3 ms·

"Who will do to the 50 inch screen what the iPhone did to the 3 inch screen?" The first service to offer a-la-cart programming over ip, in an open format. Rec

"Who will do to the 50 inch screen what the iPhone did to the 3 inch screen?" The first service to offer a-la-cart programming over ip, in an open format. Recorded tv, on demand is nice, I am a huge fan. It is a wonderful format for things like series I know I like. But sometimes, I just want to be fed my entertainment. Sometimes I want to learn about/find new things. Some combination of these is what the TV industry is currently good at. Also for live sports. If uverse allowed me to select channels individually, or in very small groups (eg mtv package, or possible a bundle of mtv, vh1 and cmt) I would have 70% fewer channels. For everything else I would not mind paying direct for shows. If someone can successfully pull this off they will be very, very wealthy. There are many hurdles tho, and more than one chicken/egg situation. However, if it can be done... I'm a fanboi of a non-existent company :).

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
It's hard to know what will win. Vudu is looking to sell itself today and it's not a huge exit. Tons of other set top boxes have come before it. I think open platforms with the lowest common denominator (ie- anything can be put on it) win. That's my belief why a full fledged computer is poised to do this over a set top box solution. There is a very good chance I could be wrong. I'm just speaking from personal preference / research.
- sophacles 17y ago
  I totally agree, I'm suggesting that the other end is where the revolution needs to happen. Currently all content is provided in a way that is absurd. The standard model is 'you will watch our playlist', instead of "we provide a good, themed playlist service but out of individually purchasable contents". I think that someone will finally do ala-carte, with a serious on-demand backing and things will change drastically. There is already a start here, with hulu et al being more popular than "experts" thought it would be.
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    This is where the NBC deal scares the living shit out of me. They own a lot of great content and with Comcast owning them, they could restrict how NBC shows are offered on the Internet. On the flip side, content owners will do well (if not better) with great content.
    - sophacles 17y ago
      I think this process could also open the door for more niche producers. They won't need to make the network happy, they just need to provide good enough content to profit. It could help get rid of sadnesses like "the learning channel" from becoming TLC -- reality tv that sometimes has a sciencey or sociological twist. Some content may be lost/locked up in a dinosaur's grave for a while, but hopefully that will become moot.
      - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
        Absolutely. It will allow for a democratic platform where good content will win and not be cut off due to the decisions of a few. Now with that said, America loves crappy content like Jersey Shore. So, I try not to look at it as "good content", but content that people want to watch.
        sophacles 17y ago
        I look at shows like Firefly -- any decent scifi really -- the masses aren't interested, people like me will only do on-demand (even if it is downloaded etc), and will buy merchandising. This can't work in most current network models. But in something like we are discussing, there is room for it be profitable -- maybe not insanely so -- but profitable nonetheless. This is why I think "good content" will flourish in such situations. People will still watch jersey shore, but people like me can get good content too. An interesting thing has been going on lately anyway -- there are a lot more 12 episode seasons. And a lot more summer seasons. Content producers are starting to experiment. The syfy show Sanctuary started out as with a "pay for webisodes" model. Things are starting to move in interesting ways already.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

It's hard to know what will win. Vudu is looking to sell itself today and it's not a huge exit. Tons of other set top boxes have come before it. I think open platforms with the lowest common denominator (ie- anything can be put on it) win. That's my belief why a full fledged computer is poised to do this over a set top box solution. There is a very good chance I could be wrong. I'm just speaking from personal preference / research.

sophacles 17y ago
I totally agree, I'm suggesting that the other end is where the revolution needs to happen. Currently all content is provided in a way that is absurd. The standard model is 'you will watch our playlist', instead of "we provide a good, themed playlist service but out of individually purchasable contents". I think that someone will finally do ala-carte, with a serious on-demand backing and things will change drastically. There is already a start here, with hulu et al being more popular than "experts" thought it would be.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  This is where the NBC deal scares the living shit out of me. They own a lot of great content and with Comcast owning them, they could restrict how NBC shows are offered on the Internet. On the flip side, content owners will do well (if not better) with great content.
  - sophacles 17y ago
    I think this process could also open the door for more niche producers. They won't need to make the network happy, they just need to provide good enough content to profit. It could help get rid of sadnesses like "the learning channel" from becoming TLC -- reality tv that sometimes has a sciencey or sociological twist. Some content may be lost/locked up in a dinosaur's grave for a while, but hopefully that will become moot.
    - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
      Absolutely. It will allow for a democratic platform where good content will win and not be cut off due to the decisions of a few. Now with that said, America loves crappy content like Jersey Shore. So, I try not to look at it as "good content", but content that people want to watch.
      - sophacles 17y ago
        I look at shows like Firefly -- any decent scifi really -- the masses aren't interested, people like me will only do on-demand (even if it is downloaded etc), and will buy merchandising. This can't work in most current network models. But in something like we are discussing, there is room for it be profitable -- maybe not insanely so -- but profitable nonetheless. This is why I think "good content" will flourish in such situations. People will still watch jersey shore, but people like me can get good content too. An interesting thing has been going on lately anyway -- there are a lot more 12 episode seasons. And a lot more summer seasons. Content producers are starting to experiment. The syfy show Sanctuary started out as with a "pay for webisodes" model. Things are starting to move in interesting ways already.