Newsmaker: 'V' is for online video, as Eisner sees it

(continued from previous page)

What's your take on mobile video in general? It's obviously been touted as the next wave in broadband video, but its potential for success is really still up in the air.
Eisner: This is not a strategy for mobile video. This is a strategy for video distributed through broadband technology, and one of the places that it can appear is in the mobile world. But this is a strategy of bringing entertainment, thoughtfully produced programming, to all these new platforms. So, yes, I guess mobile video will happen, but hopefully Prom Queen can rest on mobile video, on computer screens and, eventually, on more established television screens.

Is there any digital rights management involved?
Eisner: Obviously, as we initially distribute this program, we're going to distribute it as widely as possible. To the extent that Veoh has digital rights, or other partners have digital rights, we will employ them. But my initial interest is just to get it out there. I'm not that concerned with piracy in this first stage.

One of the points that was really stressed in Vuguru's press announcement was the fact that it wants to specialize in high-class, professional content. Do you also see it as a vehicle for potentially discovering and professionalizing amateur content that's already out there and is experiencing viral success?
Eisner: To the extent that people that are doing user-generated content and are prepared to step up in their careers to a more professional level, we are interested. Everybody started some place, whether they were an usher in my era, or a cameraman or film student or whatever, so it's the natural evolution. But when it gets to Vuguru, we want it to be as high-quality as we can make it for this medium.

My initial interest is just to get it out there. I'm not that concerned with piracy in this first stage.

We're not looking for nonprofessional user-generated content. We're looking to translate or transfer people who may have started that way, or use people who are now in the mainstream who want to come to this arena, but the end result will be people who understand beginnings, middles and ends, and comedy and drama, and professionally produced shows that are at a higher level than you would see with somebody just standing on a street.

The focus on professional content is very similar to that of another video start-up that we've been hearing a lot about recently, and that would be Joost. Do you see all these video start-ups as competition or potential partners? How do you see Vuguru standing out?
Eisner: I don't know, because I haven't met with them yet, but we come from a place about story. It is story, story, story. It is emotion, it is humor, it makes you laugh, cry, whatever. We do not come from a technology platform, and we are not interested in a technology platform for anything other than to get it out there any more than I would have been interested in slow motion as the end product of sports coverage. What's interesting in a sport is the game. How you shoot it, and how you use technology, just makes it more attractive. But the game is the answer, and we're interested in the game, not the camera.

What do you see as your prime competitors?
Eisner: I have no idea. I suspect, at the end of the day, everyone will be competitors because...this is the growing-up of the Internet. Most companies, I would suspect, will be thinking about professionally produced product because, at the end of the day, I believe that is what the public will gravitate toward.

The conventional wisdom is that the mainstream media is getting outclassed by these Internet start-ups that are coming out of nowhere because supposedly the more established companies don't "get it" when it comes to the Internet. What would you say in response to that?
Eisner: I wouldn't underestimate the established media companies. There was a moment of time when I was running Disney that people were thinking we were troglodytes. The company's valued at $80 billion. I doubt whether people think of Disney or Time Warner or ABC or Fox, or any of these companies, as troglodytes anymore. There'll be new players for sure, but I wouldn't underestimate the Barry Dillers of the world, I wouldn't underestimate the players that have been successful in other arenas. They're certainly not fools, and they will see where this is going and will be significant, if not the most significant players...Maybe Vuguru will be one of (the start-ups) that finds this place in this crowd and becomes a major player at some point. I don't think it's any more about money. I think it's about style, and taste and editorial judgment. I think that's the new element that's coming into the world.

Out of curiosity, where did the name Vuguru come from?
Eisner: We just liked it. We came up with it internally. We liked the sound of it, we liked the idea that it had a sense of viewing in it, that it's the second person plural of French for "you," it just kind of sounded good, and looked good and felt good, and was original.

In closing, one thing that a lot of people are talking about when they talk about the intersection of mainstream media and the digital world is Steve Jobs' stake in Disney. What is your take on that now that you're going into your own Internet endeavor?
Eisner: This doesn't have anything to do with Steve Jobs.

More Newsmakers

[Al E. Gator]

Eisner only cares about Eisner

This Guy will be the end of a non profit internet... if he can squeeze
a dime out of it he will. when it comes to bullsh*t... just look
between the quotation marks...

[Eric Turk]

Vuguru - too funny!! You guys at CNET are so silly!

Eisner and his company are not even close to achieving what
needs to be accomplished and his new company wouldn?t be in
any of my top ten choices to use or invest in. Pay attention to a
small company called UVU (pronounced you view - note the
name of Eisner's venture, Vuguru, they ?liked the way it
sounded? Hogwash, it?s got branding all over it. Here?s how it
should be pronounced "former major corporate executive
seeking to leverage his name and relationships in the hope of
creating a new asset play).

Pay attention - UVU is the company to watch ? hands down, and
for a multitude of reasons, especially their understanding of
technology, infrastructure and the consumer?s desires. Eisner
and his comments are about as meaningful as those of a 1st
grader attempting to discuss the long-term issues related to
geo-political chess.

Vugurus biggest problem is going to be management and
arrogance ? and there?s a tremendous difference between
running an existing business that?s been developed by other
people?s successes and failures in the marketplace and building
an entirely new venture that utilizes a variety of combinations
and elements from a mature industry and an immature
marketplace filled with variables as opposed to line items and
then mixes them with an evolving set of variables such as
technology and those that govern the spirit of creativity.

I found it interesting to see that Eisner genuinely believes that
because he ran the mouse house (and the successes and failures
that came along with it) that doing such translates to the ability
to do the same in a new and evolving, young, creatively driven,
technology based segment of the entertainment industry. Do
you really believe that he and his ?staff? understand the
relationship of the consumer and technology? If there?s an
offering, I?ll look to short the company. Like they say in the
South, ?this dog won?t hunt?.

Unfortunately, Eisner may also be viewed as somewhat of a
pariah these days. I?m sure more than a few deals will get done,
but a funny thing happens after years of squeezing and
mistreating people ? most doors only appear to be open.
Sometimes wounds and resentments run very deep and no one
in broadcast is really forgiving.

[Hardrada]

Eisner gets it. You don't.

It's about content, not technology. What is UVU going to bring to the table?

[cybergremlyn]

hmmm

He's had facelift is all I can say...

[rapieress]

Eisner

facinates me.

It will either be a brilliant success or die a huge failure.

and we sill never be the same

Catherine, the redhead
www.aweekinthelifofaredhead.com

[rapieress]

laugh

that's what I get for typing and talking on the phone at the same time - should be *will - not sill.
Catherine, the bad typing redhead
www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com