Exploding TV: one-man bands
: Lost Remote reports that KRON-TV in San Francisco is the first major market news operation to switch to one-person TV crews (following some local cable news operations). The Remoters then wonder about what the audience will think of less-than-perfect video. A few observations:
: As audiences shrink, the way to maintain profitability — for now — will be to cut costs. Expect to see a lot more of this.
: I believe the audience cares more about a good story than a rock-steady camera. I’ve told the story already how I tried to convince a FoxNews exec that webcams would come to cable news and he got all huffy about backhaul quality and all that… and then I started broadcasting via webcam on MSNBC and they love it. It’s real, they said, it’s immediate. Rougher video will turn from being an economic move to a news fad.
: At one of the Harvard confabs, podcasters said that NPR gets obsessive about audio quality and that’s a way to keep the people off the airwaves. The same is true of TV — and, for that matter, print journalism: It’s overcomplicated to keep the club closed and exclusive. But we all know how easy it is to write and publish if you have something to say. It’s getting just as easy to broadcast and distribute.
: I’ll be we’ll quickly see local TV news — and radio and newspapers — follow the leads of Current.TV, blogcasts on MSNBC, YOURadio, and the podcast show on Sirius: You’ll see just folks recording and reporting in any medium.
