Online TV

[N4H]

I've posted other threads like this, but they were more about, what happens when internet TV arrives.

It appears to be out there now, so the question now becomes, do you use it? I use it a lot. I make all these little personal discoveries of stuff I've kind of heard of, but never actually seen. I just discovered Weeds. I love it. I notice Robin Hood is available now. I'll be checking that one out next. I've heard of The Wire, and Rome too. They're on my list of things to see.

Can you recommend anything a little bit obscure I should add to that list.

[Miffed67]

Ok, giving a plug for my favorite new show....The Black Donnellys. LOL! I just had to do that, sorry.... :blush:

[N4H]

I found Black Donnelys

http://www.alluc.org/alluc/tv-shows.html?action=getviewcategory&category_uid=2234

[Miffed67]

They've only aired 2 eps so far, so it's still pretty new. I love that show already, tho! You can watch eps at CBS.com, but you can't download them there. And it's annoying, because they chop them up in to 5 or 6 pieces for viewing (I'm sure that's so they'll load faster, but whatever.)

[prydain]

The Black Donnellys is on NBC.com.

I was going to watch it but so many critics despise it I think I'll wait until this summer and give it a try then.

[Miffed67]

Well it's one of those damn networks! Heh! Thanks, pry...

Yeah, I heard there was a cancellation rumor going around. I hope it's not true! The guy that canned Angel isn't running NBC now, is he?

[prydain]

Prez of NBC is Kevin Reilly. (sp?)

[prydain]

I don't know, but you were asking so I just gave you the name. :)

[N4H]

OK so I'm going down the list of stuff on online TV I've missed, or don't know from regular TV.

Finished Weeds. Great stuff. That season 2 finale has the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers. Can't wait till august.

Robin Hood. Watched a few eps. Kind of entertaining. I'd most likely have more affection for it I was still in high school. That Maid Marian as Xena stuff was stupid in # 3 so I moved on.

Dirt. Yeah, I don't know. I either love it, or hate it. I don't know which yet. I'll watch more.

I'm looking for another one to start as well. I've heard of The Wire, and Rome. I'll get to them after Dirt.

I'd like to check out one I haven't heard of. Here's my list of those. Anyone heard of any of these, and want to recommend 1 or 2?

# Absolutely Fabulous -- 2 seasons
# Afterlife
# Alan Partridge
# Balls Of Steel
# Big Day - 1 season
# Bill Bailey
# Black Books -- 3 seasons
# Bottom - 3 seasons
# Coupling - 3 seasons
# Extras
# Greenwing
# Gumball 3000 -- 3 seasons
# IT Crowd
# Jonathan Creek -- 4 seasons
# Man Vs. Wild -- 1 season
# Mock Of The Week
# Max and Paddy
# Newly Weds
# Peep Show -- 3 seasons
# Red Vs Blue -- 4 seasons
# Shameless -- 2 seasons
# Skins - 1 season
# Sleeper Cell -- 1 seasons
# That's My Bush
# The League Of Gentlemen
# The Smoking Room -- 2 seasons
# The Young Ones -- 2 seasons
# Wildboyz

I'm thinking most of these must be British, or I would have heard of them. British is cool as long as they aren't reality, soaps, or daytime.

[prydain]

Black Books is an excellent show. I highly recommend it. Afterlife is okay. Sort of like Medium, with nudity and accents.

[goldenboy]

News Corp., NBC pull together to challenge YouTube...
Thu Mar 22 2007 10:45:59 ET

NEW YORK, March 22, 2007 -- News Corporation and NBC Universal will launch the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film, it was announced today by Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal and Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation. The video-rich site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios.

AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site’s initial distribution partners. Their users, who represent 96 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet, will have unlimited access to the site’s vast library of content. This media alliance will offer consumers free long- and short-form video and create a compelling platform for advertisers, targeting the rapidly growing audience of online video consumers. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel Corporation and General Motors.

“This is a game changer for Internet video,” said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. “We’ll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want -- professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live. We’re excited about the potential for this alliance and we’re looking forward to working with any content provider or distributor who wants to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.”

“Anyone who believes in the value of ubiquitous distribution will find this announcement incredibly exciting,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. “This venture supercharges our distribution of protected, quality content to fans everywhere. Consumers get a hugely attractive aggregation of a wide range of content, and marketers get a novel way to connect with a large and highly engaged audience.”

