Bill Maher Tapes First Amazon Talk Show

The first official Internet talk show was taped on Sunday night, right here in Park City, Utah.

“Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher” is sponsored by United Parcel Service and was recorded in front of a live audience composed of invited guests at the Sundance Film Festival.

The guests on the first episode were authors Stephen King, Armistead Maupin and rocker Rob Thomas.

The show also included a regular feature in which a celebrity with a product pays a surprise visit to the home of someone who’s ordered their item.

For the first show, comedian/actor/director Paul Reiser hand-delivered a DVD of his film, “The Thing About My Folks,” to an unsuspecting woman.

The taped segment looked a lot like an Ed McMahon piece from Publishers Clearing House. I’m told none other than Bruce Springsteen has already taped such a piece, and other celebs are being lined up as we speak.

The taping of the show took place in a converted yoga center being used for Sundance parties. On the prior night, Entertainment Weekly had thrown its big bash there, though you’d never have known it from the looks of the place.

As talk shows go, “Fishbowl” — which is about 30 minutes long — is nothing groundbreaking. It’s just pleasant chitchat and good music. Bill Maher is supposed to stay away from politics, but that’s impossible, and he threw in a couple of good jabs. But freed from his usual shtick, Maher proved to be a quick-witted host.

Nevertheless, he almost got into trouble twice. With King, he raised the ire of the famed commercial novelist by asking him about his days as a heavy drinker. King actually stopped him by asking, “Why are we getting into this?”

With Maupin, who was promoting his Sundance movie, “The Night Listener,” Maher crossed into unfriendly territory when it seemed like he was making anti-gay jokes at the writer’s expense.

At least we know “Fishbowl” won’t be boring.

The best element of the show was live music, performed acoustic-style by Thomas. The double-Grammy nominee did “Lonely No More” and “Fall On Me” from his solo album “Something to Be,” with no augmentation.

He sang and played the guitar and was, as usual, stunning in his simplicity. In his generation of rock and pop stars, Thomas continues to stand out as a leader when it comes to composition and performance. It’s fascinating to watch him because he’s such a throwback to “classic” rockers.

The “Fishbowl” pilot was recorded live to tape and will start playing on Amazon.com for free sometime soon. The series of 12 episodes begins on June 1.

And that will kick open the door for Internet series everywhere, so be warned: We are about to be flooded with a whole new genre of chitchat

For those of you keeping score - a few more sharing services arrived (or at-least i noticed them).

Vimeo has been poking around with it's interesting simple upload and sharing site. Last night i went to Central Park to see Camper Van Beethoven and Modest Mouse with Max and his friend. We sat on the lawn and enjoyed the show - this morning - there's video from inside the Summer Stage arena. Pretty cool. Still not sure how it sorts or scales, but maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe tags and traffic are enough to let the good stuff float to the top.

Unmediated pointed me to YouTube What is "YouTube?" Here's what the site says: "YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. With YouTube you can: Show off your favorite videos to the world. Blog the videos you take with your digital camera or cell phone Securely and privately show videos to your friends and family around the world ... and much, much more!"

finally - Susan Mernit's blog pointed me to kaneva.com which bills itself as "the worlds first digital media marketplace."

What's interesting is that Vimeo and YouTube are simple - but gettable. Kaneva is a viewing/publishing/games platform that doesn't clearly offer a digestible way in.

That's the state off affairs in video sharing/publishing on the web right now. Too Simple - Too Complex. Part of what this all points up is that people don't go to the web to look at 'clips' or 'video' any more than i search good for 'text' or 'articles'. I need something. When i get it - I'm happy.

That's why the Camper Van Beethoven clip is the only thing i'll remember from all the stuff i looked at this morning. I sent it to Max. He'll send it to his friend. It's media that connects to something real (for me anyway). Now all we need to do is to figure out how to sale both the production side and the filter/search side and we might have the glimmer of a new media model.

A Grammy Footnote / from Broadcasting & Cable BLOG

B&C Beat fans know we like to illuminate the real meat of every story. Well, beyond the Grammy glitz and ratings turmoil lurks news about one of the biggest trends in the media biz we all know and luv -- the continuing fear-and-loathing of the web.

Seems like jazzy Maria Schneider took home an award for the album "Concert in the Garden" -- which was sold only on the web and was financed entirely by her fans, through the web-only distributor ArtistShare. It cost a mere $87G to make the album, and she's made that money back, plus more. Sez the lady: I'm not splitting the profits with the distributor, the record store and the record company. It's working so well for me!

