Is Second Life For Real

Lot's of talk about Second Life on the web, and as an escape, like Sudoku, it's great. But beyond that, I am not that jazzed about it. It looks and feels like a version of dungeons and dragons, with perhaps a more visual appeal. Still, beyond its game-like attributes, it doesn't do much for me. I feel like screaming, the Emporer isn't wearing any clothes.

Unlike other websites that offer social network interaction, My Space, Facebook, et al, Second Life lets you interact with an avatar, an on-screen character, representing you on the web, to meet, to gossip, and to lay down roots. In this NY Times article, people are spending hours fixing up their virtual homes in exotic locations. They even create kitchens and bathrooms, although these avatars neither eat or poop! I marvel at all the free time spent in Second Life; with that same amount of time, they should be fixing up their real homes.

I prefer sites that start virtual to build social interaction, like meet-up.com, that take people from the virtual world to real flesh and blood interactions. At some point, you have to get up from your chair and actually talk to people face to face!

TV's digital switchover has a downside

February 18, 2009, no this is not a blog predicting the future. It is however a special date. On that date, TVs that are not connected to a cable line, that get their broadcast signals from the free, "over the air" signal, most likely from a "rabbit ear" type antennae, will receive static instead.

That is the date the FCC has set for broadcasters to turn off their over the air, "analog", signal to deliver only a digital signal. And those homes with TVs not capable of receiving a digital signal or not connected to a cable service will have no access to broadcast TV. Why is this being done. The advent of High Def TVs, the proliferation of digital TV through cable, phone, or satellite, and the belief that most homes are already digital customers. The belief that most consumers will be unaffected. Still, a home might be signed up but not every TV may be hooked up. And for those homes that still don't want to sign up for service will now have to at least purchase a digital tuner and hope it can connect to their TV set. The population most likely to be affected, the poor and the elderly, and that is who needs to be protected. So why is it being done. The FCC will take back that spectrum of signal and resell it for other uses. Profit is always a motive.

For those people that only watch TV through a cable line, this date will pass unnoticed. But to those who have been accustomed to free TV, the date will creep up to quickly. Yes the world continues to change and progress is inevitable. Education is absolutely needed to clarify what this change means in layman terms. Profit and wireless advances will certainly result from this change; but at the same time, some of those same profits should be redirected to those groups most hard hit, to ensure a happier transition.

NBC, Fox Find Viewers With Back-to-Back Scheduling

Some interesting observations in this article, especially "Despite new technologies allowing viewers to screen programs at their convenience, Beckman said Fox’s success with audience flow this summer has shown that viewers continue to watch TV in real time." Ahem....TV is not dead and web content is not trying to replace it, but allow more voices and more entertainment choices to be heard. The audience hasn't left TV, but I think increased choice has limited the size any one program can grow.

The strategy of sticking like-minded programming together on the same night is hardly a new concept to retain viewers. "Execs at both networks said flow is only as strong as the shows they develop. But programming the right block of shows can be tricky." And this pairing of similar type formats has been around for ages...ABC did it with Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, Love Boat with Fantasy Island. And NBC, throughout the eighties and into the nineties had Thursday Night Must See TV with 4 - 1/2 comedies. Pairing reality TV shows together, simply applies a different genre to the same old philosophy. And this Fall, NBC will take an existing hit, Heroes, and team it with another sci fi genre show. The audience is already there, why not keep them tuned in for the night. As the article opens, "On a cluttered TV landscape specked with appointment shows and time-shifted viewing, it’s not every day that a network benefits from audience flow anymore." Network execs may simply have forgotten the time tested formula for TV viewing success. Its the strategy that makes TV tick.

Yankees' TV Network For Sale

Jimmy Dolan would love to own the Yankees. WIll Cablevision bid...of course. But what will they use as collateral to buy it? Perhaps this is the impetus to sell the Rainbow Networks (AMC, IFC, WE, etc.), get the cash, and put the Yankees and MSG back together again under Cablevision. Just my 2 cents!

Kagan study: cable nets in good shape

Major media companies with cable network distribution are doing better than believed while independently owned cable networks are struggling, according to this SNL Kagan study. Not earth shattering news, I must say. The power of these large companies with multiple brands converging across multiple spaces, broadcast, cable, print, etc seems to me to be the driver of this success. Just this morning, the NBC Today show brand is pushing CNBC and their Fast Money program. In addition, references to their websites offers more synergies. Disney is the master of this synergy, too; just look at the runaway success of High School Musical, and its merchandising across many businesses. I even understand that ABC Good Morning America will be highlighting its sequal on Thursday mornings show. Across many brands, content is pushed and leveraged to create even more revenue lines.

