The BBC is inviting you to ‘remix’ interviews with technology innovators, including Maholo’s Jason Calacanis, as the second edition of their R&D TV show goes live.
Created by BBC Backstage, the Corporation’s developer network, R&D TV is the first step in allowing viewers to legally re-edit professionally-produced footage into new forms.
BBC Backstage are hoping that this episode will prove more popular than the previous one, which resulted in only one video mashup from the public. The problem here is that while the video may be interesting to some people (readers of TheNextWeb will probably enjoy it without re-editing it) it’s not something that cries out to be reworked.
R&D TV is an innovative idea, but one that comes from a department at the BBC that’s a little like Morgan Freeman’s character in Batman Begins. They’re working on great projects, but not always with a great deal of support from the wider corporation.
Speaking at the June meeting of Manchester’s Social Media Cafe on Tuesday, BBC Backstage Senior Producer Ian Forrester discussed the project in detail. Many attendees asked why they hadn’t put a popular show like The Apprentice online for remixing. Sadly, there’s little chance of that as licensing deals mean that everything from music to many of the staff on the show would need to be paid for again.
Part of the problem is that some of the BBC’s TV producers and management aren’t keen on the idea of throwing footage out to the public to use as they please. Until there’s a culture shift within mainstream media, projects like R&D TV will remain nothing more than quirky side-projects.
This is a shame. Artists like Cassette Boy are showing that people will remix TV footage whether you let them or not; just see his Apprentice reworking for proof of that. The sooner the TV industry embraces this idea the better. This kind of cut-up TV art would make great promotional material for the show itself, not to mention brilliant training material for rookie video editors.
In the meantime, you can get hold of R&D TVhere. The footage is available in a variety of formats and can be used in any non-commercial project.
MTV has announced a fresh take on their old Total Request Live format that incorporates a heavy reliance on Social Media for audience interaction. The youth TV giant has engaged in formal partnerships with Twitter and Facebook for It’s On with Alexa Chung.
The host, who is well known in the UK as a former model-turned-presenter, is making her American debut in a show that will use Twitter on-screen to encourage the audience to get involved. Content from Facebook and Youtube will also be integral to the format.
What’s striking is that MTV’s partnership with Facebook involves a revenue-sharing deal that the Twitter deal doesn’t. Cnet reports that the Facebook deal includes selling “sponsorship packages that encompass both TV spots and social-media ads”. The Twitter deal sees Twitter building a back-end for MTV to use without any money changing hands.
Now, you could argue that as Twitter is still ‘pre-revenue’ they’re more interested in building their reputation in the broadcast media business at the moment. That’s probably the case; after all this is the second Twitter-based TV show that’s come to light this week. Still, it must hurt Ev, Biz and co. a little to see Facebook brokering a sweet deal while they work for free.
It’s On with Alexa Chung launches on MTV in the USA on June 15th.
Written on 25th May 2009
7 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
I had to double check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April the 1st before posting about this.
According to the AP, Twitter is working with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted series based on the site. The series will invite brief, 140 character postings from members the world over.
The show will “harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in a competitive format” – whatever that means.
The producers aim to bring the live interaction of Twitter onto the TV screen.
The series concept was apparently created by novelist/screenwriter Amy Ephron. Reveille and Brillstein aren’t revealing any further details on when the show might air or exactly how it will all work.
The startup is also officially backing a book of Twitter witticisms to be published by HarperCollins in the Fall.
Update
On a side note, it will be interesting to see whether Twitter and Leo Laporte’s TWiT work on resolving trademark issues. Leo apparently holds trademarks related to streaming video/TV content and up until now there hasn’t been an issue but with this move – that’s likely to change. (thanks Ken Sheppardson)
Update from Leo Laporte himself: “My trademark is in ALL video, not just streaming. We’ve been negotiating mainstream TV deals, as well. A Twitter TV show might well quash any broadcast deals I might make due to the confusion.”
Laporte has also posted the question to his Friendfeed subscribers, click here for the full discussion.
Update 2
I’d be tuning in if Twitter TV was anything like this: (thanks Jarret Myer)
Written on 29th April 2009
0 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Conde-nast owned Reddit, the digg-like news sharing site, has launched Reddit.TV, a way to view video shared on the site without a need to leave the site itself.
Similar to Stumbleupon’s StumbleVideo, the site is neatly arranged with video categories to the left of the video and a “I’m bored” button above which displays a random video of interest.
I’m not sure whether its the quality of their algorithm’s or the quality of Reddit’s members’ taste, but the videos I’ve been watching so far via “i’m bored” have been fantastic.
Additionally, the video’s appear from all over the web, from TED to Vimeo to Youtube.
The Netherlands welcomes its first online TV network for professionals in the fields of internet, media and communication industry. Co-founder Ronnie Overgoor announced the channel Blueshots.tv earlier today. Programs will include recent affairs show ‘View the news’, and GURUS, which consists of interviews with gurus by our co-editor Boris.
During another show, called SHE, female entrepreneurs will be interviewed about their ambitions and careers. Marianne van Leeuwen, founder of Sisteract.eu and undersigned will present the program.
All programs will be available on the web (YouTube) and mobile as of October 2008.
Colour me unsurprised: the internet has almost double the influence of television in consumer decision-making in the UK, Germany and France, according to the Digital Influence Index (DII), a study of media consumption and online behaviors conducted by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.
In all three countries, the internet ranks as the most influential medium among internet users, with index scores of 44% in the UK, 45% in Germany, and 46% in France. That translates into roughly twice the influence of the second-strongest channel, television, and about eight times the influence of traditional printed media.
Consumers in all three countries are more likely to seek others’ opinions, through social media and product-rating sites, for making personal decisions. In contrast, they use company-controlled sources when making transactional decisions on commoditized items, such as utilities or airline tickets.
Other findings: while consumers see the clear benefits of the internet on their lives, they continue to have concerns about internet safety and the trustworthiness of some online information. In the UK, for example, 66% of online consumers say the internet helps them make better decisions, but just 28% trust the information companies provide on the internet.
The research also confirms some clichés: the French are the most engaged in digital communications, with two-thirds of web users owning a webcam and three-fourths using IM. UK consumers are the most likely to have created an online profile site on a social networking page, and Germans are more likely to have used the internet for research.
Fleishman-Hillard, working cooperation with Harris Interactive, interviewed nearly 5,000 internet users in the UK, Germany and France. The survey was designed to measure media-consumption patterns, internet behaviour and attitudes, and online social networking involvement, as well as to assess the internet’s influence on specific decisions.
Via MarketingCharts. (The chart embedded above is a courtesy of Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.)
Written on 5th June 2009
13 COMMENTS 
The BBC is inviting you to ‘remix’ interviews with technology innovators, including Maholo’s Jason Calacanis, as the second edition of their R&D TV show goes live.
MTV has announced a fresh take on their old Total Request Live format that incorporates a heavy reliance on Social Media for audience interaction. The youth TV giant has engaged in formal partnerships with Twitter and Facebook for It’s On with Alexa Chung.
Written on 25th May 2009
I had to double check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April the 1st before posting about this.
Written on 4th July 2008
Written on 30th June 2008
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