Hmm.

Stories from CNet and Reuters. Link to ArtistShare.

By Staff at 2005-02-14 15:01 | add new comment

I've been thinking a lot about CES and NATPE and the extraordinary disconnect between what is happening on the technology side, and what is happening on the programming/advertising side.

Really it can be argued that from the moment Tivo arrived on the planet, our business had a running start at understanding/evolving it's relationship with viewers and advertisers.

But the truth is - it hasn't happened.

Tv is pretty much the same as it was 5 years ago. And all the denials aside, the projection of Tivo like devices in the home suggests that we continue to ignore this evolution at our peril.

First of all - consumers want the freedom to watch what they want when they want it.

Second - broadband is a fat pipe. It's being laid into virtually every living room in American.

Third. People don't hate all advertising - just the stuff that clearly has no need to reach them (I don't like ads for Women's makeup, call me crazy!).

It seems to me that our customers have been promised new services for a very long time... And we've continued to say that this media evolution is right around the corner. Well now the Consumer Electronics folks aren't going to wait any longer - they're going to build a new highway into America's living rooms (and cars, and handheld devices, and phones, and wrist watches... You get the idea).

And once it's built - there's no telling what will travel on that highway. It may be network TV shows, it maybe Hollywood movies, but it won't discriminate... So competition is very much on the horizon.

The one thing I found in comparing CES to NATPE is that advertisers had pulled their head out of the sand, and were actively thinking about new ways to have relationships with their customers.

There are plenty of brands that I'd enjoy watching on my TV. I'd watch Sharper Image. I'd watch BMW (I already do). I'd watch a whole bunch of fashion info if it were tied to catalogs I like (lands end, LL Bean, Brooks Brothers, Banana Republic).

Maybe I'm rambling, but it seems to me that folks are using Bittorrnet and such, not because they want to - but because they're forced to. And advertisers will figure that our long before TV networks do. If advertiser find a way to do business directly with viewers - then the model is really exploded.

Once the smoke clears - there will be something entirely new in it's place. And that's worth thinking about.

More from this great Business Week article:
Next: TV Meets IP
Internet technologies promise to soon take couch potatoes to worlds far beyond TiVo. Even phone companies could benefit big-time

Just a few years ago, the fine art of watching TV seemed unlikely to change much. You watched programs when the networks told you to watch them. Maybe you taped them on a videocassette recorder. Either way, your choices were limited. Then along came the TiVo (TIVO ) digital video recorder, which as its 2 million loyal customers will tell you, added more than a little convenience to the coach potato's world.

Turns out, TiVo was just the start. A new wave of TV-related innovation called IP-TV is just starting to reach consumers. Just as the service known as voice over Internet protocol is poised to revolutionize the phone business by offering a low-cost Internet alternative to traditional phone service, IP-TV could bring Internet-style interactivity and flexibility to your TV set.

It won't happen overnight, of course. But over the next decade, the long-hyped notion of "video-on-demand" could become commonplace, allowing consumers to watch what they want, when they want to. They'll be able to control their IP-TV service remotely through a PC or a cell phone. And they'll be able to personalize their content, whether they want to watch the local high school football game or home movies.

THE ARTICLE CONTINUES: LINK

->From business week:

Digital technologies mean more than just sharper pictures. Here's a look at three major trends they'll make possible

The 1977 fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier was more than a colossal battle between two legendary heavyweights. "The Thrilla in Manila," shown on HBO, was the first live satellite broadcast over cable TV. It heralded the beginning of cable as a new standard that could one day replace the broadcast model.

Twenty-seven years later, analog cable will finally make way for a new champ -- digital TV. Though only 13% of homes will have digital TV by the end of 2004, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn., which expects that number to reach 65% by 2008. Three major tech trends will fuel this adoption: broadband Internet, wireless home networking, and high-definition broadcasting -- all of which will pave the way for entirely new possibilities in TV

Article continues: LINK

I've been avoiding this post. First I thought, we're just busy (I've been traveling). Then I thought, it'll happen. but it hasn't. Which isn't to say I don't love having it in my rack of cool gizmo's.

But this is going to be the challenge of all Future TV devices and services. If a tree falls in the forest (or a new show is available for download) how do I know.

