Peaceful Video Games

---

Videogamers Embark on Nonkilling Spree

'Pacifist Run' Wins Bragging Rights; Spells, Not Swords

By CONOR DOUGHERTY

Killing is easy in the moral vacuum of videogames. So when Daniel Mullins needed a challenge, he gave peace a chance.

Mr. Mullins, 19, is the creator of "Felix the Peaceful Monk"—his character in a videogame called "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim." The game gives players wide latitude over their on-screen characters' appearance and actions. Felix, who is half man, half cat, has become a small-time Internet celebrity for his steadfast refusal to kill.

In videogame excerpts Mr. Mullins has posted on YouTube, Felix roams an icy fantasy world doing things like soothing angry wolves with magic. In one video, he explains how to turn away threatening skeletons, noting Felix won't even harm the undead. And when an assassin tried to gut Felix with a knife? While most players have swords and arrows for would-be hit men, Mr. Mullins hit his with a calm spell.

"Apparently someone wants me dead. But that doesn't mean [the assassin] deserves to die," Mr. Mullins explains.

Videogames have long been assailed for their violent themes and gruesome imagery. But a small slice of players has embraced a new strategy: not killing. They are imparting real-world morals on their virtual-world characters and completing entire games on a "pacifist run"—the term for beating a blood-and-guts adventure without drawing any blood.

The cool restraint of pacifism can bring bragging rights and even a taste of online fame. Videogame enthusiasts routinely post videos of their accomplishments on YouTube.

Kotaku, a videogame blog, has done posts on a handful of pacifists, including one who conquered the post-apocalyptic world of "Fallout: New Vegas" without taking a single virtual life. A number of violent videogames award virtual "trophies" to anyone who can complete the game without killing.

Stephen Totilo, Kotaku's editor in chief, says videogame pacifism isn't usually a moral decision but rather "an urge to break the rules"—and dial up the difficulty of the game. "One of the most interesting challenges is to get through the game without killing," he says.

Virtual pacifism can be a squishy concept. Ian Jones, a 21-year-old college student in Charlotte, N.C., has also been playing Skyrim as a "pacifist." But his method is hardly nonviolent: He uses spells to possess the game's computer-generated bystanders, and they do the killing.

Tweaking the rules to make a game more difficult is as old as play itself. Some golfers, for instance, challenge themselves by playing with one club instead of 14.

In the 1980s, enterprising videogame players used to try to get through Nintendo's "Super Mario Brothers" without squishing the orb-like enemies encountered along the way—just to see if it could be done.

Today, many videogames involve complex fictional worlds and give players free rein to create and shape characters—including the chance to mold their moral compass. In the Skyrim game, players can slay dragons or plunder tombs, but also get married or do tasks like chop firewood or cook.

When an enemy comes along, a player can take the obvious route: Pull out their sword and hack away. But they can also sidestep conflict with peaceful methods such as spells that make enemies friendly (albeit temporarily) or simply run away.

Todd Howard, who directed the team of developers who made the game, notes killing isn't the only morality test. "Many [players] won't steal," he says.

On his first run through Skyrim, Mr. Mullins took a more traditional path: He built an avatar that was obsessed with fire and went around torching people. The character engaged in cannibalism and acquired a valuable artifact by killing a priest with a rusty mace.

When he was sufficiently sickened, Mr. Mullins sought redemption in a new peace-loving avatar: Felix.

"I really wanted a change of pace," says Mr. Mullins, who goes to college in Kingston, Ontario.

DeeAnna Soicher isn't all that comforted by the idea that a subset of videogame players are merely choosing to play as pacifists. Her 16-year-old son, Brock, is an avid fan of videogames, despite attempts by Mrs. Soicher and her husband, Drew, to keep him away from them.

Brock's first videogame system came connected to a treadmill. Worried that videogames would turn him into a couch potato, the parents' stipulation was their son could only play when the treadmill was moving.

Today, after wearing down his parents with wit and good grades, Brock has a PlayStation 3 that he plays on a denim beanbag chair in the basement. The double zeros in his online identity, BrockyBoi00, come from an old football jersey that hangs framed above the television.

But Mr. and Mrs. Soicher still don't want any violent titles in their suburban Denver home. Brock can't have any game that has a rating above "T" (Teen). Recently, when Mrs. Soicher found a copy of a shooting game called "Kill Zone," she laid it on the kitchen counter so Brock would know he'd been busted.

Thus, she was pleasantly surprised to learn Brock posted an online video for how to complete a "death match" in the game "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception"—but without actually killing anyone. Brock's method, as explained in a voice-over in his online tutorial, was to climb away from opponents and hide along a rafter.

"Given what a 16-year-old boy could be putting on YouTube, this is fine with me," says Mrs. Soicher.

Brock was inspired by Mr. Mullins's YouTube videos (the two have never met, online or otherwise). He doesn't have a problem with violent games, as videos of his other adventures can attest. Still, he wanted to make the point that games should have more nonviolent options.

"I guess not killing in videogames is rebellious," Brock says.

He recently created a new video of him playing "Battlefield 3," the sort of realistic war game his mother usually forbids. Instead of killing, however, Brock's on-screen character goes around reviving enemies with a defibrillator. The song he picked out: A cover of the Edwin Starr classic, "War," which includes the famous line: "What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

Super Bowl Streaming issues

Supersized Streaming

Lots of challenges for the first Super Bowl to be streamed live

By George Winslow, Broadcasting & Cable

It will be a landmark in the development of online video and streaming media when Super Bowl XLVI is streamed online for free via NFL.com and NBCSports.com to computers, iPads and select Android tablets. As part of a separate deal with the NFL, Verizon Wireless will be streaming the game to subscribers of its Verizon NFL Mobile subscription package.

