NBC thinks it is entering the distributed world of media with its new National Broadband Company — but is riddled with cluelessness. The venture, first announced in April, was outlined today by Saul Hansell in The Times. Cluelessness and outmoded controlfreakishness includes:
* They will not allow us, the people, to put stuff on our blogs. They want control.
* They will not accept video from us the people. Not up to their standards.
* They take a shameful share of the revenue: 50 percent (30 percent goes to the video’s creator, 20 percent to the site running the video).
Clueless quotes from Randy Falco, president of the NBC Universal television group, in the Times story:
* “We want to create new tools to allow NBC Universal to do what it has always done: to deliver quality entertainment experiences to as broad an audience as possible,” Mr. Falco said. “In short, we are going back into the broadcast business on the Internet.”
No, you are not in the broadcast business. The internet is not about broadcast. It is not about you telling me what to watch. It is not about you making the selections for me. I have that power now. You just don’t know it.
* “If we really want to compete with big aggregators like Yahoo and Google, we need our video in as many places as possible,” Mr. Falco said.
No, if you wanted it as many places as possible you would follow the YouTube model and let us distribute it for you. But you don’t trust us. Odd not to trust the people who make you money.
* And my favorite: “When ‘Saturday Night Live’ had a great clip of Lazy Sunday, YouTube made a lot of money off it,” Randy Falco, the president of the NBC Universal television group, said at a news conference yesterday. “In the future, when we have a Lazy Sunday clip, NBBC will make a lot of money on it.”
No, fool, you made a lot of money from YouTube because your long-dead stinker of a show, SNL, got new audience because your public — the ones you don’t trust — put the video up and got it seen … until you foolishly made them cease and desist.
The Times says lots of companies are trying out NBC’s service because it’s nonexclusive (including About.com, where I consult, but where I was not involved in this). It’s a what-the-heck. But I’d sure as hell have a strategy for YouTube, Revver, Veoh, et al. If NBC had any brains, it would, too.
