NASA is revamping its multimedia services by taking a cue from major TV streaming services. This month, the agency relaunched its long-standing NASA TV service, now called NASA plus. There’s a new mobile app to go with it. To get the full picture, Federal News Network Deputy Editor Jared Selb spoke with Rebecca Salmons, Executive Producer of NASA TV. Tom Temin and Federal Drive.
rebecca salmons NASA Plus is NASA’s new official ad-free on-demand streaming service. It’s like Netflix, but with NASA. And it brings together some of the greatest stories ever told in one place. One of our taglines is to bring the universe to your fingertips. In other words, it’s premium content. This is the official home for live broadcasts. And NASA’s notoriously large archives have been around for decades. So we’re really excited to have everything in one place for people to find.
Jared Selb And what was the inspiration for the idea that we needed to essentially reboot this? Because it’s not just a rebrand of what we were doing before. I think it’s a shift from linear content to more on-demand content. Is that correct?
rebecca salmons yes. When I came here, I came from the private sector. I’m a TV person. I was a TV executive in LA for about 20 years, and it was an honor to come out here and take this job. And I knew it was going to be a huge effort. The great news is that I didn’t have to do it myself. There was already a ton of content out there. Just go around and collect all the great content they’ve been producing over the years. We also look at our future missions, what we’re working on, and what we’re doing now, and think, how can we make a great documentary? How can we tell this NASA story through the resources we already have? We didn’t have the budget, so we didn’t go out. We didn’t have the budget to do this. The question was: what can we do, what can we leverage, what can we do with what we already have? And it’s incredible. The difference between linear TV and modern TV is that everything is on demand. And you can watch it whenever you want. It’s free, so no subscription is required. Obviously no ads. One thing I am personally proud of is that we are family friendly. As far as streaming services go, there aren’t that many places that are 100% family-friendly. So I’m really looking forward to future generations seeing that.
Jared Selb And the newly relaunched app is one way people can access NASA Plus. I have to say that his UX on this app is better than most commercial streaming service apps I’ve seen so far.
rebecca salmons thank you. oh.
Jared Selb That’s really true. So tell me a little bit about how you approached it and what you prioritized when you decided to redo the app.
rebecca salmons yes. And I would say this is a great team effort. We would like to pay tribute to Jason Townsend, who was leading the entire team in app development and his web modernization. Several things happened at the same time. I was asked to take charge of NASA Plus, so I handled all the overall layout and content, adding new things to it, and treating it like a network, so to speak. And of course, we also created a web modernization team. So it was tested and several changes were made over the years. But this is something we can all be proud of. And, yeah, it’s about kind of stepping into the era and really showing people that we know what’s cool and we’re going to do it.
Jared Selb Tell us about how you developed it without a budget. Was this mostly all internal? Was there any contract support? How did you proceed?
rebecca salmons internal. I mean, it’s weird coming from the private sector. I worked in documentaries, learning how to do something with nothing. What NASA has is talent and creativity. This is hands down the most creative place I’ve ever worked. Because it’s like you have to give it to NASA. I got something, I got it, what should I do? So, okay, we have a great team here. So I can go to that team and say, “This is what I need to do.” Let’s figure out how to get there. And I was able to do it. So, working across corporate NASA means there are centers all over the place. It’s not just the headquarters here. I work with Goddard, Johnson and Kennedy. All centers participated in this. And the best thing about this is that we were able to see the companies really come together because we all wanted this to happen. And that’s something we’re really proud of as an agency.
Jared Selb As you mentioned earlier, this is primarily a new way to display a large amount of existing content and make it more accessible. But will having these new channels and content delivery mechanisms change the way NASA thinks about how to create new content and how to create new opportunities to create new things?
rebecca salmons absolutely. I mean, when I first started this job, I thought, “Obviously, I’m going to need to understand distribution and how we all approach it differently, and those The method has already been established from day one. Now it’s about how do you create content differently in terms of putting together an outline, being creative, and looking at it from a more premium perspective. Because it’s all about storytelling and how you tell it. Story. And what I’m so grateful for every day is the fact that we already have talented people here. And it was they who did this, not me. I just know how to pull the lever.
Jared Selb I know it’s been out for a while, but what kind of feedback have you gotten from viewers so far? Has your analytics shown you that people like it?
rebecca salmons I’m tracking it daily and getting some great feedback. Obviously there are little bugs here and there. That’s exactly right. It’s a technique. But when it comes to feedback, everyone loves it. As a parent, just hearing people say, “Oh my gosh, there’s a place, there’s kids’ content, there’s kids’ content from NASA,” and I was like, “Yeah, the schools are watching that. “I think. I was talking to a pediatrician recently. They’re like, oh yeah, they actually showed it to their kids. That’s unbelievable. The launch went smoothly and we are now considering launching it like other streaming platforms. Now, what can we move? What can we do more effectively? How do we look at this situation going forward? And that’s something we’re constantly monitoring.
Jared Selb Yeah. And finally, that’s my next question. What’s next? Do you have any immediate plans for a roadmap for improvement?
rebecca salmons Yes, it is. Obviously, we’ve launched some new series. There’s another documentary about sonification that I’m really looking forward to in terms of content. In terms of overall development, we’re going to track the analysis and really see what’s working and what’s not. Again, I’m very budget conscious. Just like we didn’t go, we’re working with what we got here. And when you look at space, just like space, that’s where streaming costs money. If you look at it, this series isn’t all that exciting. let’s do it. Make space for new things. When you watch a live event, how does it work? What are people watching, and when, where, and how do we put it on this site? We’re already getting it Some of the data is very interesting. And there are also some surprises, like I had no clue at all. That’s fascinating to me. I’m just happy that people are enjoying it.
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