Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2009 > March > 14 > Entry
They’ve got the funny. Now, where’s the money?
Some of the biggest names in online comedy videos (Ricky Van Veem of collegehumor.com, Keith Richman of Break Media), along with “Colbert Report” writer Meredith Scardino, actor B.J. Novak of “The Office” and BOXEE’s Avner Ronen gathered in the cavernous ballroom A at the Austin Convention Center to discuss comedy, and content in general, online.
As one might expect, there was not too terribly much new ground covered here. But such is the case with a nebulous, growing and unpredictable medium.
Richman admits that one of the biggest problems for online content and its producers is the fact that it is still too hard to monetize online content. He claimed that even though some of the videos on his site may get more views than 30-50 digital cable channels, he is still not able to find a way to make the money those channels do.
While people may be watching more and more online content, Van Veem said that a recent study found that Americans average 151 hours of tv watching, so it seems tv is not going away any time soon.
The boon for viewers and the trouble for tv, however, may come from the fact that with the Internet, people can watch what they want and won’t waste time watching shows they don’t like, as they might with TV. According to Novak, this should serve as a bit of a warning for bad content on TV. The good shows will stay on the air, he says, but maybe we will be lucky enough to see the bad stuff go away.
The biggest challenge for producers of online content will continue to come from the struggle to get money and distribution. The good news seems to be that online content is judged and promoted in a democratic way. If people like a video, they will pass it along, and eventually the process of passing along clips will be the new stamp of approval as opposed to the stamp of approval that comes from a late-night talk show host or television producer. Web 2.0 — you be the star, star-maker. As for the salary of said stars and star-makers, we’re still working on that part, it seems. The future holds the answers. As always.
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