Thursday, May 22, 2008
My Damn Channel: A Step towards TV-Web Co-mergence
The David McMurray post from yesterday had me poking around the web to find out more about My Damn Channel the logo in the lower left of the YouTube deliverable. Did I spot Don Was in the video? Yes, it was him and I could tell because we had a close personal moment last week. It consisted of "Thanks for Coming." It turns out that Don Was is one of the key contributors to this web broadcast presence.
I describe MyDamnChannel as a place for a handful of to some degree recognizable creatives get to produce content web stylee. And their defintion, or rather contribution to that evolution consists of the likes of Coolio doing a cooking show, Harry Shearer being chameleon like as left as he feels it. Then there is You Suck at Photoshop which is like a Lynda Weinmen video intersected with sarcasm and slam comedy, and a bunch of other stuff. And the Don Was Channel is loaded with lots of high quality music offerings in stylish black and white.
Let's face it, entertainment often needs direction, craft, some capital and a good editor. YouTube is a trough. MyDamn Channel is a fountain with a few select choices. The folks behind these efforts understand web aesthetics. No piece seems to be more than eight minutes and most clock in between three and six. There are podcast services, some annoying google ads, but also cool sponsorship moves like having Lincoln pay for rights and distribution fees for the Don Was videos. Almost as if they are saying "Please download and be protable with these suckers, we're proud of them ane we know that's what you want to do with them."
But there is a MyDamnChannel vlog hostess as well. Grace Helbig who was featured reading a bunch of adult bedtime stories is irrepressible in Daily Grace, her two minute blogs that feature a lot of word play and a hip sensibility. She always seems to wear a new outfit as she either plugs the new uploads on the DamnChannel or has some sort of cute wide-eyed provocation or observation that reminds me of my memories of the cookie lady on the Smothers Brothers. (Cookie lady's grand daughter or great niece perhaps?)
This thing didn't come from nowhere. Here is an excerpt from a webpost on tvmama.com last August
MyDamnChannel is backed by Okapi Venture Capital. It’s a small Orange County, California, firm that raised $30 million for investment in 2006 and said nothing at the time about was looking for Hollywood bling to put in its portfolio. It must have been hard to resist.
Beyond the bling, what’s the pull? Big-name advertisers seeking elusive demographics (young, male, hip, trendsetters, heck even my 81-year-old father-in-law) that are abandoning “real” TV for the Internet. There is big money in this - if it draws people.
Even though the amount of Okapi’s investment has not been disclosed, you can be sure the Hollywood crowd - slightly edgy outsiders notwithstanding - doesn’t come cheap. This isn’t some garage-based, grassroots venture, folks. This group is talented, and smart enough to know how to play corporate ball without seeming to - subtle product placements anyone?
It is worth checking out folks, especially if you wonder where broadcasting and webcasting might be headed. There is a sense of adventure and it will be interesting to see if they can survive well into their second year and beyond.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:25 PM
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