My son - who's got his own ideas about media to be sure - says Akimbo "sucks". I'm not nearly that harsh. My wife and younger son have abandoned it... 'nothing on'.

And I think it's pretty early to write it off. The technology works - and content will follow.

But Akimbo's navigation makes it hard - almost impossible in fact - to enjoy browsing, exploring, looking for new things. There's no search. No web enabled portal that can program my box, no email each week alerting me to new things I might like...

In sort - no attempt to welcome me to the service, make me feel I'm part of a grand new thing. BTW - Tivo was able to do that. Capitalize on that - no, but at least get the juices flowing.

It may be that I'm just way too early. I'm clearly an alpha customer (are there 12,000 boxes out yet, I don't think so).

But when I find my self wondering if I'll keep it 'because it looks cool' or send it back - the bottom line is, I've given up using it. And that's just sad.

So IPTV entrepreneurs, Exploding TV fans, and Citizen Journalists alike - worth taking not. Getting your content to the box in someone's home isn't worth a damn if you can't get them to click on the link that downloads it.

Links for software for TV:

Myth TV
POSM
Bittorrent
Videora
Knoppmyth
eXeem

Google Video Search
Yahoo Video Search

KnoppMyth

from CyberJournalists.net:

"Mark Glazer says the Media Blogger's Association's Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative, which has already served more than 2 million videos, is "a tantalizing prospect for distributing future citizen video."

Beyond the generous donations from hosting companies, the Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative also broke new ground by brokering a deal between washingtonpost.com and bloggers who needed bandwidth. Tom Kennedy, managing editor of multimedia at washingtonpost.com, told me the alliance makes sense for all involved.

"I think it's important for mainstream media companies to figure out a way to work cooperatively with bloggers, and I think it's in our interests to do that," Kennedy said.

... "The ideal scenario would be to do some collaborative development that would make the submission of the videos easier and would begin to get the amateurs used to the idea of supplying enough basic metadata and contact information as a part of what they're uploading," washingtonpost.com's Kennedy said. "That all becomes easier for us to source. It's not foolproof, but it would be a good place to start."

From Mike at HDforindies.com - thank's mike -

Apple's Plans for FCP 5 at NAB (including HDV)�

OK, there is a tiny bit of conjecture in this one, but I'm 99% sure here's how it's going to go:

1.) Apple will roll out Final Cut Pro HD 5 at NAB in April. At least announce if not ship.

2.) The scoop on HDV & the Apple Intermediate Codec: HDV will be supported the same way it is in Final Cut Express HD, which I finally confirmed IS a 4:2:0 codec specifically made for working with HDV. There are 720p and 1080i setups for HDV, and you can "roll your own" other sizes. The codec is 4:2:0 only. There are other output options. But when you choose the 1080i or 720p options in the QT export panel, you're actually preconfiguring a whole bunch of things that get written into the quicktime movie header - the field order, pixel aspect ratio, clean aperture, as well as media and playback dimensions. If you choose "other" then you are free to go the "size" box and enter custom dimensions - say 720x480. But the other meta-information is not setup, so the intermediate codec *could* be repurposed for other media types, but it is really focused on supporting HDV, which is 4:2:0, and comes in 1080i and 720p flavors, and making the import and export of those HDV formats as simple as possible. The audio is transcoded as well, from Mpeg-1, layer 2 audio to straight-up, uncompressed 48KHz PCM.

3.) Fiber Channel connectivity has been described as "important" in this upcoming release

4.) IMX and 1080i50 DVCPRO HD will also be supported.

5.) DVCPRO HD 1080i50 will have less compression per frame than 1080i60 DVCPRO HD. Same overall bandwidth used, fewer frames per second, more bandwidth per frame, so less compression, better quality. See my previous post about 1080i50==>1080p25==>1080p24 workflows for the new Panasonic camera.

6.) Similarly, 1080i50 HDV codec (and it's Apple Intermediate Codec) will have higher bitrate per frame for same reasons.

7.) I'd expect lots of demonstrations of Xsan integrating with Final Cut Pro HD now that Xsan has shipped. I'll have more to say on Xsan in the near future. I did get this key bit of info: for each workstation that wants to work with uncompressed HD simultaneously, you'll need a fully populated X-Serve RAID. Want one uncompressed, one compressed HD station? One X-RAID fully populated. Want three simultaneous uncompressed HD users? Three X-RAIDs fully populated. Eeyouch.
Posted by: Mike�/�7:13 PM

Om Malik sums up the Tivo debate here
My two cents:

Tivo is code for a movement, not a company or a box. Tivo means- media that you control, not that controls your life. When people like Michael Powell call it a "God's Machine", they're not praying to Ramsay. They're saying - out load - that the model of a nation rushing home at 7:50 to be sitting on thier coach when their favorite show comes on is just nuts. And being able to push pause, and live your life on your terms is powerful stuff.

