TiVo and the importance of Now
In a comment to my TiVo entry, Noah makes the following observation:
You can circumvent most of the advertising by waiting for the DVD Season box set to be released on Netflix. Sure it puts you behind a few months (years!? :), but you are not only rewarded with no advertisements, but you also get bonus footage surrounding the show.
What you are dicussing is only a problem plagued by those who value entertainment based on its timeliness.
This is true but the “timeliness” factor is not just a fashionable whim shown by futile people, it’s part of out society. When a show comes out and the next day at work, you hear everybody talk about it, you want to be part of it. This feeling goes even to the point where people watch shows they don’t really enjoy that much just so they can be part of the discussions and/or controversies that will ensue at the water cooler or at their next dinner party.
From that perspective, the DVD approach doesn’t fly. It can also be expensive, and you have no guarantee that the said show will ever come out on DVD’s, much less that NetFlix will ever include it in their catalogue.
One type of advertisement that TiVo cannot circumvent is product placement.
Product placement is annoying but not very disruptive. I didn’t mind too much seeing a huge Budweiser ad on Time Square as Spiderman was swinging on his web threads over Fifth avenue. I would certainly mind if an animated banner popped every five minutes at the bottom of the screen to convince me to buy a car. You think it will never happen in theaters? I’m not so sure…
Comments (5)
anyone who'd watch something they don't like just to be part of the water cooler conversation deserves everything they get. i watch tv that i like. for example that means getting the first 4 series of the west wing on dvd and watching the whole thing in a job lot from start to finish over the course of a month three or four episodes at a time with hardly any 'tv' in between.
The fact that the "timeliness" factor is part of our society does not implies that it is not just a "fashionable whim shown by futile people". When you "want to be part of it" and 'it' is 'talk about the show last night because that's what everybody is doning', well, you might want to consider the possibility that you are a little futile. If you don't realy like that show, then futility cannot be the only explanation/excuse. I do aggree that I'd rather have someone trying to convince me to drink beer (no bud please) than buying a car, and the success rate would be a lot higher, but I fail to understand why it would be more or less disruptive. Regards,
True, there is something to be said about shared common experiences that helps people bond. The question is: Is TV content worth bonding over? For the record, it's the content of the TV not the TV itself. I have a TV and watch mo vies on it all the time, I just don't pay for cable or tune my tv to get local channels. (being in New York, you get just about everything over the airwaves for free.) I'll lay the premise that TV content is not that productive when ingested on a schedule set by the broadcasters. TiVo provided a why to break away so you can watch at your own leisure. In this case you'd be falling behind your water cooler brethren who need to have witnessed and share their experience. Waiting for the DVD or Netflix, which over the last few years has been offering more TV content over their subscription channel. I agree that this method really puts you behind, but what is it your afraid of getting behind in? If you're so worried that you will miss out on a group bonding experience over television, then I think there might be other issues...(the cigar is just a cigar Dr. Freud :). Are there better pursuits then the "immediacy" factor? Are there worse pursuits then the act of watching TV? Will it really be the end of the world if you don't keep up with the tv watching crowd, fall behind, or completely free your time from laughing at the same jokes you laughed at last night, but didn't really think was funny? As for product placement. I absolutely believe it happens in theaters and I haven't decided if it makes sense or not. Product use is one thing... "Lead guy gets done with a hard days work working at the mill and meets with wife for a night at the bar...guy grabs a can and drinks from it" The can happens to be a Coors can. Big deal and perhaps that a great product placement, but it doesn't bump the story. Product placement bumps the story, contorts the picture, make your brain stumble for a milli second. It happens too and takes away from the story. Unfortunate, but films are expensive.
uggg...you're filters take at least 10 minutes to post. (you don't need to post this)
I think the solution is an HTPC (or modded Xbox) and copious use of TVTorrents (www.tvtorrents.net). No need for Tivo (this is coming from a guy who owns 2 Tivos) - and completely ad-free.