Thinkcorps

I waste a lot of time actually trying out technologies like bittorrent, steeping myself in different apps to understand their inner workings and dynamics. Clearly, most journalists (even the tech ones) don’t bother. It’s always bothered me that you have to get to the media fringes to find real experts, but I suppose it’s always been that way. I think experts are naturally drawn to the fringes, where they can more easily pursue their obessions and interests. Mainstream journalists are focused on maintaining the tragectories of their careers, and that’s why they gravitate toward big publishers/media, despite a lack of talent and skill. We all make our choices, after all, and we rarely do it for anyone other than ourselves, let alone some amorphous concept like “media”.

In that sense, the Media is really an afterthought, a result of a lot of low-level individual decisions. It’s not the Eisners that make Media what it is, it’s the beat reporters and editors. My personal experience only allows me to see into the arena of tech journalism, but I have to assume that the problems are the same with all other beats.

What’s funny, is that I just wanted to jot down a simple thought on TV torrents. How did I get onto media? Ahh, the wonders of blogging. Anyway, here are a few thoughts on why TV torrents are or are going to be so popular.

First, (and this is what prompted the above rant) many torrented TV shows are recordings of HDTV —the best quality you can get. Way better than I can record on my Tivo (I have analog cable). The torrent is widescreen and super-sharp. The Divx encoding is excellent, btw. It’s like watching a DVD. Faced with a choice, I’m going to go with the torrent every time. I’ve never read anything that mentions how this P2P market spreads not only many shows, but the best available quality of recordings—and that quality is only getter better.

Second, of course, is the removal of commercials. The improved continuity radically improves the viewing experience, in my opinion. Good TV can be so much more immersive, almost movie-like. Which brings up a very valid point about the shortcomings of the commercial. New episodes are plugged like crazy, and yet we’re forced to swallow commercial repeats—and some extremely unimaginative ones as well. Yet there are many outstanding commercials that make it to watercooler discussions. I suggest that advertisers rethink the way they approach their commercials. More variety, more often, focusing on the spots that actually resonate with audiences. So many commercials are just tired, boring and irrelevant.

It’s really not our fault that TV advertising sucks, is it?

I feel like this post rambles all over the place, and yet, I’m still going to just post it and get this stuff off my mind. Done and done.