At launch, full episodes and clips from current hit shows, including Heroes, 24, House, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, Friday Night Lights, The Riches, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, Prison Break, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Top Chef, plus hits from the studios’ vast television libraries, will be available free, on an ad-supported basis, within a rich consumer experience featuring personalized video playlists, mashups, online communities and video search. Plus, the extensive programming lineup will include fan favorite films like Borat, Little Miss Sunshine, Devil Wears Prada, The Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy with bonus materials and movie trailers. Post- launch, plans will be considered for acquiring additional content as well as producing and licensing original programming for the new site’s audience.

Its launch distribution partners will provide the biggest potential reach of any player on the Internet. Moreover, the new site will actively seek agreements with a variety of additional distribution partners.

“This new venture is further proof that the Internet is now a full-fledged entertainment medium, and we are delighted to serve as a major online distribution partner for the quality content produced by these media powerhouses, as well as a provider of strategic services to the new venture,” said Randy Falco, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AOL.

“This partnership is completely aligned with our continued investment in video on MSN and will allow hundreds of millions of our consumers to tune into a vast library of high-quality, safe and legal online video,” said Kevin Johnson, President, Platform and Services Division, Microsoft. “Our alliance proves that you can deliver quality online video entertainment and protect intellectual property and copyright at the same time. We look forward to working together to explore additional opportunities to distribute this content across other Microsoft services and devices.”

“By delivering the new site’s content to our more than 65 million users, we can build on MySpace’s position as a leading destination for online video, and enable content creators to tap into the power of social networking,” said Peter Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media. “The ability to embed video clips within over 160 million profile pages will empower members of the MySpace community to view, share and truly interact with some of the entertainment world’s most popular content.”

“We are excited to be a part of this landmark partnership that connects people to the content they care about. As the most visited site in the U.S., this deal gives Yahoo!’s users unprecedented access to their favorite shows and offers them engaging content in a premium video format,” said Terry Semel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Yahoo! Inc. “We believe that this relationship underscores Yahoo!'s respect for content owners and copyrights and positions us as one of the premier distribution sites on the Web for entertainment programming.”

Each distribution partner will feature the site’s content in an embedded player customized with a look and feel consistent with each site, making the offering organic to each destination. The new company will offer innovative advertising sales propositions by being able to sell cross-platform -- on-air and on-line. Post-launch, sites affiliated with founding companies, including iVillage and IGN, will also have the opportunity to become distribution partners.

The new company will be located in New York and Los Angeles. A transitional management team led by NBC Universal’s Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff, along with an experienced group of executives from NBC Universal and News Corporation, will work together to launch the site. The company’s permanent management will be announced shortly, along with branding details and additional advertising partners. Each company will devote a significant marketing and promotional budget to the new site’s launch.

News Corporation and NBC Universal are creating this strategic alliance at a time when Internet users and advertisers are embracing online video as never before. In January, there were 123 million unique video streamers and downloaders (comScore Video Metrix). In 2005, video streams totaled nearly 18 billion, and that amount is expected to triple by 2010 (AccuStream iMedia Research, 2006). And research firm eMarketer estimates $410 million was spent on online video advertising in 2006, an amount that is expected to almost double this year.
http://drudgereport.com/flash3.htm

[N4H]

Man, now that is big. That's a gigantic development. A potential culture-changing development. There can be so many spin-off developments from this, not just affecting the way content is distributed, but the way it's produced, who does it, and how.

The big question for me at this point though is will there be DRM? If there is I'm not interested, and will stay at online linking sites for as long as they're out there. However once the content producers realize the commercial potential of ITV we might find copyright video disappears from the other vid sites such as YouTube until they swing deals with DRM.

But this answers the question why have content producers been leaving their stuff up at the online vid sites rather than taking it down. They've been checking out the commercial potential.

[edb]

# Absolutely Fabulous -- 2 seasons
# Afterlife
# Black Books -- 3 seasons
# Bottom - 3 seasons
# Coupling - 3 seasons
# Extras
# Jonathan Creek -- 4 seasons
# The League Of Gentlemen
# The Young Ones -- 2 seasons


Those would be my recommendations. :D All of them are worth viewing!

[N4H]

Thanks. I'll check them out. So far the British stuff I've seen via OTV is Robin Hood, Torchwood, Primeval, Father Ted and The Hogfather. Like them all (with a couple possible, unimportant niggles). Loved The Hogfather.

[N4H]

Mr. Pointy turned me onto this old Brit-vid series called Sapphire and Steel. I was really getting into it, then it turns out they aren't actually heroes. Steel in particular is a very bad boy. I like my heroes to be good guys, or at least they should somehow even accidentally somehow do some kind of good thing. Sapphire and Steel didn't, so I'm moving on.

Now though, I really like Joanna Lumley, so if EDB recommends Absolutely Fabulous that's where I'm going next.

