Wired and Juiced and... Babelgum

Yes, Bablegum. The vertiginous emergence of videoserving start-ups continues. NewTeeVee (link in the blogroll at the left) reports today that "...having taken the long tail view to heart, Babelgum is looking to sign up lots and lots of niche content, both from big clearinghouses like the wire services who like non-exclusive deals and from independent producers such as vloggers with a professional touch."

So there are entrants taking the 'long tail' potential seriously.

WiredNews yesterday delivered the most comprehensive piece yet published about Joost. There is, I admit, much to admire. And the article makes it clear that 'long tail' content is absolutely not part of Frijs/Zennström Viking attack on yet another medium. Given the way they scared the crap out of the music business and then the phone business the outcome when television get juiced is going to be interesting to see.

However the whole venture is dependent on the content, and to realize the maximum benefits of the hybrid P2P delivery mechanism this needs to be content which is attractive to a mass audience.

Lotsa viewers, lotsa 'seeders', lotsa dosh riding on that equation.

Which means that Joost is defintely not about alternative or indie media; it's about forcing Hollywood to make a major leap into the unknown.

Now many people have become comfortable with the idea that mainstream media is dead as a dodo, (I include myself, in my feverish pursuit of the new and shiny!).

But Hollywood, including both the motion picture and television industries, does essay from time to time a veritable shark jump, even if the question must be asked whether they actually jump or get pushed!

I was working in the film distribution business in London back in the sixties when for the first time a producer (my Googling failed to identify him, but I think the film was something gladiatorial...) spent as much on marketing his movie as on making it. That was a shark jump! Didn't the Weinsteins leave an indelible mark on the industry? Isn't Mark Cuban with his day-and-date multi-platform releasing opening up new perspectives?

Is Hollywood's cuddle with Ze Frank a pointer in the direction of a shark jump, perhaps? He gets 25,000 to 30,000 daily viewers. The ad space at the top of ZeFrank goes for $900 a week. That's small change in comparison to what Hosea Frank can expect now that he's going Hollywood.

More on this here.

So what conclusion do we draw from the mixed signals, from the media babble? That there will be the Babelgums and the (massively richer through the latest Series C funding) giving the 'long tail' believers the tools and services they need.

And also that Hollywood now has the incentive, indeed given the impact of Kazaa and Skype, the imperative to jump into the future.