The Rise Of Geek-Focused Online Video Networks

from the and-the-geeks-shall-inherit-video? dept

Fri, Apr 13th 2012 7:39pm — Mike Masnick

There's been a really interesting trend going on recently. For all the talk about how the entertainment industry must be dying (it isn't), a whole bunch of internet-aware celebrities are wholeheartedly embracing the internet as a new video platform -- and this includes a bunch of folks we've written about before. The first to make a big splash was Felicia Day, who already has been hugely successful in building a massively popular online-only video program, while also being thoughtful about new business models. On April 2nd, she and some friends -- including folks like Wil Wheaton, Veronica Belmont and Paul & Storm, -- launched the awesomely named Geek & Sundry, which includes both her existing show, The Guild, and a variety of others (including Wheaton's Tabletop, which looks awesome).

That same day, Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist (or, I guess we should now call it "Nerdist Industries") launched his special YouTube channel with a variety of shows of its own:

While some of the programming is based on already-existing Nerdist properties, most of it has been specifically conceived for the Nerdist YouTube channel. For instance, "Face to Face with 'Weird Al' Yankovic" brings in the beloved song parodist (and frequent Nerdist guest and contributor) to interview celebrities, and "Ain't it Cool News with Harry Knowles" will adapt the infamous film gossip site to a filmed talk show. Hardwick will also host "Chris Hardwick’s All Star Bowling," a bowling competition/comedy show with a nod to Hardwick's father, champion bowler Billy Hardwick. Nerdist will also stream episodes of the legendary sketch show "Kids in the Hall," with new interviews and segments hosted by Hardwick.

The Nerdist YouTube channel will also incorporate adaptations of Nerdist podcasts, and plenty of wild cards, most notably: "Neil Patrick Harris’ Puppetopia," "Gif Gif City," "Cute Things Exploding," "Weird Shit From Japan," "Untitled Rob Zombie Project" and "Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson," a video version of the podcast hosted by the famed astrophysicist.

While I note that there's a lot of overlap between these two worlds (Wheaton and Hardwick are good friends and used to be roommates, and I'm pretty sure Hardwick is friends with Paul & Storm too), it seems pretty cool that they're both starting to flood YouTube with cool content.

Amusingly, when I first started writing up this post, I was going to mention all of the cool things that Kevin Smith has done with his Smodcast network, but I was realizing that was just audio. Well, no matter. Just as I was reading up on the details of the other two networks, I saw the news that Smith was launching Smodcast Internet TV -- his own online video network too! Perfect timing, Kev.

Like both of the other networks, the plan here is to take some existing shows (in this case, from the Smodcast network), and then add some new ones as well.

Who knows if all of these (or any of these) will survive, or even thrive. But, the awesome thing is that they can do these things and just see what happens. They don't need to go through gatekeepers. There are no gatekeepers anymore. They can blaze their own path and find out for themselves what works and what doesn't work -- and we're talking about a bunch of folks who all have pretty long histories of really embracing what the internet allows, so I'm excited to see where these experiments go, and I'd imagine we're going to see plenty more like this. Some will succeed, some will fail. But you have to be blind to think that creativity or the industry is struggling. People who can't help but create cool and amazing things suddenly have many more tools at their disposal for creating, distributing, promoting (and, yes, monetizing) content than ever before, and tons of new opportunities are opening up.

Anyone who thinks that the entertainment industry is in trouble isn't paying attention. The rest of us are over here checking out all sorts of cool new content, which didn't require a big studio exec deciding whether or not it deserved to be on TV.

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Filed Under: chris hardwick, kevin smith, nerdist, smodcast, video, wil wheaton

52 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2012 @ 8:19pm

uhm ... it's ... television.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2012 @ 8:35pm

Re:
It's kinda weird, but television has turned into a commodity that you can hardly give away anymore. Kinda like newspapers.

As people on slashdot keep complaining, they don't want a video that explains how something works, because then it takes too long to watch since you must watch it at the pace of the video. You want text explaining how it works because then you can read it at your own pace and usually that's much faster.

Television is much too time consuming.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2012 @ 10:01pm

" The rest of us are over here checking out all sorts of cool new content"

The rest of us? Talk about broadbrushing the world with your personal view. The rest of us must refer to you and 6 of your friends, and not much else. Even the widely covered press release video (embedded in many places) isn't pulling very big numbers - although more than a Marcus Carab video, I guess.

Seems like this is the most popular network for socially inept blog operators. Otherwise, it's not get a bunch of tune ins.
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Nigel (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 10:23pm

Fine, collapse and conquer it is.

