The future of traditional broadcast media is something that has been debated for the past several years. Recently, however, there seems to be a general consensus; traditional broadcast media will not last for another 5 years.

Television as a medium is dead. People are sick of having to watch content when a channel deems it fit. Previously this was the only means of getting programming out into the world, but this linear format is defunct. The technology for the public to have content, on demand, has really been around since the 80s. The video cassette recorder allowed the public, at home, to be in charge of the content that they wanted to watch. For the first time you were in control of what you watched and when you watched it. The success of this technology is evident, we still use video recorders to this day; in the 21st century though, they have evolved onto the digital stage.

The huge future of video on demand services was truly realised when Digital Video Recorders were introduced. TiVo and Sky+ allowed the public to record a seemingly unlimited amount of content and watch it when they wanted to. The problem with this system is that you’re still restricted to the big television companies controlling how often you could record your content. You had to wait for the programme to be broadcast over the television network, so that you could record it in real time. It still wasn’t truly content on demand.

The BBC started experimenting with internet radio towards the end of the 1990′s. They had discovered the potential that the internet had as a content delivery system. In the early 2000′s the BBC started to allow users to stream archived radio shows for up to a week after their original broadcast date. The quality was poor, the technology was flaky, but it allowed people to realise where the future of on demand content laid, the internet. The technology behind the BBC’s online radio services was so successful that other broadcasters started to follow suit.

When Bill Gates started talking about IPTV at CES back in 2007, personally I was imaging television (in its current linear format) being streamed via the tubes of the internet, to a television. A new delivery system. I now realise how wrong I was. Within the past 4 years the phenomenon of podcasting has gone mainstream, many people don’t realise that they’re doing it, or don’t call it podcasting, but the basic infrastructure is the same. Companies such as Mevio (or Revision 3) are starting to deliver fresh, high quality, custom created content to viewers worldwide every single day. Admittedly the primary way of watching this content right now is by streaming it through a web browser, but imagine what one could achieve if it was incorporated with a tool such as Boxee. We would truly have a seemingly unlimited amount of fresh high quality content, right at our finger tips, on demand.

Sometime within the next one or two years, perhaps even within the next few months, we’ll start to see boxes under television sets replacing digital tuners. No more satellite, no more cable, no more freeview; just the “magic box”. Hopefully this box will be running a system such as Boxee, but it will give everyone intuitive easy access to great quality content. We’ll have our “Channels” delivered in a way that Mevio currently is pioneering, where you can hop in and hop out of programming. We’ll have our films ready to go at the push of a button. A back catalogue of all of our favourite shows will be forever easy to watch. I am aware that there are systems that exist like this anyway, what I’m trying to say is that this box will be your ONLY box. The BBC, ITV, ABC, NBC will have to realise this soon. The only way that they’re going to survive is to make all of their content on demand and to lose the linear format of broadcasting. The linear format is old, it’s tired, it’s outdated, it’s no longer practical.

The end is nigh for traditional broadcast television, make way for the real digital media revolution.

Chris Leydon.

This is a post of two halves. I originally started to write this post back in September, a month later and I am finishing it. A lot can change in a month, as one shall find out.

September 27th, 2008.

That was a hectic past few weeks. Since my last blog post I’ve become a part-time intern for BTPodShow, filmed a pilot of Ask Dr Nick and moved back into Uni (amongst other things).

I thought that my time as the BTPodShow intern had come to an end but it seems that my contract will be extended. It should allow me to do less hours and work from wherever suits me. This is fantastic news! I really enjoyed my time as being part of the London team and I’m very happy with the possibility of continuing it.

BTPodShow & Mevio are re-branding themselves and re-entering the online entertainment market to take the field by storm. The companies have swung their attention to focus on creating high quality online video content in a typical channel form. The format change reflects the brand’s new competitors “YouTube” and “Revision3“.

October 19th, 2008.

Mevio’s “Channels” offer their users a way to watch online content they love, in a format that combines old and new media. The video above provides the best explanation of Mevio’s Channels, but I shall attempt to describe them now. Like classic media, you can watch the channel from start to beginning; but like new media you can jump in an out of the channel wherever you want to. Each channel has its own theme and host, who provide insightful links in between shows. All of this, combined with the fantastic content on offer, places Mevio as one of the best places to watch online content via the web.

