TV

Advertising trouble on TV

Posted by shane at 1:02 PM on September 21, 2008

I got a tivo a few years back & have had a dvr of some kind ever since. I now have dish so I use theirs which is a good one but not quite as good as the tivo. The biggest plus is of course the time shifting factor. But the ability to skip past commercials is a close second. I keep wondering how the advertisers are going to spend their money in the future on ads. I very rarely even see an ad now but I still know more people without dvrs than I do people who do have them. So the ads are still being seen by a large percentage of people. But at some point the scales will tip and advertisers will no longer be able to justify the huge dollars they give to have their products displayed only to have them skipped over by the consumer. If 50% of people have dvrs then the value of advertising time is greatly diminished.

So what do companies do to avoid being fast forwarded into the red? Well they can place ads in sporting events which are more enjoyable if watched on time instead of the next day when you may have already found out the score. Also they could use the new media as a venue to put ads inside. Instead of paying for ad space during Lost (a popular show on ABC which I hate since they pretty much make up the story line as they go. If you are hooked on it, get out while you can!) a company could pick a popular blog or podcast that covers Lost to advertise with. Not only are people less likely to fast forward a podcast to avoid commercials, they are more likely a super fan of the tv show thus more apt to support a product that supports their show. Another thing I see happening is tv channels placing ads on top of the show in the corner like they do with their network logo (ex. NBC placed in the bottom right corner of all their shows). Or they could place “crawling text ads” 24 hours per day. However it comes about I do not know, I just know it change is on the way.

Tags: advertising new media, blog, dvr, Podcast, TiVo

Posted in New Media, TV, business

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Dish Network Rewards New customers. What about us?

Posted by shane at 4:53 PM on September 14, 2008

I am not going to cry over Dish Network offering HD only packages to new customers. In other words if you don’t like watching crappy Standard def channels on your big screen you now have a choice to get only the high quality HD channels starting at $30 per month with local channels. I understand that is their business model to give “free” equipment to get you hooked when you start out. My understanding when I signed up for service was that it is a once per lifetime deal. You can’t stop service then start again when you see a better deal. You can use a spouse to get another deal started I guess. I do feel slighted that being a customer in good standing, I can’t get the same options as a new customer who has not spent one dollar with Dish yet. I think the worry on their part is that too many folks will jump to the lower priced HD package and they will lose significant dollars. The word is that early next year current customers can jump to HD only so I am fine with that. I’d rather wait while Dish gets their plan together than have them lose a ton of money then go out of business 5 years from now because of dumb decisions.

I will definitely go HD only as soon as possible since I do not watch SD anymore. I am an HD elitist I suppose. When my buddy first got HD he said that he often watched a less interesting football game in HD instead of a better game in SD. I thought he was exaggerating but now I do the same thing. But now it is harder to find an SD game, which is a good thing. If not for sports and ESPN more specifically HD programming might not be as expanded as it is now. Football is the most watched sport in the USA so the fact that HD games have increased has only created demand for Hi Def in more programming.

Tags: Dish network, HD, HD only packages

Posted in TV

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Blu Ray Pricing

Posted by shane at 8:11 PM on August 26, 2008

I saw where Sony was dropping one of their Blu Ray players down to $300. This will obviously send other companies to slashing their prices as well. There are different opinions on what the price point is where Blu Ray will take over DVD sales. I don’t know if it is $199 or $149 or even as low as $99. One thing that will slow the conquest is the sluggish economy. I am not one of these people who always think the sky is falling but I recognize a slow down when I see it. I am not talking about any stats I see on the “news” or musings by experts. I am basing this totally on people I know in business and others I talk to on a regular basis about it. So a Blu Ray player is something that consumers can do without especially when most own a device that does the same thing but just not as good. Some would argue that people did not wait to buy a HDTV when they had a TV that did the same job just not as good as an HD model. But that boom was a while back when the overall economy was better and people watch a lot more TV than they do DVDs.

I’d like to have a Blu Ray DVD player but I have not even bought an up-converting player yet, even at super low prices. I just have not seen the need for one. We get Netflix so we watch about 3 DVDs per week. Obviously we view enough movies to warrant Blu Ray consumption which I believe is the same price for now on my movie service as standard DVDs. But I just can’t pull the trigger yet even though the picture quality Is phenomenal. With football season starting this weekend that will hold me over for a few more months as I will have plenty to view in HD without worrying about Blu Ray.