N.
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Zos (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 10:26pm

Re: Re:
i'm 100% the same way. Video is dead (dead as in it's not indexable, or searchable, or easily skimmable, or linkable to and from). Entertainment, that's ok...if i want to watch it, i'm going to watch it, but anything factual, or instructional, no way.

If it's over 3 minutes long, it needs a transcript attached.

that being said, i watch tv when i've got a baby in hand or soemthing, because juggling a book, a bottle, and a 6 month old is just a bitch.
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RonKaminsky (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 11:07pm

Re: Re: Re:
because juggling a book, a bottle, and a 6 month old is just a bitch
That sounds awesome, can you upload a video to YouTube for us all?
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techinabox (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 11:37pm

TWiT.tv?
Talking about geek video and no mention of TWiT.tv? They do twenty-eight live shows that amount to some forty hours of live streaming content a week. Not only do they cover a huge base of topics but they are profitable and just moved into a big new studio.
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PaulT (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 1:55am

Re:
Not exactly. Television is a broadcast medium where you have a finite number of channels to choose from, which play what they want to show you at the time they choose. Sure, there's tools which allow you to bypass this restriction (VHS, DVR, whatever), but their business is still set up to revolve around this model - witness their freaking out over DVR capabilities, Nielsen ratings not considering online views, etc.

The difference here is that the viewer chooses when and where they view the content. On top of that, it's a niche market that most major TV networks wouldn't touch with a 10 foot barge pole - and would come out with something semi-geek focussed like The Big Bang Theory rather than something the market actually wants if they did.

The innovation with the new technology isn't because the technology itself is insanely more advanced than what came before - it's the way it connects people with the content they actually want.
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PaulT (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 2:05am

Re:
Ah the usual AC diversion tactic - number 6. If no other objection can be found and the content is not pulling blockbusting numbers, pretend that it doesn't count - oh, and throw in attacks on regular contributors while you're here even though they're irrelevant (has your thick skull not accepted the fact that Marcus is not, nor pretends to be, doing his music for a living?).

"Even the widely covered press release video (embedded in many places) isn't pulling very big numbers"

It may escape your low logical ability, but so what? I haven't watched the YouTube video myself. Nor do I need to. The coverage of the release has led me to the site without needing to view the actual video. I click on the link to a site, not some marketing bullshit. That's how advertising works in the modern world - people don't fawn over whatever "official" channel you release things through, they go their own way.

"Seems like this is the most popular network for socially inept blog operators. Otherwise, it's not get a bunch of tune ins."

Waaah! *I* don't like it therefore the business model fails! Don't you ever get tired of being wrong like this?

Two questions: is the site losing or making money, and do the people who do tune in enjoy the content?

Those are the only 2 questions that matter. If they're making money and their audience is satisifed, who cares what a self-righteous idiot like yourself thinks?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 4:16am

Re:
Felicia Day have a music for ya!

Quote:
Oh, no. Don't pretend I didn't see
You roll your eyes at my gaming tee
Don't know if you can read or if you've seen
The sweet piece in this week's Wired magazine
The latest trend has hit its peak
They say that geek's becomin' chic
So now you're out of style as you can be
And I'm in vogue, so you can bite me

To all the ass-hat jocks who beat me up in school
Now I'm the one that's cool
I'm the one that's cool
To all the prom queen bitches thinking they still rule
Now I'm the one that's cool
I'm the one that's cool

Source: (YouTube) Geek & Sundry - The Guild: I'm the One That's Cool

You are now the uncool one dude the geeks are ruling the world today, knowledge is the thing that the 21th century man want to acquire to hunt for his survival and you babbling douche just don't have the brains for it.

You got owned in SOPA by all those people who you hate so much that must really have hurt your feelings.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 4:17am

Re:
Felicia Day have a music for ya!

Quote:
Oh, no. Don't pretend I didn't see
You roll your eyes at my gaming tee
Don't know if you can read or if you've seen
The sweet piece in this week's Wired magazine
The latest trend has hit its peak
They say that geek's becomin' chic
So now you're out of style as you can be
And I'm in vogue, so you can bite me

To all the ass-hat jocks who beat me up in school
Now I'm the one that's cool
I'm the one that's cool
To all the prom queen bitches thinking they still rule
Now I'm the one that's cool
I'm the one that's cool

Source: (YouTube) Geek & Sundry - The Guild: I'm the One That's Cool

You are now the uncool one dude the geeks are ruling the world today, knowledge is the thing that the 21th century man want to acquire to hunt for his survival and you babbling douche just don't have the brains for it.

You got owned in SOPA by all those people who you hate so much that must really have hurt your feelings.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 4:22am

Re: Re:
Double post first!
Kiddin, sorry about the double.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 6:18am

Re: Re:
Have the people on Slashdot ever heard of the fast-forward button?

