It’s important to note that Twitter  is a platform, not a news service, and also that regardless, no one outlet can control the internet anyway: That’s the beauty and curse of the beast. So when news breaks it’s about two things: accuracy and distribution.  Right now we’re stuck with a drunk leaf blower in a flour factory. I’ll be the first to champion these tools as platforms for change, opportunity and knowledge sharing, but it has become clear we – and especially the reeling news media – are in need of a system that helps Twitter et al sort through the haze of breaking news and get the facts straight, faster. The current model and tools are not clearing things up – they are adding to the mess.

A centralized, collaborative evidence table

Sifting through the mountains of analysis on the bombings alone, I couldn’t help but think of the customized Twitter Nascar hashtag page that was put together in 2011, and how it tied in nicely with the New Yorker digital “evidence table” it describes for Reddit users. So one first step I propose is a one-stop place or system in times of important news or mass emergency. Literally just a single agreed upon place to gather the facts, or a system of checks and balances free from speculation. Like a central hub for help to be channeled and extra information provided – a bit like an active Storify stream.

This feels like a simple fix to a complicated problem at the source. Clearly there are huge questions about who administers it, but one thing is clear: It must be solitary and held to a strict code that is pre-agreed upon, possibly among a cross-collaboration of the major newspapers. For instance, each might host the same page so traffic stays where the trust is with the user.  There is no speculation: Simple fact dissemination and information being released – only after  it is verified – so that the news-consuming public has a go-to source that is consistent.

The ability to deal with errors

Imagine if Twitter or Facebook could lower the relevancy of an incorrect tweet or post in real-time so that bad information was less likely to be seen. Reddit and pals is a more difficult kettle of fish because of their very nature.  We will need to help them help themselves by providing clear information in order for them to do what they do best – engage with it.

The Atlantic wrote recently about the need to undo things on Twitter because it is currently a one-way system that, while capable of self-correcting over time, is pretty flawed when it comes to doing so in the moment. And so we need a system that enables users to revoke or modify what has been said so that it is instantly identifiable. Internet fundamentalists find this idea uncomfortable but many I suspect would cherish the ability to be alerted to incorrect information so the continued dissemination of knowingly false info can be minimized.  A technical nightmare sure, but something to work towards.

A need for innovation and cooperation

Right now big data is not being used or harnessed by news organization beyond visualization or longer-form pieces but I imagine a time (and not too far in the future either) when we see news outlets using Twitter and company in a much smarter fashion than simply looking at volume spikes and “first-grabs.”  So for instance, outlets might soon use data to predict, locate and activate “sleeper-unit” journalists (and trained citizen journalists) who are armed with Facetime technology – or simply volunteer individuals streaming through a phone that a news outlet is able to instantly locate via GPS. It’s interesting to note that Twitter has just appointed its first Data Editor who is charged with “explain[ing] how this phenomenon works.”

We have two options when it comes to “fixing” truly crucial news and real-time mass events: 1) Assume that what we’re doing now works but will need a few tweaks, or;  2) Realize that our current system is no longer tenable and so needs a complete overhaul. Any honest appraisal will quickly come to the brutal truth that the current system is failing, and so needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. In the short term, we will need to move toward something like a system of “Flash tweets:” site-wide notifications, that simultaneously tweet, post, alert, offer a donation system, etc to news sites when major events transpire. I’d like to see a system like this fleshed out by the social juggernauts as they further flex their news muscles.

Paul Armstrong is founder of  Digital Orange Consulting. Contact him via paularmstrong.net, or on Twitter @paul__armstrong or @TheMediaIsDying.

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Photo courtesy Edward Meyer.

On digital revenue

paidContent was first to report NBCU’s $25 million in digital revenue for Beijing and that the network was more than doubling that revenue for 2012 to $55.5 million, based on $900 million in overall ad revenue. NBC announced Wednesday that it has passed the $1 billion mark in ad revenue and digital revenue rose with it. Lazarus told me six or seven percent of that is from digital. The new number is more than double that of Bejing, about $60 million, and if it winds up on the higher end, will be nearly triple. It’s small compared to the overall revenue number — but serious.

Lazarus calls it proof that advertisers not only want linear on broadcast and cable, but also online and mobile. The bulk of that is from desktop or laptop; mobile continues to be the least monetized, he added.

On streaming

In previous years, NBC has been both willing to experiment and uncomfortable giving full live access to the kind of events that would be in the prime-time spotlight. NBC offered 2,200 live hours from Beijing and only two events — curling and hockey for Vancouver, about 400 hours. The barrier to watching events that were being offered live in other countries drove Olympics fans crazy. For London 2012, NBC is going all in. I asked Lazarus if that was a decision he inherited or one he made.

