New media part two
In my last post I talked about new media. These posts are inspired by an interview I’ve heard of David H. Lawrence XVII. Less then 24 hours after posting the man himself posted a comment on my site. To say that I was exited is an understatement.
In that post I concentrated on what television networks can do to embrace new media. In this one I’
One of the traditional media groups is already using and embracing this new media.
Internet radio.
A lot of radio stations have a live radio stream of their broadcast. and there are a couple of Internet radio station that only broadcast via the Internet. These services can make use the advantages the Internet brings. It is easy to know how many pc’s are using your stream at the same time and you are not limited by geographical borders.
For example NOS news network in The Netherlands as broadcasts their content on the Internet. On their site you can watch or listen to the news clips. You can also subscribe to the news pod cast. Every morning before going to work I listen to the NOS pod cast.
At work I have the choice between every Internet radio station out there. Most of the times I listen to Dutch Internet radio stations or a few local once.
Now these radio stations have reached me even across borders. Now back to the benefits of using this medium.
Traditional radio has no real way of knowing how many people are listening. They can make an estimate based on traditional rating system. In most countries this done by doing a survey. Now with Internet radio it is possible to know exactly how many people are listening at what time. So you know exactly what radio show has the most listeners and is the most popular. The station can come to the advertisers with this info so they know how many listeners have actually heard the commercials.
The advantage traditional radio has over Internet radio is that you can listen to your favourite radio station with a portable radio. For Internet radio you need a Internet connection and in most homes this is on the pc. But with the growed of broadband wireless connections and new gadgets this obstacle is soon over won.
The Iphone and if I’m not mistaking the G-1 android phone are two examples of gadgets that use wireless Internet or gprs connections and are able to receive Internet radio broadcasts.
Pod casts.
This is a new form of getting the shows etc to the audience.
This was first done via email calling the service net casting. It was simply sending a mail with a sound clip as attachment to a mailing list. One of the first persons to do this was David H. Lawrence XVII. The guy I talked about in my last post.
Since then the service has changed and evolved to what we know as pod casting. You subscribe to the pod cast and every time there is new content you automatically download it to your pc. Because of the name a lot of people think you need a Ipod to listen to pod casts. This is not true a lot of audio programs have a pod cast subscription option. So all you really need is a pc with the right audio software and a Internet connection. The pod caster always knows how many people have subscribed to his pod casts. With these numbers he can easily step to a advertiser and ask to sponsor him.
Advertisers can also make use of the popularity of pod casts. Taking an example for my own experience. The tenth wonder is a pod cast about the nbc show heroes. This pod cast is sponsored by netflicks and Audible.com. Every time I listen to the show I hear the advertisement. And to be honest I went to the website to see if I can use the service. To bad it’s a US only service.
Most pod casts are still made by the ordinary guys, the hobbyists. Some broadcasting networks and other companies have started to use pod casts as an add-on service.
Most hobbyists or fan pod casts shows have embraced more of the new media. So through email, webforums etc it’s easier to get feedback from the listeners.
The most important benefit of new media is that it’s easy to know how many viewers/listeners you have at what time and where they are from. This goes for Internet radio, television, weblogs, pod casts etc.
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