WasabiTV
Introduction
WasabiTV is a Australian TV show distribution website. The site allows independent producers and production houses to upload content. The site has been structured for independent Producers of Australian made content. Videos can be purchased as well, with all proceeds going to producers.
WasabiTV is also compatible with portable devices, which in some cases limits quality on the desktop. The Content is restricted to either is limited at this stage relying on a 320x240res or 640x480 H.264 in a .MPEG4 format.
WasabiTV also has the first commercial Australian Implementation of the 3GP format for Australian content, currently which has been tested on Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones.
Current challenges for growth of the company exist surrounding, Australian Laws surrounding media ownership (refer below for more detail)
Founders
Founded in November the 11th 2006 by two former apple centre employees, in the first three months they are averaging roughly 1000 visits per day, of Australia's relatively small population of 20 million.
Daniel Brunet runs a freelancing website company as well as still working for an apple centre in Australia full time to help fund WasabiTV. Daniels is the chief Design and Development officer.
Ananth Sarathy is a Business Analyst for a BlueChip company and also more of a process person, being the driver of content and also processes which support the model they are trying to achieve. Ananth is the Executive Secretary and Business Manager, his role also dictates contractual agreements in relation to WasabiTV and producers.
Unlike many internet startup, WasabiTV have no "Angel Funding", all funds have been sourced from the directors.
Working with Limitations of Australian Laws and Regulations
Australia has a slow up take of Broadband, with ADSL2+ being only prevalent in the last 12 months.
WasabiTV have sought to address this with the lower quality and lower file sizes
It also allows remote and rural station (Farms etc) to access content via the internet where local TV signals would not traditionally reach.
Content providers
There are over 20 shows currently listed for "download" from WasabiTV. The expected growth rate is 2-3 shows per week, with each show bringing a minimum of 5 episodes. The forecast is for each show to provide constantly a user download service once it airs on their prospective digital or analogue TV service in Australia.
The content providers are also independent producers or production houses who have limited funding, and who see WasabiTV as a way of increasing exposure and possibly revenue.
Key Australian channels such as Ten, Seven, ABC, Nine and SBS have not actively pursued input into the non-commercial website of WasabiTV.
As WasabiTV is a central repository for Australian TV content, it May Be soon as much a directory service for Australians to locate all content in one central location.
In January 2007 Ananth Sarathy (founder) stated that ideally he would like to see all TV content in Australia be provided in a central location on WasabiTV. This again is going against media laws and exclusivity deals within Australia, resulting in a petition being setup by producers and the founder of WasabiTV.1
This has also changed slightly with WasabiTV currently in negotiations to bring "Exclusive" content to the website from the Sydney Community TV organisations.
Revenue model
Currently All content on WasabiTV is distributed for free. From analysis of the website it can be seen that the content will be sold, but according to Daniel Brunet at least 80% of content must be free!
Currently only Paypal is listed on their site, and with a high percentage of downloads being low cost. The paypal methodology cannot be used in the long run as it would take up to 30% of $1 downloads.
Accessibility and User Requirements
WasabiTV is formatted to work with Mobile Phones and also Ipods. Currently the website is not optimised to be viewed on 2.5g phones rather on 3g phones with integrated web browsers, that can translate the website layouts across the miniaturised screens.
The files are in a MPEG4 format which can be played on Playstation Portables, Microsoft Zunes and most Mobile Phones.
For desktop users they will Need Apple's Quicktime player with the MPEG4 Coded installed. Microsoft's Windows Media player can also play the content with the addition of additional MPEG4 codecs.
Contracts and Copyrights
WasabiTV wants is a media platform, and not as an owner of copyright of any material!
This can be seen in their contract shown to users when signing into the website -
"WasabiTV.com.au only acts as an intermediary to distribute what service providers provide to WasabiTV.com.au."
To also ease concerns of producers, WasabiTV specifically states that they don't own the content or claim exclusivity to it.
"After posting your Content to the WasabiTV Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the WasabiTV Services, you hereby grant to WasabiTV.com.au a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the WasabiTV Services."
WasabiTV News Articles and References
Doing a quick search of Google shows a lot of active information on WasabiTV.com.au below is a listing of key articles and facts that have been used and are as of a reference!
Australian Broadcast Engineering Network Article surrounding the launch and objectives of WasabiTV written by BEN Australia, for the Broadcasting Industry.
WasabiTV New Blog and MySpace SiteWasabiTV.com.au Personal Blog Space on MySpace, with references taken from there.
Emerging Media News - LAMP Australia Emerging media news, looking into the viablility and approach of the startup.
PodCast TV Australia
QueerTV WasabiTV Content Provider Provider which has seen launch of content on WasabiTV and references within their own Wiki Articles.
Sam Mac Content ProviderProvider which has seen launch of content on WasabiTV and references within their own Wiki Articles.