Case Study: No Good TV Won't Be Ignored

In order to stay fresh and to grow, NGTV during 2008 will be "launching more shows and going into other genres of content," says Taj. "We’re going to go into sports, get into the comedy world, and even enter into some serious areas, where we’ll still be having fun but addressing some social issues," says Taj. NGTV will also delve more deeply into the video-gaming world.

In the future, NGTV will also branch out into things like music and film festivals. "We have this concept about getting this content out of your computer and onto your cell phone or into an arena near you. We want to grow the product so it impacts you in more ways. The more tangible and tactile the experience of No Good Tv becomes, the more it will integrate into your life, and the more difficult it will be to extricate it from your life," says Taj, adding: "But we’re really very humble about what we do. We just want to have fun and make sure that we’re not wasting anybody’s time, especially our own."

Future Growth
Taj’s plans for the future growth of No Good Tv are tied to the company’s business model, which may also evolve as time marches on, he says. "It is advertising-driven, but sponsor integration is a big part, and also we syndicate our content as well," says Taj. "We are working on a lot of sponsorship integration, which we think is where everything is going. You’re seeing more and more of it every day. Also, we develop product for multiple platforms, including television, and you’re going to see more of that and, of course, more mobile platforms, as they emerge, and also we’ll be going international in a greater way. We’ve got an interesting product that there seems to be an appetite for, so right now, in terms of the site itself, it is obviously advertising-driven, but I think syndication and licensing fees are also in the future for us."

Taj seems particularly excited about a new deal his company has recently forged with the mobile device company Helio, which is a joint venture between wireless carrier SK Telecom and veteran ISP EarthLink. Helio devices give Helio subscribers access to a nationwide high-speed 3G network. "There’s kind of a No Good Tv channel of content on Helio, and we supply them with brand new clips every week," says Taj. "It’s one more opportunity for us to be out there."

But perhaps the most important aspect of Taj’s overall plan for growing the company involves "going beyond the TV experience" by adding more interactivity. "We’ll soon be launching version 2.0 of No Good Tv, and that is going to begin to integrate all the new social networking features," says Taj. "You’re going to be able to create profiles, interact with the content. At some point we’d like to bring the match-up capabilities into the site, so you can really start having fun with this stuff. We want to make sure people can play with our stuff, that they can have a sense of ownership, and that they can participate. You’re going to see some more live things happening online with us; you’re going to see more fan interaction and some stuff that allows them to actually impact on what we are doing. And as the interactive tools get more advanced, interesting, and friendly, we’ll be using them; because at the end of the day, No Good Tv is all about the people. It’s about everyone being able to connect on a very simple, common, relatable level with artists. And I think that the more tools we give users to do that, the more successful we’re ultimately going to be."

Tech Talk
For someone who is primarily involved in business deals and programming decisions, Taj is quite knowledgeable about his company’s technology, and he likes to brag about it. "We play around a lot," he says. "And we are lucky enough to be the beta site for a number of technology companies, so we get access to some of the best toys."

No Good Tv counts among its toy-providing technology partners Akamai, Brightcove, DoubleClick, Avid, Sun Microsystems, Digidesign, IBM, and StorageTek, each of which has supported the company in the development and implementation of its infrastructure, programming, and distribution platforms.

"Right now our site is primarily Flash-based," says Taj. "We’re using Brightcove as the video server and Akamai does everything else. As we migrate to the next iteration (NGTV version 2.0), you’ll see hybrid HTML/Flash with some new interesting bells and whistles. We are actually taking advantage of some cool alpha video stuff; on our site personalities actually come out and mess with you. What’s interesting for me is learning the pitfalls of each variable, and I think that Flash has been an amazing tool, but I think the Flash/HTML hybrid is going to be a much more robust experience—faster loading, more interactivity, etc.

As far as stream preparation goes, NGTV does "everything in house," according to Taj. "We get the encode to the level we are satisfied with and then just upload it to Brightcove. There’s this whole publishing infrastructure that Brightcove has, and it’s pretty easy to use, so we take advantage of that and end up uploading tons and tons of stuff constantly."

No Good Tv does all the video postproduction in-house too, the house in this case being an old renovated bank building in Beverly Hills. It consumes 24,000 square feet of space, and is "one of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art postproduction facilities out there," says Taj. "Along with post mix and mastering, we also have our CG department, we have motion graphics, we have green screen, we do motion capture, we have a 5.1 Surround mix room. And we have a digital archival system from StorageTek that stores tens of thousands of hours of content that can be accessed throughout the building (we call it The Robot), and there’s only two of these on the West Coast—us and Disney."