The Long Tail: Long Tail TV: Conclusion

Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

In Long Tail TV: Conclusion, Chris Anderson shares examples of “content that is not available through traditional distribution channels but could nevertheless find an audience”:

1) TV shows that are made but not broadcast in your area:
  • Channels your cable provider doesn’t carry
  • Foreign TV
  • Local sports and events from places you aren’t

2) Old TV shows:

  • TV from the archives, from ancient to relatively recent
  • Current shows that you missed and forgot to record

3) Video of any sort that is made but not broadcast (the video found on the Internet Archive’s moving image collections, which ranges from the Prelinger Archives to SIGGRAPH animations, is a great example.)

  • Independent films
  • Commercials (which are broadcast but not scheduled and findable)
  • Amateur video, including news
  • Commercial/corporate video intended for targeted audiences

4) Video that could and would be made if only there were a good way to find an audience for it. (Steve Rosenbaum is blogging on this, too). The best sense of what that might be can be found by looking at the online video that’s been made since the broadband web became a reality.

  • Political video mashups from MoveOn. Skateboarders taping and distributing their stunts and spills. Any number of witness videos. Amateur porn. Videogame machinima. Etc…
  • The sort of thing this article about JibJab Media (home of South Park-like fare such as "This Land") celebrates. Such web video, the article says, is "spawning a cottage industry of digital movie Fellinis hoping to make their mark in the nascent world of online short films."
  • Endless numbers of reality shows.

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