ITV Interview: Joanna Drake Earl, President of Online, Current TV

Current TV--a channel which is targeted at the 18-34 demographic, and which was founded by former US vice president, Al Gore, and his business partner, Joel Hyatt--started broadcasting a little more than a year ago. The channel features short-form informational programs, dubbed "pods," around 30% of which are contributed by viewers via its Web site: Current terms this user-generated content "VC2" for "viewer- created content." The channel, which pays for all user-generated content that it airs, also invites its viewers to help determine its programming schedule by voting for video submissions on its site.

Last month, Current teamed with Internet portal company, Yahoo!, to launch a co-branded broadband video service, dubbed the "Yahoo! Current Network" (accessed at video.yahoo.com/currenttv, or by going to Yahoo.com and searching for "Current"). [itvt]'s Tracy Swedlow recently spoke to the Current executive in charge of the Yahoo! Current Network--and of all the channel's other online efforts--president of online, Joanna Drake Earl, about the new venture, about the "Online Studio" system through which Current helps its viewers create broadcast-quality content, about the channel's recently launched VOD offering, about its view of single- and two-screen interactive TV, about its international expansion plans, and more.

[itvt]: What are your responsibilities at Current TV?

Earl: I am responsible for forging and supporting strategic partnerships for Current and managing our Online group.

[itvt]: Current just announced that it is partnering with Yahoo! on a series of four broadband, mostly user-generated content channels, collectively called the "Yahoo! Current Network." Could you give us a brief overview of this service and what it does?

Earl: We designed the Yahoo! Current Network to be the premier participatory video network on the Web. We're bringing together Current's innovative programming, tailored to a broadband audience, and the Web's largest audience, to form a video experience built by and for Web users.

The Network includes four channels geared to unique "passion communities": the Yahoo! Current Buzz channel, which showcases what's hot in the world defined by the Web; the Yahoo! Current Action channel for skaters, boarders, surfers and other outdoor sports followers; the Yahoo! Current Driver channel for auto enthusiasts; and the Yahoo! Current Traveler channel as the virtual escape route for active and wannabe travelers. Each channel will include the best of viewer-created content that we produce with our sub-culture contributors, and daily "Buzz features," developed by our own top- notch writers, producers and talent working under the leadership of Madeleine Smithberg--the outrageously talented co-founder and producer of the "Daily Show."

[itvt]: Could you explain the strategy behind this new service, and say in what directions you see it developing in the future?

Earl: We believe that audiences watch television and video on a computer with different goals and viewership behaviors. Simply redistributing our linear television feed to online consumers is not a very interesting proposition for consumers or advertisers. The Yahoo! Current Network is an online video network designed specifically for broadband consumers. If users continue to respond as positively as they have since we launched, we will add new channel lineups within the Network.

[itvt]: Why did you decide to work with Yahoo! specifically? As you know, some observers have expressed surprise that Current didn't launch broadband video with its existing partner, Google.

Earl: Yahoo! was the best partner out there for this product. Besides having the largest Web audience in the world, they are focused--as we are--on delivering custom media for online audiences and inviting community participation. We've been particularly happy to join forces with the Yahoo! Video group, as they are committed to providing the largest online distribution opportunities for our VC2 producers, as well as some of the most friendly features for viewers who want to share and discover new video.

[itvt]: Do you plan to offer similar services in conjunction with other partners?

Earl: The Yahoo! Current Network is our broadband partnership focus at this time.

[itvt]: Current's press release announcing the Yahoo! Current Network mentions that the service will feature "new ad formats." Could you talk about these a little?

Earl: Yes. While there are targeted banner and pre-roll video advertising opportunities for sponsors available now across the Yahoo! Current Network, we are also developing a very unique integrated, cross-platform advertising opportunity for one to two innovative channel sponsors.

[itvt]: Current TV's linear channel has now been on the air for a little over a year. How are you fairing in attracting an audience?

Earl: Well, we're not Nielsen-rated, so unfortunately I can't give you any specific rating information. But as you've probably seen, we've caused quite a stir in the industry.

We have successfully built our television network on a foundation of viewer-created content And what's interesting is that now, as you look out into the market, you see a lot of existing television companies, as well as online media companies, pursuing user-generated content initiatives. So while I can't quote you ratings numbers, I think we've had quite some impact on industry influencers.

On the audience front, we've been very gratified and encouraged by the consistently high volume of positive and passionate feedback that comes both via our online community and directly via feedback emails. After we launched, thousands of viewers wrote to tell us that they found our programming fresh and immersive and that they couldn't get enough of the authentic and raw perspectives represented. One year later, we continue to hear from them that in a world of hundreds of channel options, they still can't find anything out there like Current TV.