It is going to be a revolution I tell ya, also some players allow indexing of time, meaning you can bookmark the exact point that interests you.

I say this because I do love all the how it works, is the only reason I watch more internet video than TV.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 6:34am

I'm curious is there anyone here who spend hours tracing roads and building in Openstreetmap or Google and find it fun?

God I just open Openstreetmap on the weekends now or I lose myself in drawing those little lines everywhere and creating 3D models for buildings.

That is what I need TV shows for to keep me away from those other addictive things on the internet LoL
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Josef Anvil (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 7:51am

Duh
Maybe the studios just don't realize that it's called YOU Tube.

More and more people are watching TV on the web and so they are naturally going to be drawn in to new services. The fact that creative people no longer need to wait for the network gods to acknowledge them should be a hint to the networks. Get in while its new and start making deals with all these creators.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 7:54am

Tabletop has interest outside of the "geek" niche as well.

They plan to play various board games and show people a quick example of how they are played. While part of the reason for the show is to show that people who play board games aren't all geeks, but it also opens the door in an accessible way for people to understand a board game more than just reading a box blurb or reading an online review.

You don't have to be a huge Wil Wheaton/Felcia Day fan to enjoy the show, it helps draw interest if you know who they are, but you can see people sitting down and playing a game for fun outside of a "commercial" for the product setting.
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Hal von Luebbert, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:02am

"Entertainment?"
"Entertainment?" Don't you mean technology being used to behaviorally condition - "hook" - the public? Perhaps you ought look up and familiarize yourself with things such as the "Skinner Box." operant conditioning - and, by all means, state-of-the-art propaganda.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:05am

Re: TWiT.tv?
And TWIT has been doing it for over five years.
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Kevin (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:09am

Nothing is dead
Showbiz is alive and well. A simple comparison between the number of entertainment venues in the 50's to today shows more than 10 times the number exist in most cities. These venues are attracting record numbers of patrons who want to see the artists they have encountered on the Internet in a live environment
Amateur theater is booming either at venues or seen as a YouTube video.
What has changed is now all forms on entertainment no longer need someone with deep pockets to finance projects.
I see today as being akin the the Rock & Roll explosion of the late 50's when small labels recognized the potential of the new music and low behold the same people who are fighting the Internet today are the very same who fought R&R back then.
What happened back then and will happen again is that eventually the protestors will succumb.
In 40 years time today will be looked back upon in the same fashion as us "oldies" look back at those early days of R&R.
To me this time is the 50's for today's generations.
Now back to my PC, Android phone, WiFi TV, VOIP and all the other exciting tools of this day.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:34am

uh, who?
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JP, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:35am

TWIT.TV was the original
As others have mentioned, TWIT.TV has been doing online live video for many years. Many of the shows have very focused content and a reasonably large audience. In fact, Veronica Belmont, Wil Weaton and many of the others who are now creating the "new" channels and shows have worked with Leo Laporte (the man wholly responsible for TWIT.TV) or at the very least appeared as guests on his shows for years. If anything, I'd give Laporte credit for showing everyone else that it CAN BE DONE, and making a blueprint for how to do it.

And let's not forget Revision3.com too.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:39am

Re: Re:
"Waaah! *I* don't like it therefore the business model fails! Don't you ever get tired of being wrong like this?"

Yet you have no problem with Mike suggesting that "Anyone who thinks that the entertainment industry is in trouble isn't paying attention.", and that the "rest" of you are watching this. Yet, the viewership doesn't support that idea at all.

Come on Paul, be the bigger man - apply the same level of scrutiny to Mike that you do to people you don't agree with.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 8:44am

Re: Re: Re:
From the guy who always is wrong?
I don't think so dude.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:01am

Re: Re: Re:
It really depends on what it is though. On some things where the video itself is helpful I would watch.
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PaulT (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:04am

Re: Re: Re:
"Yet you have no problem with Mike suggesting that "Anyone who thinks that the entertainment industry is in trouble isn't paying attention.", and that the "rest" of you are watching this."

That's true, believe it or not. The industry is changing, the market is changing, the *consumers* are changing. People don't tune into TV at a pre-arranged schedule any more, and more and more content is moving online in one way or another. If you don't take that into account, you're done for. Guess what people aren't doing when they use services like this? Watching the crap your glorious corporates are producing...

"Yet, the viewership doesn't support that idea at all."

Yes, I know you love this game. Cherry pick figures, whine about suggestions of new models, then reject them because someone didn't become a millionaire overnight. Boring. By the time this kind of thing is successful enough to become truly mainstream, it will already be too late for you to catch up.