For the online portion, much of NBC’s attention has been on adding new content and offering a different viewing experience. “The big motto will be to enhance the broadcast experience,” says Eric Black, director of digital operations for NBC Sports & Olympics.

For example, the online viewer at NFL.com and NBCSports.com allows users to select two different feeds from a number of different options. So a user could have the broadcast simulcast in the main window and then select a “star camera” that follows New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the second picture-in-picture view.

“You could watch Brady throw a long bomb and see the simulcast pan down the field to the catch and at the same time watch the star camera sticking with Brady to see him get hit, or his reaction to the catch,” says Black.

The online player also offers variable bit rates of up to 720p at 3.5Mbps, aggregated Twitter feeds, social media interactivity and DVR functionality to pause, rewind and replay portions of the game. “We do extensive meta data at ingest,” notes Black, which allows NBC to mark sections of the feed by a number of criteria— touchdown drives, plays longer than 15 yards, turnovers and so forth.

As a result, users can easily find specific plays on a timeline and replay them.

The player also has an on-demand portion for viewers to watch the Super Bowl broadcast ads. And viewers of the online simulcast will actually see different ads.

Just how well NBC’s content delivery network or the Internet as a whole will stand up to the streaming of such a high-profile event remains an open question.

NBC does not discuss particular vendors or technologies that it is relying on to deliver its streaming offerings, but Black says that NBC and its technology partners have extensive experience streaming highprofile events and that their network is designed to handle heavy traffic.

“After four NFL seasons and two Olympics of online streaming, we are very very good at handling a lot of traffic,” Black notes. “We have spent a lot of time on this and have developed a very robust network that can deliver the highest quality to end users.”

Black also notes that NBC uses adapting bit rate technologies that respond to a user’s available bandwidth. “This allows us to deliver the best quality they can consume on their computer,” he explains.

Super Bowl Media

---

NBC to Stream Super Bowl Online

Network will also stream Wild Card Saturday doubleheader and Pro Bowl

By John Eggerton & Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting & Cable

The 2012 Super Bowl will be streamed online and on select mobile phones for the first time ever.

Billing the online offering as NBC Postseason Extra, it will launch Jan. 7 with NBC's Wild Card Saturday doubleheader. followed by the Pro Bowl Jan. 29 from Hawaii, and Super Bowl XLVI Feb. 5 live from Indianapolis. The games will be streamed on both NBCSports.com and NFL.com. as well as Verizon mobile phones.

The stream will come from NBC's coverage, with additional camera angles, highlights and stats to add to the interactive experience.

Will online streaming of the big game and playoffs become standard operating procedure? "We'll see how this year goes," said an NFL source on background.

If it does become the norm, the move to put playoff games online not only opens up the game to the increasingly mobile, increasingly broadband-centric audience, it could also remove one of the historic trump cards in some retransmission consent disputes: the biggest ticket sports broadcast.

At least for the affiliates of the network carrying each year's NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, the possibility of losing access to those games has been one of the talking points in Washington, where legislators have argued that retrans blackouts threaten programming for which there is no substitute, like the big football games, college and pro.

But with online access, most of the cable viewers affected by those blackouts would have an online option.

The streaming version of the Super Bowl will carry a different set of commercials from the Super Bowl broadcast, where NBC is nearly sold out at prices above $3 million for 30 seconds.

NBC is in the process of selling those spots. No word yet on pricing. NBC is also looking to sell ads in its other NFL online properies including NBC Postseason Extra.

While streaming the game could take some viewers away from the commercials on broadcast, among the options NBC will be offering users of computers and mobile devices is a channel showing the Super Bowl commercials with full DVR functionality, which means viewers away from home during the game can still catch the ads -- usually one of the most talked about features of Super Sunday.

---

---

Supersized bowl

Big game moving beyond the tube to the Web

By CLAIRE ATKINSON, NY Post

The Super Bowl, which draws the biggest American TV audience, is about to get bigger with World Wide Web coverage.

For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be available to football fans watching it online, on tablets or on mobile phones.

NFL, NBC and Verizon Wireless have agreed to supersize the big game — a change that will make it virtually impossible to escape football’s biggest matchup, set for Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

Super Bowl XLVI isn’t the only post-season game to get the streaming treatment. The NFL Pro Bowl and NBC’s Wild-Card Saturday doubleheader games will also be available in the same way.

Viewers will be able to visit NBCSports.com to get the games online or on tablets such as the iPad, while phone users will have access via the NFL Mobile app offered only by Verizon Wireless.

For those who own Verizon 3G phones, there will be a $10 charge to access the Super Bowl via Verizon Video, the service that includes the NFL app, while 4G phone owners will get it for free.

Last year’s game, won by the Green Bay Packers, attracted a record 111 million viewers, making it the biggest US TV show in history.

In the past, the league and its network partners have had to crack down on rogue sites that attempt to stream the game online without permission.

NBC doesn’t think a streamed Super Bowl will cannibalize viewership, even though TV ratings giant Nielsen doesn’t count ratings on alternative devices yet.

The company is hoping to enhance the experience by giving viewers the chance to rewind plays, watch from different angles and repeat commercials.

