Most PBS member stations lean toward
the "Pro" relationship with COVE.
Most PBS stations want to get into streaming their own shows
In a poll by PBS, 72 percent of member stations responding said they’re interested in committing to COVE Pro, the highest of three levels of local involvement in the network’s new online video streaming technology.
Six percent were leaning toward COVE Lite, which would let them link their websites to national shows on the COVE (Comprehensive Online Video Ecosystem) portal that PBS debuted in the spring, but leave them to their own devices for putting their locally produced programs online.
In between, 11 percent favored the intermediate COVE Plus arrangement, enabling them to integrate the national video player into their websites and choose which national programs to feature on the 3D-animated COVE “carousel” but not post their own videos. Another 11 percent weren’t sure yet.
About two-thirds of PBS member licensees responded to the informal poll.
Indiana University’s WTIU in Bloomington wants to put up some of its 200-plus past episodes of its weekly kids’ show The Friday Zone; Chicago’s WTTW is dumping its old online video system and wants to use COVE’s ability to create web “collections” of old Barack Obama and ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich interviews on Chicago Tonight. In Kansas City, KCPT has begun posting its trademark Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations series.
The higher COVE options carry extra costs beyond the budget of stations that have only a single staffer managing the website on top of two or three other daily duties. The additional costs include not only staffing but also access to to a web server for streaming Flash files, whether owned by the station or operated by a content delivery network such as Limelight or Akamai.
For KCPT in Kansas City, the volume of its video archive plus new weekly productions suggested it should acquire an automated transcoder for converting video to online formats. The station, one of a dozen stations in COVE’s pilot test, is buying a Telestream FlipFactory instead of using time on its Avid editing system to do the task, says Angee Simmons, e.p for promotions and multimedia. Putting local video on the Web will also take some of her time, but was eager to get into the COVE pilot. “It doesn’t seem like work to me. It’s fun.”
The day when KCPT will have more viewers online than on broadcasts “will be sooner than you think,” Simmons predicts. Stations can already start viral word-of-mouth online. Most boomers and younger folk are ready for online video, she believes, as well as some elders, such as her 65-year-old father-in-law.
“You have to be looking at it like this is part of our business now,” she said. “This is part of what people expect from us. We don’t want them to have any excuse not to see our programming.”
For now, at least, the web usage relies on broadcast promos, said Phil Meyer, g.m. of WTIU. Online video gives viewers the bonus supplementary content, as Frontline in particular does “amazingly well,” he said. Viewers will also use COVE’s strong search capability to find content of interest. For viewers who browse, he recommends its interface—“decks” of episodes that viewers can pick among.
Integrating the PBS national programs and WTTW’s output on the same player is “a huge leap forward,” said Anne Gleason, senior v.p., marketing and interactive. First up in WTTW's COVE carousel are clickable image-links for Chicago Tonight, the restaurant review show Check, Please! and other WTTW series, flanked by screenshots representing major PBS series. “We’ve only heard positive feedback,” she said, including comments on COVE search and cross-referencing features.
Chunked segments from the news show play on what PBS calls the “platform player,” a new part of the COVE system for single segments or shows.
WTTW was one of the stations posting video on its site before PBS launched its streaming system, but since July, Gleason said, the station has been operating COVE in parallel with its old “down-and-dirty” Flash system, preparing to phase over to COVE.
How does online video help support public TV? Some national programs streamed on the site will be preceded by 15-second “pre-roll” underwriting blurbs, with the revenue going to cover online streaming costs. Research indicates that users expect 15-second credits and regard them as a fair price to pay for video.
As for locally produced videos, stations will be free to add blurbs to their local videos.
Gleason said building the online audience is priority No. 1, but adding revenue is No. 2. She’s part of a working group of station and PBS execs discussing future credit policies.
This web version is expanded from the story in our print edition.
Web page posted Sept. 9, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Current LLC