Tag Archives: television

Creed’s Blog: www.creedthoughts.gov/www.creedthoughts

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The Office is a comedy. And a love story. And probably the funniest thing on television since Seinfeld. And I’m not sure it isn’t the equal of Seinfeld. Here’s a little shout out to bloggers from last night’s season finale. Here’s what I could make out (freeze frame) of Creed’s “blog” post:

“Hey-o, everyone out there in SyberWorld. It’s old Creed Bratton coming at your again, here from my perch as a Quality Assurance Manager at Dunder Mifflin paper. Just a few observations on the world around me. What do you guys think is the best kind of car? To me, you can’t (off screen) motorcyles. They’re small and dangerous.

I go…”

Did one of the writers compose that post? Did they let the actor who plays Creed write it? Did that someone know some blogger/fan would go to the trouble to post Creed’s post? Am I the only person on the planet to do so? Is there another Beck’s in the frig?

PS: Holy shit! The actor who plays Creed (Creed Bratton) was a member of the 60s rock band The Grassroots. I’m the only one that didn’t know that, right?

What are we going to build?

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“A huge portion of our lives (as marketers, as consumers, as voters, as citizens) has been dominated by the fact that there were three or twenty TV networks. That this was a scarce resource. It’s not. Not any more. So, if there’s unlimited real estate, what are we going to build?” – Seth Godin

During my years doing affiliate relations for our news networks, most (all?) of our programming decisions were based on what we thought we could convince radio stations to “clear.” Coming up with an idea that 30 or 40 radio stations (out of 60) might agree was worth putting on the air was daunting. Mr. Godin’s post brought this to mind:

“Why not start the Debate Channel? 20 hours a week of live debate available online. Get a cable network to run three or four hours of highlights every week as an inducement to the candidates, but it will really be about the Net. If a candidate doesn’t show up, the others get more time to talk.”

We still have to program for our affiliates but we are no longer limited by that. So, what are we going to build?

Future of TV? Live video from your cell phone to the world

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“At the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters show, ComVu Media demonstrated live video transmitting at 30 fps at 640 x 480 resolution from a mobile phone over a wireless data network.

ComVu used its PocketCaster software to broadcast full screen video from a Nokia N95 multimedia device, transmitting over HSDPA data connection. Anyone using a Nokia N95 device — including field reporters — can now capture and broadcast video directly to air and concurrently stream live video to Web-portals, blogs and 3G-enabled phones. ComVu CEO William Mutual called the end-to-end solution “the future of news gathering worldwide.” — Podcasting News

If I was running a news operation, I think I might invest in one of these and see if it’s as cool as it sounds.

The X-Files

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The X Files Chemistry. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn had it. Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had it. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had it. Who has that kind of chemistry today?

Just watched the last half of the movie and was reminded how good Scully and Mulder were together. Where are Duchovny and Anderson now? Duchovny became something of a parody of himself but I don’t recall seeing much about Anderson. Good for her.

Gillian Anderson was white hot. She was put-a-sparkler-on-your-tounge hot. She wasn’t Victoria’s Secret beautiful…but she was leave-a-note-and-run-away-from-home sexy.

Radio doing TV News

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“At WDEL-AM in Wilmington, Delaware, our reporters produce stories using video cameras instead of cassette recorders,” news director Christopher Carl says in a comment on Poynter.org. “The audio is used on the radio. Reporters then produce video packages for out website – WDEL.com. WDEL.com users can then choose to watch individual video stories or a daily 10-minute video newscast. On weekends, users can watch a recap of the week’s big stories. Wilmington, DE is a a market with NO local commercial television station. [via CyberJournalist.net]

Apple TV and the economics of television

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“Over time, niche content will change the economics of television. Millions of Americans will add one or more Internet-connected set-top boxes to their living rooms. Once they do, look out. As they discover there is niche HD video content that matches their precise interests, the existing TV networks will see their viewers erode even more. Further, brand marketers will see they don’t need media to reach people in their living rooms. They too will produce their own content that will be distributed over the Internet for consumption on TVs.” — Steve Rubel on Apple TV:

For example: I’d love to watch a weekly 10 minute tour of the Prairie Garden Trust by Dr. Henry Domke. Just Henry walking and talking, sharing his love and fascination with the flora and fauna. Okay on a video iPod…great on Apple TV.

What happened to the news?

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A scary little story in today’s USA Today about the findings of a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. According to Project Director Tom Rosenstiel,

“The dirty little secret of the information revolution is it has been more about repurposing or repackaging news than gathering it.”

In recent years, because of their own cutbacks, radio and television have increasingly been relying on newspapers and wire services to do their newsgathering for them.

If you think the news is thin on local radio and TV stations now, imagine what it would be if they didn’t have newspapers to rewrite. If,however, your local radio station long ago abandoned any pretense of news, you’ll be okay.

“Riverboat ring your bell”

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“Soon, you may be able to hear the death knell for what was initially billed as “riverboat gambling” in Iowa. The Senate State Government Committee will meet tomorrow at 11:30 am in room 22 at the statehouse to take up a bill that will be another big moment in the long-running debate about gambling in Iowa. The bill would erase the requirement that those floating casino “barges” which are sitting on lakes be required to maintain the fantasy that the gambling casino is floating on water.” – O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa

We have a similar fantasy here in Missouri. But my favorite part of Kay’s post is the Maverick reference (AUDIO: MP3)

Apple TV: node on the iTunes peer-to-peer video network?

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I ordered one of the new Apple TV doo-dads right after they were announced. Didn’t/don’t fully understand it but it sounded like fun, so… Since then I’ve been hearing and reading all kinds of knocks on the gadget, usually from serious video-philes.

Then I came across an interesting theory about where Apple might be headed:

“Here is what I think is happening with the Apple TV hard drive. I think sometime this summer Apple will ship a firmware upgrade for the Apple TV and it will suddenly gain an important new capability. That’s when the Apple TV becomes a node on the iTunes peer-to-peer video network. ”

“Apple would have one or many content channels roughly equivalent to an HBO, Showtime, or perhaps Discovery. Yes, I think Apple will do direct content deals, buying programming that it will then either distribute to subscribers or support with Google ads, thanks to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s position on the Apple board. Apple’s network will give you the same content with or without ads, delivered from the same servers, one of which may be underneath your TV.”

Hmmm.