“Our extensive Sunday Night Football and Olympic research shows that live streaming does not cannibalize the television audience,” an NBC spokesman said. “People default to the best screen available. In fact, our research shows an enhanced two-screen viewing experience leaves consumers more engaged.”

The digital blowout could deliver a new revenue stream for NBC and give marketers who don’t have the stomach for a $3.5 million 30-second ad spot on TV the opportunity to put their ads into the digital coverage.

NBC has been streaming “Sunday Night Football” since 2008, and says it gets 200,000 to 300,000 streams for each “Sunday Night” game.

Pepsi and VW are among those signed up as Super Bowl TV advertisers.

The new initiative also suggests NBC has big plans to shake up Olympic coverage, offering hope to those who want to see more of their favorite sports live from London in 2012.

NBC got a new sports honcho, Mark Lazarus, in May. He took over from longtime chief Dick Ebersol, who had favored prime-time packages that were not live but drew advertisers. Lazarus has said that every Olympic event will be broadcast live on at least one platform from London, though the network hasn’t provided specifics.

---

NFL, NBC Sports to Live Stream the Super Bowl

Getty ImagesThe big game as well as the Pro Bowl and NBC's broadcast of Wild Card playoffs will be available on NFL and NBC sites.

By Marisa Guthrie, THR

NEW YORK – For the first time in 46 years, the Super Bowl will be officially live streamed. The NFL will make the big game, as well as this season's Pro Bowl and NBC’s broadcasts of Wild Card playoff games, available on the NFL and NBC web sites through Verizon’s NFL Mobile app.

NBC and the league already live stream NBC’s Sunday Night Football. And CBS Sports has been live streaming the NCAA’s March Madness (with a “boss button”) for several years.

Still, it is an unprecedented step for the biggest television event in the country that has drawn in excess of 100 million viewers for the last two years.

Each year, the NFL and the broadcast network that has the rights to the Super Bowl fend off rogue sites that attempt to live stream it. Last year, the government seized the web addresses of nearly a dozen sites that promised to live stream the game.

The move is a sign of a tipping point in viewing habits, as more consumers watch television on mobile devices including the iPad. But it also underscores the philosophical change at NBC Sports, which in recent years has been the target of criticism from diehard sports fans for tape delaying events, especially the Olympics.

After the departure of longtime NBC Sports & Olympics chief Dick Ebersol last May, new NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus promised much more live streaming and has said that every event of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in London will be live on one platform or another.

The NFL Mobile app will offer additional camera angels as well as live stats. The 2012 Super Bowl is Feb. 5 from Indianapolis.

NBC, CBS and Fox last week finalized lucrative new contracts with the NFL for close to $1 billion each and that include additional digital rights.

---

Super Bowl to stream online

Wild card games, Pro Bowl also go digital

By Andrew Wallenstein, Variety

The Super Bowl will be streamed live on digital platforms in the U.S. for the first time, NBC announced Tuesday.

The Feb. 5 game would be accessible online for free in high definition via websites for the NFL and NBC, which is televising the event, as well as on wireless devices courtesy of the league's Verizon mobile app.

The wild card games on Jan. 7 and Pro Bowl Jan. 29 will also be streamed.

The NFL has already put its Sunday night games on NBC online as well, complete with additional features such as extra camera angles, social interactivity and DVR-like controls.

Those features will be available for the streamed post-season games, too, but still utilize the same play-by-play team on air.

While the online stream will have a separate set of commercials, the heavily hyped ads featured on TV will also be accessible on the digital side.

Putting the big game online should help curtail piracy, a problem that has long dogged the NFL. Last year, the domains of multiple websites notorious for carrying illegal feeds of live sporting events were seized by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement just days before the Super Bowl.

Streaming could cut both ways in terms of the sky-high TV ratings for Super Bowl, which reached record levels in February. While putting the Super Bowl online could add eyeballs that otherwise aren't in front of TVs at the time of the game, there's a possibility that some viewers could be lured away from their sets, though that's unlikely given few would opt away from a bigger-screen experience given a choice.

---

In New-Media First, Super Bowl to Be Streamed Online

Big Game to Be Available on NBC.com and Verizon Phones

By Brian Steinberg, AdAge

The next Super Bowl will be streamed online by NBC Universal, adding a new-media dimension to one of the oldest but most viable big-TV properties on the prime-time schedule.

The National Football League made the announcement Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Under current plans, all postseason games broadcast by NBC, including a wild card Saturday game, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, will be streamed via NBC's website and Verizon's NFL Mobile application. Online viewers will be able to access additional camera angles and live statistics.

In recent years NBC began online streaming of its "Sunday Night Football" telecasts.

The Super Bowl has broken viewing records for the last three years. CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl in 2010 trumped the famous series finale of "M*A*S*H" to become the most-watched event ever on broadcast TV. This year's broadcast on Fox beat that record, topping 111 million viewers. The online-streaming component of the 2012 game could add more viewership, though whether advertisers would consider that segment as valuable as TV viewership remains in question.

An NBC Sports spokesman was not able to respond immediately to a query about advertising sold via the streaming of the game.

---

For the First Time, TV's Biggest Live Event Will Be Streamed to Your Phone

By John Paul Titlow, ReadWriteWeb

When it comes to watching television without the aid of a cable subscription or rabbit ears, the Web is pretty accommodating these days. Most popular shows stream new episodes within 24 hours and even many live television events can be streamed online. One of the biggest deal killers for would-be "cord cutters," however has always been live sports. If you're a huge football fan, for example, there's no way around it: you need TV the old fashioned way.

