TV Shows

Comic-Con on Xbox Live

So I’m about a week late on this one… But over the weekend I was exploring the new video search site VeZoom and stumbled on a Kevin Smith QA session from the San Diego Comic-Con. Which got me thinking – I should go back one of these years. I had a blast the last time … Read more

BitTorrent Good For TV?

Though the studios just enlisted AT&T to go after their file-sharing customers and Azureus is being sued in France, I wonder if BitTorrent has some legitimate value for the content owners/creators. (Sure, BT can be used to share non-copyrighted media – but let’s be serious.)

travelerpilot.jpg

Here’s the situation: My buddy Jason told me to check out Traveler, so I set up a Season Pass on TiVo. Only problem was, the third episode was airing and TiVo didn’t find any repeats of the earlier shows. Now what? I visit ABC.com and discover they have the first and third episode available for web streaming, but they’re missing the second (and now the fourth). Considering Traveler is a serial, I can’t miss any episodes. So off I go to pay the iTunes tax of $2/show only to discover they don’t offer it. Xbox 360 Video Marketplace? Microsoft doesn’t have a deal with ABC. All I (and ABC) am left with is BitTorrent – I downloaded the still-buggy FoxTorrent and headed off to The Pirate Bay. And guess what… BitTorrent helped make me into a live ABC television viewer. Not to mention I’m now pitching their show to others. Will it be enough to save Traveler?

In order, here’s how I watched the first four episodes:

  1. ABC.com – The interface can be a bit tedious at times, but hey it’s free and works on Macs.
  2. Xbox Media Center (XBMC) – The Xvid download looked nice on my HDTV.
  3. TiVo Series3 – Timeshifted HD.
  4. ABC – The series is so good, I’ll watch it live going forward.

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Cartoon Network Porting Adult Swim

Here’s an interesting tibit I ran across: Cartoon Network is working on some sort of Adult Swim content/gaming mashup for web and consoles. The Mega Series is a custom application accessible through a console browser and a PC browser. Once the application is built, the interface will be customized for the Flash capabilities of each … Read more

Jericho Blames TiVo For Near-Death Experience

Jericho actor Brad Beyer (aka Stanley Richmond) had an interesting conversation with OnMilwaukee.com: The biggest problem with our show is that so many people were watching it on the Internet or Tivo (which doesn’t count toward Neilson ratings), so I think the fans are now aware to watch it when it’s on. Doh! I thought … Read more

Uninterested in A La Carte

Forrester Research just released the results of a survey showing that consumers don’t care that much about a la carte channels and wouldn’t be willing to pay very much for the privilege. I might not have agreed a few years ago, but here’s why my opinion has changed:

  1. Better shows on more cable channelsforrester-survey.jpg
    ESPN and Comedy Central used to be the only networks I watched on cable, but now I regularly tune in to FX, TNT and the SciFi network at the very least.

  2. On-demand viewing
    By ordering Netflix DVDs or downloading shows from the Web, I can get access to almost any content I want. If I wanted to drop my cable subscription, I’d virtually be able to get a la carte viewing through other distribution sources. (ESPN being the big exception)

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25 Tons Of Peanuts Save Jericho

While I didn’t agree with CBS’s initial plan to kill Jericho, one of the few new shows I enjoyed, I’m glad the nuts had their say: The network apparently has been impressed by the display of viewer passion, which included the delivery of 50,000 pounds of peanuts to its New York offices. In the season … Read more

Supercharge Your Summer Television Lineup

It used to be that once the spring TV season ended, I’d pretty much shut off my TV and take a break for the next three months. Occasionally, I might check out a rerun, but by and large, the time between the end of basketball season and the start of football was always a TV wasteland for me.

Of course that was before TiVo. Once I got a taste of time shifting, I realized that my television season never had to end. Over the years, I’ve missed a lot of good TV, but between the TV syndication agreements and TiVo’s ability to automatically record every episode, the summer has turned out to be a perfect time to catch up on shows that I’ve missed. Whether it’s been going back and watching every single Twilight Zone or catching the X-Files a decade after it aired, TiVo’s season pass functionality has supercharged my reruns in a way, that was never possible before.

Some shows are better suited for summer TiVoing, but when it comes to episodic content, there is a downside to TiVo reruns. The shows aren’t always in the order that they originally aired and it’s almost always impossible to catch the first episodes. This isn’t a big deal for sitcoms and some reality shows, but when it comes to episodic content, it leaves you confused over the storyline and can spoil earlier episodes, you haven’t seen yet.

That is where my Netflix account kicks in. If I know that I really want to see a series that tells a story, I’ll use Netflix to make sure that I get to see it in order. If I’m not sure if a show will be interesting or not, I’ll record a couple of episodes on TiVo and test drive it before committing to watching the entire series. This has improved my overall television experience because there is always at least some fresh content that I can watch.

Over the last few years, the studios have also started releasing more and more new series each summer. It’s a chance for them to try out more experimental shows or concepts. A lot of these new shows are things that I probably wouldn’t check out during the normal TV season, but with a little extra downtime, I’m willing to experiment with new programs, even if there is a good chance they won’t be back again next summer.

So far there have only been a couple of the summer premiers, that have become favorites, but if I can find two or three decent shows to start following, it would be enough to keep me busy. Here are some of the new shows, that I plan on checking out over the next couple of months.

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TV Networks Going Down the “Series of Tubes”?

I heard some interesting news on a call today. Apparently this past weekend may have been the worst ever for the big three TV networks. On Saturday night CBS, ABC and NBC got a total audience share of 14. Eek! I was just remarking yesterday that there seem to be fewer shows on network TV … Read more