iPODS GIVE STATIONS SHORTCUT TO MOBILE VIDEO

Yesterday Apple Inc. unveiled its new lineup of iPods and related services in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Apple likes to call these off-season product announcements “Special Events” and this one lived up to the label. In fact, it unleashed enough new hardware and software to give the assembled tech scribes and gadget bloggers a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Among the highlights: newer, sleeker versions of the flash memory-driven iPod Nano and the hard drive-based iPod with Video (now called the iPod Classic), both with more storage and bigger, brighter screens; a new top-of-the-line iPod Touch, essentially an iPhone-minus-phone with built-in Wi-Fi wireless—and to go with it, a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, featuring a nationwide partnership with Starbucks.

Individually, these high tech treats portend a great Christmas both for Apple and for the technophiles on your shopping list.

But taken as a trend, these iPods and related services amount to one giant gift to local broadcasters. Here’s why:

• More for less. Each of these products is cheaper than the version it replaces. Apple even slashed the price of the iPhone itself by $200. (Reportedly, this move rattled investors even though Apple CEO Steve Jobs declares Apple is “right on target” to sell a million units in the first quarter.)
  
  
• Portable video now. While the video format wars are just warming up in the cellular world, here’s a video technology that works today. Except for the tiny iPodShuffle, each new iPod sports a high-resolution video screen. The 3.5-inch touchscreen on the iPhone and iPod Touch is big enough for even middle-aged eyeballs.
  
  
• Easy to download. A whole lot of people already know how to download music and video with Apple’s free iTunes software—over 600 million copies have been distributed. Apple has already sold over 100 million iPods. They’re certain to sell many millions more iPods withvideo. Next, watch for a price drop on the AppleTV box that feeds that same iTunes content to homebound analog or high-def television.

So what do these lofty numbers mean for TV stations?

For one thing, now is the time to make your station top-of-mind when viewers seek news whenever and wherever they want to watch it. Whether or not iPods and iTunes emerge as an industry standard, Apple’s made it cheap and easy for you to get started turning mobile video into a new revenue stream.

Now can distribute your news content to iPod and iTunes users in several ways:

• Upload (noncommercial) headlines, news series and evergreen service features to Apple’s iTunes store as a video podcast, or post them to YouTube.
  
  
• Make sponsored versions available for download on your station’s Web site in the iPod-ready MPEG-4 video format.
  
  
• Showcase your news team’s personalities and special interests in targeted newscasts. Think of it as “headlines with attitude.” Encourage your talent to create video blogs that turn their hobbies into online features.
  
  
• Create special news services for target audiences with special appeal to advertisers. For example, how about a weekly Thursday roundup of weekend activities, including movie previews?
  
  
• If Apple can forge a content partnership with Starbucks, you can be equally creative. Many regional coffee chains, even McDonalds franchises, now attract customers with free WiFi connections. Make your station a content partner and offer news headlines through local retailers.
  
  
• Create vendor-specific content accessible in stores. Cooking and nutrition segments for grocery chains.Home improvement tips for Home Depot—whichever new opportunities make sense in your market.

Whatever you try, we want to hear about it at TVNEWSDAY. And we want to feature it in upcoming Market Share columns.

Arthur Greenwald’s Market Share column appears every Monday in TVNEWSDAY. How is your station making use of mobile video? Let us know by writing to greenwald@tvnewsday.com.