Oh, and what is the "viewership" by the way? I'd like to see figures, not some bullshit guess based on the number of views you think a particular commercial had.

"Come on Paul, be the bigger man - apply the same level of scrutiny to Mike that you do to people you don't agree with."

I do. I've never known him to be as ridiculously, obnoxiously, loudly and repeatedly wrong as you morons, though. I'll call him out if ever he is as wrong as you people, but I doubt it will happen.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 11:04am

O.T. Tech question
I have a question I hope someone here can answer. I've looked the net over and haven't found what I'm looking for, and the tech help forums I've seen require registration. Yes, this is off-topic and maybe an odd question to ask here, but maybe someone can please help.
I had a multisession CD of jpgs created with Roxio. The CD messed up (as multisession CDs sometimes do). I was able to turn the contents of this disc into an ISO file. All sessions seem to be intact. What I'd like to do is turn these ISO files back into the folders and jpgs they're supposed to be, but I haven't found any software that will do it. I've tried several programs, but no luck so far. (I didn't try ISOBuster because, last I saw, ISOBuster won't work with Roxio-created things.)
Anybody else ever faced this? Does anyone know of any software that will solve my problem?
Thank you.
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andycapp, 14 Apr 2012 @ 1:34pm

Confused
In all honesty i think anyone reading this story, if they did not before, must now realize the entertainment industry is finished as it now stands, it is fighting tooth and nail to stay alive but they waited too long and were too greedy in there approach to there customers and those who would have been there partners, they overreached with sopa and pipa and all the other attempts to safeguard there business at the expense of there customer base.

If anything this should be an eye opener to all other businesses and should be a footnote in history on how not to ignore your customers when they ask with one voice for you to change the way you do business because of innovation in the marketplace.
History will show that they made multiple mistakes that were repeatedly pointed out to them but which they ignored, I did not think i would ever see this day but to be honest it was always going to happen overnight and not over a long period. I am sure they will still fight but now i know that no matter what laws they buy or what lies they tell they are irrelevant to the future of entertainment on the internet and probably on tv and cable when more quality shows are produced in small studios or basements. This is what change is about this is why there is a saying that the customer is always right, ignore them at your peril. What a wonderful day this is.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 1:55pm

Re: TWiT.tv?
TWiT.tv appears to be not that impressive, but the headlines are fun the one that says "A Lawyer In Every Port" seems interesting, it makes me wonder when lawyers will go all out with telepresence to make money LoL

Slashdot TV is another one that promises.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 2:27pm

Re: O.T. Tech question
In Linux you just mount the ISO and copy paste the contents.

In Windows you need a program to mount the ISO(I think not sure) or a optical unit emulator(CD/DVD player).

Wikipedia: Comparison of ISO image software

7zip is open source but can only handle ISO files not any of the other proprietary formats if it is a true ISO file and not a proprietary image format that should do it, if not there are others. You can look on the table above, and see which ones would handle Roxio files.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinCDEmu (GPL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDemu (GPL)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_120% (proprietary)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDRoller

Now here is the thing to make an ISO file use one of the forensic tools available.

DDrescue for example.
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

Using the common tools you get standards that open in any operating system and not just on the proprietary software.

Youtube: Recover a data disk with ddrescue
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 3:03pm

In a country that worships "cool" the rise of geeks as something to be aspired to can become a problem for old interests since these new cool kids are not idiots. They are highly educated people who can't be easily fooled and eventually if those trends continue they could rise to politics being elected for all forms of public service and that would be a problem for the old guard(and no, it is not about the age of people, young idiots also make part of the old way of thinking).
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 4:50pm

Re: Re: O.T. Tech question
THANK YOU, kind sir! :)
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2012 @ 7:37pm

Re:
The thing is, us 'geeks' are obviously much more intelligent and knowledgeable than those who are trying to socially engineer us. After all, if they had any merit, they wouldn't need to disregard morality to increase their income. In order for them to really socially engineer us, they would need to be much smarter than we are. and since the opposite is true ...
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Watchit (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:44pm

Re: Duh
Yeah, I can't afford the Internet and TV, too expensive. Unfortunately for TV companies I need the internet much more than I need TV, and fortunately for me, there's plenty of TV on the Internet too! just not the kind the TV people want me watching... ;)
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Watchit (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:48pm

Re: Re: O.T. Tech question
Yep you are correct, you do indeed need a program or optical unit emulator to mount an ISO
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Watchit (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:48pm

Re: Re: Re: O.T. Tech question
in windows that is :3
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Watchit (profile), 14 Apr 2012 @ 9:54pm

Re: Re:
I really can't wait to see what the world will look at 10 years (maybe even 5) from now. I know some older folks brush aside my optimism because that's "what we used to say when I was your age, and nothing changed, politics were just as corrupt for us as it was for our fathers", but we have one thing "they" didn't have, the Internet.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 12:44am

Re: Re: Re:
>Come on Paul, be the bigger man

I don't know what's the point of being the bigger man. Don't own a computer but sued by the RIAA? Be the bigger man! Don't have any porn but get a settlement demanded by John Steele? Be the bigger man! Perform only original music but have to pay the PROs? Be the bigger man!