That's still largely the case, but watching the year's biggest sporting event via the Internet just got a whole lot easier. The Super Bowl, which is the most-watched television broadcast in the United States, will be streamed live to computers and smartphones, the NFL announced today.

NBC and the NFL will both stream a high-definition quality broadcast of the game online with alternative camera angles, DVR-style controls and other interactive features.

In addition to being accessible on the desktop Web, the stream will be available via Verizon's NFL Mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android.

It's not the first sporting event to be streamed live, but its certainly the biggest. If the networks ever wanted an opportunity to give large-scale live streaming a test run, this would be a pretty good one.

The Super Bowl attracts over 100 million viewers, most of whom will have no problem sitting around the television set per usual to watch the game. If anything, making it available online will expand the audience and may even offer the networks some interesting viewership statistics and a few takeaways about the future of television.

---

NFL Will Stream Superbowl For First Time

By Jeff Roberts, paidContent

This year’s Superbowl is in Indianapolis and it’s a sure thing the hometown Colts will not be playing. But, luckily for the Colts and the rest of us, the big game can now be seen online and on certain mobile devices.

The National Football League announced today that it is expanding its online offerings to include for the first time the Superbowl, the ProBowl and NBC’s Wild Card Saturday doubleheader.

One intriguing twist in the announcement is that, although the online stream will be available everywhere in the US, only Verizon subscribers will be able to watch it on their mobile phones through a special app.

Marketers will no doubt be watching closely to see how consumers react to new platforms for America’s biggest advertising event. While it’s unlikely that viewers will give up ritual Superbowl parties and bar gatherings to stream the game on their own, the streams will likely represent a second screen in many living rooms.

The NFL also announced that the streams will include features to “enrich the viewing experience” such as special camera angles, stats, highlights and interactive features.

---

Livestream the Super Bowl, Kick Off Disruption of Broadcast TV

Tim Carmody, Wired

In February, Super Bowl XLVI will be the first instance of the biggest game of the year to stream live over the web, via NFL.com and NBCSports.com. The game will also be available to stream on Verizon smartphones through the league’s wireless partner’s NFL Mobile app. (If you’re on another wireless carrier, you’re out of luck; Verizon’s got the exclusive.)

It also may signal the beginning of the next stage in the web’s transformation of television. Forget TiVo, iTunes, Hulu and BitTorrent. Now even live events aren’t safely confined to the boob tube. And where better to begin than with the biggest television event of the year?

It’s definitely a first for the NFL. The league’s experimented with live and mobile streaming of regular-season games, but has never before opened up live video of postseason games beyond broadcast TV. NBC, Verizon and NFL.com will also stream the Saturday wild-card playoff games and the Pro Bowl. The rest of the playoffs are carried by CBS and FOX, who aren’t part of this agreement; their games remain broadcast-only.

The NFL’s other two networks may want to catch up. NBC has been streaming Sunday night football games since 2008, averaging 200,000-300,000 viewers per game, against around 21 million through the telecasts. (Note: 111 million viewers tuned in to last year’s Super Bowl, the most in television history). There’s a huge overlap between the web and broadcast audiences, as viewers bounce back and forth between different screens throughout the house, or use the computer in front of the television to review stats, replays or highlights.

“This is the next step in how viewers consume their programming,” writes Joel Thorman, NFL Editor at sports site SB Nation. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the networks followed suit in the following years.”

Last week, when the NFL announced renewed multimillion dollar broadcast deals with NBC, CBS and FOX, league commissioner Roger Goodell promised more digital innovation from the NFL and its TV partners. “The networks will continue their outstanding coverage of the NFL,” Goodell said, “while also helping to deliver more football to more fans using the best and most current technology.”

“We don’t want to limit ourselves to people not in front of the TV,” NBC Sports VP Rick Cordella said in a story for NBCSports.com. “The playoffs are appointment viewing,” Cordella added. “People schedule their day around it.”

If NBC’s Super Bowl experiment is a success, what other tentpole events could benefit from the same treatment? Besides other sports staples like the World Series, Wimbledon or the World Cup, you could also imagine popular interactive events like the American Idol finale or must-see award shows like the Oscars migrating to viewers’ iPads.

Remember two years ago, when ABC and Cablevision’s brinkmanship in a dispute over broadcast fees nearly kept the Oscars off the air for millions of New York-area cable customers? That entire dispute could have changed completely if ABC had simulcast the awards show online.

There’s one major drawback of streaming television to computers or mobile phones, besides throttled or unreliable connections: big events benefit from big screens. Yes, you can watch the Super Bowl on your smartphone — but if you had a choice, who would really want to?

“I’m not sure about the significance of viewing live games on mobile phones,” SB Nation’s Thorman told Wired via email. “That said, this is another sign of an undeniable shift to mobile in how we consume our news, particularly sports news.”

Still, not being near a TV — or racing to get to one in time — could become a worry of the past.

Sports on mobile, in other words, still isn’t primarily an experience, but a kind of news, similar to the information we gobble up on our phones all day. And the NFL isn’t yet offering anything comparable to what NCAA football has done to support watching multiple games on big screens via a service like ESPN3 for Xbox.

