Ditching your cable company has never been more viable than it is today. The rise of online, streaming TV shows allows you to save on one of the most expensive household bills if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the convenience of having either a cable box or DVR. The main question you will need to ask yourself is what shows you actually enjoy watching. Several name brand shows are now available online in free, ad supported formats; if your particular shows are not available then you may be stuck with your cable company, at least for now. More and more shows are always coming online, so keep checking back to see if your favorite show is available.
I think it is possible to get rid of cable in 2008 - IF you are not a live sports person. That is the biggest thing missing from the internet offerings.
Are we surprised? With the writer’s strike making online TV viewing about as entertaining as back-to-back-to-back episodes of “Are you Smarter than a Third Grader?”
Another week, and another stat has just been released showing that people are increasingly turning to the web to consume televised entertainment. The latest from Solutions Research Group claims that 80 million Americans (43 percent of its online population) have watched their favorite TV shows on the web, and that 20 percent watch TV on the web on a weekly basis.
Who knows - maybe the writers strike will drive all TV viewing online…who knows?
AT&T bought the spectrum from Aloha Spectrum Holdings. The spectrum, in the highly coveted 700MHz band, covers 196 million of the 303 million U.S. residents and includes 72 of the top 100 media markets in the country. Aloha acquired the spectrum in earlier FCC auctions and from other auction winners. This portion of the 700MHz spectrum is not part of the FCC auction now in progress.
I’m just not sure it seems “fair” to allow this to happen. Why not include this in the auction. AT&T is getting away with highway robbery @ 2.5 Billion! (I cannot believe I just typed that!)
From a guardian post from last week called “UK web ad spend ‘to exceed TV in 2009′” - it explains how in 2009 there will be more consumers of internet advertising that via TV.
The UK will become the first major economy to see advertisers spend more on the internet than on TV ads, according to the latest forecast from a leading media buying agency.
Then - as or possible more interesting:
The agency is also predicting that Sweden will this year become the first country to see advertisers spend more on the internet than on TV ads.
I think it goes to show that we, here in the US, don’t understand the whole internet advertising model. I think sales departments still treat web ads as a chore we HAVE to do, rather than an opportunity we SHOULD be doing.
Companies really want to use internet ads and can effectivey leverage these ads to make money and build their business.
If you watch the beginning of this video, Ron Paul explains that his fund raising efforts are not being directed by “his people” - it is a grass roots group of people working in his behalf.
If we could do the same thing with newspaper and broadcast websites - we too could be champions of community. We need to figure out our message and stick to it.
IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision) is starting to creep its way on the web. We’re starting to see more and more TV shows pop-up as their own little mini-stations - plus the whole miro and joost thing.
TV Shows via the Internet I was looking at Mashable this morning and saw a banner ad for The IT Room, a new IPTV show starting sometime soon. It seems like a take off of the British show The IT Crowd, it really feels to me by watching the promos that it is a big media company trying to play small. The props are almost too good and then “dumbed-down” to look bad. (So my mini-prediction is this will turn out to be one of the netowrks trying to be cute and viral - you read it here first.) But either way - the concept is solid.
Another show gaining traction, which is backed by MySpace,is called QuarterLife. As describe on the site, QuarterLife is:
What is quarterlife about? Both the new online series and social network take on the crucial years between 20 and 30, when so many of life’s important decisions are made. The “quarterlife” series tells the ongoing stories of six creative people in their twenties. As with Herskovitz’s and Zwick’s earlier television series, at the center of “quarterlife” is a commitment to realism, the recognition of universal human themes through the truthful depiction of the way young people speak, work, think, love, argue, and just goof around. Starting with Dylan, a young woman whose overly truthful video blog (on quarterlife.com of course) spills the closest secrets of her friends, the show’s characters – filmmakers Danny and Jed, actress-bartender Lisa, geek-extraordinaire Andy, and still-tied-to-her-parents Debra – chart the sometimes excruciating, sometimes comic, often emotional experiences that comprise coming of age as part of the digital generation.
I really like where they are going with this, they offer up the idea this is a show - but the characters from the show will allow exist virtually:
Can I be quarterlife friends with characters from show? A profile for each character on the show exists on quarterlife.com. Don’t be shy. Go to their profile and send them a Friend Request.
Talk about blurring the lines of reality. Without showing my age too much - this seems like the modern day 90210 or OC - but utilizing the “media of choice” and social networking for the medium.
Miro and Joost thing:
If you’re not familiar with Miro and Joost - they are IPTV projects on the web.
Joost is a fairly new product which was created by the guys who built Skype. They have 15,000 shows on their “network” which you get by having a broadband connection and downloading their free client. And understand - we’re not talking 15,000 shows of internet crap…channels from CBS, VH1, ComedyCentral, Yes Netowrk are popping up - this is a serious deal.
Miro, formally known as democracy player, is more of the open source alternative. Miro has no DRM and aggregates content from others instead of trying to control the content.
It will be very interesting to see who wins - here is a chart from Miro (so possible a little biased) that shows how they feel they are better. Let me tell you - when I read it…it sure feels like Miro is new media and Joost stole too much from the media dinosaurs.
So what?
Well - things are interesting, the big gotcha right now has to be the state of broadband in the US. It stinks. Until broadband speeds catch up (see Google, Microsoft, Verizon and the 700 MHz band) we will see these independent show flourish. Plus, if you think of the cost to produce one of these - it has to be a fraction of a full blown TV show. When the broadband speeds get there we will see IPTV really get some legs.
Until then, mainstream TV station need to figure out how to get their content “on the wire” and available for consumers to get it any way they want, when they want it.