It's worth noting that we have been able to achieve this industry impact and build a viewer following all with a sound business model. Twelve months after our television launch, we are a profitable venture.

[itvt]: Current certainly seems to have been ahead of the curve as far as the user-generated content phenomenon is concerned…

Earl: What's been very gratifying for us over the past year is seeing that our conviction that we should invite viewers in to create our content, and to have a hand in programming our channel in a really fundamental way, has been born out by reality. We're not just about, for example, taking bits and pieces of popular, online viral video and putting that into a 30-minute format. We're about designing our entire programming format around user-generated content--including, not least, the fact that nearly all of our programming is in the form of short-form "pods" that are easier for independent producers and filmmakers, as well as amateur videographers, to make.

In other words, we designed our entire infrastructure and programming strategy from the start with a mind to inviting viewer participation. As a result, we were able, immediately upon launch, to get 30% of our programming from our viewer base, and to sustain that percentage of viewer-created content consistently since then. What we offer as a result is a fundamentally different form of interactivity that has never before been embraced by a television entity.

[itvt]: Now, Current TV generated a lot of buzz before it launched, because it was seen as a play by Al Gore to make news palatable to younger viewers. How did the goal of appealing to younger viewers result in the channel specializing in user-generated content?

Earl: We looked at the market and found that, particularly in the information and news category--and even in the lifestyle category--there wasn't a lot of television content that the younger demographic felt really authentically represented their perspectives. Naturally, giving them a hand in creating the channel's content seemed like a good solution to that problem. So our founding vision was about inviting people to create media content that would be more authentic, and that their peers would therefore want to see. As you know well, the television industry has historically been somewhat of a black box to try to get into. And a lot of our founders' passion--and indeed, the passion of all of our company's employees--is focused on opening up that black box and inviting people to create something better and more unique than what exists on the hundreds of TV channels out there.

To our founders' credit--and especially to the credit of our president of programming, David Neuman--we have always been about celebrating new talent that emerges from anywhere. The fact that you can create a profile on our site, upload a video asset, have it be voted on by our online community, and then have it picked up by our television network--this is really grounded in faith in young people's creativity, and in their ability to break molds and share compelling viewpoints that haven't been represented out there. We believe that they can produce compelling content without necessarily having the résumé or the film school degree, or having worked for five years getting someone coffee at the appropriate agency.

So we are really focused on letting people's work and their perspectives shine in their own right. And, in the process, one thing that we are very proud of is taking those producers who are gaining traction in our environment and who are getting lots of content on air, and giving them as much visible credit as we can. In our Online Studio, we're continuing to build out their profiles--giving our producers a lot of room to share their personalities, their skill sets, and their work. So that, in fact, we are helping them to create really robust and impressive résumés that will help them to develop careers, and move down interesting paths beyond Current TV.

[itvt]: Now, anyone watching Current TV will see that its user- generated content is of much higher quality than most user-generated content on the Internet. How do you ensure that it is of good quality--just by a selection process or do you proactively help amateur producers complete their work?

Earl: Frankly, when we started out, we had some healthy skepticism about the quality and the volume of the content that our viewer-producers would indeed be able to get on-air. You know, if you'd asked us back then, I think we would have predicted that probably 5% of our content, at launch, would be coming from our Online Studio. However, what we found immediately was that there were a lot of very talented people out there who really did not have an outlet for their work. Even if they were working in the industry, they didn't have an outlet that allowed them the creative flexibility to pursue their own short-form documentary visions on what was going on that was important to them and their peers.

But, you see, there's not a black-and-white demarcation between our producers and our programming team on the one hand and these Online Studio producers--what we call VC2 producers--on the other. What happens isn't simply that they make their own content, and then that content gets greenlit by the community, and it goes up on-air as is. What actually happens is that we enter into a relationship with them. Our Online Studio is an extended production community. And we really do mean "community," as in an area where these amateur producers have a relationship with our staff. So oftentimes what happens is that, as people are uploading content to our site, our producers and staff will come in and give comments to them: give them some guidance. And then, when pieces are selected by our staff or by our online community via our greenlighting process, we have a VC2 production team that really engages with the producers of those pieces. What they generally do is get a viewer-created pod to television-quality by adding things like graphics, doing fact-checking, polishing up the editing, etc.