We can imagine a future of television where any episode, event, season or channel could be purchased a la carte through any digital box. At the moment, though, it’s still primarily a second-screen experience, controlled by the networks and other intermediaries, that augments broadcast television instead of replacing it.

That’s still better field position than viewers had just a few years ago. And this game’s just getting started.

---

Super Bowl To Be Streamed Live On Web, Mobile

By David Goetzl, Mediapost

In the final affirmation that online streaming has changed TV forever -- a process that arguably started when ABC made hits available on iTunes in late 2005 -- the Super Bowl will be available live and free on two Web sites in February. NBC’s coverage of the big game will be simulcast on NBCSports.com and NFL.com and the ads will be different.

NBC would not provide any information -- about number of spots, etc. -- for the stream, except to say the spots will be different. This carries some risk for advertisers paying $3 million for 30 seconds on TV if there is significant consumption online, although that’s unlikely. NBC and the NFL surely are banking on online viewing to be additive.

NBC, which has been simulcasting “Sunday Night Football” for several years online, will also stream two Wild Card playoff games and the Pro Bowl.

The games will also be available on the NFL’s mobile service to some Verizon customers. This marks the first time that post-season games will be available in the U.S. via live online streaming and a mobile app.

Like the Sunday night games, the online coverage offers added camera angles. In-game highlights will also be available along with other interactive opportunities.

Rick Cordella of NBC Sports Digital Media stated: “By adding multiple camera angles, HD-quality video, DVR controls along with social interactivity, our online streaming represents a compelling, second-screen experience that nicely complements NBC's on-air presentation.”

Oprah, Louie CK, Olbermann

At the beginning of the year, all eyes were on Oprah Winfrey as she flipped the switch on OWN, a cable channel defined by her brand. It was her vision of the future of media. Viewers haven’t materialized as fast as Ms. Winfrey and her backer, Discovery Communications, would like. What that means for media is still being fought over.

Undaunted, others have followed Ms. Winfrey’s lead this year. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann leapt to the tiny Current TV; Glenn Beck left Fox News and asked fans to pay a monthly fee for his Internet channel; Regis Philbin left “Live! With Regis and Kelly” and started conceiving new shows. Rather than resist the splintering of the media industry into small niche slices, these stars have chosen to embrace it.

Maybe one day we’ll be able to say to our TV sets, “find Oprah,” and Google or Xbox will do the rest. For now, the stars are still trying to find us, so they’re taking down some of the walls that have historically separated themselves from the public. Ms. Winfrey took to Twitter and Facebook to chat with viewers — and she seemed to be loving it. Her channel did, too — it turned around and put a few of her Web chats on TV.

Louis C.K.'s recent digital comedy event should make the likes of every semi-recognized TV performer and producer sit up and take notice. But not much beyond that.

Recently, viewers spent $5 for simple digital access to watch his comedy performance at the Beacon Theater. Louis C.K. told The New York Times he pulled in 1 million people.  With production costs coming to $250,000, that meant he profited some $750,000. Easy entertainment math.

Perhaps the better part of this story is that Louis C.K. was open about these entertainment financial specifics. Hmm... how often do you see an Ashton Kutcher, Julianna Margulies, Piers Morgan or Kim Kardashian explain in detail their TV production financial specifics?

We have a good idea why. Doing a one-time-only stand-up is very different from doing 22 hour or half-hour TV episodes for a broadcast or cable network.

Louis C.K. disclosed why he was persuaded to reveal all: His mother said to tell everyone everything.  All this can't be said of "Louie" on FX. We don't know those financial details. But, of course, FX and its parent News Corp. have a say in that, given their ownership.

We know there is a long way to go here. Remember how production company Prospect Park seemingly couldn't  do the obvious? It couldn't take those fan-devoted and cancelled long-time ABC soaps,"All My Children" and "One Life to Live" and covert them into first-run digital TV series. No doubt the complexity of production craft unions made this tough to work out, as well as other rights holders and interested parties.

This always seems to be the promise of the Internet -- entertainment going right to consumers without the middlemen of networks, cable operators, satellite or telco.

But a lot of stuff still gets in the way of seeing digital adoption of big entertainment events on a more wide-spread basis. There are long-term contracts everywhere and long-term relationships -- everything from agents who have a specific interest in keeping older business relationships to entrenched TV distributors who still have serious clout.

Of course, Louis C.K.’s event had simplicity in its favor -- the $5 price and no long-term entertainment commitment. We, as viewers, increasingly also like these short-term, little risk options. That's because we may love you one minute and hate you the next.

NEW TV SHOWS

Cablers ready to make a statement

Nets vie for hits among 2012 scripted, reality slate

By Stuart Levine

With 2011 in the books, cablers are looking ahead. Mining the next "Falling Skies" or "Teen Mom 2" -- highly successful scripted and reality skeins, respectively, that premiered last year -- remains a No. 1 priority.

Here is a look at some of the key freshman series being offered by cable nets over the next 12 months:

A&E

With Westerns resurgent, A&E jumps aboard with "Longmire." Exec produced by, among others, "The Closer" team of Greer Shephard and Michael Robin and starring Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff and Lou Diamond Phillips, "Longmire" will look to become the net's third successful scripted series, following "The Glades" and "Breakout Kings."

AMC

AMC will be focusing much of its efforts on reality in the new year. Writer-director Kevin Smith will premiere his "Comic Book Men" in February, and "The Pitch" -- a real-life "Mad Men" in which agencies compete to sell and pitch their wares to media outlets -- will arrive sometime in the spring.