Tags: Blu-ray, economy, netflix, Sony

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NBC Ratings Due To Hi Def

Posted by shane at 7:42 PM on August 24, 2008

How much did High Def help NBC’s ratings for the Olympics? I would say it boosted them a great deal. While I did not think NBC’s High Def Quality was as good as I have seen, it was much better than past Olympics in Standard Definition. Mainstream sports don’t necessarily need HD to thrive but obscure sports are helped tremendously by HD and other video enhancements. The slow motion effects for sports like gymnastics and synchronized diving show small details that the lay person would not even be able to catch in real time. I have no idea how the judges see this stuff so I think they should judge the replay not the live event. Normally I would not watch synchronized diving even if it were held in the middle of my town. But I actually got caught up in it because I could see the difference in the teams through the video technology that has not been there in the past. The Chinese women’s team was the essence of perfection. It was as if one entity was performing as two humans. They even had the same haircut and were the same exact height! But to really tell the difference between them and the other competitors I had to see it in slow motion HD. It was not even close. They were superior to everyone else. While I admit I don’t know a thing about that sport, when presented in the proper format even I can recognize a superior performance.

Another sport I came to enjoy was women’s beach volleyball. The final match for gold was the American team versus the Chinese team. The match was played in the rain so the details were even more interesting. Every angle of every shot was clear as a bell. It was probably a better viewing experience than being there live, especially since I did not need a raincoat in my living room.

Tags: nbc hd, Olympic ratings, Olympics, video enhancements

Posted in TV

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HD Content No Good Online?

Posted by shane at 12:44 PM on August 14, 2008

I love watching videos online when I have time especially High Definition content. Even though it takes longer to load (better off downloading) it looks so much better than Standard Definition. Mark Cuban has often dogged online HD as “not really HD” since the same content would not be HD on a big screen HDTV. I don’t know if that is true in every case but he should know since he owns HDNET. But the fact that the HD content online looks like Hi Def while viewing on a computer screen is all that matters. Perception is reality especially to the average non geek person. If it looks great to them they are not going to compare 10 different videos to see how much worse one looks than the other. Some content will never be viewed on a TV anyway. Stupid people falling down, ala youtube, only takes a minute to watch online at work or while waiting on an email. That stuff is not worth sitting down in the living room to watch. That said, it would still be better in Hi Def. I do some videos of my kids’ sports, my nephew’s sports, and local high school football with my Sony HD camera (consumer model). I share these online where family members can watch at work or while checking email. The best part of family or local content is that it can be easily shared. Watching a DVD of your child’s football game then waiting to see your sister to give her the DVD is a bit more time consuming than sending an email with the video in it. I normally do SD instead of HD just because of loading times and I know most people want to watch right then instead of downloading it.

There are a few sites that offer HD content: blip.tv, Vimeo, & Vuze. I like blip.tv since it is easy to use and I always get a human response to an emailed question. While content like major movies are much better in HD on TV that does not mean there is no room online for HD media. The right venue for the right content is the key. The phrase, “good enough for who it is for” also fits. Your Aunt Peggy in Florida will love your HD footage of your vacation. She won’t be comparing your media to a George Lucas production.

Tags: HD, HD online videos, hi Def, Hi definition, mark Cuban

Posted in Media, TV, Technology, internet, video

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Mark Cuban. MLB Savior?

Posted by shane at 8:57 AM on August 8, 2008

Mark Cuban is among many who are bidding to buy the Chicago Cubs. Whether you like this guy or not it would be fantastic for Major League Baseball, not to mention the Cubs. MLB has had all kinds of troubles over the past decade or so from steroids to player strikes to an incompetent commissioner in Bud Selig. While these things have hurt “America’s Pastime”, it is the refusal to do new things & let the status quo go unchecked that bothers me most. Mark Cuban is one of the brightest people on the planet so I’d be more apt to make him commissioner than just an owner of a single team. As owner of the Cubs he could affect change by changing how his team does things so others will follow suit. I think Mark would have better ideas than turning a blind eye to steroid use just to get attendance numbers back up. He might actually institute some new technology and ideas.

The first thing he could do is make baseball players more accessible to fans. Nascar blew up because the average fan could talk to the drivers and team members in the pit area. His personal blog often covers his NBA team so instantly the average fan will get thoughts on their favorite team from the top guy. The next thing he would do would likely get the Cubs on HDNET as well as their local WGN channel. That would expand the viewership which is already huge for the Cubs. Another improvement he could make is push for better technology for the strike zone which is subjective to which human umpire is on the job. Also he could try to improve the game by speeding it up with a pitch clock that keeps the action going instead of wasting time between pitches. No one has time for four hour baseball games anymore. The biggest thing Cuban could do for baseball is just be different than all the ancient owners that are currently there. These guys likely don’t care about high def, the internet, and have never heard of a blog. Even if you disagree with Cuban’s position on online videos and other issues relating to the web, at least he understands what is going on. He is not stuck in the 80’s or 90’s. As an owner he would have a voice in overall baseball policies. When Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks that team was a joke but he turned them into a perpetual winner with great attendance. Think about what he could do with a team that already has a great fan base.

