passing thoughts...
DVR's and the future of advertising
In the news.. today I read that ABC wants to kill DVR's that skip ad's. Ok I can see that, the tivo generation has inspired an age where I, the consumer can be free of ads. I'll skip thru them, and with future tech just step right over them all together. So how do networks sell advertising to pay for their tv efforts? Well to think that these networks need more cash is laughable but lets consider the overhead and then ok so how could advertising work?
Follow MTV. I mean look at that show the Hills. 20min episodes wrapped around the latest in pop rock releases, in fact i think the show is really just a medium to sell kids on new music. Sure theres a story in there, boy meets girl, breaks up, gets back together, work drama, fashion goodness, rules and responsibility messages, but in the middle of all that is like a one hint wonder musical ad firm pushing out track after track of music that basically tells the viewer that this song is cool, go find it!!
Heck the whole show could be an ad, from the lead characters buying habits, cars they drive, food they eat.. why not, maybe thats the future of advertising. I mean reality tv just seems perfect for the idea. The Hills and Laguna Beach are those strange border line i'm reality tv no i'm scripted tv, this is real, yet acted, yet staged, but real shows. Frankly as a viewed im confused, you tell me its live, but its clearly stagged, that cameraman thing makes me wonder.
One thing that the networks will do first as a stop gap measure that will just piss me off to all end is that whole time schedule shifting, so instead of my shows starting 8pm, they'll start at 7:53pm and now my TIVO misses out on the first 7 mins of the show, which in turn causes me to exclaim to the planet that i hate that network for doing that. TIVO should enable the user to apply its own countermeasures to just such a measure-, smart recording buffering "grab 10mins before and after the scheduled time"... ha! take that ABC!!
Drama in the blogosphere
Amanda Congdon of Rocketboom fame has officially been unboomed and is no longer part of the show. This was a massive booom on the net and the drama has unfolded with postings of emails for all to see. Its sad to see this display of drama unfolding on the net really, cause it really doesnt help either side on the whole maturity level. I mean its now a heated he said she said thing and spinning the event is just gonna keep going.. and in the end, the process that gets hurt the most is credibility for implementation and stability of videoblogging as a whole. I mean its good idea, and it will take off, you cant stop it, but Rocketboom and its dirty laundry airing out on the net is a classic mistake that you'd think we'd be smart enough to avoid... if we had business sense, and in this new realm of entertainment, we lack that sense.
I'm torn who to side with really. I like the show, but i can see that there's more to it than just amanda, and i figure people can see that too, but at the same time, talent for onscreen goodness is difficult to find, and more difficult to endure. My few youtube videos get me everything from YOU SUCK FAT ASS to LOVE YOUR WORK, everyday someone out there has the ability to storke my ego and step on it all in the same microsecond, do i really want that feeling over and over and over? Its gotta be tough for Amanda really, and that is a feeling not felt by the producer of the show, he's thinking about future episodes, cash flow if any really, and gear, quality of work etc.
Did the boom make any money? They just landed on TIVO and now they are.. well screwed really. I would think they made some money but odds are they didnt make alot. They had more fame on the net than pure cash im sure. All the vloggers are going to be like that starting out.
Next step for Amanda should be cashing in on the experience of doing the boom and embracing the bust - write a book. Get started now and by say... september you could get it out via O'Riley of course. A book like that, sell it online as a PDF, like that 37 signals firm, it'll be an instant seller.
So who rules the video blogging roost now? I say Ze Frank, he's whacked and hilarious, not to mention his force field is waaay stronger than Amanda's.
Like anything in the blogosphere, it was a front blog news for about 2 days and now we're back to bombings in iraq.