Archives for May 2007

An Ode To A Dinosaur: The Upfronts

May 17, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

Like most Americans, I am following the news of the upfronts with great interest. Oh. Right. Most Americans couldn’t care less about the upfronts. Most Americans don’t know what upfronts are. I even had to explain the concept to a 15-year veteran of the motion picture industry. In his defense, nothing in his job requires knowing the nuances of how television advertising is sold.

He just needed to know that big bucks spent on “spot” advertising were normal.

In many ways, the upfronts are the major networks’ ways of securing lines of credit for new programming. New shows and lineups are presented to the advertisers of the world. Said advertisers are supposed to, somehow, identify the shows that seem like good bets and commit dollars for future commercials. In theory, buying time early is a way to guarantee a good price. In practice, it’s just about impossible to tell in May how things will shake out in September in October.
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The Daily Loper – May 16, 2007

May 16, 2007 by Lopy

Your Life Edition

Todays links of interest:

Meet Bruce Willis in Second Life
It’s a contest to meet Bruce Willis’ avatar in Second Life. Presumably Willis will be participating. That is, if he’s not too busy engaging in flame wars on Ain’t It Cool News and making video iChat calls to forum critics.
"Gilmore" Fans May Be Unhappy With the Show’s Abrupt Ending
We can report that our resident huge "Gilmore Girls" fan was very pleased with the whole thing, though she couldn’t figure out what that was that kept blurring her vision during the second half-hour.
To Create Buzz, TV Networks Try A Little "Blogola"
Right. As if we would succumb to the temptation to say nice things about "The Office" or "Battlestar Galactica" by simply getting to go on the sets while they were being filmed. However, if the "Lost" producers fly us out to Hawaii — let’s say the last week of September — we’d never dis their show ever again. Unless it started sucking again, of course.

When Is FREE Video-on-Demand Not Free?

May 16, 2007 by Jim Connelly

ABC and Cox Cable are trying an experiment in Orange County this fall. They are going to give subscribers of the service the ability to watch some of ABC’s big hit shows — Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives — anytime that they wish. So far, so good.

And, furthermore, they are offering these shows for FREE. Uh-oh. That’s a bit of a red flag. Because we all know that there ain’t no such thing. If you’re not giving money, then you’re giving time.

In this case, FREE means that the on-demand shows have commercials. Which is fair: so did the original broadcasts. But what it also means is that Cox and ABC are disabling the fast-forward button so I can’t zip through the commercials. And that’s where I get off of the bus with this particular idea.

The Daily Loper – May 15, 2007

May 15, 2007 by Lopy

His Life Edition

Todays links of interest:

Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted" copyright infringement
This story reads like something out of the Onion, but it’s all too real. The AG is proposing a sweeping new law that would, among other things, permit wiretaps for investigation of Americans who are suspect of "attempting" to infringe on copyrights. Under certain circumstances it could also lead to life imprisonment for use of pirated software. Oh, and the law would also empower the Department of Homeland Security to work with the RIAA to defend against importation of bootleg CDs. So much for the war on terror.
McCartney Catalog Going Digital, But Abbey Road May Be At Risk
Of course, had this happened after The Beatles catalog had been offered digitally, it would barely be news, more like a postscript than the precursor it seems to be.

Joost Invites From Medialoper

May 15, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

We’ve all been hearing the hype about Joost for months now. The broadband video service has been hailed as both the future of television and the ultimate YouTube killer. New ventures seldom live up to such high expectations when they’re finally launched. Joost may be one of those rare services that actually delivers on the most of what it promises.

I’ve been playing around with the Joost closed beta for a little over a month now and I have to say that I’m generally impressed. Of all of broadband video services I’ve seen Joost seems like it has the most potential to have a major impact on the future of television. However, I’m not convinced that Joost is a YouTube killer. While YouTube facilitates user-generated video content, Joost is more about traditional network programming presented in the framework of a social web application. It’s that approach that makes Joost closer to Television 2.0 than anything I’ve seen to date.