So there's a process whereby we work with our viewer-producers to get their pieces to air. Sometimes the pieces are 99% there, and sometimes they need some work. What we've heard from the producers is that this is actually quite a satisfying experience for them--really a growth experience. Because they're getting mentored, and they're really helping to cultivate their professional skills along the way.

Another thing to be aware of is that oftentimes, when we identify a story or an angle or a topic that we want to cover, instead of just assigning it to one of our in-house producers, we choose one of the VC2 producers, and we give them the idea and commission them to produce a pod on it.

So what we have is an engaged community that involves our professional producers, our production and programming staff, our viewer-producers, and our viewers. We see lots of content that includes compelling ideas, stories and footage, but that isn't of the highest production quality. So we dive in and help. We do this because we want to provide the most compelling experience to our viewers.

[itvt]: Today, around 30% of Current TV's programming is user- generated. Do you plan to increase that percentage?

Earl: We're definitely focused on expanding the proportion of VC2 content we broadcast. I couldn't tell you if that proportion will ultimately get up to 40%, 50% or even 80%. But we certainly are focused on expanding it, as well as on continuing to develop different production vehicles for people with different skills, perspectives and objectives to participate in.

If you come to our site and you want to produce something, you'll notice that we present you with lots of different formats and program ideas that are available for you to produce. So, for example, you might want to produce a promotional piece for the network. Or you might choose something that can be produced using a mobile device--such as a rant. Or you might want to produce a complete story with a beginning and end, and character-development in it--which is what we call our pod program. And there are also opportunities to work with our sponsors to create viewer-created ad messages.

[itvt]: So you present visitors to your site with, not so much an editorial calendar, but at least a list of things you're currently interested in seeing from your viewer-producers…

Earl: Exactly. Think of it as an assignment desk that really is designed to align with your own skill sets and background. If you happen to come from an agency background, you might be most interested in and best-suited for working with our sponsors on viewer-created ad messages. If you're an independent film producer and are looking for a creative outlet that will appreciate your short-form documentary on a really important subject or your political satire piece or whatever, then you will probably submit your work through our pod program. Or, if you really don't have a lot of experience telling a story and you don't have a lot of camera and editing skills, but you have a strong opinion on some topic that's important to your life, then you can capture something on your mobile, and upload it to our mobile format.

[itvt]: One form of user-generated content that's becoming increasingly popular on the Web is video mash-ups. Is Current TV interested in providing viewers with rough footage, and allowing them to create videos out of that?

Earl: Yes. I think that's a really good angle. We've got a couple of ideas in that direction--as well as a few others--that are geared toward expanding the base of people who can participate in video production for us.

As you can see, for the past year, we've been more focused on what you might call the high-end, semi-professional/professional producer base. But we're constantly looking to invite more people into the conversation. The mobile pod was one format that was designed specifically to expand the conversation with a new base of people. We have lots of other ideas that will allow us to invite people who don't have lots of training and experience under their belts to create content for us.

[itvt]: Current TV offers training modules on its Web site. How has the response to those been?

Earl: We think we've touched quite a chord with our training program. We designed it so that, regardless of your skill level--whether you're quite an accomplished producer or someone who's starting from scratch--you could dive straight into the different topical sections. Whether you're trying to find out the basics of storytelling, shooting, editing, etc., or just looking to pick up a particular piece of knowledge that you were missing--a specific tip on lighting, for example. People use it quite frequently, and we feel we've achieved our goal of letting people get in and out quickly and making it easy for them to find what they're looking for. But, more than that, it's actually a really fun experience. We produced it to be lighthearted and to have some personality--and also, not to be too didactic in the instruction. This was because our programming team fundamentally believes that we're going to be working with producers who have some really innovative approaches to formats and techniques, and they want to be open-minded about encouraging as much of that innovation as possible. So we actually don't want to tell people how to do produce programs. Rather, we see what we're doing as inviting them in to get some of the best tips and strategies from our own producers, as well as from all of those celebrity storytellers and experienced journalists who were passionate about participating in the program.

[itvt]: Now, as I recall, you require that your viewer-producers provide you with a license in perpetuity, correct?

Earl: Yes. Our licensing terms do involve a license in perpetuity--though not outright ownership. But this is because our VC2 program was really designed--as you can see--in order to encourage people to produce new, unique, short-form content for our network. We're not so much trying to get people to contribute something they've been laboring over for two or three years and that they've poured their heart and soul into. This is part of the reason why we designed our programming strategy around short-format: because short-format programming is easier to produce, as well as more tuned to our target demographic.

