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Archives for March 2006

Television Without Potty

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A couple of Time-Warner companies are going to great lengths trying appease the FCC, who — running scared from (or worse, in cahoots with) anti-free speech groups like the American Family Association and the Parents Television Council — continue to levy unprecedented and quite possibly unconstitutional fines at the drop of a skirt.

First of all, Time-Warner Cable is bundling a bunch of hopefully non-offensive channels into a “Family Tier,” which they also hope will stave off the call for a la carte programming.  No problems here with a “Family Family” tier, though the skeptic in me figures that the tiers are a way to end up charging more for those channels.  Also, one of the “family-friendly” channels is the Food Network, which is 100% about stimulating the senses in every way possible. Watch it with the sound down and it’s a whole different experience.

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The Daily Loper – March 23, 2006

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Todays links of interest:

My TV, Anywhere

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The Slingbox — that cool little device that allows you to watch your TV anywhere that has a computer with a broadband connection — has just taken a huge leap forward into the world of anything, anytime, anywhere.

They’ve created a version that will send the contents of your TV to Windows Mobile palmtops and cellphones.

That’s all. 

And yet that’s everything. This trumps all other TV content made for mobile devices for one simple reason: it’s your own TV.  It’s “your own” content. It’s content that you’ve chosen to record.  

So cool that it almost makes me wish I had a use for it in my real life.

The Daily Loper – March 22, 2006

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Todays links of interest:

La Polémique De Apple

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While I love my Nano, and I enjoy using iTunes, the one thing that cheeses me off are the hoops I have to jump through to play iTunes music I’ve legally purchased on non-Apple products. For example, I recently purchased the entire first season of “The Ricky Gervais Show” podcasts from Audible (cos I’m a latecomer, which is defined in weeks anymore), and I had to waste 6 CDs converting it to .mp3. WTF? That ain’t right.

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Radio Killed The Radio Star, Part Two

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Part Two: The Role of The Curator, Or Why Disk Jockeys Could Be More Relevant Than Ever

Continuing analysis of the SXSW panel called “The Future of Radio”. Panelists included moderator Kevin Smokler, Celia Hirschman of Downtown Marketing and KCRW, Roman Mars of WBEZ, Elise Nordling from SomaFM, and Tim Westergren of Pandora, bringing together lifelong radio listeners, public radio professionals, Internet radio stars, and purveyors of social networking applications. Part One is here.

New services (like, oh, Medialoper) are designed to help consumers sift through the mass of media being thrown their way. In the past, disk jockeys served as curators of music. In today’s world, the increased level of programming makes the curator process even more important. This means aligning consumers with trusted sources of information. A trust relationship develops between the two parties — without that trust — in taste, quality, integrity — the consumer goes away.

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TV Shows on DVD I’d Like To See

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One of my favorite niche sites out there is Gord Lacey’s TV Shows on DVD, which is exactly what it claims to be: a place where you can learn about TV Shows on DVD. It’s essentially a compendium of news/rumours/release dates (Battlestar Galactica 2.5 is coming out in early September?!?), reviews, and a place where you can vote for shows that haven’t quite made it to DVD.

Anyways, just for the hell of it, here’s my list of shows that I’m still waiting to see on DVD (or On-Demand) (or even downloadable):

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The Daily Loper – March 21, 2006

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Todays links of interest:

Press Room? I Said Rest Room!

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You’d be hard pressed to find a more digital savvy group of people than the ones who attend SXSW Interactive. The vast majority of conference attendees are armed with laptops and logged onto the ubiquitous wireless available throughout the City of Austin. Most of the attendees have at least one blog that they post to on a regular basis (I think the average is actually 2.32 blogs per attendee, but I’m having trouble fact checking that number). It’s like an army of field reporters have descended on a conference to provide coverage from every possible angle.

Don’t believe me? Check out:

All of this just makes the fact that there is still a SXSW Press Room seem that much more archaic. What the hell happens in that room? Seriously, what sort of special accommodations could “real” reporters need that aren’t already available to every attendee?
I’ve racked my brain on this one and the only things I can come up with are:

  • Comfortable chairs
  • Fax Machines
  • D Cell Batteries

On the last day of the 2005 conference renowned CSS Guru Eric Meyer was called to task for daring to take photos of his friends without proper press credentials. I guess security hadn’t notice the 9,000+ session photos uploaded to flicker over the previous four days. Meyer played along and was ultimately granted a press pass for his camera. Apparently media credentials are now just a bureaucratic formality.

Meanwhile, the SXSW Press Room lives on, like some kind of vestigial organ completely out of place in the 21st century.

On CBS’s Verizon

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Our in-house CBS analyst tells us that CBS has put a rare right foot forward in its new deal with Verizon Communications. Like all new cable channels, Verizon’s Fios TV (yes, that’s really the name) needs content. The solution? Pay CBS approximately fifty cents a subscriber for the privilege of, yes, broadcasting network content.

Though both parties are mum on the actual fee structure, Leslie Moonves is chortling and rubbing his hands together. Verizon is a little more subdued:

Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe wouldn’t confirm that the company is paying fees. “Value flows both directions,” he said.

Unlike ABC, CBS is standalone company — no cable network behind it to provide back rubs and rebroadcasts. Since lost advertising dollars are into production money, Moonves and team needed to get creative with cash flow in order to produce more product (also, bump up executive bonuses, but that’s probably a side consideration, this being Hollywood and all). Getting cable networks to pay on a per-subscriber basis for content is, actually, a pretty smart move (so smart, CBS is negotiating with AT&T in the same manner). Whether other cable operators fall for the same trick remains to be seen.

Verizon will pick up CBS-owned stations in various markets, approximately 18 stations.