Each channel, from my understanding, will have their own website. The Mevio channel with the most love and attention, at the moment, is TeXtra; which of course takes its name from the popular PodShow podcast of the same name. TeXtra is a combination of lots of high quality technology based show. New episodes of these shows are presented to you daily, by one of the enigmatic hosts. Check out the TeXtra channel over at www.mevio.com or www.textranetwork.com

Although this is a contradiction to one of my above statements, I am no longer the Mevio intern.  I received a message on Monday 13th October informing me that my services were no longer required. The Mevio finance department would not extend my contract. I’m not bitter about this fact, just slightly disappointed that I can no longer work with the fantastic team there. I loved my time as the BTPodShow Intern and I would love to work with everyone at BTPodShow and Mevio again; my offer will always stand.

Chris Leydon.

Most people who listen to The Podzone know that the show is sponsored by GoDaddy.com, through a Mevio Producer Campaign, this explains why I’m dedicating an entire post to them. Another reason why GoDaddy.co.uk deserves its own post is because I truly believe in the product; I personally believe that GoDaddy are by far the best internet solutions company worldwide. I believe this to such an extent that this website and the Keyone Productions network is powered off of GoDaddy’s servers.

I would never endorse a product if I didn’t believe in it myself. I may have sold out to “the man” a long time ago, but I still have some morals. Personally I use GoDaddy for domain registration and website hosting, however they have a full suite of internet solutions available; anything from Podcast hosting to dedicated email servers.

GoDaddy is making a move on the UK market after taking the US by storm. The differences between GoDaddy.co.uk over GoDaddy.com is that prices are now listed in pounds sterling and there is also a dedicated UK helpline number. GoDaddy is truly positioning itself in the UK and is dedicating an entire team to help fit in over here.

As a result of GoDaddy’s launch in the UK, as GoDaddy.co.uk, some exclusive promo codes have been created to give customers a discount at the checkout. These promo codes are exclusive to BTPodShow partnered podcasts, and only 4 shows have been given the special codes; The Podzone is one of these shows. So as either a reader of this blog, or a listener to The Podzone, or even some Googler looking for a fantastic deal on GoDaddy products, here are your exclusive GoDaddy.com & GoDaddy.co.uk discount codes.

• PODZONE – 10% off of ANY order at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE2 – 20% off of ANY ORDER OVER £24.99 at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE4 – A .co.uk domain name for £2.70 for the first year at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE25 – 25% off of ANY ORDER over £49.99 at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE30 – 30% off of a .com domain name at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE35 – A .com domain name for £3.50 at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com
• PODZONE50 – 50% off of a .co.uk domain name, for the first year, at GoDaddy.co.uk or GoDaddy.com

I trust and use GoDaddy.co.uk myself. My personal internet solutions are handled by them and so are my business internet solutions. I wouldn’t risk either of them, or promote this company, if I didn’t believe in GoDaddy and think that it’s a worthwhile company.

Take a gander around GoDaddy.co.uk, have a look at their services, their prices and try to find a better deal out there; I personally can’t. GoDaddy.co.uk, the world is your domain.

Chris Leydon.

I personally define a successful Podcast by the amount of listeners that it has. The next question, of course,  is how many listeners defines a successful podcast? I can answer that question incredibly easily. It only takes one listener to have a successful show. Not one hundred, not one thousand, just one; one listener who enjoys the show and keeps coming back for more.

A few of you may now think that I’m clinically insane and need to be sectioned under the Mental Health act, but let’s think about this. Why do we create content in the first place? Some do it for money, but the majority of us create content to be creative. We like to express ourselves and if other people enjoy it then that’s a bonus. This is why it only takes one listener or viewer to have a successful podcast. One person who enjoys your creativity is all we need to feel fantastic about what we do.

That’s the secret to making a successful podcast; what makes a good podcast is a completely different question altogether and one that will be answered in a future post.

Chris Leydon.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed that there are several breeds of blogger; those who blog about topics, those who blog for a living (and attempt to be journalists), and those who write about themselves. I seem to fall into the latter category, but then again what did you expect from a site called chrisleydon.com?

The last month has been very busy and productive for me. As you should be aware Keyone Productions has produced two videos for Bishops’ College in the past year; I received confirmation a few weeks ago that we’ve been commissioned to produce two/three further videos in the new academic year. This is fantastic news for a business as small as ours!

Whilst still on the topic of Keyone Productions, we’ve been approached by Mevio to continue to produce our video games show The Glitch. This time it would be in association with Mevio as part of their promotions campaign. If this goes ahead it would mean that Keyone Productions has two successful podcasts on the agreement, the other being The Podzone.

Moving onto the subject of Mevio and by UK default, BTPodShow, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve managed to gain an internship with them until September. I’m currently based in the UK, London, office for 30 hours a week. My roles involve, scouring the network for the best content we have, editing shows, monitoring stats, channel organising, spare hand and general bitch boy, or anything else they throw my way. I’m thoroughly enjoying it and will be rather sad when the time comes for me to leave. I’m proud and very glad that I’ve had the chance to be part of such a great team.

