Jim Connelly

Hens in the FOXhouse

January 18, 2006 by Jim Connelly

FOX, which once upon a time had a reputation of being a cutting-edge network, has decided to chicken out when it comes to making its shows available for download.

While it strikes me that this decision will be short-lived, especially when a Google Video Search on “Family Guy” returns 338 hits, not a single one bringing any revenue to FOX (or Seth MacFarlane, for that matter), but it’s still a bit puzzling. This isn’t a case of counter-programming (like running 24 against The Golden Globes), it’s a case of on the bus or off the bus.

To me, it would make great sense for FOX to take some of their prematurely-canceled shows like Andy Richter Controls the Universe or Action and see if there is a download audience for those. They could have done quite well, perhaps, with making the final shows of Arrested Development available for download at the same time they are burying them by running them against the Olympics. That would be counter-programming.

Gives ’em more time to download mp3z

January 17, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Some students are taking advantage of professors who post their lectures online by not showing up to class, and taking notes from the clips. Man, had I been able to do this, it might have only taken me nine years to graduate.

Top Downloads

January 16, 2006 by Jim Connelly

So, as a public service,one of the things that the Mediacratic was going to do was provide all of the top download lists of the big boy sites. Peoplewhole thing comparing the top video downloads of all of the big-boy sites: iTunes; AOL; Google & Yahoo! It would be in interesting compare and contrast, and perhapsprovide some insight to how the various sites’ strategies were panning out.

Well, not so much. iTunes has top tens. (The most recent eps of Lost, The Office and Battlestar Galactica.) (And oh my gods, how amazing was that latest ep of Battlestar? How they were able to have a major major victory against the Cylons and yet things are even more frac–, oh, right, the point.) But that’s pretty much it. AOL has “What’s Hot,” but there really isn’t a ranking. Yahoo! has a “Popular” section, but it’s based on searches, not downloads. And Google, well, who know what the hell is going on there?

It’s not a secret that popularity breeds popularity. People are interested in what other people are interested in. That’s why record stores and video stores have always have top sales and new release sections. So it’s a bit baffling that, except for iTunes, of course, none of these video download sites do.

24 Season Five Prequel

January 15, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Season Five of 24 starts this evening, but what you may or may not know is that there is a prequel floating around out there. It was originally an extra to the Season Four DVD, but — horror of horrors, somebody has ripped and posted it.

I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks like it might be another car commercial as well, so downloader beware.