MN1.COM, a tiny little Internet media company has finally exploited the emergence of the “I want it Now” generation. I believe it was TIME magazine that published the instantly iconic issue with a mirror embedded on the front page that read something like “Who is the next most influential person of the year???……………… YOU.” Of course anyone who was looking at that magazine would look into the mirror and obviously see themselves.
Think about this interesting revelation: media anomalies such as YouTube, My Space and Facebook have seemingly handed the “power” over to the common individual. If OJ Simpson, the man with the scarlet letter on his chest, was able to free himself from the media machine and communicate with a large and completely new and unique audience comprised of the real American public without the media bending or skewing his statements, certainly creative individuals at home will begin to find ways of capturing large audiences to get across a message in a way that has true impact.
Figures of great interest are taking the leap of faith directly into “Free IPTV” all over the U.S. and across the globe in every country. Political candidates are utilizing the YouTube microphone to reach highly targeted demographics and allowing that audience to interact through video responses, blogs, instant messages, etc. Presidential candidates know that the more people they can reach in niche demographics, the more votes they can potentially win. MN1.COM revealed this in a tailored, professional broadcast format at 6 PM EDT on July 31, 2007 when viewers were literally able to interact and affect an exclusive live interview with OJ Simpson, a household name to the general public.
Everyone from the Associated Press to Fox News showed up for the event. Viewers asked questions through a highly specialized instant messenger chat box and could call into the studio hotline as well as participate through webcam videos recorded by the amateur viewer through any medium similar to the method used by YouTube users to respond to video posts, or anything for that matter.
This should sound off some pretty big alarms in the media and advertising world as websites like MN1.COM enter the game with enough grass roots muscle to get advertising dollars in the door from companies willing to roll the dice on a new media outlet in hopes of getting eyeballs on their products and services. When new opportunities to capture advertising dollars present themselves, the Media Moguls of today typically do not hesitate to write the checks to college students building Web sites in dorm rooms. If this sounds familiar to anyone it may remind you of television broadcast showing up on the scene right as radio broadcast was at the height of its power. Every radio in American living rooms was inevitably replaced by the television. People during that generation had to spend quite a bit of time transitioning to this new media outlet. If this reference seems too old to compare to modern times then reflect on the transition of General Network broadcast to Cable networks like the ones Ted Turner introduced in the 80s when most people doubted anyone would ever actually pay to watch TV when they could get it from ABC for free.
There is another media outlet that has arrived on the scene that is unquestionably funneling advertising dollars to a whole new group of entrepreneurs and media tycoons as we have all seen over the course of the last five years: “the Internet.” Advertising dollars are moving at light speed to media companies that can round up large bodies of traffic with IP addresses specific to the zip code where that computer is located. Google knows it and so do their friends Microsoft and News Corp. In fact, the company that Bill Gates started in a garage looks more like a media company today than a software company.
Of course they are not the only ones who see the future and are making moves to have a stake in it. MN1.COM clearly gets it and appears to have the advertising dollars to prove it. The companies showing up on the commercial breaks probably wrote checks to show up during each 30 second slot. If you browse through the archived videos on the MN1.COM site you may notice short commercials in front of the clip that viewers must watch before they can see the rest of the content. The site is free for users just like MySpace so there aren’t many reasons to complain.
IPTV has a future as the world becomes more and more dependent on technology to provide it with the content people want; how they want it; when they want it and where they want it. MN1.COM may not be getting the kind of advertising dollars that Google gets today but this is the beginning of a very long and large future where no one can guarantee what it holds for media … yet. Today, IPTV was born and it’s no coincidence that it has happened during the generation that says “I want it now.”
MN1.COM will be broadcasting three more live one hour interviews with OJ Simpson this week open to the public to watch and interact for free at 6 PM EDT.
tags: iptv oj simpson oj simpson google youtube facebook myspace media companies cable ted turner fox news associated press ap abc nbc fox cbs bill gates microsoft first amendment freedom of speech cnbc cnn dow jones wall street journal