It becomes harder and harder for content to breakthrough the sheer number of shows and networks now available on TV, on demand, and online, without the power of a larger media company behind you to get noticed. Is it possible to breakthrough, sure, but that long tail is awfully long. These same conglomerates are able to package these opportunities to their advertisers assuring metric goals are met and revenue attained. The little guys can survive; but in life, the big fish tend to eat the little fish.

Comcast Teams Up with Philadelphia Magazine

Great synergy opportunity for both Comcast and Philadelphia magazine "Best of Philly" edition. Video on demand to enhance the magazine experience and hopefully, interesting content that brings the user back to the magazine's pages. The opportunities to enhance the advertising message and extend the value of both brands are amazing. This is also what VOD should be about, content beyond what is being repurposed on linear TV. I look forward to hearing the promotional opportunities and tactics used to grow awareness of this combination to the Philadelphia community.

Is Mark Cuban Right: Is the Internet Dead?

Mark Cuban recently spoke at the closing panel of the CTAM Summit where he declared "The Internet's for old people" and based on this and a number of other articles, his meaning was that the internet that we know today is past its prime and that what cable has built will change the way we receive and what we watch over the hi speed line. It reminds me a bit of the old adage, "the only thing constant is change", and what Cuban is suggesting is not so off base.

The services that Time Warner and Comcast, Verizon Fios and others each provide to their own unique customer, closed, walled gardens of content, applications, and information, will separate each cable operator from the other. How companies like Google and Tivo try to utilize the open cable architecture, OCAP, that the FCC has imposed is counter to the intranet structure which Cuban sees as prospering.

One story I recall from graduate school was when the rairoad companies were asked, what business they were in and they responded trains. But what their business really turned out to be was transportation and by not adapting to change, they lost dominance to the airline industry. In Jim Collin's book, "Good to Great", the businesses that excelled understood that in order to continue to be great, they had to adapt to the changing needs of the customer and to maintain their industry dominance, they had to keep thinking differently to excel.

Of course the internet will change, but it is not dead. Closed systems stifle growth. Its one reason the US cellular is so far behind the rest of the world. The competing cell formats don't talk to each other. So, the question shouldn't be, is the internet dead, the question should be, what's next. The internet is about sharing...sharing information, entertainment, and communication, that will not die, but it will continue to change to satisfy the consumer. In a very short time, we've experienced more social networking, quicker fulfillment of viewing through on-demand, easier navigation to what we seek, and more content than we can possible consume in one lifetime. The internet has put people together with similar interests, rediscovered relationships and lost friendships, opened barriers for more creativity, and opened our eyes to more possibilities.

The internet is not dead. An open architecture enable more applications to be written and even mashed together into something extraordinary. No, it is not dead and I'm excited by what's coming next.

Cable Without a Cable Box, the Start of TV Convergence

Terrific article in this morning's NYT that encapsulates the new opportunities opening for the TV to do much more because of the CableCard. Consumers may now get access to more opportunities: DVDs that can directly record all digital cable programming with a better signal, Tivos working without rigging connections to get a poor signal off a cable box, and other advances. Cable operators may fear the loss of revenue from selling lower priced cards instead of higher priced settop boxes, they also can reduce the higher inventory costs of the settop boxes. Cable operators should not be in the business of selling boxes, the revenue streams are in the service of the pipeline. It's in the cable operator's best interest to embrace the CableCard when they get out of the box business, With the CableCard, the power of choice goes to the consumer to decide which box fits their needs the best. The CableCard opens up the ability to bring convergence to the TV with more devices able to talk the talk.

Tivo Unveils cable card enable settop box

So what does the cablecard mean for consumers...as I suggested in an earlier blog, it opens up the market and allows more products to interface with cable more effectively. And the first to market seems to be Tivo with a DVR that reads the cable signal and allows easy recording and viewing. Having worked with a Tivo that only received non-scrambled signals, the cable card enables the Tivo device to work even better, recording all shows accessible through the cable line. To me, Tivo is like a luxury vehicle while a cable DVR is a family station wagon. They both go from A to B, but Tivo, with its bells and whistles, and easy to use navigation, travels in style. I've been on both road trips and prefer my Tivo! Are more cablecard products on the horizon, I certainly hope so.