Chris Leydon.

I’m assuming that by now readers to my blog have realised that I take writing posts very casually and only do it ever so often; mainly when I have something to talk about. Nothing has changed, as one can clearly see.

Last time I updated, Keyone Productions had been commissioned to produce two short promotional films for Bishops’ College. The first of these promotional videos was shot last week; this was the Year 6 induction week project.

The aim for the Year 6 Induction video was to create a video that showcased some of the highlights of the week; this video was then going to be shown to the children’s parents and eventually end up on the school’s website as a promotional video. Originally there were going to be two videos, one which would have been shown to the parents and a more polished version for the website. Instead of making two mediocre videos, I concentrated all of my effort on producing one fantastic video; which turns out is what they really wanted all along.

I have more stuff to talk about this week, but let’s leak it out slowly but surely. In the meantime, I leave you with the Year 6 Induction video.

The song used is “Kill The Lights” by David Usher, which can be found on iTunes and on the PodSafe Music Network.

Chris Leydon.

The previous statement, I suppose, could be called a lie because I’m also working on several other ideas and projects that I have. I say several, I actually mean three. One I’ve already discussed, but the other two not so much.

Keyone Productions is about to go under a rebrand; not an extreme one, we’re not doing a PodShow, but a reinvention. Before hand we’ve been all about having fun and making short lived projects. Whilst this is all well and good, it doesn’t pay the bills. As a business we’re starting to move towards short serial internet based content, in which advertising can be sold. We’re going to monetize off of the fantastic stuff that we create. I personally don’t believe in charging for internet content; one it’s not a profitable business venture and two, I personally don’t like paying for my entertainment.

With that in mind, myself and various others are finalising the details for two new Keyone ventures. Both of them will be online video shows, that will be offered through a podcasting medium. One will be made solely by Keyone Productions, whilst the other shall be a joint production with another creative digital media organisation. I can’t say more than that at this current moment in time, but all shall be revealed soon.

Chris Leydon.

Well I’m pleased to say that I did indeed sign that new BTPodShow contract, which means that The Podzone is guarenteed for at least another two years. I’ve also been working a bit more on script concepts and I’ve finished University for the year.

Finished, completely finished until September, you have no idea how good it feels to say that. Ahead of me I’ve got one long summer of work, making money and enjoying myself.

In the meantime however, I’ve discovered that my web design skills are so fantastic that the new Keyone Productions site, only works on about 90% of the worlds browsers. Yep, it doesn’t work with IE… oops. My day today will be spent correcting that mistake. I’ve started to learn CSS and I’m hoping to implement what I’ve learnt into the redesign.

Tomorrow, as a favour to my father, myself and Nick shall be headed to Bishops College (Gloucester) to film their Year 11 graduation. It should be fun as we’ll have a multicam set up and various other bits of over kill. We know that a job such as this doesn’t require all of the trims that we’re putting in to it; but I’ve got to do something to keep me amused until September.

Chris Leydon.

I really have enjoyed my first year working with BTPodShow to produce The Podzone, it was fun and I always had support for anything I did; however a year on I’m wondering if I want to sign the contract again. I can say that it’s not the EXACT same contact that I signed last year, it has updated T&Cs, but they aren’t the primary reason why I’m debating signing my life away.

The PodShow / Mevio contract in my eyes has always been a very sound and good contract to sign; it’s not that limiting and at the end of the day I can walk away still holding all of the rights to my programming. The agreement is all about the rights of transmission, I can’t think of the exact word right now (distribution).

Perhaps it’s time to move on. Mevio are having a change in direction, slightly and perhaps it is time for The Podzone to rest. I’m not at all too sure about all of this just yet. I need to talk to Nick Cooper but he’s not available for the next few days.

As you can tell this thing is really playing on my mind. Can I guarantee that The Podzone will still be here in 2 years time or even a years time? Probably not, and it would be wrong for me to do so; I want to move on, but on the other hand I still want to carry on with The Podzone and Mevio. It’s a tough call and one which I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of time thinking about.

Chris Leydon.

Yep, they’ve dropped the “Pod” from their name and the “Show” too, but that’s besides the point. There are rumours that MEVIO will be a video network, this has a slight truth to it. From what I can gather MEVIO will be more video orientated in nature but will still support and have audio shows.

This would be the point where I say that myself and The Podzone will still stick by MEVIO no matter what, and I’m sure I will, however I’ve just realised that my contract with PodShow UK expired 2 weeks ago. That’s a bit of a bummer, still here’s hoping that it gets renewed, I haven’t heard anything to say otherwise.

Chris Leydon.