Category: tv

Om Malik notes an enhanced Blinkx video search and I immediately thought that with the addition of RSS feeds linking to content you could have your very own clipping service. I’d guess people would be willing to pay for this as well. Think of all the marketing directors and PR firms who pay other people now for access to clips about themselves (their companies really) or competitors. Could be very cool.

Just add the feed to Azureus via the RSS plugin and you’ve got a custom video channel pulling relevant material as it happens.

Blinkx is getting really serious about its video search and has signed up the BBC, ITV, Sky and Fox and will basically allow the massive archives from these companies to become searchable. “This is basically turning the computer into a really, really big video recorder with thousands of programmes you can search and watch at any time,” Suranga Chandratillake, the British co-founder of Blinkx told The Evening Standard in UK. “This could do for television what Google did for the web.” [Om Malik on Broadband]

Time Warner Cable in NYC has just updated their OnDemand system and now includes a pretty serious array of new programming — AOL Music ComedyCentral, A&E, BBC America, CourtTV, GOLF, CNN G4TechTV, Food Network, HGTV, and Kids on Demand.

I checked the Kids and was disappointed to only see cartoons for older kids and no PBS stuff… Comedy Central does have the Chappelle Rick James Episode, so no complaints there.

With all the hoopla about HDTV and the push by carriers to get appropriate tools in consumer hands I expect more from our networks… On Time Warner in NYC, we have a variety of channel options about 10 I think that are within the HD range… yet many do not broadcast 16×9 all the time and in fact seem to favor 4:3 (though cleaner looking 4:3) broadcasts than the regular channels. You have to pick the HD version of the two offered so you do a quick compare…

Bigger, new episodes, like CSI and Raymond get shown in HD and if I had to pick a leader in the main network category it would be CBS. There are still plenty of shows, sports and even the presidential debates that are limited to the standard method. I know you need different equipment to broadcast it and sure there are additional costs, but if you drive us to the water, it better be good to drink!

I’ve had an HDTV for 4 years … long before there was available (cable) programming in my area. I got the first available converter box and saw there were a few channels initially… now though I have the next generation box with included DVR (Scientific Atlanta 8000HD) and see there are more even channels (Discovery and TNT), but not enough regularly scheduled HD programming from the majors. What continues to amaze me is how Discovery and PBS can go all HD all the the time, yet the guys allegedly making all the money and with all the high priced shows don’t go for it.

It was nice to see the Olympics in HD, but the programming on the HD channel was not the same as the featured event in standard. Same with Discovery… they broadcast a separate lineup and use the HD channel as another place in the Discovery network. I’ll have to ask my buddy who works in programming there, what’s up with that… plenty of their regular shows appear in HD, but at different times than the standard broadcast. You can resolve and avoid program time-slots with a DVR and even record both at the the same time if so inclined…

UPDATE — Not an official response from Discovery, but good thoughts on the matter from an insider:

1. Shooting HD adds a good amount to the budget of a show so more of the programming than not would be analog
2. Setting-up a place on the dial where we offer programming exclusively in HD not only brings premium revenue in because it’s part of a premium tier, it gives us shelf space in an area where many networks have set-up HD exclusive feeds like ESPN etc.
3. Sometimes the shows that look the prettiest in HD are not the most highly rated, a separate outlet means that those shows can air without negatively impacting our bottom line.

I actually just saw a phone booth poster ad for this show and I have to say while I noticed it, the look of it was more Dawsons Creek than K-Street. I’m not sure how promoting this to reporters and to convention attenders is going to gain enough interest — especially with the intense distraction of the Convention itself. Political reporters don’t write for the TV pages…

The WB has a message for delegates at next week’s Republican National Convention: Vote McCallister.

In an unusual attempt to break through the barrage of advertising for the upcoming fall television season, the WB television network has launched a guerrilla marketing campaign for its new political drama “Jack & Bobby.”

The strategy is to create a cult following in political circles for the show — about the teenage McCallister brothers, one of whom grows up to be president — to serve as a core audience and create a groundswell of buzz, much like NBC’s “The West Wing” received five years ago, albeit without a similar marketing campaign.

Among the WB’s efforts: distributing DVDs of the show inside the White House and Capitol; organizing viewing parties at political rallies for local politicians; and blitzing the political conventions with fliers, placards and buttons. Next week, Republicans will get buttons that say “Bush 2004, McCallister 2040.” In one of the more unusual ideas, the WB is mailing boxes of M&Ms to TV pundits such as former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers that are marked “President McCallister’s favorite candy.” Copies of the show were sent to the Days Inn that serves Crawford, Texas, in hopes that bored reporters would take a look. [WSJ.com]

Watching 24 tonight the thought occurred to me that Ford asked/payed for Steven Saunders (the bad guy) to be driving with his entourage in Chevy trucks rather than the Ford trucks all the good guys drive.

Ford has been a marquee sponsor for all three seasons and has even gone as far as to present the opening of season 2 and 3 commercial free following a cinematic spot. Their product placement is hard to miss (as are the other products for that matter) but the Chevy emblems seemed too obvious not to be placed.