[itvt]: If someone has loaded a video onto YouTube or one of the other video-sharing sites, they can enter a license deal with Current TV provided they first remove it from those sites, correct?

Earl: Yes. If we are licensing a piece for broadcast, we don't allow it to be distributed anywhere else. However, we're aware that people are using sites like YouTube as an initial distribution platform, so provided they remove it once they've licensed it to us, we don't care.

Those who are uploading content to the Yahoo! Current Network will have an option for a non-compensated path which lives under a non-exclusive license and enables them to upload the same asset anywhere on the Web.

[itvt]: Let's talk a little more about Current TV's decision to devote itself to short-form programming. Do you think other broadcasters or programmers will follow suit?

Earl: I can't pretend to have a sense of where other folks are going. Though I can say that we have seen one or two other networks dabbling more in short-format content since we debuted.

We really dove into the short-format programming strategy both for our producers--as I just mentioned--and for our viewers. From a viewer perspective, we just found that you can actually cover topics and profile personalities and issues in a five- to seven-minute piece often better and in a more immersive and substantial way than local and national news reports tend to. At the same time, we wanted to invite viewers to experience multiple different topics and perspectives within a 30-minute or 60-minute timeframe, instead of just being tied down to one topical focus.

One thing I believe is that our short-form programming actually makes viewers stay with the channel longer: if you tune in and there happens to be a pod on about extreme sports, and you're not interested in that, you know that something else of interest to you may well be airing in a few more minutes. This is why we overlaid a status bar onto our on-air experience: so that you could get a sense of how long the current pod will be airing for, and so how long it will be until something that's potentially more interesting to you will start airing. We saw these kinds of status bars on the Web, and we thought they were such a brilliant device that we had to carry them over to the television screen. They give the viewer the sense that they're in a tapas bar of programming, so to speak, and that even if they don't like the current dish, they won't have too long to wait till the next one. Also, the fact that they're coupled with a lot of graphical preview visuals gives you a sense that this is really your homepage on TV, so to speak, for getting immersed in what's interesting and compelling to you.

[itvt]: Now Current TV recently launched a VOD service--your first--on Time Warner Cable's system in Los Angeles…

Earl: Yes. We're big fans of VOD and we're starting to implement VOD offerings. We're implementing very unique versions of VOD, in that each of our VOD offerings will be localized via locally sourced viewer-created content. So we're doing VOD in a way that is core to our brand and our market position, and we believe it will create quite a stir in LA and other markets.

[itvt]: Do you have any plans to launch it on Comcast's systems in the San Francisco Bay area, by any chance?

Earl: I can't answer that. However, what I can say is that we do have full digital carriage on Comcast and that we will be pursuing VOD offerings in other markets in addition to LA.

[itvt]: Do you have any plans to offer interactive TV--beyond interactive TV in the very real sense that your viewers are involved in the creation and selection of your programming?

Earl: Absolutely. To the extent that we want to invite our viewers to participate in a conversation and help create and program our network, there is no better way to do this than to allow them to give us real-time feedback, and participate in real time in other ways, through either a one-screen or two-screen interactive TV experience.

Now, we haven't quite hit on the unique form of interactivity that we want to overlay on the television experience. We're still exploring that. As you know, the industry has been taking a long time to implement the infrastructure that will enable interactive TV. I actually have a background in ITV: prior to joining Current TV, I was at Moxi, where I was in charge of developing content applications with all kinds of media companies--and, to be honest, I found it pretty frustrating at the time. I think it's only in the past year or two that we've seen a lot of advancement toward the standards that will be necessary for the widescale deployment of interactive TV. And it's only in that timeframe that a lot more capabilities have started to come online that will really drive compelling interactive applications. So I think Current TV is going to wait until we see something we believe will be a killer interactive application that's really core to our mission and our viewer experience, rather than start dabbling with interactive TV as it exists in the US today.

[itvt]: What about two-screen applications? Do you have any plans to implement those?

Earl: Actually, we just implemented something along those lines on our homepage. Because our demographic often tends to have their computer in front of them even as they are watching regular TV, we decided to create a custom online EPG just for our own channel. When you have a short-form programming strategy, it's challenging to give your viewers information on your programming via existing cable and satellite EPG systems.

Right now, when you click on the synchronized pod feed that's in that EPG, you can find out more about the pods that are airing--if they are VC2-produced pods, you can dive into the Online Studio and see the comments from our users there, as well as information around the producers themselves and other pods that they have created. So the EPG already provides an opportunity to interact with our content--and note that we built the EPG with the idea that we would insert more interactivity into it over time.

