

Revision3 Offers Conan A Job - kloncks
http://revision3.com/blog/2010/01/18/an-open-letter-to-conan-obrien/

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mbreese
How many eyeballs could Revision 3 seriously offer though? His show is geared
towards an average viewership in the millions... nightly. If they couldn't
offer that scale on a nightly basis, it might not be worth it.

Part of the appeal of a late night show is that it can be on as you're going
to bed... something light and comedic to help get you to sleep. How many
people have a device that is able to view Rev3 content hooked up to a TV in
the bedroom? I'd guess that a majority of people view that content on their
PCs, and rarely nightly. I'd love to see some viewship stats on that.

But, let's say that you could provide the eyes for an advertiser supported
nightly show. If you really want it to work, you'd need to make deals with at
least Apple for AppleTV/iTunes and/or a company like Roku to sell dedicated
devices. It might even be possible to sell these at a discount if you could
guarantee some sort of advertiser kick-back.

Another potential problem: with their ownership structure, I'm not sure you
could count on Hulu serving it either.

~~~
SamAtt
I think you're taking this too seriously. Conan could likely buy Revision 3
with about half his NBC payout (if it's around what has been reported).
Compete puts Revision3's uniques around 110,000 while Conan regularly averaged
2.8 million. Conan would be better off on radio at this point(Dennis Miller
has a radio talk show which averages a little under a million listeners a
week).

Internet TV may be the future (I wouldn't even venture a guess) but it's a
future that's still a while off. This is just attention grabbing.

~~~
mbreese
I'm looking at it from the point of view that this is an entirely ridiculous
proposition.

But, given that, could it work? What would be needed? When do you start to
move into the realm where this is possible?

It's the MythBusters philosophy at work: show that a myth is utterly busted...
then figure out how to really do it. Preferably with a large amount of
explosives... :)

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covercash
I personally would like to see Conan go over to Comedy Central. My ideal late
night line up would be:

10:30 - Colbert Report

11:00 - The Daily Show

11:30 - Conan

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mortenjorck
If Conan were to actually move from NBC to Revision3, I think the event would
pretty much qualify as the beginning in earnest of the long-brewing IPTV vs.
broadcast TV war. What could possibly happen next?

~~~
nailer
It would, but too many people can only show IP content on small screens. Until
that's fixed, big content won't go to pure IP.

~~~
anonjon
Really? My flat screen has a PC port (I can use it as a 42" monitor...) It is
new and big but otherwise no-frills.

Computer monitors and LCD TVs use essentially the same technology...

~~~
nailer
And I have a giant monitor. But you and me are unique in that we realize this
can be done, and have a 'spare' computer 9that we're not using for personal
use) to do it.

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ryandvm
In other news: Dan Rather offered a job at Daily Kos.

Get serious.

~~~
mbreese
This actually isn't too far from the truth. He did take a job with HDNet,
which I don't think at the time had a news division. HDNet is the TV version
of a startup, so how is starting a new IPTV nightly show at Revision3 that
much different?

Link: <http://www.hd.net/danrather>

~~~
ryandvm
My point is that Revision3 is kidding themselves if they think someone with 5
million daily viewers would consider moving to a network with 5 million views
_per month_.

Internet TV will surely replace broadcast TV, but it won't be today and it
won't be Conan O'Brian.

Of course Revision 3 knows this. It's just a clever PR stunt.

~~~
mbreese
I agree that it's all just a PR stunt. I don't think that any IPTV company
could seriously claim the ability to provide enough daily viewers to support a
show like Conan's.

I suspect that even Fox will have issues getting a show like Conan's up and
running. There are too many affiliate issues to start something like that up
quickly. Perhaps by the fall, but then again, maybe not. Fox hasn't had the
best record with late night programming. If Fox doesn't pan out, he may end up
looking at a basic or premium (showtime) cable offering anyway. If that's the
case, the required number of viewers goes down significantly.

But, the more I think about it, I think it just might be crazy enough to work.
But it would require a big push from IPTV hardware companies to get going.
Instead, I think a more likely scenario would be a traditional show with a
bigger online presence. Something similar to the way the Daily Show will put
up interviews that run long on their website.

Perhaps a small-ish 30-60 minute show that broadcasts normally, with extra
content online. Maybe even an entire web-only show once a week.

But anything like this would require a big commitment by the host, and I don't
know if Conan is enough of a geek to commit to something this risky just for
the sake of pushing IPTV.

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rewind
Pretty hard to move to "the future" when "the present" is paying you $20
million or so a year, and its only the delivery method that "the future"
changes, not really the job itself (and even a move to Fox or Comedy Central
would probably pay him at least $10 million, if not a lot closer to what he's
current making). Good PR move to throw it out there through since it will get
them a bit of attention.

