Content Sluts

Joost Screenshot Are the big media guys turning into content sluts, willing to throw their content anywhere they might get an audience? The big Joost/Viacom announcement makes me wonder. Not that Joost isn’t potentially a wonderful service (I haven’t tried it), and not that big media shouldn’t spread its content far and wide, but it’s … Read more

Jumbotron On-Demand?

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Photo courtesy of David Silbey and his T-Mobile Dash

I was at the Villanova/Georgetown b-ball game today contemplating how I could reasonably write off the tickets as an expense for tax purposes, and I started thinking about how Comcast could get more out of its Jumbotron. If there was a way to plug the Jumbotron display into a cable network, Comcast could then broadcast that out on-demand to college campuses. Dumb graphics, half-time show coverage and all.

More interestingly, maybe cable operators should do something equivalent to ESPN’s Full Circle coverage of certain events like last year’s Duke vs. UNC games. Instead of having different ESPN networks covering different aspects of the game, have different on-demand channels showing different game-related content. One station could have the game at 3/4 screen with the rest of the display dedicated to dynamic player and game stats. Another station could syndicate one of the college’s own radio commentators over the broadcast video feed. Another station could feature different camera angles.

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Free March Madness Webcast Returns

Awesome, the NCAA and CBS SportsLine are serving up March Madness On Demand (again) online and for free! Sure, glued to my laptop may not be the ideal way to watch days of basketball but I’ll be able to view specific games that my local affiliate doesn’t broadcast (if necessary). Starting March 5th, the site … Read more

Not Everyone Deserves 15 Minutes of Fame

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There’s a new trend in online video that I’m entirely in favor of. Editors. And for that matter, producers.

Yes, people have learned that most user-generated content is trash and the way to make money is to provide better filters. Hence the recent Facebook/Ziddio announcement and efforts to offer promising video producers a little professional support.

On the Facebook front, the company has teamed with Ziddio.com to select top video submissions for feature placement on the Ziddio site. In addition, through Ziddio’s relationship with Comcast, these same top videos will be available through on-demand cable. Don’t waste time rummaging through heaps of crappy video. Let someone else do the rummaging for you, then sit back and enjoy the show.

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Details On 17 Online Video Services

Marshall Kirkpatrick, of TechCrunch and SplashCast fame, breaks down and differentiates 17 online video services. Covered sites include Brightcove, Veoh, Vimeo, Mixpo, Panjea, Blip.tv, Revver, YouTube, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, MySpace, iFilm, Joost, ClipSyndicate, Grouper, VodPod, and of course his own SplashCast. Head over to Marshall’s site for the text or watch the video clips (so fitting, … Read more

Apple Brings Lionsgate Films To iTunes

Wonder why Apple keeps mentioning how much music and video they’ve sold? (1.3 million feature-length films as of Macworld.) It’s not to impress us consumers, it’s to pitch additional studios… And today Lionsgate joins in: Lionsgate and Apple today announced that movies from Lionsgate will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store … Read more

More On Amazon Unbox + TiVo

Those of you who read ZNF regularly or have come across some of my comments on the TCF can probably guess the Amazon Unbox on TiVo service excites me: Being able to rent feature length films via the Internet for television playback is my personal holy grail. So I checked in with TiVo, Inc this … Read more