[edb]

God I remember Sapphire & Steel! :D

And N4H - Ab Fab is really funny - Joanna Lumley is brilliant in it! :)

[Mr Pointy]

Here's my two penn'orth about the ones I've seen or heard about...

# Afterlife - excellent ghost stories...well worth a look.

# Alan Partridge - very funny Steve Coogan character, a useless TV presenter.

# Bill Bailey - I find him hilarious...hippy-looking, geek-friendly, musical stand-up comic.

# Black Books - I got into to it late but found it very funny...features Bill Bailey (see above)

# Extras - Ricky Gervais can do no wrong for me, though I kinda see why some dislike him. I thought Extras improved on The Office, especially as we got to see more of Steven Merchant on-screen (Ricky's writing partner). My fave was the Patrick Stewart ep from the first series...

# Greenwing - OTT medical comedy...the first series was OK...I only watched the first ep of the second, which I didn't enjoy, so I didn't persevere...it seemed to try too hard to be controversial.

# IT Crowd - OK geek-com which I found watchable when there was nothing else on.

# Jonathan Creek - well-made, quirky detective drama (Tony Head was in some of the early eps btw)

# Mock The Week - comedy panel game...I've not watched it but heard good things about it.

# Max and Paddy - spin-off from Phoenix Nights, which I thought was much better...OK though

# Peep Show - I've not seen this but have heard nothing but praise from those who have...features current hot comedy double-act Mitchell and Webb (they are in the Brit versions of the Mac v. PC ads)

# Shameless - loved it to pieces...excellent comedy drama ...series 4 (the final one)finished recently here and I felt that it was getting a little stale but the first three are classics...

# The League Of Gentlemen - I've only ever seen a couple of eps but I feel that I'd like it if I watched more...for the discerning viewer of off-the-wall, black comedy...features Doctor Who writer (and soon-to-be actor) Mark Gatiss

# The Young Ones - one of the first sit-coms to come from the Brit alternative comedy explosion :)I thought it was brilliant in the early 80s but I'm not sure it's aged too well.

Edit:

Mr. Pointy turned me onto this old Brit-vid series called Sapphire and Steel. I was really getting into it, then it turns out they aren't actually heroes. Steel in particular is a very bad boy. I like my heroes to be good guys, or at least they should somehow even accidentally somehow do some kind of good thing. Sapphire and Steel didn't, so I'm moving on.


S&S were heroes in the respect that they were sort of extra-dimensional police whose job was to maintain the integrity of Time, which they generally did...just 'cos they're both pretty cold fish doesn't mean that they aren't heroes. I'd liken Steel to a less passionate prototype for Jack Bauer...then again, it's years since I watched S&S so the old memory may be misbehaving :)

[Vilandra]

Oh my god Absolutely Fabulous is hilarious! I have all the seasons on DVD lol

Black Books is excellent as well. I've never laughed so hard in all my life. It might be funnier than Father Ted. Maybe.

What's the Hogfather about again?

[N4H]

OTV is still in it's formative stages so the organization isn't great.

For example with Absolutely Fabulous you get a few early episodes, and a few later ones. What a find the early ones were. I just ate them up. The one where Edie turns forty is a classic. Patsy rocks. We need an American version. The later ones though, I still liked, but not so much.

Black Books is great. Where I am we get some British TV on the networks, but it's mostly really old (Are You Being Served), or oriented to really old people (Waiting for God). This stuff you guys are turning me onto now though, this is ground-breaking stuff. I feel deprived. I don't mind old stuff, but I like it to remain relevant like the old Ab Fabs.

Thanks for the series descriptions Pointy. They're helpful.

On Sapphire and Steel, I watched the first assignment. What I saw of it was really good, but it was cut into sections, and the last few chunks were missing. I never did find out if they get those kids their parents back from the other dimension, or not.

It was Assignment 2 that disillusioned me. There's this sweet old guy S&S run into in a haunted railway station. He helps them out during the whole assignment. Steel's solution at the end is to give the old guy up to a dark force for eternal torture in order to free a bunch of ghosts. That's a bad guy solution, not a good guy solution.

[Vilandra]

Ack! An American version of AbFab would be sacriledge! Sweetie, darling ;)

[N4H]

I just want better access to the story. :)

Now that you mention it though, how could you recast those characters? I was just running through a mental list of chunky American, middle-aged actresses - Kirstie Allie, Delta Baker, Megan what's her name from Will and Grace. You're right. It would be sacrilege.

[Mr Pointy]

Incidentally, Sapphire and Steel was created by PJ Hammond, who wrote the fairies ep of Torchwood, which I thought was one of the better ones.