So yes, Comcast would have been a good decision for the stock called Tivo (maybe), but a bad decision for the concept called Tivo (freedom).

What's that wisdom about early adopter product failing during the lul between niche and mass? Apple Newton anyone?

Tahiti is a great name for the next generation of Tivo software. It's a fantasy island where the world is always sunny and the drinks always have little umbrella's in them. It's the right idea - maybe to early - but much like Tivo itself, inevitable.

So you can't fault Ramsay for not being double jointed enough to both thumb his nose at the rules of the game, and then not be willing to suck up to the very model that he was helping to explode.

I'd argue this is a natural part of the revolution/evolution of both distribution and content. And that's good.

Great insiders look at the struggle for Tivo's soul. What's clear is that the choice for a company that had a revolutionary spirit was to 'drink the cool-aid' and become part of the cable walled garden, or run fast at IPTV (Tahiti) and see if the revenues can catch up. It's brave - and scary for Tivo. What's that line about leaders having arrows in their backs?

TiVo Struggles to Find Its Niche After Quitting a Deal with Cable
By SAUL HANSELL

Published: January 17, 2005

After months of hard bargaining, TiVo reached an agreement last summer to offer its pioneering video recording system to customers of the Comcast cable system, according to several people involved in the discussions.

It was potentially a critical deal for TiVo, because Comcast is by far the biggest cable system and also because control of DirecTV, the satellite system that has been the biggest distributor of TiVo, had been bought by the News Corporation, which also owns a TiVo rival.
extended article:

A hugely long piece in The New Atlantis about the move toward personalization of media and a term coined Egocasting.

It takes a sociological look at personal media - and sees a future that narrows our field of vision rather than broadens it. I don't agree - but i think i'll read the piece a few more times before i'm ready to dismiss it, the implications are too important to ignore.

Ok, lots of focus group (family) data to report.

First off, while it feels like TV... It feels different. My wife says it feels like surfing the web. I think she means that you're exploring, but not with a clear sense of where your going. Some of that is just that many of the channels are not brands we're familiar with. But also, there does feel like there is some exploration - which is both exciting and a bit daunting.

The other night, my younger son and my wife were watching... And then I heard a big loud laugh from both of them. It's been a long time since anything on TV made them laugh out loud. It was a short movie posted on Ifilm.

Then my older son came out - ended up watching Green Day and a Blondie video. Said "this is great, now I can watch music videos again" -he complains that MTV doesn't play them.

And then a bunch of folks in the family discovered some old Arthur C. Clarke shows from Channel 4, and some yoga videos.

All in all -felt good to find things that seemed worthwhile and educational.

Operationally - there are some missing features. There is no progress bar, and it isn't clear WHEN the box calls out to get content. Why can't the box go and get me a 1minute short when I ask for it -rather than just putting it in the que to download, with no clear indication of when it's going to come in. It's a bit disconnected.

Also - the channel paradigm that they've adopted feels old - and hard to navigate. If Akimbo is selling access to IPTV, which we all believe is gaining to be a huge offering in the next few years, where in their architecture is a plan to help ME manage the content ocean? If they're answer is that they (the brand Akimbo) is a filter for quality, well - they've all already lost that argument in my family. To much old stuff, some good some bad.

So - they've won the battle of convincing me that IPTV can look like real tv. Now the question is - how much of a shift will there be in HOW I get new tv (filter/trusted partners/key words/collaborative filter) and that may be the harder problem to solve in the long run.

Why �The Long Tail� for video is different.

Since Chris Anderson�s �The Long Tail� article hit the pages of Wired back in November, there�s been a lot of discussion about it, and the impact of the idea that content never goes out of print in a new on-demand environment.

The article is breathtaking in it�s simplicity, clarity, and inevitability. Looking at the numbers from either the Rhapsody back-cataloged usage in The Long Tail or the more recent stats that Chris is blogging from Tivo it�s pretty clear that the era of media as disposable is over.

But it�s important to make a distinction between retail video-media, as it exists today (TV, Films) and motion media content that�s likely to populate the Long Tail model in the years to come.

