en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/21/b53cc211f38065ead13b3b8d4c9318c0.html earlier article, many large companies are starting to pair up with smaller startups, giving them seed money to avoid a YouTube/Google dominated media online monopoly. Rupert Murdoch was probably one of the smartest in this by buying Myspace. He understood that he could simply start his own internet company up. Instead, he went after a company with a huge market share to broadcast his TV. And it makes tons of sense because it's all about advertisement dollars that News Corp can control without catering to Google, Yahoo, or other online advertisement markets.

I took a brief look at Myspace's TV section and noticed that I couldn't watch a thing. Well, unfortunately being in Japan prevents you from seeing such things. But I did spot numerous TV shows both new and old. And NBC recently announced how old episodes of the A-Team (and another show I can't remember) will be viewable online.

You see the thing is that old video footage is great. It honestly cost nothing to produce compared to say making another version of James Cameron's Titanic. The only things you have to do is transfer it to a digital medium, get advertisers, splice in the commercials at appropriate moments (where they traditionally were) and broadcast them via one of these smaller companies. Then people can watch it on demand and the companies can earn their share of the profit from advertisement in unavoidable commercials (AOL Video does this).

What has this to do with Japan? Well, Japan is notoriously slow when it comes to, well, almost anything. The ultra conservative culture has cost them the inability to take control of the web. Now, companies from the US and other markets are setting up camps out here and importing their form of internet here. TV is no different, if not worse.

Japan's TV market, from what I understand, is a little different from the US market (I don't know any other markets for that matter). Here, as I've been told, the TV broadcasters are the producers of their own content, unlike cable networks in the states, which often would license content out. This gives the broadcasters an immense amount of power in retaining their rights and quite often these people are extremely reluctant to part with their content. Also, when it comes to DVDs or obtaining old shows, you'll see ridiculous numbers such as 10000-en (around $100) for a crap video. My favorite TV series, Densha Otoko, which was only 15 episodes goes for I believe almost 30000-en (a little under $300)! Ask any Japanese and they'll tell you that they won't waste a dime on these shows.

Japanese broadcasters also license a good deal of international and especially Hollywood content out frequently. You can see American TV shows and movies out here on TV stations. Quite often you might even here of frequent visits by stars here. My friends are more willing to pick up copies of 24, for example, compared to watching any TV drama out here.

However, interestingly enough, Japanese TV broadcasters make ZERO profit from their websites. While there exist some little flash tidbits and ads on their websites to inform people of upcoming shows, these websites serve little purpose outside of being purely informational. Compare that to companies like CNN or NBC who are licensing their content or partnering up with sites and making some additional cash through revenue sharing.

That's not to say that TV isn't completely ignored here. But there's something missing that the broadcasters aren't seeing. I think it's going to take a massive move where other companies like NBC, TIme-Warner/AOL, CBS, etc. can demonstrate huge profits and success online before Japanese companies make a move.

However, I see a far more vast problem. Despite calls for the removal of copyrighted video on sites like YouTube, many TV shows, anime and whatnot are still uploaded quite frequently to these sites. It's very likely that YouTube/Google may move ahead into the realm of TV out here since there are no threats like Veoh, AOL Video, Myspace, etc. that these Japanese broadcasters can turn to. Add to the fact that Apple's iTunes is highly popular and selling videos from all major movie and TV distributors, it'll only be a matter of time before they'll localize their content for the Japanese market. Then only two major players would exist out here, leaving the Japanese companies, once again, twiddling their thumbs.

Yes, I am calling out the Japanese broadcasters. Matter of fact, I'm calling them stupid for not reacting and not treating the internet more seriously. Go to YouTube, for instance, and check out some Japanese videos. Many of the videos are simply copied from TV and uploaded unceremoniously. More than that, they become extremely popular with the international market, something clearly that Japan desperately needs to count on in terms of expanding growth of their TV and movie sectors. The West has fetishized the Japanese market so long, praising their idols, music, anime and variety shows without the Japanese market really realizing what an effect that could potentially have in the west. Take this blog from Asami Yuma as an example. In it, she herself just realizes that someone had uploaded an old video of her. She calls YouTube amazing in being able to find any kind of content.

The thing people in Japan (at least in terms of newspapers and broadcasters) seem to be oblivious of is that the old media is going to die in the next 5-10 years. Completely. Newspapers make little sense because it's a waste of paper and their news is ancient. Magazines have little relevancy outside of pictures. And TV will slowly move away from the crap that these companies produce and move into privatized sectors as more people realize that they can create their own content with just a webcam/camcorder and an internet connection to YouTube. Look at this video for example. Here's a Japanese blogger who has received an incredible amount of hits for putting up what I would call a novel, mediocre video blog.

Reality TV is slowly becoming excerpts of people's lives through viral injection. It's far easier to watch 1-5 minutes clips than wasting time, being stranded/enslaved to a 20+ minutes of commercials during a 1 hour period. Why would people require broadcasters any longer when they can find content that follows non-linear, non-formulaic formats that intrigue and compel rather than dull and insult our intelligence?

They say that Video Killed the Radio Star. Well, Internet and online video will kill broadcasters if they don't react. The US market has quickly started to smarten up. But I don't think Japan realizes that they need to smarten up far faster before their demise at the hands of independent creators.]]> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:20:05 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/21/b53cc211f38065ead13b3b8d4c9318c0.html