Comcast’s purchase of TV network NBC and movie studio Universal seems backwards to older media veterans who remember the ascent of upstart cable versus the powerful Big 3 TV networks in the 70′s/80′s. It proves that media itself has become a commodity to be digested across a panoply of distribution channels. It just so happens that cable, with its reliable subscription revenue streams and multiple channel assets, now has more financial clout than advertising based network TV and with it, the ability to finance programming through a movie studio as well.

Moreover, TV/cable and Internet are merging towards display across a common TV/monitor display platform. Cable channels pay significant syndication fees to broadcast relevant programming. They are curating content for their audience. However…

Social media facilitates the same content curation done by cable channels. Justin.TV allows anybody to broadcast hit movies (illegally) like a Showtime channel and now, personal broadcasters can get paid for it as a pay-per-view affiliate:

Obviously, copyright issues on Justin.TV seem to fall by the wayside just as they have done on Youtube (Google no longer seems diligent in deleting uploaded copyright content). This tolerance becomes a moral hazard that makes copyright protection unenforceable.

Like other content, video has essentially become free and curatable. For every Hulu, there will be copycat channels. Even Hulu’s exclusive licensed content are easily replicated by screen scraping video software like Camtasia.

Justin.TV’s pay-per-view channels will be the first of a new video revenue model that YouTube (which already announced this intention) and other video channels will follow. Why? Because everybody wants to be a broadcaster.

Why are print newspapers shutting down presses, and book publishers decrying where their readers went? Today’s NY Times essentially says this:

(Charts, of course, not based on actual statistics; for descriptive purposes only)

Consumers are increasingly avoiding newspapers — and books, too — because the text mode is now used so infrequently that it can feel like a burden. People are showing a clear preference for a fully formed video experience that comes ready to play on a screen, requiring nothing but our passive attention.

The video mode has been reinforced by the rise of YouTube. In December, almost 100 million viewers in the United States watched 5.9 billion YouTube videos, according to comScore. Tellingly, YouTube has not cannibalized TV viewership — it has instead carved out another chunk of our leisure time for video on a screen.

The news media is now figuring out that their viewers/readers want to participate in conversations with them for the same reason Letters to the Editor was important to print newspaper. Simply put, viewers just like to see their name and viewpoints pop up on a news website.

More important, news organizations want to continue to extend their brand name by being first to mind when it comes to breaking news. We’ve often discussed how Twitter is functioning as the “breaking news” social media application because it’s so simple to send out a one-sentence tweet.

NBC4i in Columbus, OH seems to be one of the few TV news stations that is using Twitter to engage their readers. Using the Tweetgrid application, they have set up “channels” where Twitterers can converse with NBC4i news personnel “as it happens”. They even have a channel for weather!

Instead of creating individual categorical boxes for Reporters, Anchors, Meteorologists, etc., NBC4i should look at Feedfuze to list their categories in one compact container:

The above Feedfuze from breaking housing market news Homescopes compartmentalizes news by SF Bay Area county. NBC4i and other news organizations can also now create Twitter news feeds by geography (counties or neighborhoods), or by topic (sports, business, national news, local news).

Domus Consulting Group has devised simple and free social media systems that allows news organizations to limit and filter Twitterers who can post tweets on their feed sites. For example, NBC4i may want to set up a Financial Twitter Feed and limit Twitter commentary to financial experts of NBC4i’s choosing. The content then becomes much more credible without everyman yahoos spewing their thoughts or spammy stock recommendations. Please contact me for details.

I sometimes ruminate over new concepts for 24 hours to figure out their implications rather than jot down a quick “yowza” blog post. CNN.com and Facebook’s integrated coverage of the Obama Inaugural yesterday was striking because it was the first time I saw all my Facebook friends come to life in a unified, mostly coherent conversation.

In social network applications like Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook, conversations are siloed. I don’t feel a part of the ecosystem until somebody or I start a conversation. An event like the Inauguration lays down a contextual foundation for the conversation so everybody feels involved. It’s the reason why we go to live sporting or concert events – Facebook provided a proxy for “being there” by gathering all the people I know (at least on Facebook) in one room.

This is one of the powerful applications of Facebook Connect that will surely be used in connection with other events, live or programmed (as in movie watching), to provide the same social experience by proxy. Yes, the conversations may be boring or obnoxious, but that’s like any other cocktail party. I think this is addictive.

I always had this notion that if Twitter could embed videos, it would do three things:

1. Become a full fledged broadcast media. Now Twitter “channels” can be created.
2. As a true broadcast media, TV news organizations would jump all over this by embedding their video stories for distribution and publicity.
3. This would position Twitter as a content network competitive with user-generated video blogging services like Seesmic.

I saw it on Jason Calacanis’ Twitter account this morning, investigated and found Tweetree.

This is the only application I’ve found so far this morning that can embed videos on Twitter.

UPDATE: I believe the capability to see embedded videos in Twitter requires Firefox’s PowerTwitter add-on, or to see the Twitter stream via Tweetree.

Tweetree has potential to become Twitpic for video, which just proved its value with Janis Krums’ famous Twitpic picture of the downed Flight #1549. Moreover, I predict a programmer rush to build a Twitter application that facilitates a simple “shoot, send and embed into Twitter” functionality for phones and cameras. (And yes, I know Seesmic has similar video functionality but Janis Krums would have required a broadband connection, and an open Macbook to “upload” a video from his ferry).

Justin Kan, founder of Justin.TV, achieved notoriety in March 2007 by hooking up a webcam on a helmet and broadcasting his life 24-by-7. Justin.TV was born to facilitate similar life streaming broadcasts by individuals.

The evolution of the business model twisted from personal, user-generated broadcast content, Justin style, to a media site that hosts individual broadcast channels.

It’s a play on the “be your own DJ” online model, and many participants are using the pulpit to broadcast sporting events and movies that they are (likely illegally) re-broadcasting from existing online subscriptions. The more interesting feature that YouTube or Hulu don’t have is real time chat functionality to pundit the broadcast.

The moral of the story is the power of combining cutting edge technology (in this case, online streaming video) and outrageous action to develop first, celebrity, and then an online media model. Through discovery, a true online business model – personal broadcast channel – emerged based on the simple cable access channel paradigm.

The media buzz on Election 2008 is all about how the internet provides real time updates and commentary much faster than TV and other broadcast media:

Passing of the Torch: TV to Internet – Screenwerk

I’m Ready to Declare the Winner in the 2008 Race – Arianna Huffington (it’s the Internet)

Media groups turn on Web for Election coverage – Reuters

Viewers will be watching the races with TV and PC in tandem. TV provides the pundit and celebrity analysis, and the Internet provides the fastest updates and social commentary. The Internet commentary is often punctuated with comic interpretation of what the TV networks are showing (see Election.Twitter.com to see amusing reactions from the masses).

Tom Steinert Threlkeld @ ZDNet blog Between the Lines is conducting an informal poll:

Here are a few more creative ways to monitor Election coverage:

Add Election results with Firefox add-on RSS Ticker – creates a “ticker tape” of real time news feeds from the online news media sources.

Google has a real time Election Gallery available for embedding into blogs. It is a cool mashup that makes a blog an Election media site so I put it up at the top of this post. Every election monitoring application should have such a simple embed to proliferate their brand.