[itvt]: Current has pioneered viewer-generated advertising. Could you talk a little about that?

Earl: It's been an overwhelming success. We're very happy about the visibility that we've gotten in the creative community as a result, and we've been very impressed by the quality of the V-CAM's--or viewer-created ad messages--that have been submitted to our Online Studio.

Also, we really appreciate the open-mindedness, co-operative spirit and support of the sponsors who have signed up to be a part of this V-CAM initiative. It really took quite a leap of faith on their part to dive into our viewer-created content program with open arms, and make available their brands and logos and assets for viewer-producers to play with. I think that they've had a great experience to date, which is why more and more of them are continuing to sign up.

We fundamentally believe--as I'm sure so many of the folks in both the TV and the advertising industries do--that the on-air advertising model really has challenges ahead. One of the things that we wanted to do for our sponsors--and it makes for a better experience for our viewers, too--was to figure out innovative ways to more organically integrate their presence on air. We felt that the best and truest form of implementation would be to invite our viewer-producers to come and create their own ads. I think we had a lot of healthy skepticism before we debuted that program. There were concerns about the quality of viewer-created commercials--not least about whether they would respect the brands that used them. But, as it happens, the results have just been spectacular. One of the first pieces we aired--a commercial for Sony [http://www.current.tv/watch/1758999]--just blows away a lot of the commercials out there, not only in its concept but in its production quality. It was created by a 19-year old kid--one who is clearly talented, and probably headed toward big things. We continue to see just phenomenal creative coming in from our viewer community.

[itvt]: And viewers who produce commercials that air on Current TV are remunerated, just like viewers who produce short-form programming, correct?

Earl: Absolutely. Our philosophy on all of our viewer-created content initiatives to date is that if people are working hard to create good, compelling content that goes up on air, we want to not only give them as much visibility as we can, but we also want to compensate them for it. So, unlike a lot of the video-sharing upload sites out there, we compensate our producers for every piece that gets licensed for air. Producers of pods that air, for example, get somewhere between $500 and $1,000. And when a sponsor greenlights a V-CAM and we put it up on Current TV, the producer gets paid a flat rate of $1,000.

However, we have found that the sponsors have often been so excited by a lot of this V-CAM creative that they've wanted to distribute it further. So there is the opportunity for V-CAM producers to then go on to have their piece distributed online, on other television networks, or even on a Jumbotron--if it were shown at the Super Bowl, for example, they could actually earn up to $50,000. In cases like this, we represent the V-CAM producers: our license terms have built in the ability for V-CAM producers to be compensated if their work appears in other venues.

[itvt]: Now presumably the licensing issues around any music in viewer-created videos are quite difficult…

Earl: We have definitely found over the last year that one of the biggest stumbling blocks before we get pods up on the air is clearing music. Because of that, we just announced a ground-breaking initiative with APM Music to make the world's largest music library available to the Current community, with all of the costs absorbed by Current. Film and video producers can now access the same music that Steven Spielberg uses, use it to score their pods for Current, and not have to pay for it. [Note: shortly after this interview, Current announced a similar deal with Pump Audio--see [itvt] Issue 6.96 Part 3.]

[itvt]: So viewer-producers will be able to download various pre-licensed music tracks from your Web site, correct?

Earl: Yes. We are constantly trying to fill in the gaps for our VC2 producers, providing all the support that we can, in order to make them successful. Whether it's online training, compensation, credits, visibility, tools, online studio features, or whatever else, we're trying to surround them with what they need to get their pieces on air.

[itvt]: Does Current TV have plans for international expansion?

Earl: Sure. Just like I would encourage people to think of us not just as a television company, but as a media company, I would also encourage them to think of us not just as a national media company, but as an international media company. There's nothing specific that I can share with you today, but what I can say is that one of the things that's happened at an extraordinarily accelerated pace is demand from international distributors for a Current TV in their markets. So we have definitely been working on international expansion.

[itvt]: Can you say which international markets you plan to expand in--the UK? Mainland Europe? Asia?

Earl: I absolutely can't say at this time, but stay tuned.

[itvt]: What do you feel is Current TV's biggest accomplishment to date?

Earl: I think our biggest accomplishment has been really staying true to our mission of inviting people to help create the media they want to see, by pioneering new forms of interactivity that involve both creation and programming and critiquing. And, really, being the first television company to embrace viewer-producers, and to get them inside that black box.

URL: Current

Originally Published: October 3, 2006 in [itvt] Issue 6.97

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