One current project I haven't talked too much about has to do with delivering audio and video content to set-top boxes, not those novelty ones like slingboxes and such, but more of the XBOX, Playstation and Wii (two of which have Opera-based browsing with Flash support, two have hard drives and such). The audience is there. It's hard, but the audience is there. Will we collectively be willing to do the hard work to get the audience, or do we want the half-assed tech ethic of 'slap that crap together and pray'.
That said, I believe certain content has advantages over others. Do a show about gaming, sex, cars or any of the 'religious' topics, and it will help. I'd love to know what the Escapist's video 'Zero Punctuation' gets as far as traffic because it's so painfully funny. Want to make money and get a huge audience? Do a Justin Timberlake fancast. There's a reason that MuggleCast and others are hits. Ironic, really. I also will support (but not like) the idea that hot chicks and TV training help. Look at some of the big shows. Then flip a coin. Of course there will be exceptions, and we can deconstruct all day, but when we do that, we're not quite normal, are we? When Amanda and Rocketboom split, you could almost scientifically see the gaps in how the content (and her) were perceived based on closeness to the epicenter (we were soooo smart and intellectual on this list, and in the distant blogosphere it was 'uh, what?' and in the mass space (USA Today blog comments) it was flat out retarded. I'm still waiting for good hi-definition content come out of this spacem, because I, like many fat bloated americans, enjoy sitting on my ass in front of my home theater (this goes totally against the indiepunkish ethos of 'well I don't owwwwwwn a television', etc) and having my ears tantalized in 7.1 surround sound. There are three types of content I adore-- Video, video and sometimes video. Sometimes it's on YouTube, sometimes it's buried in a forum someplace, and other times, it comes from a TV studio or DVD (my god I love Entourage, don't you?). We are the Content Creation Class-- we're kinda different than everyone else (read: consumers). But damn, how does your audio podcast compete with the non-interface of turning on satellite radio in the car? Apples to Oranges, and our risk for elitism just *hates* that kind of reality. :) ER --- In [email protected], Rupert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On 13 Nov 2007, at 11:38, Bill Cammack wrote: > > I wondered how to drag all of those people, aimlessly streaming > past me, into viewing an online show..... > > --- > > Set top box. That's the only way you'll get people watching online > shows. I don't know if you use the term 'set top box' in the US. I > just mean a box that plugs into your TV. One that'd allow people to > watch ordinary network shows on their widescreen tv and also surf > internet TV. > > People will not watch shows on a computer. Do you know anybody who > watches anything on a computer? Other than the odd bored moment > surfing old TV shows on Youtube? My friends and family will watch my > videoblog, mostly because I've forced them to by subscribing them via > email, but they won't then go on to watch any of the vlogs I link to, > or click on the URLs of people who comment. > > Computers are full of distractions, and are quite hard things to use > if you want to concentrate on or relax to motion picture > entertainment. The TV / Couch combo works. I firmly believe it's > just a matter of someone bringing internet video to the couch. Until > then, forget it. > > Rupert > http://twittervlog.tv/ > http://feeds.feedburner.com/twittervlog/ > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
