JumpTV (JTV.TO) is an online service that caters to immigrants or expatriates that want to stay connected to their homelands through watching their native news and entertainment spoken in their own language. It distributes 230 live television feeds from 70 countries.
The great majority of them have no idea how to do it or lack the money to push their broadcast out over the Internet. So they go into partnership with JumpTV to provide them with the necessary money and technology to get it going.
G. Scott Paterson, CEO of the company says: “The idea of giving immigrants a way to connect with home felt like a good niche to me."
The reason for bring all of this up is to look at his assertion about JumpTV being a niche. In my estimation this isn't a niche; it's just not defined narrow enough. Who is the market he's serving? Everybody that basically lives outside their country of origin. Can that be defined as a niche? I don't think so.
Why is that important? To not properly identify something as a niche can doom a business before it even gets going. Paterson's definition of a niche is 'connecting immigrants with home.' Today a niche must be much more defined than that. Look at the people that live and work out of the country they were born in. The numbers are gargantuan.
The problem JumpTV will have is going any deeper into the demographic than he is. He is simply showing network television from various countries over the Internet by subscription. With 70 countries represented and 230 live feeds, where is he going to go? What about those that want a much deeper experience, which is what a niche in our day really is?
I think he's caught between a mass market and a niche; this is going to be tough to make a go of.
AT&T (T) is trying "narrowcasting" too, as they've launched a service called AT&T Broadband TV. They have a similar problem in that they are offering a lot of regular cable TV shows that can be seen anywhere. What I do like more about them is that they also have some very specific original niche channels like MobiReggaeton, geared toward fans of hip-hop reggae music; Maxx Sports, for surfers; Union, for skateboarders; and Totally 80s and 90s, for the Gen X crowd.
Defining a niche has to be done accurately to offer something that will draw in an engaged, deep audience that wants everything they can get on what it is you're presenting them. Thinking large, general audiences isn't going to do it anymore.
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