“We made those decisions when I got into the role. They had a working plan that was not as ambitious as it sounded. We had a straw-man discussion about how people were consuming media and watching the games — and we made the decision to stream everything live.”

The reasoning? Lazarus explained: “There are a certain number of fans who want the immediacy of watching it live. Since most of it will have to be authenticated or verified, it brings value to our cable and satellite partners.” Plus, he believes “people will still gravitate to our primetime programs.” That’s not just a gut feeling. “All the research we’ve seen and all the trends in the industry show that putting things more out there leads to greater and wider interest.” He expects the live streams to lead to more buzz and energy for primetime, not detract from it.

“The Super Bowl is a good example. It was the biggest digital event with 2 million uniques and 750,000 on concurrently — and also the most watched television show of all time. Of those 2 million uniques, 1.6 million were watching television while having a digital experience.”

On authentication/verification

Why keep most programming on over-the-air NBC behind an authentication wall? The vast majority of NBC viewers watch via cable or satellite operators paying for rentransmission consent.

What about people who don’t pay for broadcast access? Of 114 million television households, Lazarus says roughly 100 million are cable or satellite subscribers. “Maybe 14 million don’t pay,” he added. “When you’re doing 5,500 hours live, if there’s five or 10 percent [of streaming programming] you don’t need to verify, that’s a whole lot of hours.” That would be 250 to 500 hours.

“We also have more Olympic coverage on free TV than ever before ever before –270 hours.” So cordcutters will have some streaming access without doing backflips and those who don’t pay for TV will be able to watch some of the Olympics on their sets.

The time delay made it even more important to Lazarus and company to provide the live streams.

NBCU is pushing all of its primetime Olympics viewing to NBC. The other channels set for multiplexing during the day — NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo — will have their regular programming. “During the day we have a lot of options for people but there’s a lot of content. In prime time, the only place to watch the Olympics will be NBC.” (Well, the only legal place. I’ll bet digital dollars to your digital donuts that some people will spend a lot of time trying to watch through other means.)

Why not offer a digital subscription? “We think the verification process is that form of payment,” Lazarus said. “We don’t think they should pay twice.”

What would he tell peers making similar decisions about whether to go the authentication route?“We all have our own business models. We each have different events we do our own ways. As an industry, we have to push to simplify verification so our customers can consume all this. Let’s make verification easier for the consumer — as an industry.”

On social media

In recent days, NBC has announced partnerships with Twitter, Facebook, Storify and more. I asked if there is any incremental revenue in the Twitter or Facebook deals or is it all about marketing? Lazarus was quick to reply: “Marketing; it’s not a revenue play for us. We’re using them to market and promote the games, to personalize, make a connection. We have a unique opportunity to utilize some of the biggest talents in the world of sports, in some cases, entertainment and news … In a way it’s a personal plea — even though it’s one to many, you sort of feel it’s one to one.”

For Lazarus, it’s all a work in progress:

“This is a grand experiment. This is a billion dollar laboratory. We’re playing with a lot of things for the first time and on this scale.”

On success

How will Lazarus gauge success? “The overall measure for me for success is more than 200 million Americans watch some portion of the Games, which would make it a top five American all-time event.”

He also would like to surpass the Beijing digital assets by 50 percent and on mobile, would like to have a significant number of people use the smartphone and tablet apps.

“Some measure is making all of this technology work together. Looking at total uniques and page views and how many streams, we think we’ve got enough technology… if we’re pushing the limits, that will be a success.”

Was there anything you couldn’t do with digital? “We’re streaming more content, more simultaneious streams than ever before. We’re challenging the technical limits. It’s not about what we couldn’t do. it’s about focusing on delivering.”

– TV Everywhere-like access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater for desktops and tablets via ESPN and FiOS TV online.

– “Signature programming” from Disney XD and ABC Family for Verizon Wireless’ V Cast Video in Q4.

– Verizon FiOS TV will carry ESPN 3D in 2011.

One network not mentioned: ESPN3. Checking on it.

Full details in the release.

Update: Mystery solved. ESPN3 is included in the blanket mention of continuing “Disney and ESPN services they already receive.”

The network, which expects to lose money on the Vancouver games, is trying a feat as tricky as some of the moves in pairs skating: produce a social media-centric Olympics without allowing video sharing or embedding. Perkins Miller, SVP of digital media for NBC Sports, makes no apologies for the decision. It’s all part of a strategy to make every one of the 17 days count for every second. Key elements include keeping all the video on NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) sites; making highlights freely available; and limiting online access to more than 1,000 hours of video on demand and 400 hours of live competition streaming to users who already pay for video via satellite, telecom or cable.

So far, it seems to be working — although it’s hard to say how much higher traffic might be if users could watch marquee events live online. Through the first two days, the network says NBCllympics.com traffic was up 350 percent from the Torino Winter Games in 2006 with 4.5 million uniques compared to Torino’s 1.02 million. NBC also says the site has delivered 4.5 million video streams, up nearly 700 percent over Torino. (NBC is also using autoplay so it’s hard to know how many of those were initiated directly by users.) No word on how many times the iPhone app has been downloaded but it’s the top free app now (it’s also a featured app, which helps) and had 5.3 million pageviews Saturday, compared with 2 million for opening day.

– Destination NBCOlympics.com : Miller explained the video strategy in an interview from Vancouver as he was preparing for the Games. “The single destination for Olympics video is at NBCOlympics. When you have a 17-day event, we do everything we can to focus everyone’s interest around a single destination. What we found is that people actually like having one place to go and our session times reflect it. People come to NBCOlympics.com. We’ve made sure we

Comcast On Demand started its 5,000-person national trial last month, testing the authentication technology that limits access to its cable subscribers while offering advertisers and programmers a chance to see how the multi-platform idea translates into reality. More than two dozen networks are involved, including CBS (NYSE: CBS) as the only broadcast net, Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA), Time (NYSE: TWX) Warner’s TNT, TBS, HBO and Cinemax, Showtime and more.

TWC’s version would cover about 5,000 homes in multiple markets and would require filling out an online form, according to the Journal. Using HBO on Broadband in Wisconsin requires a TWC subscription to HBO, internet access through TWC’s Roadrunner ISP and a download to kick into gear. To pass the sniff test, TWC is going to have to make this service non-ISP specific — and to pass the consumer test, it needs to be as simple as pushing the on button. More as warranted.

Earnings release | Webcast | Transcript (via SeekingAlpha)

The company, which is majority owned by Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA), can’t count on video adds alone for future growth — or on keeping current subscribers. With that in mind, DirecTV, which had interactive and digital efforts during its News Corp (NYSE: NWS). years, is trying another batch: its own app store “like the iPhone” for TV Apps; providing NFL games on cell phones for NFL Sunday Ticket subs; and trialing a service in Manhattan for NFL broadband sales to non-DirecTV subs. On a potentially much bigger scale, AdAge reports that DirecTV is looking at its own TV Everywhere entry: an option that would give its U.S. subs broadband access to the same video they pay for on satellite. A DirecTV spokesman told AdAge the company has been in “active discussions with an array of programmers for some time now.” No concrete timeline.

– Telco contribution: The 74 percent increase in net subs came in DirecTV’s first full quarter selling a bundle with AT&T (NYSE: T), which switched satellite partners; telco combos represented roughly 25 percent of the 224,000 subs. Combining U.S., Latin America and Mexico, DirecTV now claims more than 24.2 million subscribers — 18.3 million in the U.S.

– CEO search: This was the first call since the return of CEO Chase Carey for News Corp. where he just participated in his first call as vice chairman and COO. Hunter told analysts the process if going as expected “but it will likely take a few months to complete, given the importance of the position.”

– Will pass on Epix: That interest in cross-platform programming doesn’t carry over to new multi-platform premium channel Epix. As Multichannel News notes, CFO Patrick Doyle says DirecTV doesn’t “see the value of adding another movie channel.”

Iger told analysts: “Our product is extremely valuable … and if we are offering it on another platform or in another location for the consumer to access it, I believe that’s more value we are delivering [to a distributor or consumer] and we should get paid appropriately.”

He added that it’s “pretty interesting” the entities that have criticized Disney are “willing to give it away for free.” Iger didn’t call anyone out by name but he clearly is referring to his colleagues who have criticized the broadcast networks for making too much available for free via Hulu or network sites. Disney/ABC became an equity partner in ad-supported Hulu earlier this summer, along with News. Corp and NBC Universal.

Iger also talked about the consumer experience, something mentioned often by Disney execs when they defend keeping content in their own players, as is the case now with ESPN and YouTube, or, in the case of Hulu, a player they’ve agreed to use. “We do worry that it could create issues for the consumer that could do more harm than good.” He wants it distributed in a way that’s “consumer friendly.”

– New premium service: As he did during the last earnings call — and on other occasions since then, Iger talked about launching a premium site for Disney-branded content starting with movies. Looking for specifics? So were analysts, but they didn’t get any beyond it’s in development stage and it’s coming. Iger wouldn’t say when or do much beyond a soft pitch of the vague idea: “We think there