FLASHBACK. Books have been around a long time. The idea of committing ideas to paper, and then moving that paper around is one that human beings understand in a way that is intuitive rather than intellectual. Written words have knowledge. If we want to know something, knowledge is on paper.

Moving images are on the other hand primarily place in society as entertainment. Yes of course there is news on television, and documentaries, but as a percentage of the amount of content either created or consumed, those non-fiction moving images are a very small portion of what currently is in the marketplace.

So we have both a tradition, and an intuitive understanding that when we�re sitting in front of a video screen it is to �relax�.

So in order for video to be part of the Long Tail revolution � two important things need to happen. First, lots of high value content needs to be created and be made available. This is inevitable (tools like Final Cut HDV are central to this). But even once content is created and made available � and validated through some sort of filter/folkomnomics /metadata solution � there�s another piece missing.

Users. Motion media is a very different value proposition. If I go looking for a book on how to tile my bathroom floor on Amazon, and I�m offered a video of the same subject � how will I use it? On DVD? On my laptop, on my portable media player? On my cell phone? New experiences are scary � and as much as I�d rather have someone show me how to lay tile� the combination of a missing device, and more importantly a missing sense that I can trust video to be knowledge rather than entertainment, means that there�s a slow build as the demand for long-tail motion media builds.

None of this is bad. In fact, the opposite I think.

The fact is that a new culture of motion media creators is coming on line at the same time that a delivery system for the material is being born. That means that as young creators build their �archive� of published media, audiences will grow both in size and sophistication.

PAUSE. More on the difference between music and Television � and why viewers are likely to make more video content than music�. IN A BIT.

From unmediated.org

A little birdie told me that the coolest thing at MacWorld was the LaCie - silverscreen - Multimedia Hard Drive. It's a USB powered hard drive, with a video out snake cable with RCAs, and other standard connectors for playing back video files (MPEG 1, 2, 4) on a TV. It has a remote control that you use to open, play, and browse the videos/files on your drive via the TV. I haven't seen it yet. But it's listing for $329 and is supposed to be available next month. The only negative I see is that it's USB powered- which means you still need a computer nearby when you're playing off the TV. Maybe the USB on the set-top will work. Hmmmm. LaCie! Send unmediated some demo units! We'll add video aggregation to it! Anyone know how they're doing this? Is it one of those multimedia playback browsers?

Since I'm firmly in the camp of changing distribution paradigms, things that balance our unbridled optimism with some skepticism are always a good read.

Om Malik (Business 2.0 /www.gigaom.com ) takes a thoughtful look at some of the obstacles in this post: LINK

"Here are some actual numbers which show that exploding TV is one with a really long and I mean long fuse. An average American watches four hours of television and assuming that he gets to pick and choose at a rate of 99 cents an hour, well his/her average spend is going to be about $1465 a year or about $120 a month. Add the download costs - say a good 6 megabits connection, which is about $50 a month, you are looking at $170 a month. Average cable bill is about $52 a month. Not including the cost of specialized gear like darling of the moment, Akimbo or TiVo, the delta is just too wide."

He's not wrong. There are a number of obstacles, and a number of groundbreaking events that could shift things more quickly. Perhaps the most important, and least written about is the current Cable Card debate.

ENGADGET Link

The Federal Communications Commission announced a unanimous decision to adopt rules that make digital cable reception on new televisions as easy as plugging a card into a set.

"The agency said Wednesday that with the new rules, digital TVs can receive cable signals without the need for a set-top box. The rules allow manufacturers to make sets with so-called plug-and-play capabilities, so consumers can just "plug in" their equipment to receive digital services. Customers insert a security card, or a cable card they would get from their cable operator, to decrypt scrambled cable signals on the sets.

CABLE CARD Link

Why does this matter? Because we're facing a battle over who owns the living room. And if cable co's are allowed to insist on a box... then they control our living room universe.

But - if the hardware in our homes is something we can buy at Circuit City - or that other manufacturers like Tivo can build into their boxes - then things really heat up...

In all the hot sweaty blogging about Mac Mini and IPOD Shuffle - there's a interesting new set of features in Imovie that matters to folks in the documentary community.

First - has anyone talked about the fact that Steve Job's waved a Sony HDV camcorder around and embraced both HDV and Blue-Ray? I think that might mean that Final Cut will add HDV support to pro sooner rather than later.