The Daily Loper – May 14, 2007

May 14, 2007 by Lopy

Truck . . . Truck . . . Truck Edition

Todays links of interest:

ABC blazes own trail online
Totally quote of the week: "Like a flightless bird, the paid-video download market in its current evolutionary state will go the way of the dodo, despite the fast growth and the millions being spent today…"
How to Be Scarlett Johansson’s Perfect Man
Apparently she really hates men who wake up at 4 am to go jogging.
A lot at stake with falling viewership
More on the fact that the networks lost viewers due to spring and other events.

Customer Service Through Litigation: The RIAA Institutionalizes Its Business Model

May 14, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

I admit to being a bit old-fashioned, but in my mind, good customer service rarely involves suing your customers. But, for the past several years, that’s just what the RIAA has done. Nothing creates a warm and fuzzy feeling about an industry faster than threats. Makes you feel wanted.

Illegal downloads are a problem. I maintain — because frankly, the RIAA has offered nothing in the way of hard evidence — that the amount of money being lost is quite a bit less than what the press releases suggest. I believe this simply because every download does not represent a lost sale. In many cases, the songs would have gone unsold, unheard, unnoticed.
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The Weekly ‘Loper – May 13, 2007

May 13, 2007 by Jim Connelly

While you were paying attention to the NBA for the first time since last year’s playoffs, here’s what we were looking at:

Helpful Advice On Adding Value To Downloadable Media – Pay attention to what consumers did with and about their music prior to digitalization, and give them the opportunity to be able to do the same things with downloads.
My Problem With The Pew High-Tech Survey – On the other hand, the years don’t seem to be as long as they used to seem.
Newspaper Freak-Out: Publishers and Journalists Need Remedial Training In New Media – Except that they’d rather pretend like it’s going away in a few years.
Politics In Second Life: Camping On a Nude Beach Waiting For Something Interesting To Happen – Our man in Second Life, Ronin Kurosawa, is finding out that maybe there could be more going on.
Rhino What I Like – What I like about those Rhino reissues is when Tim makes burns copies for me of the ones that I wouldn’t have purchased anyway.
Medialoper’s Coverage of The News of India From Pasadena: May 11, 2007 – Most people are aghast at that guy who wants to outsource the coverage of Pasadena’s City Council, but we think that it’s a great idea.

The Daily Loper – May 11, 2007

May 11, 2007 by Lopy

It’s Happening! It’s Happening! It’s Happening! Edition

Todays links of interest:

Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff Confirm Final Season of Battlestar Galactica!!!
We like this. We don’t think that our favorite shows should go on and on and on, so we look forward to BSG ending while all of the cylinders are still firing.
Cremated Remains of 200 Lost in Mountains After Trip to Space
Oops.
Warner Music Group Calls its Employees Thieves
We call this a link-bait headline designed to bring out attention to the new Warner endeavor geared toward "alternate programming", which, at first blush, seems to be what the kids used to call liner notes and stickers.

Medialoper’s Coverage of The News of India From Pasadena: May 11, 2007

May 11, 2007 by Jim Connelly

Recently, there was an article in the LA Times about the fact that a website called Pasadena Now that was going to outsource its coverage of Pasadena to writers in India.

The Indian writers would watch Web coverage of the Pasadena City Council meetings and then write up stories about those meetings. The City Council gets comprehensive coverage, and Pasadena Now editor saves money because he gets two writers for under $20,000 per year total. Everybody wins!

Then I thought, well, if someone in India can use the Web to cover News of Pasadena, then why not the other way around? Why I can’t I use the Web to cover the News of India while sitting here in Pasadena? And, BTW, I’m doing it for free, so beat that, Mr. Pasadena Now Editor!!

So without any further ado, we present the first of Medialoper’s Coverage of the News of India From Pasadena: