The User-Generated Fad is Over
Okay, I’m being deliberately melodramatic in the headline, but it got your attention didn’t it? Here’s the latest news on mainstream celebrities charging into online video. While this will never stop user-generated content and amateur video creators, it will definitely steal a piece of the viewing pie. On the upside, it will also help mainstream online-video viewing. You can rest assured that with Eisner involved this isn’t a Go.com (irony intentional).
USWeekly is starting a celebrity channel on Veoh, according to MediaPost(who I have been citing way too often). Now Veoh is a minnow next to the whale called YouTube. But this could help propel them to shark status. And I’m not sure of this but I think sharks can eat whales.
… Usmagazine.com and its companion Veoh channel would feature professionally produced video and other content geared to its core audience of women in their 20s and 30s. That includes video of celebrity Q & A sessions at Us, backstage footage of celebrity photo shoots and Us critics discussing hot new movies or TV shows.
With their new venture, Us Weeklyand Veoh are taking on a slew of celebrity-oriented competitors online including TMZ.com, Gawker and PerezHilton as well as viral video heavyweight YouTube. Veoh has attempted to differentiate itself from bigger video rivals by allowing users to upload videos of any length and create their own virtual channels.
Celebrity and hyper produced content can, of course, co-exist with user-generated stuff. But the next LonelyGirl-HappySlip-Renetto-ZeFrank-Rockeboom thing will have a lot harder time finding fame when Paris Hilton is vlogging.
P.S. My wife gets US Weekly and I steal it for her when I poop. That’s more than you needed to know, isn’t it?
Where do you poop?
Pooptime is the only time it is ok for a guy to have a copy of US Weekly. I do the same.
I believe that it would definitely cause tremendous growth for Veoh, but I doubt that it will detract, very much, from the popularity of user-generated content by the average person. I base that on the less than warm reception that P. Diddy, and Paris Hilton, received on YouTube, and the fact that while they both have huge subscription bases, they didn’t take the site by storm. I, of course, could be completely wrong.
I think there are two streams: in one are people who’ll watch Paris no matter what Paris does. (Some would watch her poop- that’s extra).
In the other are people who subscribe to people, and who realize the conversation that new media tools brings to the market. I believe/hope that the true end-user value lies here, but that the engine to sustain it requires a lot more work.
It’s right for Veoh to get a big star moment to prop its stable up, and at the same time, if you’re already on Veoh checking out US Weekly, why not look at … whoever uses Veoh?
The trick my company believes to be important is finding quality Internet TV you want to have a relationship with. I think the Veoh move will help that in the short term.
You do a great service for this space, Pooper. Keep pooping and thinking about all this. You’re clearly one of the definers and diviners.
–Chris…
Another, more recent, case in point would be Boy George (yes, it WAS short – don’t think I didn’t see that). He is using YouTube in the same manner as the average user, and yet, featuring his,”Ode to YouTube”, video created a completely unexpected stir on the site. So much so, that for the first time, that I’m aware of, the video was taken off of the featured list within 24 hours of having been put there.
There’s a whole lot of poop going on in this post. I think I know the demographic you’re trying to attract with poopie talk.
But seriously, the first thing I thought when I read this post is “more work for graphic artists!” Celebrities can’t do their own video. Filmmakers are above this sort of rowdy hoohah. In march the ghostwriters, uh…ghostcam-ers. It’ll be good for the economy until someone figures out that ghostcaming can be outsourced to Cambodia.
Pay attention. This is prophecy.
Oh no, hordes of TV couch potatoes rushing to see Paris in her golden bathroom reading a script into a webcam, agreeing with every word she says… that is my worst fear. It only means that yet another medium will be dumbed down to the ground.
And marquisdejolie is right.. this will be a whole new niche for small video editors/directors/other all-in-one professionals.
I didn’t know Paris Hilton could type? Seems like a lot of work for her. Nerdum still reigns supreme on the net. It’s all these buttons.
ha ha