more hanky panky down a coalmine
http://www.last100.com/2007/09/10/internet-streaming-five-us-television-networks-compared/
Internet streaming: five U.S. television networks compared
by Daniel Langendorf
September 10th, 2007 | Posted in Net TV | 15 Comments
Internet streaming: five U.S. television networks comparedThe good news: Major U.S. television networks continue to embrace Internet technology and are putting their shows on the Web for online viewing, just like they did last year.
The bad news: Their online offerings remain sporadic; their Internet strategies feel like "we have to" rather than "we want to"; and — worst of all — they still haven't embraced the idea that we are living in a new digital world, with different rules, participants, and expectations all around.
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I was thinking about this attitude issue the other night, actually. On youtube.com, they deleted the long version of Derek and Clive "the Horn". I was so enjoying this clip for the past month that I even had it as my start page for a few days.
Dude, you do not realise how much I have been waiting for digital media to arise. Back in the 80's or even the 90's, there was no way you could access any of this info as a consumer in Tokyo. If you wanted to rent Faulty Towers, it would of have been dubbed into Japanese; ok, good for the masses, but dude, I understand the lingo, the nuance. I'm sorry, I don't want some watership down'd version. Getting programmes or films that were not on the circuit in Japan was probabaly harder than getting child porn. My friend J, a British cunt that used to live in Tokyo running a record shop, he used to have them imported. Then of course, there was the format issue with NTSC and PAL (BBC joke. "Never Twice the Same Colour" "Perfection At Last" pretty true, actually). There was a deck it was a Sony or Panasonic, escapes me tha used to be able to swing any way. That was $2,000. What I used to do, was borrow a tape from James, probably just like you would do with kiddie porn, or whenever I would go to England or America, buy tapes. Then I'd go round to my old office (record company) or after that, mate's management companies and all that and copy them. Now, using other people's gear isn't the most fun, because they like to look at the content with you. Which is fine, but if they don't get it, you end up explaining it to your friends cos it would be rude. Then for me, the excitement goes away, I'd have to get into interpreter/translator mode and that just does not give me the horn. I'm telling ya, art and self expression is usually a personal experience and having to explain that is, not fun.What am I, some art critic?
Anyway, content owners. Think about the merits of digital distribution. Ok, converting your archives to a format is a NIGHTMARE, but what a man's gotta do, a man's gotta do.
Once it's online, someone out there, is going to find it. You cannot stop human curiosity, digital, illegal or not. As long as you have a captured audience that keeps bread on your table, the rest is extra pocket money.
Then I was thinking about that digital content for the price of a txt message idea. Personally, I would be a little careful and scared doing it to music (just because I work with it I suppose). But with video for example, I'd pay it. In fact, I'd pay 25 Cents or whatever for those clips on Youtube if I can download them and watch it on the computer and ipod. I don't even care about the visual quality that much, I'm not looking for some high def national geographic exotic fish in the bahamas documentary. I just want to laugh and forget where I am or who I am.
Think about it. I would probably spend around $2~4 per viewing. Same for music. There's no boxes of packaging, there's no discs to manufacture, inventory control would be the easiest thing ever. You don't have to chat up that regional sales guy, etc..........
The Mighty Boosh, my friend J turned me onto this. I know a lot of J's, come to think about it. I would of not found this if it were not for the internet. I probably would of still be watching my 15 year old videos of the best of the Goodies. There's good stuff, old and new, and it's not going to stop.
update:
i was just having my coffee and turned the tv on. i pretty much never watch the major channels anymore, maybe the news. i have cable, which is a minority appliance in japan. anyway, i was flicking through and noticed that they show the british show, the office now. i never watched it, so i had a bit of fun. but dude, how old is this show? they have an (apparently not so good) american version, so it must be at least 3, probably 5 years old. and FINALLY it's available.
think about the implications of this. any work of expression carries with it a background, language, culture, emotion, news of the times. 3 to 5 years is a long time for something to filter through. think of the time lag. the amount of possible inspiration wasted. granted, something like the office is probably not easy for the regular japanese housewife to understand (it's being shown on a female channel). but isn't that what they said for the show in america when it started?
don't close the door. leave it open. if it irritates you, think about why it irritates you.
one of my favourite writers is this guy called kenzaburo oe. he has some work translated to english and even won a nobel literature prize in 1994. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenzaburo_Oe
i've been reading his work on and off since high school, his early stuff was obviously influenced by the physical confusion that japan was in the 60's and beat culture. it was exiciting stuff for a frustrated high school kid. then as he got older, his style matured. the fact that his child is handicapped is apparently one major cause. he started writing about post war japan. one of his more recent writings basically says "don't sakoku the heart". "sakoku" is a japanese term, which represents the period (i am looking all this stuff up on the net) of isolation from 1639 to 1854 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan), where japan ceased to exchange any foreign influence or trade apart from portugal. this exchange was held on "dejima", an artificial island the siez of a new york block in nagasaki, south japan. i went there last year, look back on my myspace blog and you'll see pictures. anyway, kenzaburo oe is saying that japan has a tendency to "close country the heart".
i totally agree with him. humans are lazy fucks by nature, we like to fall back on what feels comfortable. for japan, that means rice eating, imperialist, nice, humble people. but dude, japan lives in modern times now, it is the physical asian hq of the american forces, a lot of companies, we're a capitalist nation. by pretending to be what we're not in reality, is causing a lot of problems. that reflects back into culture and spending. that's why the japanese education system is totally fucked as far as english learning is concerned. that's why you see all these english schools scattered around the country. when i was on tour in japan last year, i was astonished by the number of these schools and the frustration on both side, the teachers and pupils. at the bars, i saw frustrated teachers that come from the middle of nowheresville america, sent to nowheresville japan, so what do they do on their time off? drink and act like american pricks. pretty sad. all you need to see is a little ray of light.
for people that are to distribute content or create it, maybe it's just a matter of putting it out. anything, anything on any level. look, i understand you wnat to hold off so that you don't undersell. but take the office for example. it is probably one of the bbc's biggest shows and where does it end up in japan? on a fucking cable channel on sunday daytime. who watches this? me, obviously......... but i only found out by accident. same for doctor who. they started showing the new version recently, but think about how many episodes there is of that.
just put it out, see what happens. if you track enough attention, then you can hire the translator to subtitle it, or distribute it to the mass. it you want to be big in japan, it's got to work both ways. it still needs a good idea and a person that appreciates it and can interpret it.
yes, i am very frustrated.