Happy Friday! Welcome to Issue 17 of Rerun, your weekly digest of digital storytelling, interactive media and the future of TV curated by Axonista.
In this weeks Top Pick we take a look at a new survey on cord cutting, ponder the future of "interruptive advertising", see how eSports are becoming a big media player, and check out some of the latest in the world of VR. Enjoy!
Top Pick
A new study shows a rise in cord cutting and cord shaving
A survey of former pay TV subscribers by TiVo subsidiary Digitalsmiths has shown that 8.2% of respondents completely cut their cable/satellite service, while 45.2% said they reduced their service and 44.2% cut premium channels like HBO. Citing reasons like increasing fees and poor customer service, it's the continuation of a long-term trend. The survey also shows the growth of OTT and 'binge watching'. This article by Techcrunch gives a full breakdown of the results, complete with charts and graphs!
Future of TV
Time is running out for the 30-second TV commercial
There's a new term for those ads on TV during broadcasts — “interruptive advertising”. Some studies have shown that 84% of respondents wanted to fast forward through the ads they watch, while 60% of them download or record shows so they can skip the commercials. What's clear is that viewers today are quickly losing patience with this traditional method of ad delivery.
TV commercials won’t disappear overnight – they’re still far too effective – and they won’t disappear for all the usual ”TV is dead, the internet is king” reasons. They’ll disappear because the modern consumer no longer has the patience to sit through a four-minute pod of eight 30-second sales pitches.
Interactive Media
Why the next sports empire will be built on 'eSports'
“[eSports] It’s not a sport — it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”
The quote above came from ESPN president John Skipper in 2014; less than a year later ESPN2 aired a live video game broadcast. Truth is the semantics here don't really matter, what really matters is that competitive video gaming is drawing huge viewership and growing fast. One broadcaster Twitch.tv delivered 26 billion minutes of video to an audience of around 51 million people in March alone. And what's more, these viewers are highly engaged, consistently beating the industry average on key ad metrics. Whatever your opinion on 'eSports' is, the fact is they cannot be ignored.
Virtual Reality
NextVR’s US Open VR broadcast shows great promise
At this weeks TV of Tomorrow conference in San Francisco, NextVR showed us its live event demo which gave us a brief taste of what it's like to have the best court side seats at an NBA game and a NASCAR pit lane pass, as well as being up close and personal with Chris Martin at a Coldplay concert. A clear future monetisation strategy for VR lies in giving fans access to live events they couldn't otherwise afford, and NextVR is leading the charge with the first ever multi-camera live broadcast in VR taking place at last weekends US Open.
The first ever Oculus Rift tool for reviewing theme park rides
The folks at Super 78 make interactive theme park rides. When they were building a complex immersive ride in Germany called Lost Temple they needed a way to convey their vision to theme park owners before expensive construction began, so they developed a mock up tool for VR to do just that. Now they've launched this software to the market for other VR producers to use.
Jaunt VR to take part in Google's "Jump" program
Jaunt VR have announced they are a preferred VR content creator for Google's "Jump" program, their 360 video initiative that offers state-of-the-art tech for video stitching and post-processing. Jaunt recently announced they were setting up a dedicated VR studio in LA, and they've filmed exclusive experiences like a Paul McCartney show right from the middle of the stage, "a ticket you can't buy". We look forward to seeing what fruits this collaboration will bring!
Briefs
- Facebook's new mobile ads show off 360-degree views and vertical videos
- MansLaughter (coming August 2015) places the VR wearer at the heart of a murder mystery.
- YouTube’s E3 live stream garnered eight million views in 12 hours
- Tumblr TV is fullscreen GIF heaven
Wes Anderson’s insane attention to detail
Supremely talented Irish designer, Annie Atkins talks us through the depth and the detail behind her work on Wes Anderson's, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Just don't mention the typo...
"Luckily Wes is a really nice guy as well as being a genius"