Fabchannel moving on

Fabchannel is the Dutch internet pop concert site of the two Amsterdam pop temples Paradiso and De Melkweg. Because of decreasing media attention for live music, they decided five years ago to launch Fabchannel. The foundation received a grant of 205.000 euro of the municipality of Amsterdam and the Dutch ministry of Culture. But after receiving national and international awards such as the Europrix.nl and the Webby Award, Fabchannel wants to go further and become a distributor. Now it is looking for venture capital in Europe and in the US.

Fabchannel now broadcasts concerts, festivals, lectures and competitions on the Internet, in sound and vision. It presently claims 600 concerts which can be watched for free on internet and on digital television channels. These programs are live registrations of concerts given in Paradiso and De Melkweg by bands such as Di-rect, Simple Minds, Sterephonics, De La Soul, Damien Rice and Fun loving Criminals.

Paradiso put a team of specialists together under the name "Fabchannel Foundation". This team developed a streaming video portal with Flash and PHP technologies. It is easy to use as in three clicks a user can make his/her selection. Fabchannel is also working on the Fabplayer with Quicktime and Flash and 360 degree camera on demand. But they also got a legal format in order to broadcast the concerts for free, live and on demand. Its archive grows fast. In June 2005 the archive contained 320 registrations and presently it holds some 600 registrations of concerts. And the archive is growing monthly and holds now 20 terabytes Part of the success of Fabchannel is that one can be present at a live webcasted concert even though one is not in Amsterdam. As for the marketing strategy Fabchannel will use television in order to promote their internet site.

Fabchannel was a strategic initiative. It aimed at distributing concerts though internet and television, interactive or thematic. That part is a success as the rewards are rolling in. Now the foundation is looking for a wider role as distributor. The foundation is talking with Microsoft, Sony/BMG and Apple’s iTunes. But it is also talking to the bands to acquire sales rights on iPOD and DVD.

In 2005 the Dutch jury of the Europrix.nl wrote the following judgement: Strategically Fabchannel has a big trump card for internet radio and television, but also for interactive television and video-on-demand. Fabchannel is technically high quality, innovative and strategically future-proof. As co-organiser of the Europrix.nl I am very proud to see this winner moving on.

Tags: music, interactive television

Blog Posting Number: 476