Why Local TV is Spiraling Too

From Knute Berger on Crosscut.com — on why he is not buying a box to convert to HD:

Which isn’t to say I won’t still watch TV: I can see Conan or Colbert highlights online, broadcast and cable clips at Huffington Post, Seattle Channel or KCTS websites. I didn’t need broadcast TV to learn about international talent competition phenom Susan Boyle. I found her on YouTube. I much prefer watching TV series on DVD, which allows you to avoid the ads and watch a whole season’s worth in a weekend. You’re a year or so behind everyone else for Mad Men, In Treatment or Battlestar Galactica, but you don’t have to wait for installments. I got lost watching Lost; I’ll catch up when it’s out on disc. If I still care after a year.

Let’s just say – no he won’t watch TV – that is the device. He will watch content produced for television, but on his computer. Soon he might watch it in the “lean back” position in his livingroom or den — piped from his computer to the TV screen he formerly used to watch programming that was pushed to him at specific times.

Beware local affiliates – your audience is giving up on your schedule! You had better be putting something great on your websites!

A fine comeuppance for McCain

Peg here: I am laughing about the McCain campaign’s request of Google (via Wired) to review their take-down policies for YouTube. The campaign claims  various campaign videos using copyrighted material fall under the Fair Use Doctrine and should not be yanked.

I am all for Fair Use and here I have to agree, but oh my — this is so so unusual for a member of Congress.

As Wired points out, it is particularly ironic that the letter was addressed to “YouTube’s CEO Chad Hurley, William Patry, Google’s senior copyright counsel, and YouTube’s General Counsel Zahavah Levine.” Patry is known for scholarship on the fair-use doctrine.

Amazing what happens when free speech becomes personal!

The Future of News – Princeton Last Week

I have spent the morning and part of the afternoon listening to Princeton’s Center for Information Tech’s workshop on the Future of News. Great speakers, interesting panels. It is available through iTunes on the University Channel. Also on video through the same. Here’s the link that will get you to both – plus the agenda: CITP

The speakers included: Steve Boriss, Dan Gilmore, and Paul Starr.

Great conversation! Even pretty hopeful – a nice change from doom and gloom we often hear.

Peg