Bill Watt’s Blog

I was driving home from lunch today and was thinking about this surprising behavior shift I had over the last few weeks. Anyone that knows me will tell you I watch a fair amount of TV and in our house we have ReplayTV’s (I bought one on eBay with the commercial skip function), 2 Comcast DVR’s, and a Hummax Tivo DVR with DVD burner for those times people want me to record something and bring it to them. All this speaks to a desire to watch things on my schedule and to avoid the less interesting parts.

So, what’s the shift? There is now a show that I watch exclusively on YouTube. I was watching it on Cartoon Network but they air new episodes on Sat night so I had to wait a week between 30 min episodes. A friend called out the fact that the Japanese episodes are available on YouTube with English subtitles and I’ve flown from episode 30 currently on cable to episode 105 (of 199 or so) at my own pace. If you’re curious, check out Naruto on YouTube. The link takes you to my favorite contributer.

As I was driving home I heard an NPR story about how broadband is getting cluttered with all the new services and channels and how they’re trying not to add any unnecessary channels / shows. The solution to all this, Video On Demand (VOD) and how this helps is actually pretty simple. Instead of adding a new channel they just add a new show to the VOD servers and as users opt to see these shows they are streamed in real-time. This means you have one VOD channel and a huge number of shows available. The benefit to the cable provider is it gives them a way to test ideas without committing bandwidth and it also allows them to serve under represented communities.

Before my YouTube “Ah ha!” moment I wasn’t a huge fan of YouTube or VOD. I understand both and they seemed to work ok but weren’t perfect. If a friend sent me a link to a wacky video then I’d click on it and laugh and then navigate away. The quality and frequency of good videos made it hit or miss. If Alice and I wanted to watch a movie on a Friday night then we’d check out On Demand and frequently find the available options underwhelming (the HD options are worse still). Worse still is that the Comcast cable box is pretty weak when compared to my first ReplayTV back in ‘98. I can’t beleive how often the thing lags to the remote control commands or how often I need to rest the box to get rid of show fragments. But all that aside, now that I’ve started to see some practical applications it makes me want more.

My litmus test for technology adoption is to ask myself how hard something would be to explain to my grandfather. He’s 93 and in better shape than I am on most days but he’s less comfortable with technology (the first plane he saw was a biplane) so when it hits the “he could do this on his own” mark then I know it’ll have complete market adoption. The TV and VCR are there but I don’t think VOD is just yet.

Anyway- I’m off to watch episode 106 and see how Naruto gets out of his most recent jam on his way to becoming Hokage.

So, I know the Real World has been around forever but I think everyone would agree the % of shows that are “non-scripted” in some form or other is on the increase. The thing that I ask myself pretty much every week is, “Why would people go on TV and act like this?” I guess if you factor in the Jerry Spinger type shows then we can see how we got to the point we are. People got used to the idea of airing dirty laundry on TV as entertainment. Then came the Real World and other shows that hit on the secret sauce of sensationalized TV… get young people (if at all possible, make them as hot as possible), who’ve never been anywhere or met anyone different from themselves, take them to a new location, give them tons to drink and let the film roll.Now, that’s where it all started but we’ve gone beyond that. Wife Swap, Trading Spouses, Celebrity Fit Club, Survivor, Big Brother, 18 different flavors of Real World (RW, RR, RW/RR Challenge, RW/RW Inferno, RW/RW Fresh Meat, ….), Pop Stars, and Temptation Island to name a few of the ensemble shows. Then there are the “family” shows like Newlyweds, Osbornes, whatever that Whitney and Bobby show was, and the like.

Anyway- I’m just amazed at the level of ignorance and depravity in this country. I’m watching an episode of wife swap and it is physically painful to see a 300 pound women go on TV and yell and scream when she hears her overweight and irresponsible kids were required to, get this, eat veggies, do chores and be respectful. I do think the other mother and family were extreme too but I assume there is editing and what not to make “good” TV. 

I think the thing that is most amazing to me is that I expect this from the poor families that are drawn to the $50k reward but I think I underestimated the draw of being in the spotlight. It must be that to get all these folks who live in multi-million $ homes to participate. Still, the fact that the visiting mom determines how the family will spend the $50k tends to mean that the money is awarded based on the sense of abundance instead of need. What I mean is, the wealthy mom doesn’t think about the $30k in credit card debt but instead dedicates $2k for a trampoline and includes a line in the award letter like, “so your kids can learn to reach for the sky!”