What the Facebook/Skype Partnership Means for Video (a lot!)

A real game changer

The announcement yesterday of a partnership between Facebook and Skype set off a flurry of opinions as to the impact of the synthesis.

Some argued that it would make little difference, as few people who use Facebook even make phone calls anymore.

Others argued that it was the deathknell of the phone companies.

I would venture to say that it means something far more powerful and far different.

I think it is the deathknell (so to speak) of the conventional TV networks and the cable business.

I think it ushers in an entirely new era for video - not just another platform, but rather a fundamentally different way in which we think about and use video to communicate ideas.

The marriage of video to Facebook means, in effect, that there is a new cable channel in town.

This one has 700 million subscribers at last count.

Discovery Networks, by way of comparison, has 90 million.

This one is free.

Discovery costs you about $150 a year or more to see.

This one is an open platform into which any producer can show their work.

Discovery requires a long and tortuous process of meeting with an endless ream of 'producers' at the network who must approve your work.

The process of getting a show on Discovery (and not to pick on them - they're all the same) takes about a year.

The process for getting a 'show' on the Facebook Channel will take about 30 seconds.

It is, in fact, an entirely new way of thinking about what television (video) - there is increasingly no difference, is and what it will be in the future.

But it's free!

And why shouldn't it be.

The process of making content for television was long ago unhinged from the back breaking costs of producers, crews, cameramen, editors and expensive gear.

Indeed, anyone can make a TV show.

Now anyone can 'air' it for 700 million potential viewers.

It is, indeed, a whole new world.

And what will be the differentiator for what gets watched and what does not?

As we always say around here - it has to be perfect.

The skills to create that kind of content we can teach you.

The creativity part - that's all yours.