Lance does an excellent and detailed critical review of the product that I’ve been working on launching to market in the bay area. I’m not the product person, just the marketing person. Don’t point to me for software quirks. =b. Additional great details and interview re: DVR and VOD yon at the awesome PVR Blog
Per typical of new product launches, there are some bumps in the road. Regardless, it’s nice to hear some positive buzz about the company I work for. (And who feeds me on occasion).
I was talking to XXxtine in Toronto last fall about my ideal job. And knowing what I know now about the cable industry and the non-profit industry, I’m wondering if it’s anywhere possible to craft a position to procure VOD content for cable companies or help craft deals in which film festivals, local events, individual film makers, etc get some wider exposure. And involve travel? More likely than not that would involve a jump to work with one of the programmers. I imagine that this kind of direction will likely come sooner than later from companies like IFC and Sundance. Aw hell. I like my job and where I’m at too much already.
So far there is null in terms of local VOD from those folks though I find it interesting that Comcast caries Anime Network on VOD but not as a regular station. (And yes, I’ve been guilty of watching Komugi – an anime series about a flat-chested cosplay model/super hero with bunny ear costumes and a huge syringe that she rides to fly in the sky. Yes I’m serious.) Industry pundits talk about how we’re moving towards a more “On Demand Entertainment” model where instead of the passive or streaming content sheep that we’ve been in years past, all media will be on-demand only. From a technology standpoint this is both a challenge and an exciting leap forward. From an advertising standpoint, revolutionary and at the same time terrifying. From the user standpoint: more engaging and conveninient and yet more demanding in others.
I’ve been coach potatoing like a champ lately. Talking with J. yesterday I likened my general fear of committment with my fear of commercialism. Renting books from the library is like casual dating. Buying them is something else. There’s an initial investement and then an implied expectation of committment by that transaction – both that the author will have produced something that I’ll want to read and that I will actually carve out the time to read it. I haven’t bought books in a while feeling like I’ve already neglected the stack in my apt and haven’t had the heart yet to go out and dump the stacks of books that I’ve bought in the past and never gotten around to reading.
I’m a slutty TV watcher.
I record things, get halfway through them, decide that i’m bored and then delete it or select something new. I watch bad films that I would never pay money for. I fast forward through the occasional foreign film and watch it in half the time, and bounce to new programming at will. I *plan* to record educational programming like the Secrets of the Peruvian Pyramids and after my brain is full of enough smartness, I watch complete trash like Drawn Together or Fear of a Black Hat. On Demand/DVR viewing habits make me feel like I can engage and dis-engage in planned programming more willfully and to some degree more carelessly. I’m beginning to feel guilty for recording programs like “Body Shaping” and just deleting it immediatly or watching it 4x backwards for the sheer entertainment value. (Try watching Aerobics backwards. Yoga looks nearly the same forwards and backwards. Still, it’s a hoot) Thank goodness there aren’t any STD’s transmitted from such media consumption habits.
It’s probably overthinking things to liken media commercialism with my love life. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?