Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tips for Web and Mobile Television Producers - Interview with Amanda Congdon, Sometimesdaily.com

At Streaming Media West 2009, I caught up with Amanda Congdon, new media producer and host of, Sometimesdaily, which can be seen on web and mobile television. Amanda and her small production team that consists of her husband Mario Librandi and brother Andrew Congdon, were at Streaming Media West to promote FLO TV, the live mobile TV service from Qualcomm. Their show is available on FLO TV handsets and has wide mobile distribution on FLO TV-capable phones reaching 200 million cell phone users throughout the United States.


Amanda became an Internet video star on Rocketboom, the daily news show that she hosted and produced from its debut in October 2004 to June 2006. She followed that with a number of other video projects including, Amanda Across America, a blog based on her travels, a weekly video podcast for ABC and another weekly video blog, Starring Amanda Congdon, produced by her production company Oxmour Entertainment. Amanda also was the co-executive producer of JETSET (now EPIC FU) for the first several episodes of the show. In this interview, she shares similar tips, as her friend Zadi Diaz did in the previous post, for people trying to break into the web and mobile television space.

Amanda says, to be successful you really have to do 3 things:
  1. Keep the content short (2-5 minutes max)
  2. Make content that you are the expert on (and passionate about)
  3. Find your niche audience (and build relationships through email, blog comments and social networks)
Amanda also discussed how the FLO TV distribution model works for her show, which is through licensing. She says their content is uncensored and is exactly as you see it, from the video edited on Final Cut to the FLO TV network. The wide mobile distribution through the FLO TV network expands the reach of SometimesDaily to hundreds of millions of mobile phones, far beyond what the web could provide.

FLO TV president Bill Stone kicked off Streaming Media West and addressed how mobile television is growing both on the mobile phone and on to other consumer devices. See the article by Tim Siglin and keynote video: Streaming Media West 2009 Keynote 1: Bill Stone, President, FLO TV.

Sometimesdaily is an interactive online variety show. Throughout the work week Amanda and company tackle the topics of the day through short videos handcrafted for easy digestion, just like homemade pasta. These episodes include Amanda-on-the-street interviews, quirky skits and news vignettes. Because videoblogging is an interactive medium, we incorporate viewer feedback throughout the show. Our viewer created tagline is: Sometimesdaily - Taming the bizarre for normal people to enjoy.

Subscribe to Sometimesdaily with Amanda Congdon