Long Tail doesn’t apply to television?

Cory Bergman January 31st, 2007

Shelly Palmer, chairman of the national Advanced Media Technology Emmy Awards Committee, sparked a war of words after writing a post on his blog that Chris Anderson’s Long Tail presentation at NATPE illustrated “a profound lack of understanding about television production, distribution and the advertising and subscription revenue that drive the business.” Palmer also said he’s working on a paper that “deconstructs the Long Tail for the online video business,” and he made the assertion that YouTube is “not a place, (but) an application” that became popular because of MySpace. Chris Anderson politely responded with a post on his blog and questioned how Palmer is defining television, among other things. But Terry Heaton goes a step farther. “Ground control to Shelly: Please return to planet Earth,” Heaton writes. “Broadcasters may find that Shelly’s message tickles their ears, but it does nothing to clarify the realities of media circa 2007.” I agree with Heaton, and any talk that tries to establish a barrier between television and video content is harmful for the industry going foward.