Bravo

Trying to keep hold of its "Top Chef" aud, Bravo premieres "Around the World in 80 Plates" -- the network's foodie version of "The Amazing Race." Chefs will test their skills in some of the most challenging restaurants around the globe.

Comedy Central

"The Nick Show Kroll"will focus on sketch material, with Kroll -- a regular on FX's "The League" and HBO's toon "The Life and Times of Tim" -- playing a variety of crass characters. Also coming from Comedy Central is an untitled two-man sketch show from "Mad TV" alums Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.

Discovery

Net brings a pair of reality shows to the fold: "Bering Sea Gold," where salty characters hunt for treasures, and "Frozen Planet," an in-depth look at Earth's polar regions. Seven-part series will be narrated by Alec Baldwin.

History

While History has a few new reality series arriving -- "Cajun Pawn Stars," "Full Metal Jousting" and "Mudcats" -- network topper Nancy Dubuc is making a bold move by shifting into scripted fare with miniseries "The Hatfields and McCoys." Starring Kevin Costner, Powers Boothe and Bill Paxton, "Hatfields" will be a big litmus test for the surging net.

FX

Feeling buoyed by the success of toon "Archer," FX returns to the animated fold with "Unsupervised." Series, about a pair of teenage boys trying to do what's right without any parental guidance, comes from the writers of the net's long-running comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

HBO

On the drama side, HBO has lined up a handful of high-powered writers, with David Milch penning horse-racing skein "Luck" and Aaron Sorkin examining the personalities who toil at a politically centric cabler in "The Newsroom." Half-hour laffers "Girls" -- from writer, director and actress Lena Dunham -- and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' "Veep" will look to fill the comedy void left by the recently canceled "Hung," "Bored to Death" and "How to Make It in America."

Lifetime

Telepic "The Client List" will serve as a backdoor pilot for a series, and the femme-focused net could really use a breakout hit. Net is hoping "Ghost Whisperer" star Jennifer Love Hewitt still has enough appeal to bring new, younger viewers to the struggling cabler.

MTV

Will auds who may be tiring on "Jersey Shore" antics tune in to spinoffs starring Pauly D, Snooki and JWoww? MTV is betting on it and is simultaneously hoping "I Just Want My Pants Back," which premiered after the "Video Music Awards," and U.K. import "The Inbetweeners" could raise the scripted bar for 2012.

Showtime

Having scored with 2011 freshman series "Homeland," the pay cabler would be happy to see new Don Cheadle laffer "House of Lies" generate some of that good will as well. Reality series "Inside Comedy," in which David Steinberg sits and chats with masters of the genre, looks to have great potential.

Starz

Starz made a big bet on "Boss," giving it a two-season order before it even launched, and now the Chris Albrecht-led net has high hopes for "Magic City" as well. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a hotel owner with ties to the mob, the series is produced by Starz -- unlike "Boss," which is from Lionsgate -- meaning "Magic's" success or failure will be amplified bigtime.

Sundance

The first wholly owned scripted series in the net's history, "Rectify" is from creator-writer Ray McKinnon (known for his roles on "Deadwood" and "Sons of Anarchy"). The six-episode series examines the life of a man released after serving 19 years on Georgia's death row, and his assimilation into society even as some still believe he is guilty.

TBS

No net may be in more need of a hit than struggling TBS, and it's hoping "The Wedding Band" may stem the viewer erosion. Skein, about a group of guys who look to escape the stress of life by picking up instruments, stars Brian Austin Green and "Lost" vet Harold Perrineau.

TLC

This year will be a busy one at TLC, which has a slew of programs on tap. A docuseries on Niecy Nash will generate some headlines, and there's also an U.S. adaptation of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding," the Southwest Airlines skein "On the Fly" and "Randy to the Rescue," about bridal guru Randy Fenoli.

TNT

Nobody will be asking who shot J.R. this time around, but Larry Hagman will be co-starring in the Turner net's revamped and anticipated "Dallas," which will premiere in summer. Other scripted series newcomers are "Perception," in which Eric McCormack plays an eccentric neuroscientist, and "The Closer" spinoff "Major Crimes," starring Mary McConnell. It could be a big year for TNT, which is looking to expand on an already-strong scripted slate.

USA

The No. 1 entertainment cabler has high expectations for buddy cop dramedy "Common Law," which the net moved to summer from a planned debut in January. And a shift to comedy and reality is also in the works, with a Nathan Lane starrer from creator Doug McGrath and "Paging Dr. Freed" likely to debut later this year.

 

---

Programmers: It's Time To Go Big, or Go HomeBroadcast and cable pros to focus on brand-defining hits, answers to authentication and streaming mysteries in the year ahead
By Melissa Grego, Broadcasting & Cable

In an era when hits can generate $1 billion in revenue, as BOA/Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen noted last month at B&C’s OnScreen Media Summit, programming strategies are targeting brand-defining, monster hits more than ever.

It’s not just about the big paychecks popular programming draws from the multiple revenue streams now in play. Hits drive network value in the increasingly competitive affiliate and marketing communities; they reinforce brands’ relationships with the viewer; and perhaps most importantly, a giant success is what it takes to break through in the ever noisier landscape.

