Now is the time to start your own TV channel!

You can start your own TV channel, and I think right now is a really exciting time to begin. The big media are in upheaval. When people can choose individual programmes and watch whenever it suits them, an opportunity opens up for people and businesses with something to say.

I’m saying this in October 2010, with Google TV on its way and Apple having just introduced a new Apple TV box for $99. I haven’t gone through every detail of Google TV. What interests me is the direction and the business opportunities it can create.

Start your own TV channel while the market is changing

Historically, we’ve had big gatekeepers: Viasat, Canal Digital and cable TV companies such as TDC. You chose a provider and a package, and got lots of channels with it.

You could choose between small, medium and large packages. But if Discovery is in the large one, you also have to buy all the other channels you don’t want. You get RTL and some Italian or German TV along with it, and pay for that. It’s incredibly annoying.

Let’s say you pay 300 kroner a month for 70 channels. What good is that if 65 don’t interest you? Packages have been part of both the technology and economics of distribution, but that doesn’t make them more attractive to the customer.

Then there’s the broadcast time. You sit down to watch TV-Avisen, but that’s exactly when the children need putting to bed. You pay for things you don’t want and also have to be in front of the television when someone else decides. That’s not much fun.

We’re getting used to watching programmes when it suits us

Over here in the US, we have TiVo, for example, a hard-drive recorder. You can subscribe to programmes so it records them for you. If you want Seinfeld, the episodes are there and you can watch when you feel like it.

Then you can put the children to bed, read a story and relax before turning your programme on. You can skip adverts too. Of course, that’s less fun for TV networks, which need other ways to make money.

That might mean more product placement. Or an advert on a bus passing through a programme, digitally added afterwards and adapted to where the viewer lives. It’ll probably become both exciting and incredibly annoying along the way. But that’s another story.

The point is that people get used to things on demand. I’m speaking from what I see in the US. Something similar may already exist back in Denmark, but I don’t have the same overview there.

On Amazon, I can find a film, press a button and often watch immediately for three or four dollars. TiVo and Netflix also offer ways to get films when it suits me. That’s the experience people begin to expect.

The programme becomes more important than the channel

Apple has had enormous success with iTunes, where you buy music track by track. Previously, the album was a kind of gatekeeper too. You had to buy Madonna’s entire new album, perhaps for 160 kroner, to get the one song you actually wanted.

Now you buy the individual track. That’s not necessarily as good for everyone in the music industry, because people no longer automatically pay for songs they don’t like. But consumers are happy, and technology lets them buy exactly what they want.

Apple is trying to bring the same thinking into television with Apple TV. I expect a period when we buy more TV piece by piece. Perhaps an episode costs five kroner. That’s an example, but the advantage is clear: You watch when you want and avoid buying lots of other channels to get access.

So you go from being a Viasat customer or Canal Digital customer to being a Seinfeld viewer. You don’t watch Discovery. You watch Mythbusters.

I think the individual programme will become more important than the channel. Perhaps in five years we’ll talk much less about DR1 and TV 2 and much more about the specific programmes we want to follow. Just as you can like a particular Madonna song without wanting the whole album.

Bandwidth opens the door to the living room

One reason this is starting now is bandwidth. Distribution is no longer limited only by a particular satellite or cable TV system. Programmes can arrive over the internet.

If today you have to wait ten minutes to download a programme, you can start downloading while putting the children to bed. When you’re done, it’s ready. With better connections and more fibre, it can increasingly be streamed immediately.

We already know a little of that from YouTube, which sometimes needs to buffer first if the connection’s a bit wobbly.

I also imagine TV boxes gaining more apps, games and other options, a bit like those on the iPhone. That’s an expectation of the development, and I haven’t studied every feature of the new boxes. But the television can become another screen where people choose what to use.

You don’t need to become the next Apple or Google

The interesting thing isn’t that you need to compete with Apple or Google. There’s a pretty good statistical chance you won’t become the next one. What’s interesting is what happens when programmes are freed from the old channels.

Then you can create your own channel. A business can do it. A brand can do it. A speaker or someone with something to say can start putting material out and gradually build an audience.

Why should someone with something to say necessarily be attached to Berlingske or Politiken? Why not create their own programme and publish new material every day?

I’m already doing something like that with my videos. And the fun thing is that they stay there. How many have watched an episode? That number isn’t final on publication day. A programme might have 10,000 views now and many more in five years. Those numbers are examples, but the material can keep finding its audience.

At some point, doing something with DR or TV 2 may matter less to me because I have my own channel. And when people sit in their living rooms watching Seinfeld, afterwards they can choose to see whether Martin Thorborg has made anything interesting.

A small, loyal audience can be a business

That doesn’t mean you’ll get 500,000 viewers. But a niche can be interesting with far fewer.

Let’s take an illustrative calculation. If 5,000 entrepreneurs pay 100 kroner a month for something valuable to them, that’s 500,000 kroner a month in revenue. It isn’t a forecast or something I’ve already sold. It’s a way to show what a relatively small group can mean.

100 kroner is money too. You need to deliver something people think is worth paying for. On Amino, some currently pay 995 kroner plus VAT a year, roughly 80 kroner a month, for something they find valuable.

I think a TV channel where I made new material every day could attract 1,000 people paying 100 kroner a month. That would be 100,000 kroner a month. But building your brand and audience takes time. You’ll also find my experiences with online sales and marketing in E-pusher.

Another possibility could be 10,000 very loyal followers, a couple of thousand of whom pay 50 kroner a month. That’s 100,000 kroner too. Again: These are examples of a possible business, not a promise of earnings.

Video platforms may offer different payment options. I’ve heard of experiments on YouTube but haven’t followed exactly what’s available yet. A talk show for 49 kroner a month is one example of how to think about it. You can also start with free material people can find and download, like podcasts.

Grab your iPhone and get started

Right now, in 2010, not many Danes are making YouTube channels. The market isn’t that crowded yet. If you have something to say, start now and keep going and going, in a few years you could have a channel and a loyal audience.

In principle, you could make it sitting in Thailand. Or looking out over the water from your holiday cottage. The opportunity is about having something others want to watch and continuing to deliver it.

That’s why I find this so interesting. You get the chance to enter people’s living rooms yourself. So grab your iPhone and shout into it. I’ve heard from some people it can bring success. Enjoy.

Also read about how I made my own video channel back then.

All media are in total upheaval. Everything has been thrown into the air, and nobody knows what will land where or whether it’ll hit anything at all… That gives every talented person a fantastic opportunity, but you need to seize it RIGHT NOW. Watch and hear what’s happening. And if you haven’t seen my review of The Social Network, get it done 🙂 Best wishes, Martin