Likely the powers that be in Major League Baseball won’t allow Cuban to get into their elitist club because they like things the way they are currently. People don’t like change especially when it threatens their powerful positions. It is similar to how old media is holding on for dear life resisting change that is already here. The current leaders in baseball would rather keep things “the way we have always done it” than make a change for the better.

Tags: chicago cubs, hd tv, hdnet, mark Cuban, mlb

Posted in TV, bloggers

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Nothing new with shows as advertising

Posted by todd at 12:01 AM on April 21, 2008

I have seen discussed on a few blogs the recent announcement by NBC that they will be producing television series that are directly financed by advertisers. These essentially take product placement one step further by having the story lines actually revolve around the advertisers product. A common comment I am seeing about this is how it is the “next step in sponsorship”, which is not really correct.

Ignoring some of the more interactive product placements where scripts have been change, show like The Apprentice existed solely as a marketing vehicle. A whole class of reality television shows and home improvement, or other lifestyle shows that exist because they are good vehicles for advertising, better than generic ads because people actually watch. None of these are fictional programming, however do you know how “soap operas” got their name?

Starting on radio back in the 30’s advertisers used to sponsor serials that ran daily during the day when housewives were likely to be home and listening. These shows were based on some dramatic pretense, the same as soaps of today, and would also show the sponsors product being used and contain sponsorship announcements. These radio plays (and later television shows) were written for companies like Proctor and Gamble, Lever and Colgate (Palmolive) who were very involved in the manufacture of various types of soap. The radio plays advertising soap became known as soap operas and the rest is history.

So this ‘new’ idea from NBC actually harks back to the earliest days of both serial drama and advertising.

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Internet Video vs TV

Posted by todd at 6:41 AM on December 13, 2007

As an extension of my research on podcast listeners I have also been reflecting lately on Internet video and TV. While the delivery of content over the Internet has some key advantages, there are also advantages to TV that are hard to replicate online. The difference is really in the style of interaction. TV is essentially a passive medium. You sit down, turn it on and watch what it gives you. You have a choice of channels, and can time shift using video or “Tivo”, but what is available to you to watch is chosen by the channel.

By contrast Internet video is an active interaction. While you can automate the delivery of new content, you must actively search out and find the content you want to view. This gives two highly different styles of viewing, and gives a reason for both to exist. The problem with TV is that you need to interact with a passive medium to get the content you want when you want it. The problem with Internet Video is the effort that is required to find good content.

I can see a convergence between the two that could give TV a longer life though. At the moment TV networks get their money from ads or subscription. They use this money to buy the rights to broadcast particular shows. Unfortunately they also form a barrier between a shows producers and their audience (except in house production of course) and shows are continually looking for ways to better interact with their audiences. The daily shows new website is an example of this, and also the Battlestar Gallactica downloadable commentary podcasts.

I can see the possibility of a shift in the entire mix. Producers will look more to directly deliver their content to consumers and also sell advertising placements directly to interested companies. They still need to get their content discovered and TV could offer a way to do this. TV then becomes an advertising medium for a show to be discovered by potential viewers. The flow of money would shift with stations no longer paying for shows. A shows production company would instead pay stations to get their show aired for passive consumption in the hope it would lead to active consumers. It would be easy in the age of digital television to embed a subscription service, where a viewer can subscribe with the press of a button to a show they are watching that they would like to see more of.

The television stations would make some money from producers wanting to advertise their shows on the station, and supplement that with localised advertising. This would fill the other gap with Internet delivered content where they are unable at this time to deliver ads that are specific to a limited geography. If I watch TV I will see an ad for the local car yard, but how would they place an ad with an Internet delivered show that would be viewed all around the world? If I owned a TV network I would be trying to set up a station, or a least a time slot to try this business model out.

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Rube Goldberg Rocks

Posted by todd at 5:11 AM on November 27, 2007

Via BoingBoing

I love Rube Goldberg devices and any post to a video of one gets me immediately hooked. The prospect of a television show devoted to them is very interesting. Thankfully its not going to be one of those “clip” shows where they try and stretch some meaningful content around the limited quality clips they can show. The show is going to be about building them with an element of challenge built in.