HDV is now supported in Imovie, but final cut folks just shrugged because it isn't yet out for FCP.

but little mentioned is Magic

thanks to AppleMatters for catching this big clue.

MAGIC is a cool feature that digitizes your entire HDV tape, breaks it up into scenes, puts in automatic scene-breaks, titles, credits, and music.

Ok - the pro's are sniffing in disgust. But hold on. Why have we spent the last 10 years keeping folks from digitizing everything on a tape? Because storage cost a ton of money. But the apple folks know that it's much easier to let the software do the in and out points (based on camera start/stop i assume) and then sit down and trim, remove, and polish. And as we know - storage prices are falling every day - making it cheaper to store more and prune than to nit pick what goes in up front.

From the apple website:

"Unassisted, iMovie HD automatically rewinds the tape in your camcorder and imports all your video. After placing each clip on the Timeline, it assembles your movie from start to finish."

the site goes on:

"Imagine. For your next movie project, iMovie HD can step in and perform all of the preliminary work for you. Like a trusted assistant, it preps the stage. Then it�s your turn to step in and take your project to the next level. Use your iMovie expertise to trim or reposition clips, introduce effects, modify transitions, add or delete chapter markers, include sounds or additional musical elements."

Is this feature going to be included in FCP along with HDV support? I sure hope so. Not because a piece of software replaces an editor. Far from it. But the job of keying in 'in' and 'out' points is horrible, and anything that means i can sit down and start touching material without having to grind through the 'digitizing' process is a great thing.

Hope Apple is listening.

News

The company will seek a successor to Mike Ramsay, as predicted last year by
TVPredictions.com's Phillip Swann. Ramsay, however, will stay on as chairman.
By Mary Downs
Special to TVPredictions.com

Washington, D.C. (January 12 )-- TiVo, the Digital Video Recorder service, announced today that it will seek a new CEO to replace Mike Ramsay, who has been chief executive since the company's launch. Ramsay, however, will retain his role as Chairman of the Board and will continue as CEO until a successor is identified.

The company's decision to replace Ramsay was predicted last November by TVPredictions.com's Phillip Swann. Noting TiVo's continuing difficulty to persuade cable and satellite operators to license its technology, Swann wrote:

"Over the last four years, the company has been unable to persuade a single cable operator to license its technology. Now, cable operators are rolling out their own DVR services. TiVo is also heavily dependent on a company (DIRECTV) which is likely to reduce its marketing commitment in the near future. Plus, TiVo is now focusing more on non-DVR services, such as home
networking, which might be several years away from reaching a mass audience. This at a time when studies show that millions of consumers are considering getting a DVR. And the company has launched a succession of advertising campaigns that have failed to clearly communicate why someone would swap his VCR for a DVR.

Ramsay, a soft-spoken engineer, has made the wrong move at almost every turn. Consequently, I predict that TiVo's shareholders and board of directors will encourage Ramsay to let someone else run the company in 2005. The DVR service desperately needs bold, powerful and experienced leadership. Despite his brilliance in bringing TiVo to market, Mike Ramsay is not that person."

Failure
Ramsay, who co-founded the company in 1997, has successfully led TiVo to a premiere brand position, acquiring more than 2.3 million customers. However, many analysts, including important Wall Street officials, have said recently that the company's growth could be dramatically reduced in the next year because marketing partner DIRECTV will launch its own DVR. In addition, Ramsay has been criticized for his failure to land a cable licensing deal.

"Founding TiVo with Jim Barton and growing the company into a major consumer brand has been the thrill of a lifetime," Ramsay said in a statement released today. "We have achieved a tremendous amount since we started the company. We have had a fundamental impact on television viewing and believe strongly that the company has huge upside potential, in a massive market, going forward. I believe it is a natural evolution of any company to have a transition of leadership as the company grows and matures. The time is right for me, personally and professionally, to bring in an outstanding Chief Executive Officer to lead the company so that I can focus on future strategy. I feel this is a great opportunity for the right person to run one of the industry's most exciting companies, and I look
forward to recruiting a new CEO who will help the company realize its full potential."

Speaking on behalf of TiVo's Board of Directors, Geoff Yang, a founding investor in TiVo, said: "Mike Ramsay has led TiVo to an exceptional level of technology innovation, business performance and consumer satisfaction. As co-founder of TiVo, he has helped create a truly big idea and executed on its delivery into the marketplace with great skill. We plan to hire another exceptional leader in the months ahead."

