I Liked Steve on ATS

/

So I listened to Steve Hall joining Mr. Jaffe on Across The Sound last night, and I think he did a good job. I particularly enjoyed the bit about contrasting how MSM publications and blogs deal with their competition. I've always looked at the Internet in general as this red-headed stepchild that MSM marketing trade publications want to touch as little as possible. Sort of like the notion that you want to clean the birdshit off your windshield when a seagull craps on it, but you want to spend the least possible amount of time actually cleaning it off.

Of course, MSM publications have, on occasion, embraced blogs and the Citizen Publishing movement, but only to the extent that they hope some of the "cool factor" will rub off on them. They typically don't embrace some of the cornerstone values of the movement, including transparency, giving credit where credit is due, and having actual conversations via comments/trackbacks/etc.

Anyway, back to Steve. I think he was comfortable in his own skin and certainly knowledgable. I dug the history of AdRants portion. Wonder what other folks are thinking abou his performance... I guess we'll find out next week when Jaffe reveals the results of the survey.

Media Consumption Habits Flip-Flopping Again

/

I'm very surprised that I will actually pay $2 per episode for a TV show I can get at home for free. But I do. My latest addiction is downloading Season 2 episodes of "Lost" on iTunes and watching them on the train on my laptop. If you recall, I watched the pilot on my PSP and got addicted to the series, eventually buying the Season 1 DVDs and watching the whole season. After finishing that up, I wondered how I was going to catch up with Season 2. Question answered. I'm all caught up now, but I don't get home in time most Wednesday nights to watch, so I see a good number of iTunes episodes in my future.

Two observations:

1) iTunes should sell subscriptions to this stuff, so when the new episodes come out, they automatically download like a podcast. (Maybe they do this already, I dunno...)

2) If I were smart, I'd go to CompUSA right now and buy a Slingbox before I spend what I would have spent on the hardware on content.

What I'd Do With More Cable Choices

/

Cablevision seems to welcome the notion of a la carte pricing, which would be great. I'm not naive enough to believe that pricing for basic packages wouldn't be completely upended, but let's look at what I pay Cablevision every month: My cable bill runs roughly $210/month. Sometimes more if someone in the family goes nuts with On Demand movies. I get all these services:

  • Basic cable, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, Encore and The Movie Channel
  • Three regular IO boxes and a fourth with a DVR in it (in the basement)
  • Optimum Online
  • Optimum Voice (I use it when working from home)

At least $100 of the total cost per month comes from television viewing - more if I get On Demand movies. Of this cost, a good deal comes from all the premium channels I'm getting.

Not for nothing, but these premium channels are pretty much useless to me. On weeknights, I get home after 9 PM and I might watch an hour of TV tops before I go to bed. Most of the time, I end up watching some crappy movie I've already seen 100 times before. There are movies I'd love to see, but they never start at the times I like. I'd like to pull the DVR out of the basement. (That might be an interim solution. I've been trying to catch the start of "The Aviator" but haven't been able to.)

If I could, though, I'd kill many channels on basic and premium. I'd get rid of:

  • All the premium movie channels, save for basic HBO. (I'd replace them with HBO On Demand, Cinemax on Demand, etc.)
  • All the Spanish-language channels
  • LOGO
  • Oxygen
  • ShopNBC
  • Shop At Home
  • VH1 Soul
  • The Hallmark Channel (sappy, sappy, sappy)
  • Sundance Channel (useless, useless, useless)
  • The Independent Film Channel
  • E!
  • Hollywood.com TV
  • Broadway.com TV
  • etc., etc., etc.

My point is, there are probably only a handful of broadcast channels I'd need - mostly to remind me of what the On Demand services have to offer. The rest of my TV viewing would be On Demand.

Somehow, I doubt that Cablevision could give me what I want for less money, even though I'd cut a ton of channels from basic and premium cable.