Here’s a recent article from Slate Magazine that caught my eye. Computers today are getting much easier to setup and configure. Anyone who remembers how we used to play with IRQ settings to get a sound card to work can attest to the fact that most computers today work right out of the box. Plug in, attach the internet, you’re surfing.
While computers have gotten easier to use, the same can’t be said for televisions. Remember when you used to be able to pick up the remote, turn the TV on, change channel, adjust volume, all within the one control? Today my “improved” home theatre consists of a television, an audio reciever, a DVD Player, a VCR, a Cable Box, and to top it all off a Tivo. If you plug your iPod into your computer, the computer recognizes it, fires up iTunes, syncs the music, all without human intervention. My Tivo remote has no idea if the television is on or not. People now need instructions of the specific steps we need to follow just to watch a movie, as there is no feedback between the controls and any of the components, and those components don’t talk to each other. Makes the simple act of watching TV a pain to figure out. We haven’t even gone into the horror that is hooking all this stuff up.
The article proposes that the interface people at Apple are probably the people to solve this problem.
Check it out here
Now I have a confession to make. I like television. There are a lot of bad shows, but there are also a lot of good ones, in much the same way there are good and bad books. People in our society go to great lenghts to tell others how little they watch television (oh, except for this show, and that other one…) as some kind of intellectual high ground. Well fellow couch surfers, the next time some holier-than-thou starts rambling on about how instead of watching all the crap on TV they are busy volunteering at a homeless shelter, listening to their extensive collection of French fusion jazz, or even lamer, enjoying a meal and conversation with their family, you can throw this little tidbit at them.
Turns out in Italy they did a study on what was most effective in helping children deal with the pain of giving blood samples. Some kids were distracted by their mothers, some were given no distraction, and some were distracted by cartoons. Guess which one won the day. That’s right, apparently Mother’s love and concern is no match for the pain numbing abilities of the television set. So the next time someone tries to tell you that television is the root of all that is evil in our society, just tell them about the magical healing powers of the tube.
Check out the story here
CBS is expanding a little further into online content delivery for the coming season. CBS has a high-speed internet video service called innertube, which as of now has a few of of the regular CBS shows online. You’ll be able to watch shows like ‘C.S.I.‘ and ‘Survivor‘ the day after they air on the network, for free. I’m not sure if this is just available in the U.S., but the networks are inching closer to the day where they will deliver more of their own content through their own distribution channels. The affiliate stations are not going to go down without a fight.
You can read all about it here
Here’s a neat idea. The NBC show ‘My Name is Earl’ has signed a promotion deal with Myspace. They will put a page up for the show on the social-networking site. Viewers will be able to submit photos of themselves, and some of those fan pictures will be featured during the closing credits of the show.
It’s nice to see some network shows come up with some fun promo ideas that are simple and easy to execute. Instead of creating a ‘walled garden’ of trying to direct all fans to the official NBC.com site, going where the people already are makes a lot of sense.
Read the Mediaweek article here
Yes, the post is a day late, but it’s worth noting anyways. On August 1st, 1981 MTV made its debut, playing “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. MTV was the fresh idea that forever changed the music industry, making the music video just as important as the music itself (ie. Madonna). MTV also was part of the first wave of tremendous change in the television industry, speeding the transition from the dominance of over-the-air local stations to the 500-channel cable universe of increasingly targeted niche networks.
MTV has been blamed for ruining the attention span of an entire generation, and making music more about the photogenic quality of the artist then their ability to carry a tune. Today the influence of the music video has changed the way we advertise products, produce television, and tell stories. We consume media in bite size chunks (a la YouTube), and much of the catalyst for that came from a cable network that nobody thought would ever fly. Music, on television? Doesn’t sound so crazy 25 years later.
Read the NPR Story Here