The premise is that a team of people will be given some sort of themed challenge and access to bits to build a device. Hopefully there is going to be an element of competition built in as well. If I was in the US I would be applying for this right away. Filming is starting in Jan, so it hopefully won’t take too long to hit the screens.

Possibly at least loosely based on this Japanese game show.

And a couple of other good ones (all YouTube links)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvdq8cRNBM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdk5m5IT8NY

And the classic Honda ad.

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TV is Dead I agree with Steve Gillmor

Posted by todd at 6:09 PM on October 24, 2006

Tvdead

Steve wrote a pretty accurate post that was entitled TV is Dead. Nearly everything he said in the post is true, and while I love Movies I do not watch any of the regular prime time TV series. Well except Dog the Bounty Hunter via my DVR. In fact a newsgroup I belong to was recently talking about Lost and Heroes. When I mentioned I must be the only person on the planet that has not watched either show. Their were a number of responses back from other people saying that they had never watched the programs either. It’s odd you would think with Lost being filmed here in Hawaii that I would take a bigger interest but it’s nice to know others don’t waster their life away in front of the TV.

Who has the time to watch TV today when their are so many other fascinating thing to do. I must admit that when the TV is on it is usually on the HD Discovery channel. My kids are fascinated by that channel (its better than mindless cartoons). So maybe TV is not a 100% dead but most of the lame programs are simply their to suck the life out of you. [Steve Gillmor]

Tags: internet, Media, TV

Posted in Media, TV, internet

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Attention Geeks your Chance to be on Tyra Banks Show!

Posted by geeknews at 6:27 PM on July 6, 2005

Notice: Geek News Central has not been paid to provide this announcement consider it a opportunity from the Geek here at Geek News Central. Big Thanks to Brooke!

I was going to spill this on the Podcast Friday, but I was informed today that the deadline has moved up, and I need to spill the beans early. Here is the deal if you are between 21, and 35, single, male, and are a geek that has had trouble in the dating world, aka you have had some dating disasters or just don’t get out from behind the computer monitor long enough to meet people, their is a opportunity for you so read on!

The soon to Premier Tyra Banks Show is offering you a expense paid trip to Los Angles, were you will have a life changing experience. Here is what you need to do, get your digital camera out, comb your hair, smile, and take a picture of yourself. Compose an e-mail with that picture outlining a dating disaster or explain that your spending to much time surfing the net or whatever the issue may be, in finding a quality date. You will want to definitely mention in that e-mail that you read Geek News Central and you are self proclaimed Geek. Send that to the linked e-mail address below.

If you want to be real cool and, let your geek side out, you can take a short video (keep it short) of yourself explaining a dating disaster or whatever your pitch may be. If you produce a video upload it to your website and provide a hyper-link to it, do not attach video to any e-mails.

Let’s think about this Free trip to LA, New Clothes, radical haircut and you may even get hooked up on a date by Tyra Banks. Best thing is you get to be on National TV with Tyra and have your 30 minutes of fame. That will be worth some major bragging rights when you get home. Send your e-mail as soon as possible no later than Friday. You will have to provide a contact telephone number and your Real Name. Deadline July 8, 2005

Tags: geeks, Media, Podcast, TV

Posted in Media, Podcast, TV, geeks

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Single Geek’s will want to tune in to Fridays Podcast

Posted by geeknews at 6:07 PM on July 5, 2005

Ok fellows I just got off the phone with a representative from the Tyra Banks Show which is taping now to premier this fall, and they are on the hunt for Single Geeks, on Friday I will be announcing how you may be able to get a chance to be on the Tyra Banks Show. You have to listen to the Podcast to get the details.

Do you remember when I told you, on a earlier podcast that Geek’s are in, and that Geeks are the hottest commodity on the market today. Well Tyra knows this as well, this is an opportunity for you to get some exposure on National Television and to possibly get hooked up on a date by Tyra herself, only Single Geeks will be able to apply. So make sure you listen to the Podcast. As a precursor to the show you will need to start digging around for a picture and have pen and paper ready!

Sorry Ladies this offer is only going out to the guys.

Tags: geeks, Media, Podcast, TV

Posted in Media, Podcast, TV, geeks

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Has your Electricity Bill went up?

Posted by geeknews at 10:25 AM on June 16, 2005

This story comes as a surprise. You know that big LCD TV you bought with your entire tax return and half your credit card balance. Well it seems the good old fashioned CRT monitors are more energy efficient. They use so much juice people have actually noticed their electricity bill go up… [Engadget]