Ed Powell writes "CNN has a story about how AOL is looking into creating a TV channel. Looks like MSNBC is getting some competition soon. " Can they spam my TV ads?
39 comments
Re:MSNBC?
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Anonymous Coward
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MSNBC, the joint venture between Microsoft & NBC? Doesn't that count?
Probably not in the context of this announcement. It sounds like AOLTV would be a cable channel about the Net; MSNBC is a skanky-ass poor excuse for a cable news channel. If anyone would be direct competition with AOLTV, it'd be ZDTV.
Ouch!
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Anonymous Coward
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So they're competing for the same 12 users that think WebTV is a good idea? People keep forgetting that there's no retail market for these devices. Cable companies will end up providing them for free in order to try and compete in the content area, and it's iffy whether that will succeed or not.
MAE LING MAK NAKED AND PETRIFIED
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Anonymous Coward
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Drool...
I love AOL. Come on, they're just another business... let them be. Personally, I'd like them to bip M$ every now and then.... I mean, Windows NT is awesome, and linux can't hope to compete, but AOL has a chance is these areas.
MAE LING MAK!!
AOCBS!!!
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I betcha they'll start a channel named AOCBS: America on CBS!
And this is what their new logo is going to be: http://www.interfocus.net/aocbs.jpg
Re:Groovy
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
meeeee tooooooh! pls put me on ur list. tnx.
MAE LING MAK NAKED AND PETRIFIED
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
No.
Re:AOL is not that bad
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Anonymous Coward
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Well, let's see now. If AOL-TV is anything like the Online Service, you won't be able to watch it unless you have just the right TV set and get your TV signals from just the right provider. If you're waiting for AOL to improve Netscape, don't hold your breath. I've been waiting for 2 years for them to support Windows NT V4.0 Workstation (with whatever Service Packs are available) as a dial-up client. I'm also waiting for them to do something about all the porno-spam. I might as well be Waiting For Godot...
We can cure you...
by
Anonymous Coward
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Please report to your nearest self termination chamber for an immediate cure. Brad
Re:A logical question.
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Anonymous Coward
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Never - they're too chicken... (OK, but I am allowed one groaner per month...)
Heheheh...I can just imagine...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Hhehehehheh It would look like a web page. Some funny green glob on the top, in the middle Ad banners. Then the TV image surrounded by that green blob...not the TV image never touches the edge of the screen... And at the bottom the AOL logo spins around at the end of each segment/ad:)
Disney is already like AOL.
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Anonymous Coward
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It's called "Disney". That is what an AOL TV station wold be like so all you lunies can quit freting since you have sean the worst case senarion.
AOL TV Hardware and AOL TV strategy
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The AOL TV game will probably start in Germany. First of all Bertelsmann owns part of AOL Europe. The Bertelsmann Broadband group is working on content development for this platform for more than a year now and I am sure that they will be online with AOL TV in Germany before christmas.
Bertelsmann are about to buy the german cable network (at least they are trying). There are even rumors that they collaborate with Microsoft. But this could be a problem because of AOL USA.
AOL (Europe and USA) are looking for companies that supply the hardware platform for AOL TV. One of them could be Tivo (see press release about the AOL/ Tivo collaboration) on the Tivo website.
What is interesting: Tivo uses Linux as operating system. Add a cable modem and a MPEG2 decoder card to the Tivo Box and I will definitely buy the AOL TV set.
The AOL TV services will be mainly Video-On-Demand and shopping channels (with links to BOL - book shop, BMG music group and so on). The main strategy of AOL will be to launch a TV portal (like Yahoo for the television) for the digital TV users.
Is AOL all that bad?
