Ad supported content —
p2p news / p2pnet: Steve Seltzer is an electrical engineer from Florida. He’s also a movie fanatic and a programmer and we recently had an email from him saying:
I was prompted to email you by a couple of stories: Google to exploit videos / Movies for iPods.
I was surprised by your reaction to the Google piece, you should give ad supported content a chance. Right now Google’s option may be not be optimal, their ads seem static, they seem to be *trying* to prevent downloading, and it requires proprietary flash software. But I believe ad supported content is the future. Most web sites (including yours) are supported by ads. If somebody were to actually do it right in an open, standardized format with no DRM it could really work well.
I’ve been working along similar lines for quite some time. Over a year ago I had a prototype site that allowed users to download video in the standard AVI format utilizing only their browser. The innovation was that the video could be dynamically changed at download time without any extra resource usage on the part of the server.
I envision a world where you could download video in a standardized format, free of charge, supported by advertising. No proprietary formats, no DRM, just a plain old AVI file. The presentation format I have in mind is basically recorded television with advertising selected for the individual, except that since targetted advertising is more valuable, there would be less of it. You would be free to play it in any player at any time, burn it onto a DVD, put it on your PDA, play it on your TV screen, even fast forward the ads. The video could be high definition or PDA quality.
Everyone should be happy, people get to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and content providers get payed. If people want ad free versions, there’s no reason premium content couldn’t be provided at a fee like HBO does on cable.
I’ve had a hard time trying to get anyone to listen to me about it. I had some brief interest from one large company which abruptly stopped talking to me, and I’ve had no luck getting in touch with anyone of consequence at content providers. I suppose I just don’t know the right people.
Are you looking for feedback? – we wondered. And here’s what Steve came back with. So if it strikes a chord, leave a comment post or get in touch with Steve at steve @ widesan.com
Imagine legally downloading licensed video, such as movies or TV shows, for free and doing what you want with it: fast forwarding, putting it on a DVD, or playing it on your PDA, Video iPod, etc. I created http://widesan.com to do just that.
A few years ago, I recognized that digital video distribution over the Internet would become commonplace in the near future due to increasing bandwidth availability. Being somewhat of a movie buff myself, (I own over 600 movies on VHS and DVD) this was good news. However, I recognized that the direction digital video was heading was towards expensive proprietary formats. Rather than sit back and let it happen, I decided to try and do something about it.
I thought that if I could provide free video with dynamic, relevant advertising chosen at download time, the advertising revenue could pay the owners, hosting, and bandwidth costs. Even better, since the content is available for free, there would be no need for proprietary restrictive formats since there would be no incentive to “pirate” it.
In this scenario, owners get paid and people get to watch what they want, when they want, and on whatever devices they want. It would be a win/win situation. (Yes, you would be able fast-forward through the ads or cut them out; see the following link to find out why this is not a problem.)
The problem was figuring out how to provide dynamic video content in a cost-effective manner. By preprocessing the video, I’ve been able to provide content in an AVI format file with commercials chosen at download time incurring only negligible additional load on the server.
Essentially, it takes the same resources to provide static files of the same size. The server only has to store one copy of the content and each ad. The only additional resource usage is deciding which ads to present and where to place them at download time.
I’ve had a working prototype for about a year, but I haven’t been able to get any content to provide. I’m not in the film industry, and can’t seem to get in touch with the right people. I’ve recently been working on swarming distribution of the dynamic content in order to cut costs and reduce the number of required commercials, and have been contemplating using the same trick with Flash video. (Flash video has been popularized recently by several popular video sites.)
I really hope that content producers will embrace this or similar technology as it has the potential to greatly increase the amount of available content, and expose people to new content they may find interesting. Imagine being able to see those things that Amazon tells you other people bought with a simple click of the mouse, watch a TV show on *your* time schedule, or create “TV channels” in the same manor that you create “radio stations” at http://pandora.com.
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July 13th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Yes, more ad-supported content, please. That way we can just use programs/scripts/whatever to ditch the ads and have everything for free, minus the P2P sue ‘em all hype scare.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
I much agree with the above statement. I already ditch ads I have no wish to view or be distracted by. It is a mistaken idea that ads sell things. Especially in today’s world. Ads have become far more than distracting, they’ve become intrusive while they seek to capture the viewers attention. So much so that they are visual obstacles to seeing what you wish.
Rapidly they went from just a distraction to ranking with the pest industries for dislike. Many of the content providers say that they are necessary for assistance in providing cost support. That still doesn’t mean that the computer user has to put up with them or the popup. There are far too many programs out that remove these eyesores.
Perhaps what I do is a forerunner for other folks to come. When I go to a store, I don’t look for what is advertised. I don’t look for what is right in front of my eyes. Both placement on the shelf and advertising increase the cost of the product but not necessarily the value of it. Nor do I wish to reward those whose behavior I detest. As a consequence, I look elsewhere for those products I know work, are a true value for the money in comparison to national brands that usually aren’t. I also listen to those that will readily tell you what works for them, if you simply ask. Everyone is willing to tell you of the good deal or the better product rather than what is told to you in ad form. It’s called personal recommendation, it’s free advertisement, and you get far better advice than from ads.
The commercial world has become far to money hungry. I won’t support those that I have a problem with. My dollar is a vote and I don’t vote for what I don’t like. There is no such animal as the lessor evil.
July 14th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Ad supported content will go nowhere if ads are not watched or are absorbed less and if ads do not sell. Each day that passes ads are watched less, absobed less and sell less consumer goods.
What sells is quality, good reviews, neutral party, word of mouth recommendations and of course, low prices.
If GM had spent their ad dollars on making better cars, their story would be altogether different and would not be near bankuptcy. As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time. All ads do is pretend to fool the people and the people have realized it.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com