Both CNN and AOL have announce they will be revamping their online video initiatives to cater to the millions of viewers who watch videos on YouTube, Google Video, and the Apple iTunes Music Store (a name which is quickly going to have to be updated).
CNN wants to make us all journalists. Their new area, the Exchange, will contain audio, video, and articles all created by users.
"User-generated content has the potential to play a pivotal role in journalism whether it's online or offline," Mitch Gelman, senior vice president and executive producer for CNN.com, said in a statement. "With CNN Exchange, we've essentially created a one-stop shop for CNN.com users to share their contributions with other Internet users."
User submitted video has increasingly become a staple of news content - rarely does a day go past that we see amateur video of events unfolding as a supplement to professional news footage. Sites like CNN's exchange will just make the prcess easier for that content to reach producer's who might want to use it not only online, but in a breaking news story. There are no plans to compensate submitter's at this time, but it wouldn't surprise me if some sort of credit system or payment evolved overtime.
AOL on the other hand, wants to entertain us in addition to letting us upload our videos. A site offering a mixture of free content and pay content (starting at $1.99) is expected to launch on Friday.
"In the past year we've seen video has exploded on the Web," said Josh Freeman, vice president of AOL Video. "We're trying to integrate all elements," instead of specializing in user-generated video or movie trailers, or having a video store. AOL's goal is to get viewers to think about tuning into Internet videos the way they turn on their television, he said.
The debate continues as to whether big media companies can make such a new media model work for them. Hopefully they can, getting traction in the market by big media players will lead to further adoption of online video. It is unlikely any one big media company can truly dominate the space since they are competing in the market with young tech savvy upstarts who tend to be more willing and able to quickly adapt new ideas into their feature sets.
Ultimately its the companies that get the right mix of technology, good UI, AND good content that will be successful, not just the boys who can heap money on the marketing. Good luck Time Warner, you've got a harder task ahead of you than you might think!
Submitted by
August 1, 2006 - 3:13pm
