If there's any one statistic about JETSET that is startling, it's the fact that now over 50% of our downloaded episodes are delivered through our 3gp feed, which tends to be mobile phones. When you include iPod and PSP distributions, the percentage of mobile downloads goes over 65%! Whoa.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that the target JETSET audience is teenagers and young adults, who are more likely to be using their phones, PSP's, and iPods to watch video. So that's cool.
But I wonder, how many of these viewers ever actually visit the JETSET website once they subscribe? Based on a cursory analysis of our site stats and some decent educated guessing, I would say about 15% of mobile subscribers visit the site to participate in wiki projects or post comments.
Having just analyzed our January website stats tonight, we're seeing an ever-increasing disparity in our number of total show viewers compared to web viewers. So it begs the question: how relevant is the JETSET website to the show itself?
For us, we thought our website was one of the keys to our growth phase last fall when we started involving our community in projects like Brandon's Pitch, Are You Happy?, and The Confessional. Now, however, we're faced with the reality that as our viewership has grown, we need to start thinking about how to engage a specific audience -- the mobile viewer.
Mobile web browsers are horrendous (hurry up, iPhone), so the prospect of creating web-based projects to engage that audience is not attractive yet. We will be testing some new ideas in the coming weeks that are intended to interact with this group via things like SMS, but it's amazing how reactive content creators have to be to their audience to stay on top of things. We never anticipated the prospect of potentially needing to think about show ideas that engage someone watching on a specific device.
The audience really has the power now, and that's why this is so different from traditional media.
I don't think the website will ever go away, but it has to morph and change rapidly. For example, should I be thinking about creating a mobile version of the site for easier viewing on phones? The answer to that is probably yes.
What do you think? Are websites for videoblog shows becoming less relevant?
UPDATE: I neglected to include 3rd party distributions in the percentage of our total viewership. Including distributions like TV Tonic, DivX, Shozu, and a few others, the percentage of mobile distributions goes from 65% to 55%. As you were.
Rita said:
I was talking about something related to this topic the other day with someone. He and I both agreed that you can't have this kind of conversation without talking about the digital divide. A big part of asking about whether videoblog shows are becoming less relevant means looking at the numbers of people who are on dial-up, have a high speed Internet connection or nothing at all. According to Pew, 42 percent of Americans are using high speed Internet access, but that still doesn't tell us what they're using it for.
Too many people still don't know what a videoblog is, even those with high speed. Although there is no study, I'm willing to make a safe guess that while 65 percent of your downloads are mobile (which is incredible by the way), the overall number of kids downloading this type of media is still pretty low.
I don't know that the videoblog was ever relevant in the way you're talking about it here especially if you look at it in terms of access to the things you need just to view one, let alone create one. And all of that starts with your Internet connection.
It's really early over here (7:32 a.m.) so I hope I made some sort of coherent point :D
Steve Woolf said:
I hear what you're saying, Rita. The digital divide is as much a problem today as it was 5 years ago, if not more.
The point of my post was really to think about whether a website is relevant to a show's video distribution if the viewers never go to the website. E.g. subscribing through iTunes -- it's entirely possible that some JETSET viewers have never even been to the website once.
Although I understand where the disparity in social class and wealth affects an individual's likelihood of owning an expensive gadget, I think it would be relevant to discuss that in the context of the socio-economic demographic breakdown of JETSET viewers. For now, we're still trying to grow wherever we can, so our ability to reach out to specific societal groups is pretty limited.
When we get some demographic info, I think that would be a good discussion to have. Many, many people have forgotten about the digital divide, so thanks for bringing it back into the discussion here.
missb said:
Access! So true! My skin crawls a little whenever I hear "... it's amazing! Anyone can do it!" in reference to videoblogging. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that...
mobile phones, eh? Wow! Forgive me for this momentary lapse in vloggeekerybrains but YOU MEAN I CAN WATCH STUFF ON MY PHONE??? Seriously? How did I miss this? I don't own a video iPod (I'm holding out for a de-phoned iPhone. What do you think: Christmas '07?) so being able to watch the occasional videoblog on my phone makes my head spin.
Where is this 3gp feed of which you speak?
Clintus said:
That's all I heard about last year in the video scene, before I made the transition to online video. Mobile video is becoming more and more popular and in demand. The makers of the show "24" did a whole series for mobile phones. I could never find it but heard it was like a mini version of 24 but instead of 24 hours it was 24 mins. I'm curios where you plan on going with this. Please keep us in the loop.
Dina said:
This is something we think about a lot at blip.tv...and this was a super thoughtful post and question. Love the show, wherever I choose to watch it (which varies week to week...)
CAT said:
I've been asking my audience the same question about whether they find the website valuable or not. I spend enough time on keeping it up and running as well as doing all the writing and researching the links.
We get about 25% or our audience watching the show on the website and maybe 10% of the others dropping by for links. This is based on the web analytics comparison I did between the web server and media hosting site.
About 10% are watching on a mobile device instead of in a podcatcher.
I've been questioning the value of the website, however, I still think it's important to have a "home base" so that the audience can come together. Even if it may be fleeting....
Congrats on your
