Tuesday, March 25, 2008

If an HDTV Falls in the Woods…

Frank Capria | 03/25- 12:21 PM

A surprising number of HDTV owners don’t view any HD content on their sets… and other interesting tidbits.

ABI Research released some highlights of its recent research on HDTV adoption and the viewing habits of Americans. While 41% of Americans have HDTV’s, only about half of those HDTV receive any sort of an HD signal. While it might not be too surprising that only one out of Americans can view HDTV in all its glory, it’s shocking that another one out of five think they are watching HD when they are just watching a blown up SD image.

Lay the blame at the feet of the cable companies. I’ve been to several living rooms where what’s sold as HD looks indistinguishable from an up-converted standard definition DVD. This isn’t something I want to be pondering at 2:00 AM as we’re perfecting the look of my next HD production. 

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Future of Advertising and Non-Fiction Television

Frank Capria | 03/20- 04:54 PM

Broadcast networks charge advertisers more to reach fewer viewers. How long can it last, and what does it mean for independents?

Anyone making a living in video would do well to read this special report on the future of advertising by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It succinctly explains how television advertising rates continue to rise even as viewership declines dramatically. Even before the writers strike threw an anvil to an industry trying to tread water, the numbers were telling:

For the first 11 weeks of the 2007-08 television season, prior to the effects of the fall 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Nielsen data show viewer declines for the crucial 18-to-49 age group of 19.4% for NBC, 16.7% for CBS, 10.5% for ABC and 28.6% for CW. Only Fox improved, with a 3.4% gain.

The trend is clear. Broadcast television is fading. Audiences are gathering information and getting entertained elsewhere. With broadband penetration now over 50% in the US, web video may be at a long-awaited inflection point.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Perhaps Flash Not Coming to iPhone Anytime Soon?

Scott Gentry | 03/19- 05:52 PM

Man, I’m getting tired of the on again, off again, will they, won’t they Flash on the iPhone posts.

According to Adobe [via AppleInsider.com]: “Adobe has evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone,” the statement reads. “However, to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.”

I promise a moratorium on iPhone - Flash posts for at least...um, a week.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Update - Flash Coming to iPhone

Scott Gentry | 03/19- 06:51 AM

It was only last week when there were public remarks from Apple CEO, Steve Jobs saying Flash wasn’t ready for the iPhone.  We reported earlier this week, about Adobe’s initial reaction to Jobs coments.  What a difference a week makes huh? 

This week it was announced that Microsoft has licensed Flash technology for Windows Mobile Devices.  Today, Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen announced during a conference call regarding Adobe’s first-quarter earnings, that Adobe “will work with Apple” to make sure that Flash applications can run on the iPhone.

As developers, this should further expand our mobile delivery options.  That has to be a good thing.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Steve Jobs Trashes Flash for iPhone

Scott Gentry | 03/05- 08:41 AM

Says it isn’t likely to find its way to the iPhone soon

I find that news for video developers for the small screen very disappointing.  Particularly when YouTube works just fine on my iPhone.  Steve goes into depth explaining some technical reasons for the lack of Flash, but in the end basically pushes the ball into Adobe’s court to make it happen.

Without trying to pick sides here, there seems to be a fast growing adoption of the iPhone and after this Thursday’s SDK expected announcements, the iPhone expansion will seemingly continue at perhaps an even faster pace.  So where does that leave video developers for mobile applications?  There’s Quicktime, and perhaps that’s the real point here.  Is Apple simply not working hard on Flash acceptance because it wants greater use of Quicktime?  I wouldn’t doubt it, but what do I know?

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

New Model, Same Content

Frank Capria | 02/27- 05:29 AM

Quarterlife premieres tonight. A not very successful web series jumps to network TV. 

Quarterlife is a series about those people you couldn’t stand in college and didn’t care what happened to them afterwards. As Friends proved, that can be a successful formula. What makes Quarterlife interesting is that the series, originally rejected by ABC, began its life on the web. What makes it really interesting is that it wasn’t terribly successful—many episodes drew only 100,000 or so viewers. 

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