The proliferation of entertainment choices shows no signs of slowing. As FX Networks president and general manager John Landgraf points out, in 2002, the year his network launched its first original series hit with The Shield, the show was one of 35 series in basic and premium cable. In 2011, there were 135. Now Netflix is jumping in with originals, YouTube has new channels, Starz is ramping up, HBO and Showtime are as busy as ever, not to mention the Big Four, the CW, Univision, Telemundo, USA, Turner…you get the picture.

“You’re not going to grow your business or emissary beyond your core without a really, really big hit,” Landgraf said. “It’s the only thing that will rise to people’s consciousness and bubble up. And every programmer is aware of that.”

So here’s what to look for in 2012.

Fewer, Bigger Swings

Look for programming execs to focus resources on several big plays rather than large slates of seemingly safe plays—even if some recent ambitious efforts disappointed. While ABC is benching Sony Pictures TV’s bigticket drama Pan Am in midseason, Steve Mosko, president of SPT, said he is sticking to his strategy of doing fewer shows better: “If people are spending $5-10 million on pilots, if you go the cheap route, I can guarantee you that you spend $3 million in wasted money because when you put it against a $6 million pilot, you lose,” Mosko said at OnScreen.

The Fox network and Twentieth Century Fox TV studio, which collaborated on the expensive time-travel drama Terra Nova, which did not break out, are planning some big projects outside the traditional development season, including a reboot of The Flintstones in partnership with Warner Bros. TV.

More Comedy

From ABC’s Suburgatory and Fox’s New Girl to CBS’ Two Broke Girls and NBC’s Up All Night, the recent successes among primetime comedy launches no doubt already inspired increased efforts across the industry to launch more comedy. “We [the TV industry] tend to try to chase our successes,” 20th Century Fox TV chairman Dana Walden told B&C recently.

The comedy genre has proven to perform best in primetime when paired with others in a block. So now that they are all armed with something new to laugh about, expect all of the Big Four to keep on the comedy path. Even the CW, which has not been in the comedy business, is making moves into the genre, ordering comedy scripts.

As more cable networks also pursue original comedy, Walden said the challenge will be “building a financial scale which makes sense for those platforms.”

Keep Getting Real

Narrative nonfiction also will continue to be popular, especially on basic cable networks that can stack repeats leading into originals with relative financial ease and keep the ratings pumping. The genre has some of the same appeal of the ripped-from-the-headlines procedural dramas that were hot for so long, like Law & Order, FX’s Landgraf said. So expect more of that: “Literally there isn’t an odd, charismatic, quirky shopkeeper in America with a family-run business that is not being scouted out by an agent,” Landgraf said.

And There Will Always Be Drama

Landgraf added that the enthusiasm for comedy and reality does not mean folks have thrown in the towel on drama. Programming execs expect a moderate uptick in drama entries in 2012.

Also Looming in 2012

The Netflix Effect and The Streaming Situation: After finding a gigantic hit, the next biggest thing on programmers’ minds is “an orderly transition to the digital world,” as one exec puts it. From the threat of online piracy to the windowing of authenticated video streams and the big question of whether Netflix (or any other on-demand platform) can successfully launch new originals, consumer habits and how to measure and monetize them will be closely watched in 2012 and beyond.

Signs of Life At NBC: By many accounts, a turnaround at NBC is at least a five-year endeavor, even with a well-regarded executive team now in place. But there are some green shoots—or at least some launching pads, in The Voice, the Super Bowl and the Olympics—to help take some shots, like NBC’s internal favorite, Smash. All it takes is one success to get things going.

Death of the Daytime Soap: In a year, ABC’s All My Children and CBS’ Guiding Light were canceled, and in January, ABC’s One Life to Live ends. At this rate, 2012 may be the year the decades-old daytime soap genre officially becomes extinct.

Online Video Up

 

Online Video Ad Spend to Jump 40% in 2012, with Pre-Rolls to Dominate

By Daisy Whitney

After a robust 2011, online video advertising should enjoy yet another year of rapid growth. eMarketer said online video ad spending should jump 40% this year to reach $3.1 billion. That’s after a 52% rise in 2011, and the boost will continue to be powered by pre-roll ads.

The dominant video formats this year will be pre-roll and mobile video, eMarketer said, citing results from a recent Break Media study finding that 63% of advertisers plan to buy pre-roll ads this year, about the same as in 2011. About 55% plan to use mobile video ads, up from 39% last year. Other popular formats are in-banner video ads with 53% of marketers planning to use them this year, down from 59% last year, and banner ads at 47%, the same as last year. Interestingly, advertisers are also keen on connected TV ads with about one-quarter saying they’ll use them this year, up significantly from 12% in 2011.

eMarketer said about 169 million people, or 71% of US internet users, will watch online video each month by the end of 2012.

In other video year-end wraps, Nielsen released its list of top 10 U.S. destinations for video.  [http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/nielsens-tops-of-2011-digital/] Not surprisingly, YouTube topped the charts with 111 million unique video viewers per month, followed by VEVO at more than 34 million, and Facebook at nearly 30 million. Rounding out the top five were Yahoo with 25 million and MSN at more than 16 million. Also hitting the top 10 were AOL, Hulu, CollegeHumor, CNN and Netflix.

200 Billion Videos Viewed Online In October; YouTube Delivers 2 out of 5 Worldwide

By Jack Loechner

According to data on worldwide online video viewing from the comScore Video Metrix service, 1.2 billion people age 15 and older watched 201.4 billion videos online globally during October 2011. Google Sites, driven by YouTube.com, ranked as the top video destination with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property worldwide during the month.