[N4H]

Something like Shameless, would that appear in Britain on the equivalent to North American cable.

Like in America if you want to see something like Weeds, or Dirt, or The Shield, or The Sopranos you have to pay for an extra cable package. They don't make that kind of push the boundaries stuff for network TV. Is Shameless broadcast like that, or can you watch such fair on what would be your basic network television?

I found some new online TV search engines.

http://www.yourtvsearch.com/

http://www.freetvsearch.com/

I haven't been able to figure the one below out yet. It seems to use Google, and Yahoo in some way. Or maybe I have figured it out, but it just doesn't give me very good results.

http://searchspy.50webs.com/

This one's pretty amazing if you want to do it the long way around.

http://www.download-tv-now.com/

[prydain]

That last link is pretty cool. So far, though, I think my favorite site is tvlinks.co.uk because of the window that the videos play in.

Now I can catch up on a lot of TV easier. lol

[Mr Pointy]

Something like Shameless, would that appear in Britain on the equivalent to North American cable.

Like in America if you want to see something like Weeds, or Dirt, or The Shield, or The Sopranos you have to pay for an extra cable package. They don't make that kind of push the boundaries stuff for network TV. Is Shameless broadcast like that, or can you watch such fair on what would be your basic network television?

Shameless was shown on Channel 4, which is one of our terrestrial channels...they have a reputation for producing more cutting edge stuff.

[Mesektet Ra]

.:slides in:.

Um, hey. Don't forget about Heroes. It's online at nbc.com, too.

.:slides out:.

[N4H]

I just watched last night's Heroes online. Not at NBC though. It was pretty good. I always have problems with the software when I try to watch stuff at the network's site. They should do something about that if they want to compete.

[N4H]

An interesting thing is happening tomorrow in the world of online TV. Sony launches what's been called it's "YouTube Killer" - EyeVio (http://www.eyevio.jp/square/about/).

There's a real demand for Japanese media on You tube.

Last year (Google) removed nearly 30,000 video files from the site at the request of Japanese media firms.

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Technology/10121085.html

Some see this move as part of a larger trend amongst the world's media producers to compete with Google's acquisition of YouTube.

Viacom brought a 1 billion dollar lawsuit against Google. NBC, and Newscorp have announced competive services of their own to come sometime this year.

Another thing to watch for is Joost (http://www.joost.com/whatsjoost.html). It will work on P2P technology and offer content from such media producers as FOX, Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions, and Viacom including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures. It's from the guys who created Kazaa and Skype.

[prydain]

Did you guys read about tv-links.co.uk getting shut down, and the guy who owned it arrested?

Major pirate website shut down | | Guardian Unlimited Business (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2195407,00.html)

One of the world's most-used pirate film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.

The first closure of a major UK-based pirate site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.

A 26-year-old man from Cheltenham was arrested on Thursday in connection with offences relating to the facilitation of copyright infringement on the internet, Fact said.

The arrest and the closure of the site - http://www.tv-links.co.uk - came during an operation by officers from Gloucestershire County Council trading standards in conjunction with investigators from Fact and Gloucestershire Police.

Fact claims that tv-links.co.uk was providing links to illegal film content that had been camcorder recorded from cinemas and then uploaded to the internet. The site also provided links to TV shows that were being illegally distributed.

Visitors to the site could get access to major feature films, sometimes within days of their initial cinema release. Recent links took users to illegal versions of the Disney/Pixar animation sensation Ratatouille as well as to most of this summer's blockbusters.

"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites," said a spokesman for Fact.

The group's director general Kieron Sharp said TV Links was the first major target in a campaign to crackdown on web piracy.

"The theft and distribution of films harms the livelihoods of those working in the UK film industry and in ancillary industries, as well as damaging the economy," he said.

Roger Marles, from Trading Standards said sites such as TV Links allowed people to break UK copyright law.

"The 'users' are potentially evading licence fees, subscription fees to digital services or the cost of purchase or admittance to cinemas to view the films," he added.

The British Video Association estimates that at least £459m was lost to the video, film and TV industries due to piracy in 2006.

[N4H]

Yeah, I heard about that. Personally, I have no sympathy for the guy. He wanted to be a big shot. He hijacked the streams and made it look like they were all coming from his site. You're supposed to just link to the stream so the viewer lands on the video site hosting the stream. 2 other sites have already been taken down for doing the same stupid thing he did. It amazes me that Veoh is still up. They do something even dumber. They actually host the stream, and force users to download their software if they want to see it.

There still are linking sites around though. There's tons of them. If you'd like to see what I mean, here's a link.

Replacements for TVLinks - Zeropaid Forums (http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=45748)