Allen Weiner

Gartner issued a press release on a report I authored on protail video, a concept the Media IAS team began writing about a year ago. The concept–video that lives between professional network content and general UGC–has evolved a great deal since my first report and will undoubtedly have subsegments of its own, especially as new tools come to the market (such as Boinx) that turn creative ideas into “good video” with relative ease.

The folks over at NewTeeVee commented on the report on their site, and I am honored they took the time to add their perspective. I find the site a feed reader must and think some of their insights are quite interesting and fresh in perspective. Liz Gannes, who authored the post, had a lot to say about the report (actually the press release, not the actual report), and while most of what she says is worth pondering as we look at this space, I do hold firm that the industry is in need of protail video hubs. Crackle, Veoh and Metacafe are not protail hubs as those sites are a mix of UGC, brand content (from magazines and the like) and network TV shows. This is not to say they have some protail content, but it’s not the focal point of the brand. A site such as Austin’s On Networks, on the other hand, is a textbook example of protail content. This is not based on the cost of production; it’s based on short videos that appeal to a consumer’s passions such as travel, music and food. I see more such sites that monetize content via sponsorship or advertising sprouting up in big numbers over the next few years. This underscores the point that advertisers will be quick to work with a video community where the content is careful selected to ensure they offer “a clean well lit place” to put their marketing dollars.

As a former reporter, the Web 2.0 world is great as it presents instant feedback to your ideas. As I have said (half joking), the only time I ever heard from readers in my print journalism days is when they
threatened to sue. This scenario is far more pleasant and far less career threatening