Fake Steve Jobs in a boring rant, that’s anything but boring, predicts the end of TV networks. It is a rant, it is somewhat far-fetched as a thought experiment however it does contain some truth in there somewhere.

It’s over now. Your business model was a historical anomaly built on scarcity of a valuable resource and the willingness of a small group of network operators to not slit each other’s throats and to collaborate in exploiting the content producers. Sort of like the Five Families in New York. Wars are bad for business.

The networks, as such, are becoming obsolote, there’s hardly any doubt about that. Google is the new network, Apple is the new network…

Apple is not really a computer company anymore, or even a consumer electronics company. We’re a network. We take content and distribute it out to millions of people, who play it on handhelds (sold by me) and computer screens (ditto) and yes, maybe, sometimes, on actual TV sets. At one end of the value chain, the consumer end, people have already voted. They like my system better than yours.

But will the old gits be successful in changing their game from distribution to content production? Or rather… are they willing to step down? If the fight against movie/music piracy is anything to go by they’re more into the whole status quo deal. But the nature of the beast demands change…

Trust me, however, when I tell you that TV and movie people will figure it out too. These are not stupid people. And they are not un-greedy….The talented ones will go first. Bad news for you, TV networks. You’ll be stuck with the shittiest creators, the timid ones who don’t dare cross the chasm. Your shows will get worse and worse. Your sitcoms will grow lamer, if that’s possible. Your reality shows will grow stupider.

patience grasshopper… the day will come

pdf-mags.com is a magazine of PDF magazines. As funny as that may sound it’s an awesome resource.

via FreelanceSwitch

BBC should concentrate on quality rather than quantity in online video. At least that’s what Pete Clifton of BBC News Interactive said at Future of News Conference.

“We should think more about what that page does in the round and come up with a piece of video that absolutely complements the text… we should do less video but be much more focused on how it works and give it a higher profile where it can work alongside the story.”

I agree completely, but I would add something extra that maybe doesn’t really apply to news pieces but still… fragments. I may or may not want to see an entire show. Sometimes all I want is a short piece and having the option of going directly to that piece is invaluable. Andraz Tori and others with MMC at RTV Slovenija are definitely onto something with Odprti kop (open pit). Thumbs up for our national public broadcaster for finally doing something exciting and (I’ll dare say it although I cannot confirm) innovative.

For those not fluent in slovene ;) and those that may not understand what it’s all about… in short it’s a service where they combined subtitles (if I remember correctly our public broadcaster is required by law to provide them) with video and in effect making the content searchable, quotable and playable in segments i.e. you have to option to play only the few seconds that are relevant to your search query. They also include links to slovenian chapter of wikipedia which could also prove useful in the future as it expands.