Top 5 Global Video Properties by Total Videos Viewed (000) (October 2011 Total Worldwide; Visitors Age 15+; Home/Work Location)
	Videos (000)	Share of Videos
Total Audience	201,420,689	100.0%
Google Sites	88,278,970	43.8%
Youku Inc.	4,644,727	2.3%
VEVO	3,697,229	1.8%
Facebook.com	2,590,812	1.3%
Dwango Co., Ltd.	2,458,180	1.2%
Source: comScore Video Metrix

Dan Piech, comScore product manager for video, says “... global broadband connectivity continues to rise... online video viewing... has become a fully integrated component of the digital content experience... ”

In October 2011, 201.4 billion videos were viewed online, with the global viewing audience reaching 1.2 billion unique viewers age 15 and older. Google Sites led as the top global video property with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property during the month, accounting for 43.8% of all videos viewed globally. YouTube.com was the key driver of video viewing on Google Sites, accounting for more than 99% of videos viewed on the property.

China-based Youku, Inc. was the second largest video property globally with 4.6 billion videos viewed in October, followed by VEVO which accounted for nearly 3.7 billion videos .

An analysis of selected online video markets by engagement revealed that viewers in Canada and the U.S. averaged the highest number of videos per viewer in October, at 303 videos and 286 videos, respectively. Viewers in the UK averaged 268 videos per viewer during the month, while viewers in Turkey and Germany both watched an average of 250 videos.

Analysis of selected markets with the highest penetration of online video viewing revealed that 93.6% of Internet users in Turkey watched video during the month, followed by Canada with 90.9% of web users consuming video. Although markets in Latin America showed lower overall engagement with online video compared to their counterparts in other regions, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico ranked among the markets with the highest penetration

Selected Markets by Videos per Viewer and Online Video Viewing Penetration (October 2011; Total Worldwide Visitors Age 15+; Home/Work Location)
Markets	Videos per Viewer	Markets	% Reach Web Population
Canada	303.7	Turkey	93.6%
U.S.	286.3	Canada	90.9%
UK	268.6	Chile	90.2%
Turkey	250.7	Argentina	89.6%
Germany	250.6	Brazil	89.0%
Japan	222.7	Hong Kong	88.9%
France	190.1	Spain	88.9%
Spain	178.6	U.S.	88.0%
Hong Kong	160.0	Mexico	87.2%
Singapore	153.2	France	86.8%
Source: comScore Video Metrix

TV in 2012 Better

---

Top-10 Reasons Why 2012 Will Be The Year Of Television (Once Again)

By Dave Morgan

In the spirit of all the editorial writers, columnists and pundits who offer up predictions for 2012, here are thoughts on why 2012 will be the year of television (once again):

1      TV beats boredom. Mark Cuban said it best earlier this year at the Ignition conference in New York City. When asked whether web video viewing would eventually surpass television, he responded “no” -- that TV’s “only real competition was boredom, and [TV] was winning.”

2      Social media driving more TV viewing. If 2011 was marked by any media phenomenon, it was the extraordinary growth of social media, led by services like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Social media also showed it was a complement to TV viewing and drives better ratings. Social media has transformed watching TV from a solitary experience into one that is -- well, social.

3      Better TV devices. Television sets keep getting better and cheaper. The flat screens are getting thinner. The picture is getting crisper. The sound is getting more robust. 3-D may be flopping, but smart, connected TVs are poised to explode. When was the last time you watched a tube-based TV?

4      Better set-top boxes. Alternative set-top boxes are exploding across America as viewers tether their TV to new and powerful Internet-enabled gaming, streaming and browsing devices. Whether it’s xBox, Roku, Boxee, TiVo, Apple TV, Playstation or dozens of others, just as the Internet is coming to TV, so are a bunch of new, great networked computers to make the experience even better.

5      Apple’s much-anticipated iTV. Yes. I know we’re all getting a bit tired of the speculation and hype, but ever since Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs came out, the consumer tech world has been afire with talk of Jobs finally “cracking the code” on making a better TV experience. Some expect it to come out in the second or third quarter of this coming year. We'll see.

6      Better programming. Not only is TV getting the benefit of new Web content streaming services, but television networks and studios are continuing to produce and distribute ever-better programming. Led by a strong TV ad market, the need to compete for fragmenting audiences and the booming demand in international markets for quality U.S. programming, TV content keeps getting better and better.

7      More sports. 2012 is an Olympics year. Expect more than two weeks of fast-paced sports programming, with TV viewers glued to their screens.

8      Presidential elections. No news events can drive TV audiences, from local to national, like the drama and comedy (unfortunately) of a hotly contested presidential election, Congressional elections and thousands of state and local elections. 2012 is certainly shaping up that way.

9      More channel diversity. As broadcast networks and large cable networks seek higher carriage fees from system operators, something will have to give. I expect that operators will start dumping marginal channels to pay for the most popular ones like CBS, ESPN, AMC and Food Network. This will open up opportunities for lots of new, small, niche-focused networks that don’t mind offering their programming up for free. Expect to see more different and unusual ad-supported programming, particularly non-English language programming from overseas.

10   TV advertising will become more digital. This is my own personal and professional project, but its time is coming. Television advertising simply has not kept pace with technology or competition. That will change. Viewers are subjected to too many irrelevant ads, and national advertisers waste far too many of their impressions on people who don't want to,  or who can’t, buy their products. When TV starts giving people ads they want, the whole industry, especially the viewer, will benefit.