentiating itself from its counterparts by playing non-mainstream music, and featuring independent and obscure musicians in its playlists. Growing up in the 80s, I came to associate NU listeners as the cool ones, enigmatic schoolmates and friends who seemed to float on a different plane of musical preference. I remember, on many occasions, being asked what station I listened to -- this was usually the standard getting-to-know-you line it seemed. When I as much as mentioned NU, the station's avid listeners would raise their palms in a high-five, while the "others" would give out a soft, slightly impressed "aaaahhhhh." I guess we all knew the music was different, the artists almost unheard of, and the DJs spoke English with a near-perfect accent in that slightly detached, "I know you know I'm cool so why should I even bother articulating it" tone.



NU's fan/audience base was built in the late 80s to early 90s, catering to punk, indie and new wave music aficionados and "alternative" content. Outlasting its predecessor, 102 DWXB, NU provided became a platform for launching independent Filipino bands and artists, and a gateway to music genres removed from the mainstream, top 40 hits played by other radio stations. When the Pinoy Band scene erupted in the early 90s with the raw sounds of the Eraserheads, Rivermaya, Put3Ska, and Yano, NU became the launch pad of choice. This brought new and loyal listeners alike onto common ground, and seemed to create a market for these new Pinoy rock musicians. Moreover, younger generations of listeners were reintroduced to the classic Pinoy rock sounds of The Jerks and Juan de la Cruz Band.

Tuning in and actually waiting for your favorite song to be played was the traditional way of patronizing the content. And because music licenses and physical recordings then were difficult (and expensive) to come by (obscure = rare = costly, the law of supply and demand), purchasing channels were limited and focused on NU. However as technology improved, and digital rendering of music became ubiquitous, acquiring the CDs became easier and cheaper. Soon it wasn't only NU that had access to the music; other radio stations could afford to invest in it too, if it meant being able to grab a share of NUs audiences . As the technology became massively available to listeners in portable form, music lovers spent close to nothing in acquiring the music they wanted. No more waiting for hours on the radio, no more spending thousands of pesos on CDs. Peer to peer technology allowed the audiences to collect their songs and make their own playlists.

I don't know for sure if the DJs or artists themselves ever considered this a threat. But for sure the businessmen and financial investors were concerned. What was a scarce resource no longer seemed in short supply on the web. Suddenly, the audiences themselves were the businessmen's biggest competition.

Definitely one cannot discount the changing business landscape of the mass media in the Philippines, and the world because of the internet, and the speed with which it assimilated itself into our lives. New business models and profit strategies emerged in the wake of digital connectivity and two great financial crises in the last two decades alone. The goal of earning revenue and partaking of the thinning financial resources forced like-business outfits to merge and be bought out by one financial entity. With more stations to carry ad content, the more clients will feel they're getting their investments' worth. The more stations acquired, the more audiences the are able to reach and "collect". But for the plan to be viable, the acquired entities need a homogenous flavor, to appeal to as wide a mass audience as possible,



What a lot of those in the old paradigm miss is that audiences who are part of the spread of music is a formidable ally in pushing the integrity and credibility of a product or movement. The audience just has to believe in it to pass it on. Old marketing models that are hinged on the cost-benefit ratio of the material, tangible form/structures are slowly growing obsolete. What strategists need to embrace is the realization that they no longer dictate what the hits are; their audiences now have the ability to join in on the discussion; not in the conference room, but through their mobile and internet devices. If any of the businessmen need proof of this, one just has to take a look at the videos that captured the final moments of NU 107's broadcast. Through word of mouth, people gathered outside the station to see it sign off. No incentives offered, no recognition promised. In fact it was they who spent on their transportation fare, gas, and time to be there. It was something they believed in, and they saw it through to its Huling El Bimbo. The lights and sounds have been captured on a portable camera/video phone and uploaded on the web, passed around via social networking sites. This is proof that though NU 107 as an entity, a physical space, is no more, it will live on in many forms, relived through just as many gadgets,immortalized and brought to life every time songs are played on individual playlists and their final video is viewed online.

I should send a tweet out to my friend that the video is up.

The Walking Dead

or close to it. Aside from trying to catch up with academic duties, there are administrative and personal obligations that have to be fulfilled. In between trying to make sense of the overwhelming workload, one texts, shoots off emails, manages FB profiles and tries to organize lessons on a laptop. And still I feel like nothing gets done.

Or maybe we want too much done.

The fine line that separates home and work has blurred so that one continues to plod through office backlog while in bed as new items fill email inboxes. There's a compulsion to check, and then we never stop checking. The to-do list becomes irrelevant, because it doesn't seem to ever "empty." As one task gets crossed off the list, another is added. Updating the list itself becomes a huge task.

My only measure now of how much work I've been doing is volume of laundry and the thickness of the dust gathering on my window. It reminds me that I'm home and that aside from living on the Web, I also live in the physical world. Too bad the it's only on the Web that people don't mind so much if I smell or not.

FLASH REPORT!

This just in: a tweet from Maria Ressa about an article from the Harvard Business Review, which also talks about the work-life balance in the internet age. :)

The Future of TV is here

This is it guys! Google is ready to take center stage in the age of convergence.

GoogleTV is set to launch a whole new experience in television viewing and web surfing. Google TV now allows us to see graphic information right from our television sets while interacting online. If you visit the GoogleTV website, you'll see all the different features it offers, including apps (yes, just like the ones on your smart phone), search and a graphic tv homepage.

It's mind blowing, to say the least, that we actually get to see this media form come into being in this century, a mere 20-something years since the internet was made accessible to the public. Now this opens up a floodgate of questions and implications, not least of which are attention spans, content creation, consumption and access.

Among other things. But the good thing is, we no longer have to depend on one tv remote control and go berserk when we misplace it. Our cell phones (smart phones) can now double as tv remotes.

I hope they tell us when and how to subscribe. I can't wait to try it out.