Comments on: "TV Everywhere" looks to make money with full ad loads online and On Demand

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:42:47 +0000

@ JustTunedIn

Hulu normally doesn’t make you rewatch a commercial if you go back without leaving the page and before the video ends. However, I am pretty sure that when I go back multiple commercial breaks I still watch all but the first one. On occasion though it seems like these premises do not apply, so even as a regular Hulu user I’m not completely sure how it works.

By: JustTunedIn

JustTunedIn — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:28:26 +0000

How does the Hulu thing work if you want to go back and re-watch something. If that was before a commercial break do you have to re-watch the commercial?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:16:38 +0000

we’re fine with links (though if you post more than one with a http:// it will wind up in the spam filter)

I’ve been a big Media Center user since 2004. I suspect with Windows 7 it will be much the same as it was with Vista and XP in that most people who have Media Center won’t even know it or use it. At one point there was a study that suggested even with computers and laptops equipped with a TV Tuner and an Internet connection, hardly anyone used it.

My guess is that the plugins that MSFT itself promotes will be the ones that bring in the content with the full commercial loads.

I don’t see the Windows 7 version being any more of a threat than Boxee, which is to say currently, not much of a threat at all. I hooked up my computer to my TV in 2004. In 2009, more people are doing it but I wouldn’t say it’s catching on big. In 2014, who knows?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:05:23 +0000

What you really have to watch out for is the Internet TV in Windows 7. Currently all is fine with this as it is hooking up to existing streams from Content providers.

It is relatively easy to write a plug-in for Windows 7 Media center that will go out to all the those other not so kosher content providers that will let you select a show and will then let you view episodes.

This is the real downfall to more commercials. I never watch TV on the computer but on my TV hooked up to the computer. Make it convenient with the remote to get content without commercials and then see what happens.

I am not sure about posting links here so delete this if it is unappropriate but here is a good read about ads and on line viewing..

news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10383572-261.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:34:15 +0000

. I download the shows after searching for less than 5 minutes on Google (usually less than a minute and on the first page of the search results).

It doesn’t sound like much, but *you* are willing to do a *lot* more work than the average viewer in our opinion.

By: 0megapart!cle

0megapart!cle — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:57:18 +0000

How are download sites a hassle though? I have a $90 miniature DVD player hooked up to my HDTV via HDMI and upconverting my shows to HD. I connect a Flash drive or external hard drive to the back of it filled with shows. I download the shows after searching for less than 5 minutes on Google (usually less than a minute and on the first page of the search results), and it takes about 3 minutes to download them on my 3 MBps Cable connection (350 MB/40 min). It is really very easy, no commercials, and better quality than SD cable most of the time. I really think that this is just going to get more and more popular. I feel sorry for the TV networks that they are not getting the money, but unfortunately they think they can stick to their old tired business models forever.

By: Scott R.

Scott R. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:39:57 +0000

I think age has a great deal to do with it. In the case of music, even when it was “free” you had to have heard about Napster, know where to download it and how to configure it, and then learn how to use it. On a college campus that was a given. Among fortysomething professionals and homemakers…often not the case. Though knowledge of the technology had advanced in the decade since, I think some of that still holds true, where if you look at the population as you get older the typical knowledge base shifts from truly web savvy to merely web competent. The chasm between the two is significant, and when you’re talking about watching a show in an hour versus 41 minutes, I think it’s enough to be a deal breaker for those in the ‘web savvy’ pile.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:24:30 +0000

Scott R., my guess is that most people will put up with a lot of commercials before hassling with something else. Unlike music, where it was free vs. pay, the idea of watching commercials vs. hassling (even a little) with something else causes folks to stick with Hulu or other “official” venues.

By: Scott R.

Scott R. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:17:31 +0000

The key question for me is how many of regular online viewers of authorized content know how/where to find unauthorized content. If it’s a significant part, which I believe it is, there is a more important question: how many ads can I run without people finding it so burdensome that they prefer a commercial-free unauthorized copy run elsewhere?

A half minute five times a show doesn’t bother me. Increase that to a minute and a half six times, as the article seems to suggest, and people will disappear faster than you can say ‘megavideo’.