TiVo has selected Howard Fischer Associates of Philadelphia, Silicon Valley and Boston to conduct the search process.

There's a great conversation taking place in the blogosphere about TV - and it's future. It's fueled at least a bit by the sense that TV is simply bad, or ill-used. It could be so much a). Better b). More Valuable c). More useful d). More important.

Think of it this way. You have to lose all but one of the following devices:

a. Your Computer
b. Your Cell Phone
c. Your I Pod
d. Your Broadband Connection
e. Your Cable Connection

Is there ANY chance the one thing you'd keep is Cable? For entertainment? For Information? for anything. Check out "Exploding TV" Fred Wilson's take on TV's future -->LINK <--

And then what Jeff Jarvis has to say about the same lunch: -->LINK <--

It is pretty clear that IPTV changes everything - now we just need to imagin the future we want to build and not get too freaked out by the exploding number of choices.

I was at a panel at CES where someone suggested that consumers really didn't want choice... they in fact wished there were less channels and less choice. True enough, I want less junk, and more stuff that's meaningful to me.

That's why my blog reader beats my TV channel changer any day. More stuff I want, less stuff I don't. Not so complicated, really. And there's also the matter of authenticity. As Fred also speaks about on his blog, voices from the Tsunami that are human and real seem to be more engaging and effective than the so-called 'objective' voices of MSM news. But watch CNN and you'll see some of that changing a bit - in surprising ways.

"We believe the true revolution that is taking place today is a revolution in the way that entertainment is created, distributed, managed and consumed�In other words, the entire entertainment process, whether it's music, or movies, or TV or images, is becoming digital, mobile, and virtual."

Check out Carly Fiorina's speech at CES--> HP Speech <--

Also, check out what the executive producers of Project Greenlight: Chris Moore and Ben Affleck have to say about Project Greenlight and it's deal with with HP.

I was about to write a detailed entry about my NATAS Advanced Media floor tour, when this came in ---> SHELLYSBLOG <---- Well, he's gone and done it, so why duplicate efforst.

I'll just underline two things that i think are worth noting. The Sony Z1 HDV camera is going to blow the doors of the industry in February. And a little noted 5.1 sound recording in the Sony DCR-DVD403 is likely to find it's way into the HDV line (not sure what the tech issues are since the DVD403 records directly to DVD).

And the Motorola Moxi box is very sweet, but without IPTV support at this time.

CES isn't a convention - it's more like 6 conventions. It's car audio (and now video), it's photography (and digital photography) It's Consumer Electronics, and Electronic Accessories, and it's all the pipe and infrastructure stuff that glues it all together.

I spent the morning at the Digtal Hollywood conference - a series of panels on the relationship between content and technology.

The first thing that is clear is that the revolution that Tivo began is no longer an if, or even when - it's now. ABC, Comcast, TV Guide, Starcom MediaVest and the BBC all had representatives on this panel moderated by Ken rutkowsky. (www.KenRadio.com). And while they through around words like Gatekeeper (each accusing the other of being one) they also talked with great agility about Bittorrent, MP3, and Citizen Media. They all know that VOD, and IPTV are all inevitable.

The Comcast rep talked about the fact that cable feels that it's retransmission fees to broadcast networks should give them the right to offer network TV shows on a demand basis. I'd pay money to see how those negotiations are going.

The Panel seems to agree that the future is going to be driven by navigation and guidance in the new long-tail world of media storage and on demand delivery.

After hearing so much about media servers and IPTV - I ventured out onto the tradeshow floor to kick the tires. My first stop was Microsoft, where they were demo'ing the Home Media Center. Bill Gates had pitched this whole media center option hard when he delivered his Key Note the day before.

I have to say - the software seemed surprisingly elegant (ok, it's a trade show so it's fair to assume that it should work in a totally engineered environment with no outside forces). Bill Gates key note had a few glitches - which made the rounds.

Next stop was Tivo. The CEO Mike Ramsey had said this morning that he was abandoning their cable strategy and going for IPTV.

more in a bit - off to dinner - -

Ok, update at 1am.

It's working. Not sure why. I thought it might have been because I was using Safari - so I logged on with Explorer. It worked, and then... tried again with Safari - and it worked as well.

So - maybe the Akimbo server was down. Hmm....

