blending
As always, the most recent Great Blend had a range of thought-provoking topics and speakers. It was a little more TV-focussed compared to others I’ve been to, but Russell always manages to keep it really relevant and interesting.
In a lot of ways, I don’t find discourse around TV that interesting. It seems like a one-way conversation a lot of the time, or at least one in which response (i.e. programming or new shows) is very delayed. I watch TV that we download (gasp!), borrow on DVD or record on MySky. I hardly ever watch live television and mostly when I do I’m so used to my on demand viewing style, I get irritated and stop watching.
There was talk about user-generated content, and about the interactive TV that the BBC and assumedly other British broadcasters use but how limiting is this still? Am I completely spoilt by the internet and the sheer amount of video available whenever i want? TV is simply not as accessible for users to get involved with - the means of production are costly and limited, require specialist skill (seen a blogger type app for editing a TV show? don’t think so)
I’m not even that interested in user-generated content on my TV screen because I CAN get it online. I do believe that organisations like Sky should be using the fact that they can track what I like and what I watch to target ads to me if they want me to watch them - and definitely targetting some internal advertising to me. I have never watched a child-rearing or a wife-swapping show - so don’t show me those ads! However, I watch a lot of Law & Order - so know that and show me things related, like Dexter for example - though, wait, will their commercial interests always truly stop them from being useful to me as they push the network’s advertising agendas?
Ultimately what is likely to make or break conventional television is where it goes from here. Will the networks hook into things like Joost and Apple TV - and in turn, will those be hooking into a last.fm type sharing thing to get some more useful community communications around the television content rather than just whinging about the Sopranos finale? I’ll be watching with one eye - but only because I don’t want to see less of the shows I enjoy being produced because the industry couldn’t compete.
