GigaOM

Chris Anderson in his book, The Long Tail (read Chris’ book), divides the power law distribution curve into only two segments… the hit-driven head (Big Head) and, obviously, the long tail. What’s missing is actually the most important part… the section in the middle of the curve The Fat Belly.

It has implications for social networks, and other communities. Take a look at Digg’s technology section. All the articles in the Big Head received about 250,000 votes in total vs. estimated 2.5 million votes for the ones in the Long Tail. As for the Fat Belly, those stories got a whopping 10 million votes! Now that’s what I call a healthy “middle class.”

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Back in April in a piece titled “SocialNets & the Power of the URL”, I wrote:

… Like every media revolution in history, when tectonic shifts occur on the production side of content, equally disruptive shifts follow in distribution (or visa versa). What we’re experiencing now is no different. Not only do these (consumer-generated) URLs mean that consumers are now “producers”, they are also being used as a new channel for media distribution… the consumer is also becoming a “distributor”… Over the next few years, new ventures will emerge to monetize such new distribution opportunities, and they will more directly compensate people for the role they are playing as filters and distributors of media.

Google’s joint venture with Viacom’s MTV, announced this week, provides a watershed moment in the scenario depicted above. Google’s Adsense represents one of the largest web-based content syndication platforms in the world, and the fact that MTV will begin to use it to distribute video programming out to the edges marks a breakthrough in a business model known as “superdistribution”.

A key facet of superdistribution is the willingness of the content/copyright owner to compensate each player who functions as a redistributor of digital media. For instance, bloggers who participate in Google’s Adsense network will now be able to earn income as a redistributor of MTV’s video content.

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Ever since YouTube’s CEO Chad Hurley participated in Herb Allen’s annual Sun Valley media mogulfest, there has been much speculation about who will acquire the young online video phenom. If the chatter in the blogosphere is a reliable indicator, many believe it will be Rupert Murdoch.

After all, with MySpace under his belt, it’s certainly logical for him to want to combine his 80% market share of social networking with YouTube’s 60% market share of online video… giving him clear dominance within the rising social media industry. But it’s not likely to happen, and here’s why.

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A few days ago, billionaire Mark Cuban (who owns various entertainment assets, including a film production studio, theatre chain, etc.) posed an open challenge on his blog:

… How do you get people out of the house to see your movie without spending a fortune. How can you convince 5 million people to give up their weekend and go to a theater to see a specific movie without spending 60mm dollars.

So if you… have a great idea on how to market movies in a completely different way. If your idea works for any and all kinds of movies. If it changes the dynamics and the economics of promoting movies, email it or post it. If its new and unique, i want to hear about it.

Since Mark and I have a little bit of history debating issues that are vexing the entertainment industry, I thought it would be appropriate (and fun) to respond to his challenge openly with this post. So with that… Mark, here’s what you should do.

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A few months ago, a dinner companion informed me that Google was in Hollywood trying to secure exclusive distribution rights to films and TV. Intrigued, I poked around with some folks-in-the-know and, sure enough, Google is wheeling-n-dealing for exclusives. That being the case, I have a suggestion for Google. Go all out and acquire an actual movie/TV studio… and the one to go after is Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Lions Gate is one of the last remaining independent studios in Hollywood and a deal would be relatively inexpensive for Google… LGF’s market cap currently stands at approximately $950 million, which is about the same as its annual revenues. Its vast library includes more than 5,500 film and TV titles, including the viral-hit “The Blair Witch Project”, last year’s Oscar-winner “Crash”, and Showtime cable channel’s hit show “Weeds”.

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Rupert Murdoch built his media empire, News Corp, the old-fashioned way… by vertically and horizontally integrating deep and wide into the layers of the media industry (e.g. from production to distribution). But with his acquisition of MySpace, Murdoch has gone down a new path… a new dimension of strategic corporate development that I like to call “social integration”.

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By Robert Young

In the latest (July) issue of Wired magazine, Rupert Murdoch claims that Google…

“…could have bought MySpace three months before we did for half the price. They thought, ‘It’s nothing special. We can do that.’”

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By Robert Young

Last week at a conference in New York City, the head of Fox Interactive Media, Ross Levinsohn, told the audience:

“More mainstream marketing on MySpace will be kept to the “well-lit” areas of the site, like the Books, Comedy, Film, and Games sections rather than on individual profile pages, which have less strict content controls–something many advertisers have expressed concerns about.” “We want to make it easier for marketers to work with us,” Levinsohn said.

I like the way Scott Karp reacted to the announcement when he wrote, “Sounds more like advertising will be roped off away from the action, like protesters at a Bush rally.” Heh.. funny! My reaction was similarly skeptical, because it seems that a traditional media mind set might be nudging them (FIM) in the wrong direction.

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