The Knowledge - Ian Gardiner
10-Feb-10
CSB has been working for months on an exciting project with film journalist Andrew Urban of Urbancinefile. We’re interviewing film and television practitioners about their business experiences.
Our aim is to develop a deeper understanding about the history of business decision-making in film and television and to share with our audience the wisdom from the accumulated mistakes, experiments and achievements of the contributors.
Ian Gardiner - biography
Ian Gardiner is CEO of Viocorp, and is recognised as a pioneer in the internet broadcasting market. He co-founded the company with Ron McCulloch in 2002 on his arrival from his native Scotland. Ian has been running successful technology start-ups for over ten years. He was one of the founders of newsbase.com, a European, news, analysis and business intelligence service for emerging markets. He also launched and ran lastorders.com, one of the first on-line off-licence operations in the UK. Ian sits on the Board of Metro Screen, and is also a member of the advisory board for Sydney University’s Business Information Systems Department where he guest lectures on innovation and entrepreneurialism. He is the co-founder and treasurer of the Australian arm of the Oxford Business Alumni. Finally, he is a co-founder of the exclusive networking group Innovation Bay. Ian holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Oxford where he also won two rowing blues.
Audio download
Chapter 1 - The world of online content - 18 minutes
- Starting Viocorp in 2002 – very limited market, tough start, should have gone bust
- Gradually became a full service webcasting company – end to end corporate videos
- Built a video content management system and licensed it
- We learnt what not to do
- ‘Online content enablers’
- Software business not easy in Australia (better in San Jose)
- Relationship with screen industry not easy; ABC and SBS are the most innovative
- Hoping by end of 2009 to have major broadcast clients, multi-platforming their content – with a way to make money and reach new customers
- Hulu.com offers free content funded by commercials – this model can work here
- Concerned that screen business hasn’t learnt from the fate of the music business - isn’t embracing the web as a distribution platform for content
- The Internet genie is out of the bottle – users have an expectation of free content
- YouTube is useful only to make content-makers famous
- We tried creating online demand with ‘Nice Shorts’ - 50,000 viewers a month, but not making money
Video downloads
Chapter 2 - Business prospects for Viocorp and the industry at large - 17 minutes
- We’re now the incumbent in Australia
- New $1 million investor in 2007 - Peter Holmes a Court, via work for The Rabbitohs
- Valued business at $10 million based on growth potential
- Started Macquarie Radio and Catholic Church online video portals
- Online distribution of pure content is possible – but difficult without a strong brand name
- Broadband is a major issue – overpriced, underpowered and Telstra is defensive-aggressive
- Market will shake it up quicker than Government regulation
- We’re developing ahead of the curve
- Ideally, Viocorp will sit behind other brand names – including film schools – for digital distribution
- Viocorp has business plan to end of 2009
- In March 2009 Viocorp has 28 staff; turnover of $0.5 million to double by end of year
Video downloads
