Twentysomething

The Long Haul Part II

Perhaps this a move from new largest shareholder Steve Jobs, but all in all more great news in the long haul from old to new media.

Disney will begin offering some of its most popular shows including Lost and Desperate Housewives, with commercials, starting next month.

Big TV media haven't raised a big fuss about downloading and are continuing to set the example for all other traditional media. Please take a hint RIAA.

I've argued for a progressive shift for every industry and it's great to see Disney waking up. I think 2006 will be the year of Internet TV, as it's already began to demonstrate.

The Oscars - We're Left and we're proud

The underlying theme of this year's Oscars was way off course to what I'm used to.

The major difference lay in hosts and format. I've been a huge fan of Jon Stewart ever since he took up his gig at the Daily Show, and was expecting him to be pretty funny, but I didn't expect it him to be nearly as funny as he is on the Daily Show.

I was proven wrong time and time again, as he clearly made up great jokes on the fly. It's a shame that he hasn't had a chance to be in any other great movies, though I am always excited to catch him on Comedy Central.

While Jon led the show, Ed Helms, a supporting actor/"fake news anchor" for the Daily Show backed him up with some great content which poked fun at the current political ad process and stars all in one.

It was strange seeing such a typically lifeless event melded together with such a hilarious team of writers and actors. There were the occasional boring typical speeches, like that of Reese Witherspoon, but all in all it was more than tolerable.

Clooney's becoming more of a liberal hero by the minute as he proudly stood by his stance that Hollywood is off the public view and that's its a good thing. I agree wholeheartidly and am glad that people like Clooney, who seem to have everything in life, stand up and take a stand.

Hip-hop also gained a lot of credit last night, as 36Mafia, a popular rap group, won an oscar. I never could have imagined that, and yet I'm glad that it's not Celine Dion. Thank God for progress.

And so it Continues...

ABC has FINALLY decided to allow ad-supported downloads of its prime-time shows. It seems the TV Industry has learned from their friends over at the RIAA and decided to start doing this the right way. Then again, TV has been has been ad based for a long time, and the internet as whole seems to be headed in that direction, therefore finally getting the attention of the tv execs.

I'll be excited to watch the newest episodes of Lost online and think this is great news for the IPTV consumer, and think the other networks should follow suit as soon as possible. Offering a subscription based service would also be great, but I'll get what I can take from these guys.

It would be really interesting to see if this has anything to do with Steve Job's recent status as a Disney big player. While these are not being offered on iTunes, it doesn't seem in line with how the traditional media has acted in the past with regards to internet content distribution.

End of TV as we know it

IBM released a very detailed report entitled "The End of TV as we know it"

http://www-1.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/ibvstudy/imc/a1023172?cntxt=a1000062

At the same time, NBC has reported it's made $5-6 million in profits from NBCOlympics.com
That's $5-6 in pure profits. NBC has said that as soon as the online advertising dollars start matching those of televisions, than they will "adjust their policies even more".

Why (Online) TV (doesn't) suck

Following my post  about online television, I found this article on PaidContent.org, that made me very happy to read:

TV's Online Rush: FoxReality; Adult Swim; BBC America; Sci-Fi [by rafat] : Few moves worth noting in the exploding TV meme:

-- FoxReality.com's Remix Launch: Fox Reality is showing its daily entertainment news magazine program "Reality Remix" online in its entirety.

-- Sci Fi, Engler will channel broadband: Sci Fi Channel is gearing up to launch a broadband network and has appointed Craig Engler to oversee the operation..he was named senior VP of Scifi.com and Sci Fi magazine. He previously served as general manager of Scifi.com.

-- Adult Swim Dives Into Broadband: On March 27, AdultSwim.com will launch Adult Swim Fix, a broadband feature offering streams of full-length episodes of the network's linear content on-demand 24 hours a day.

-- BBCA's Footballers 3 Kicks Off Online First: BBC America is offering up the third season premiere of Footballers Wive$ on Google Video starting Feb. 16 at noon, three days before the episode runs on the cable network on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 10 p.m.

Let's hope these products will be affordable and commercial free. Here's to wishful thinking.

Why TV Sucks.

I think Internet TV is similar to what Color Television did for Black and White TV.  As I flip through the mind numbing numbers of channels offered today on cable, I always seem to settle on Comedy Central. Usually theres a show I like on it, and that's ok, if I still want to sit through all the commercials and settle for something that I just feel ok about watching.

Enter Internet TV. I can now choose the shows I want to see, when I want to see them.
I love that, and I'm definitely willing to pay for it. I'd really like to see a service with a monthly fee where I can download as many shows as I want.  That seems like a stretch, considering we can't do it with music (thanks RIAA).

Luckily for me, one of the first to make the adjustment is Adult Swim. I've been enjoying Adult Swim for years now and since they are geek oriented, I'm not surprised there putting up a 24/7 live feed to their shows.

I think it should be taken one step further. I would like all of TV to be accesible. Right now, for instance,  I'm watching Dave Chappelle's interview on Inside the Actor's Studio. This is one of the best interviews I've ever seen. Internet TV rocks.