Are ‘Midtails’ the Future of Television?
The New York Times, June 22, 2009
So you want to watch TV on the Internet. You canceled cable in a spasm of austerity and figured you’d catch your shows online. If you had any shows left. Because really, TV, the kind that chains you to a sofa and a grid schedule, is not part of your life anymore. And you don’t miss it. Except “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Weeds” and (guilty pleasure) “The Hills.” You found some of that on Netflix, some on YouTube or, via Hulu, on the shows’ sites. But now you’re looking for more TV. Maybe a spirit-lifting summertime diversion, like “Friends” back in the day, or “TRL.” Good times. But your remote conjures nothing from your uncabled flat screen. It’s just you and the Internet now.
Boredom, then, brings you to Next New Networks. Looks as if it’s time to try some “midtail” content: nouveau videostuffs that are kind-of produced, kind-of user-generated. Something like “Obama Girl,” which was created by an ad executive to look like a spontaneous fan video for the Web site Barely Political (which is now owned by Next New Networks). According to an article in Advertising Age, this midtail miscellany — the specialty of Next New and a few other shops — is the only online programming that scores sizable audiences, along with overlay ads, banner ads and creepy brand integrations. Midtail is bankable, then. Therefore, it’s there.
Next New Networks is a producer and distributor of Web television that was started in January 2007 by, among others, the former MTV bosses Herb Scannell and Fred Seibert. It comprises a family of sites, each of which produces videos. Next New calls itself “a new kind of media company.” But don’t be put off. There are actual shows here. Just be patient, because — I’ll give it to you straight — the shows don’t look much like TV.
Actually, at first it’s hard to find shows of any kind. Even though the serials on Next New’s eclectic and interconnected networks now collectively attract 10 million unique viewers every month, the regressive design of the company’s home page, and its use of icky Aquafresh blue, make it look like one of those default pages that appears when you misspell a url. Fortunately, a video starts playing right away as a sample of the company’s wares. Recent clips often come from a network called $99 Music Videos, an experiment that challenges hipster bands and filmmakers to make supercheap videos.
Indy Mogul, a popular network devoted to budget filmmaking, has a series called “Your FX” that I like. A recent video showed what looked like a child of 9 or 10 sitting on a bed. He demonstrated how to create a chopped-off finger out of (mostly) wax, “fake blood and more fake blood.” Indy Mogul shows a lot of material that’s made by viewers, but it’s framed by host intros and show graphics, and it has been solicited. This is what midtail video looks like.