First impressions. The menu is full of random stuff... some that I know (TCM, Adult Swim from Cartoon Central) and some that I never knew existed (Sailing. TV)

Pricing is all over the place - and surprising. A channel run by Quicksilver charges $3.95 for a download of a surfing film. Most channels have some free samples. In the end, you could get a nasty surprise on your credit card if you don't download with care. There's a good password protection feature to keep the kids from hitting your credit card.

I'm downloading a bunch of stuff tonight. No progress bar, and no view in progress - so it's just sitting there. Not ever a blinking light to tell me it's working. I hope I'm downloading some things. find out in the AM.

Since tv over the internet is going to be important for filmmakers - Akimbo is a step into the great unknown. So i decided to blog the ordering, installing, and content.

First- the ordering. Good news. The process is simple, there's a free trial till april 1st - and the site is easy to navigate. After i ordered Akimbo emailed me a tracking number for UPS - and, i watched the progress as my Akimbo made it's way to me.

It arrived TODAY - on time, as promised. And like all early adopters, i spent the day knowing my new toy was waiting at home.

First thing - it looks good in the rack. I put it next to the Tivo - hoping they would be friends (probably not).

Installation was easy. Ethernet cable, audio and video rca's. Ta Da. Akimbo found the internet, and then things got tricky. The box has a sign on key (three random words) and the box wants you to go on the web to sign on and authorize the box. From here - things get more complicated. The web site kicks back the three words... ocean - moose -tree. So i tried the key a few times, caps, smalls, but no go. Then, i figured- time to go to the Troubleshooting Guide in the manual.

Nope. No troubleshooting guide. Ok, fine, website. No answers to authorization problems. Finally the phone. But there is no 800# and no phone support after 9pm. Now this makes no sense to me. Let's face it - the folks that are buying this box are the die-hard early adopters. We're basically beta testers, willing to own 1.0 boxes to put out the word. Why wouldn't Akimbo be wise to keep atleast one or two CSR's around to answer the phone? Nope. 9pm - closed.

So - what's wrong with my Akimbo - won't know till next week, since i'm off to CES in the meantime...

Stay tuned...

Ok, ready for a bunch of new words.

Strangeberry.
Akimbo.
Orb.
Lulu.

Don't know them - try adding .com and then take a look. I'm sure you don't know of any of them, or at least most. But if you're a filmmaker - each of these companies will matter in the future of film.

First- Strangeberry. I don't know WHAT they do. it's a super-secret silicon valley start up that ties the internet to your TIVO box. How important is the super secret goo? Well Tivo just bought them - to help them move into the IPTV space (that's 'internet protocol television'). This will speed the ability of filmmakers to push films to viewers without going through a network or a distributor.

Second - Akimbo. this product exists. It's a box that sits on your TV, but rather than record content from cable TV - it downloads programs from the internet (IPTV again). They've got deals with GreenCine and CinemaNow already in deals, and more film to your TV via broadband coming along soon.

Orb. Once again - a product that is just rolling out. This is a product that takes digital content (movies, videos, photos, music) that can allow you to down it anywhere that you have a web browser. The content is streamed from you home PC to any device anywhere you are.

Lulu. Today Lulu is an up and running publish-on-demand printing service. You can write a book, lay it out, publish it, and sell it - even buy an ISDN number and it's published through Amazon. Do you think this service is on the horizon for filmmakers - (check out CustomFlix.com for the answer).

I've been wondering why I'm so unwilling to dig into the VOD channels on
Time-Warner Cable... Even the free ones.

I think I have the answer.

There is a fundamental difference (in my head at least) between the way I
experience television and the way I watch movies.

TV is disposable. I watch it, fast forward (tivo) through boring parts or
plot lines I don't like, and don't fee any commitment to the material.

On the other hand movies are an event. Whether it's a DVD from Netflix, a
rental from Channel Video, or a VOD movie from Time Warner - it's a much
less casual experience.

Some of that is length. A 90 min movie isn't something you can breeze
through. And since I often don't get to watching a movie or TV until 10pm
at night...

And then there's the risk of starting a movie that I don't want to stick
with. Ordinarily that wouldn't be hard - but every now and then, I'll
settle in to a movie that I think I'm going to like, and my wife and I will
have a split decision. Ok, it doesn't happen often. But when it does, one
of us has 90min of dreck to try and tune out.

For filmmakers - the fear of commitment to a film on VOD may mean we need to wait longer than we might hope to get viewers to take risks on things they haven't heard about.