Finding the Long Tail of Television

prostoalex writes "The New York Times runs the story on the long tail of television, where the channels that would not be hits on the mainstream media are migrating to the Internet and finding interested audiences there. The article mentions Sail.tv - TV programming for those into sailing and yachting, TrioTV - the cornucopia of pop culture and music, BrilliantButCancelled will rerun the reruns of old TV shows, and OutZone will feature programming pertaining to gays and lesbians."

Comments

Brilliant But Cancelled

[From A Far Away Land]

I'd like to have them show Vengence Unlimited, and Brimstone. It's not often that Fox creates something worth watching, but Brimstone certainly deserved more than the 1 season it was granted in 1998.

Long Time Coming

[Lifyre]

This is something that should be a suprise to no one especially with the increasing popularity of BT and other p2p software to share shows from netwrok TV. Finding new shows on the internet and providing them with dedicated viewers should also inprove the quality of regular television, while it lasts, as some of these shows get picked up by the networks. They would likely be popular because they're good and hopefully original instead of being popular because they're better than the rest of the trash on TV.

Trio TV

[LochNess]

I really liked watching Trio TV when it was on DirecTV. Unfortunately, they got into some sort of dispute, and were dropped.

Re:The internet solves one problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of the situation with WLS-AM in Chicago back in the 80s. Nobody in Chicago cared... but at night, half the kids in the Bible Belt listenend to them, because there was no other way to get your rock-and-roll fix if you didn't live in a major metropolitan area. Apart from the occasional Clearasil ad, the station's idiot advertisers and programming directors didn't realize what a gold mine they had.

cycling.tv another

[markk]

I am not usually on the leading edge of things, but even with multiple cable channels I could never get decent coverage of one of my favorite sports - bicycling (Beyond Lance Armstrong who was almost a sport to himslf). I looked around and the only place I could find actual race coverage was on the internet. All sports channels seem to want to show are high volume shows, poker, and hunting and fishing, with hour a week of coverage max. This internet TV thing is great - even if they do seem to be super Microsoft focused in technology and still not very much resolution. Cable was supposed to lead to differentiation, but I think the overhead of the cable distribution network is stifling this, and I don't want to pay $100/mo for tons of channels I will never watch. The article says that the 500+ cable channels are full, but I don't see them available anywhere without very big cash outlays by me. That same infrastructure (cable modems) can also deliver programming not under the control of the cable provider through internet TV. I wonder as this develops when it will hurt them so they notice?

I had to laugh at the ESPN spokesman - yeah they will put $ in quality production of Poker or dumb commentary shows but don't want poor quality shows, like actual coverage of sporting events. Typical big corp talk - it doesn't match the walk.

Re:Of course, there's the REAL mainstream...

[babbling]

I'm starting to believe that there's some truth to this. I've noticed, while browsing the "popular" category on Google Video, that a lot of the videos are borderline porn.

I can't help but think that if Google allowed porn videos, the "popular" category would eventually be filled with them.

Can we have the old ZDTV or TECHTV back?

[ApewithGun]

Now that G4 has killed ALL tech (and most game programs) in favor of old reruns can we please have a tech channel back?

Re:Next on OutZone

[SachiCALaw]

Not funny, son. I know the woman who filed the complaint about WoW's refusal to permit a GLBT guild. It is really too bad that you think that your "right" to make fun of gays and lesbians is worth more than their dignity.

Re:Finding the Long Tail? That's easy!

[evilviper]

(I only watch the network channels and a handful of basic cable channels, so I'm sure there's plenty else on that I don't know about).

Don't be so sure. Thanks to my DVR, I actually have a detailed record of what I watch... I was quite surprised to discover that something like 90%+ of what I watch is on OTA channels.

If I could get The Daily Show/Colbert Report shows, and History/National Geographic channels, I'd cancel my cable subscription as soon as I could install a (very good) antenna, and buy an HDTV reciever.

It's only been about the past 2 years or so that things have been so bad. Discovery and TLC, in particular, used-to have extremely interesting programs. The rise of the unscripted "reality" shows like American Choppers and Trading Spaces turned 99% of cable programming into an ultra-low-budget crap-fest. Sci-Fi channel had stuff worth watching most of the time, too, before the monster-of-the-day movies. And on and on it goes. Plus, OTA channels are now the only place you can watch shows without MASSIVE distractions, like 1/3rd of the screen being covered for several minutes with pop-up ads for other shows, sound effects designed to distract you, etc.

I'm very much on the verge of canceling my subscriptions, and I can't imaging how other people can justify spending so much money on so much crap.