Richard J. Ganahl
Bloomsburg University
WEBCASTING AS AN EMERGING GLOBAL MEDIUM
Since the emergence of the World Wide Web as a mass medium, many scholars and practitioners have established its great potential as a liberating and possibly highly profitable medium that transcends geographic boundaries. The web can display media content in a variety of formats such as texts, graphics, audio, and video. In the broadest sense, webcasting is simply the delivery of content via the web (e.g, Ha, 2004; Miles, 1998), and is synonymous to online publishing. Nevertheless, if we narrow webcasting as the parallel to broadcasting, which is limited to only the delivery of audio and video content, then webcasting should be defined as the delivery of audio and video content via the web. Webcast contents can be delivered live in real-time or on-demand to the consumers. This book employs the narrow definition of webcasting to focus on the audio and video content delivery on the Web. It explores how webcasting may impact the electronic media industry and examines its close relationship with the broadband internet industry.
Unlike text and graphics sites that offer users information only, webcasts enable users to enjoy a sensory-filled, vivid and complete entertainment experience. There are many different applications of webcasting in both the non-profit and the commercial sector. For informational and instructional applications, webcasts can be used for distance learning, training and conferencing within and between organizations. For marketing applications, webcast can be used to promote the media companies, especially radio, television and movie companies with trailers and program highlights, or non-media companies with commercials and other promotional content. For entertainment applications, webcasts can also be used to substitute or complement the content shown in the offline counterparts of electronic media such as television networks, television stations and radio stations. The web becomes an alternative delivery medium for any organization or individual who wants to build an audio or video presence in cyberspace. No license is required. The potential audience is huge—every internet user of the world, which is estimated to be 960 million (Internet World Statistics, 2005). In an age of consolidation of electronic media distribution, the web is the only free marketplace left that allows media entrepreneurs to create their media and reach audiences with virtually no barrier to entry, except in countries that have legal restrictions in providing webcast services such as China.
This book focuses on the consumer market for webcasting because of the social and economic impacts of consumer webcasting on the society at large and the media industry. Business use of webcasting is an area that deserves another book for discussion.
Unlike television or radio broadcasts that must be displayed on a TV set or a radio receiver, webcasts can be displayed on any device equipped with a media player (the software that decodes the audio and video data on the internet). Some common web receiving devices are computers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and even the television set. If one is adventurous enough to explore the various movie, video (including animation) and radio services available on the Web, one will be amazed by how many choices are available. But some types of contents are much more common (such as music videos) than others (such as educational videos). Webcast audiences can range from home-country users, overseas expatriates, and the foreign web visitors.
In analyzing the webcasting industry, one must not forget its developments are shaped by the broadband internet industry and the media industry. The broadband industry provides the foundation for webcasting so that the quality of the video and audio shown on the web is comparable to the regular television and radio broadcasts. The streaming technology and file compression technology advancements make it possible to deliver audio video content in large quantity without distortion by saving the bandwidth needed for mass consumption. The traditional electronic media industry is the main content provider to the webcast industry. The two industries have a symbiotic relationship similar to Hollywood Studios and the television industry, which are mutually dependent on each other.
Despite the common use of the term “emerging media” in the academe, there is no clear definition of what constitutes an emerging medium. We suggest that an emerging medium is a message delivery vehicle that is achieving higher utilization among the general population, but has neither universally accepted technical standards for content transmission and display, nor established operation models such as revenue sources and content strategies. “Emerging media” is a transient status of all successful media technology in their nascent stage.
Webcasting is an emerging medium with these characteristics. Incompatible file formats, varying streaming media technologies such as compression and decompression techniques (codecs), different media players for displaying audio and video files, and the variety of plug-in enhancements when using webcasts all characterize the emerging nature of the medium.
This book uses webcasting as an example of emerging media, and examines the various business models used by webcasters in the world’s most developed broadband markets in their efforts to survive financially. To avoid limiting the study’s application to only one country or culture, it employs a cross-country comparison approach.
The premise of webcasting is to employ the internet as an efficient distribution outlet for audio and video content. The efficiency of the internet as a video delivery platform is advocated by proponents of internet TV (e.g., Noam, Groebel, & Gerbarg, 2004). Digitizing video content capitalizes on the economic properties of media content as a public good. It is becoming easier and demanding much less bandwidth with the advancement of streaming technology (Chang, Lee, & Lee, 2004).
The growth of the webcasting industry is shown in the most recent report released by the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks. It reveals U.S. consumer spending on entertainment and multimedia sites (excluding game sites) reached $413.5 million in 2004, a 90% increase over the previous year. These sites are now ranked as the second highest online paid content categories, following online dating and relationship services (McGann, 2005). Subscription and stream-based advertising revenue in the United States will reach $864 million in 2005 (Accustream 2004 b).