Seriously, your definition of being the bigger man means bending over and taking it.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 15 Apr 2012 @ 1:44am

Re: TWiT.tv?
Talking about geek video and no mention of TWiT.tv? They do twenty-eight live shows that amount to some forty hours of live streaming content a week. Not only do they cover a huge base of topics but they are profitable and just moved into a big new studio.

TWiT.tv is cool, but I always think of it in a somewhat different class. That's more tech. These new networks are more about entertainment... but with geeky folks who get the internet.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 5:47am

Re: Re:
"That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year 2040." -Data
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 7:37am

Re: Re: Re:
But video
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 7:56am

Re: Re: Re:
But video is already searchable. The technology is already there. It just has to be applied in that manner and it will be.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 7:57am

Re: Re:
That remains to be seen, the people in control today are not uneducated people they are extremely intelligent, but their moral compass and ideas reside in another era, the new people will have to slain those very powerful minds first, the good news is that geeks vastly outnumber the little core and they are gaining public support by defining culture, just like musicians and actors once did.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 8:11am

Re: Re: Re:
Search is nothing more than pattern matching. Google's Content ID system proves the technology exists already to match all sorts of aspects in video. Want to search for a specific scene in a movie? Voice recognition technology could easily be adapted (and probably already has) to process a film and jump to the point where a particular phrase appears. If it doesn't aleady exist it will.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 8:32am

Re: Confused
There is one part of history you ignore. They WILL acquiesce eventually and embrace the technology instead of dying. They will have to be dragged kicking and screaming the entire way, but they will eventually get there. It happened with records. It happened with TV. It happened with the VCR. And it will happen with digital distribution over the Internet.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 8:40am

Re: Re: Re:
But they are willfully blind due to their arrogance to changes that they cannot control and that is one of their major flaws.
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Jay (profile), 15 Apr 2012 @ 10:45am

Re: Re: TWiT.tv?
Is there a tech news channel by chance?
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 10:50am

Re: Re: Re:
Oh, I never said that they can't subject us to oppressive laws and force us to act against our best interests, just that they will have difficulty socially engineering us (ie: tricking us into believing that something that's not in our best interest, like IP, really is).
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U R WRONG / ?, 15 Apr 2012 @ 12:11pm

Re: Re: Re:
TL;DR

: )
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 1:42pm

Re: Re: Re: TWiT.tv?
SlashdotTV and TWiT.TV.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2012 @ 1:56pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You see, what you said there is that they are dumbasses and in part that is true, another truth is that everybody is a dumbass, there is not a man living today that is not a dumbass and the reason is simple, there is not a man alive or in the past that was able to know everything and master all subjects we are all dumbasses at something, some of us can master a lot of subjects and we call those people geniuses, but we cannot and will probably not in the foreseeable future master it all, those dumbasses today in power where once the new cool kids on the block and they did exactly what irritated them about the old people in power at their time, the problem is democracy is hard it means you have to listen and accept things you don't want too and if you try to impose your will unto others you better prepare yourself for a fight because people will fight back in one way or another, so the thing is I have high hopes for geeks, not because they are smarter than the other people which they are in some instances and can find solutions to problems very quickly but because geeks are a living network were consensus is born and cultivated not imposed, the thing that make geeks smarter is not individual intelligence but the network some of it all.
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gorehound (profile), 16 Apr 2012 @ 5:28am

The more INDIE Type stuff I see Online the better for all of us.MAFIAA Must Die.
INDIE TV, Films, Music, Books, Art will I hope slowly destroy the MAFIAA by Offering Non-Greedy Suit, No DRM, and No Lobbying of Governments to take away our Rights.
Screw You Big Content !
I have Censored you from my Wallet for life.
Oh and to those who think I will cave in to buy that new Game of Thrones or Star Trek or Whatever.................well I am very Patient and can always buy stuff Used if I really wanted to actually watch Hollywood things.
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Birkin, 17 Sep 2012 @ 6:04pm

Yes. I quite agree with you. It depends on our thoughts.
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