The local internet scene is humming and buzzing for the last few months now, with new portal designs and the annual TV/Internet festival.
Only yesterday I read several posts and comments about Channel 2 latest announcement – mako.co.il, which was suppose to be the new face of Channel 2 online and instead reduced to ‘just another news portal‘.
The internet has definitely changed the way we consume content – my single source for information is definitely the web, being internal or external. Thanks to bandwidth and UGC I can now watch complete episodes/sketches of The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, SNL and others anytime I want to.
Why this intro? Well, I’ve been following Gal Mor‘s blog, Holes in the Net, for some time. He’s a savvy internet producer/consumer, and although (or maybe bacause) managing the Dev. dept. of Ynet.co.il, his insights into the space of content, internet and UGC is a must read. The new mako.co.il got low reviews from Gal, who put together an excellent post, disecting the different parts of the site. One might say that Gal is a bit biased, as mako.co.il competes with Ynet.co.il, but as Gal (and the comments) concludes, mako.co.il should be more focused on video, rather than ‘plain’ content. We want Video On the Internet.
What interest me is the fact that Channel 2 already has a video presence online – it launched IsraelNews at YouTube a month ago, with some clips on the ‘behind-the-scene’ action at a news room (and watching Yonit Levy up close and personal for 2:16min can’t hurt either.. 😉
That’s the kind of VOI I’m talking about. Even Yonit is saying that the internet provides the extra screen time they need, putting the full 15min interview instead of the 4min cut for the news item.
Bottomline – nice to see Channel 2 are taking risks, leaping into the VOI space, but they need to walk carefully. Already there’s some confusion between mako.co.il, israelnews, ch2news2, reshet.tv – some strategy and direction may be needed.
Danny Koshmaro welcomes YouTube viewers:
Why IsraelNews at YouTube is important (Yonit Levy):
Videoblog with Aharon Barnea at the US Elections:
