What it is: Dreamworks co-founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg, is shopping around a New TV concept.
Apple TV is nothing to get excited about. It works, but it’s not that exciting to use and doesn’t offer anything that other streaming TV boxes offer. Apple TV isn’t bad, but there’s no reason to get it over rival products. To change this perception, Apple has been rumored to be looking at original content.
Netflix and Hulu created their own original content when they realized they were just selling the same movies and TV shows as everyone else. By offering original content, Netflix and Hulu can differentiate themselves from their rivals and give people a reason to subscribe. That’s what Apple needs to do as well.
Apple’s first attempt at original content, “Planet of the Apps,” is a dull, copycat reality show that few people will want to watch. It’s a start, but a poor one. That’s what makes Jeffrey Katzenberg’s “New TV” concept appealing. Because so many people watch video on smartphones and tablets, New TV is designed to offer original content not longer than 10 minutes in length. This is perfect for the mobile video watching crowd although it’s not exactly ideal for Apple TV since that sits in a person’s home.
Still, “New TV” offers one way to think about content. Few people are going to watch two hour movies on a smartphone or tablet, but they will watch a short story of ten minutes or less. Traditional movies last two hours and traditional TV shows last an hour or half an hour. New TV plans to offer original content that more closely fits the lifestyle of mobile computer users.
Offering such short, original content could be an interesting way to attract subscribers. Jeffrey Katzenberg is reportedly shopping this New TV concept to Apple, Amazon, Verizon, and other major companies. Apple could use all the help they can get in getting their original content strategy going, and New TV could be a start.
The world has a much shorter attention span than before. Just watch old TV commercials that focused on one person talking about thirty seconds compared to today’s commercials that constantly flash new images every second or so.
Movies and TV shows aren’t dead, but they’re not optimized for the mobile crowd. New TV could be an interesting concept. Think short and you may have a new world of video entertainment first made popular by YouTube. Original content is necessary, but the length of time for it could mean the difference between success and failure.
To read more about Jeffrey Katzenberg’s New TV concept, click here.