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
First off let me say i'm a AOL shareholder (was a Netscape shareholder, too) but please listen to what i have to say..? I'm a big netscape fan. Well, i'm a fan of any company that will compete with Microsoft. AOL's serivce isn't for me, but it is where i learned how to use the internet and first place i pirated software and get porno. Thanks to AOL i'm a regular computer user now.. How many people could say the same thing? I'd have to admit, pirating software on AOL is very easy! Back in my day, AOL users promoted 'free warez' where there is no trading. If some one needed some thing, you just sent it to them... Anyhow, AOL is really becoming in my opinion Microsoft's biggest competitor. For some reason, i think AOL has a better chance at beating Bill Gates than Sun, Oracle or IBM ever did. Call me crazy, but i think AOL's management team is the smartest in the industry. The only thing they must watch out for is Microsoft's dirty tactics and AOL will be fine. P.S. As long as AOL doesn't put Ads all over ICQ and Netscape, i'll love them. If they put Ads all over ICQ or Netscape i'll sell my shares and quit using their services!!;)
Using Liberate's (nee, NCI) platform
by
jbrw
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· Score: 1
AOL bought NetChannel Inc yonks ago (search for NetChannel on news.com for the background), and the AOL TV service is built, in part, by ex-NetChannel people. Blah, blah, blah... Whatever.
So....what happens when too many people watch?
by
Electric+Eye
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· Score: 1
Will we be plagued by static? Automatically forwarded to a PAX Network station? The invention of the TV Busy Signal? Nah.... Who's gonna watch?
Ever see that guy (the stocky muscular guy with short blonde hair) on the Home Shopping Channel who shouts at you for a half hour straight about how great his product is? That's how I picture AOL TV.
I especially love the way, that he can give you no reason other than THIS IS SOO COOL! to try to get you to buy it.
--
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
Re:Maybe you should actually read the article, peo
by
unitron
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· Score: 1
Which article? The one the link goes to has nothing about set-top boxes. Actually it doesn't have much of anything, although I assume they're planning a cable and not a broadcast channel. Of course if they want to actually get on any cable systems they'll probably need to be part owners of same.
--
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Will they start sending me free VHS tapes in the mail and pack they in with magazines in an attempt to make me "convince my local cable or satallite provider to carry their fine programing?" (TM)
That would suck, not only because they are doing it, but the fact that the tapes probably won't be full length and I counldn't reuse them like I used to reuse the AOL floppies.
The fact that AOL and MSNBC will be launching TV channels goes to show that these guys are ready to put "innovation" aside for a quick buck.
Television is a 50 year old technology. There's really not much more you can do with it nowadays than 20 years ago!
It's quite sickening to see all their consumer's money go towards an attempt to cash in on the TV broadcast industry. If I was an AOL user I would be wondering why they didn't put my fees into better network access and services.
Yes, I know - it's business. But its not CONSUMER ORIENTATED business. AOL and MSNBC doesn't care at all about their users - rather it seems they are more interested in manipulating them with glitsy banner ads and spam.
I'll pay my slightly higher fees for my local ISP. At least I'll be happy knowing that my money is going to help feed a family and upgrade my connection - I'de rather that than support a wannabee media Monopoly.
Re:Maybe you should actually read the article, peo
by
Yosemite+Sue
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· Score: 1
The title of the CNN news piece is somewhat confusing ("AOL plans TV channel") and Case sez "We don't want to turn the TV into a computer", but if it is planning on offering "email" and "chat forums", it does look like a WebTV clone...
Not a very informative news story, IMO...
YS.
-- "Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
I prefer ZDTV myself as well...although you really can't compare MSNBC to ZDTV, different focus for each channel.
-witz
Re:Screw AOLTV and MSNBC
by
KnobDicker
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· Score: 1
I agree....ZDTV is a good first for a 24/7 computing channel. Maybe CNET, Wired, and Mecklermedia will follow suit and raise the geek factor a couple notches for the rest of us.
...they'll just have small 13" TV sets pop up next to your big screen whenever you change the channel. Unfortunately, you'll only be able to watch ads on the smaller one.
If it's anything like the real AOL, the picture will be letterboxed and it'll have a commercial ticker running across the top and bottom of the screen. Let's just hope AOL doesn't decide to televise their chat rooms, though..
At best, sounds like "Bloomberg Financial Television" or any other easily-confusing television "program" with stock/commercial/weather tickers cluttering up the screen.
At worst, they could let the "AOL Community" make the programming decisions.
AOL is just a big company with software that does not appeal to me at this time. As long as they improve netscape, then more power to them for having a crappy tv-channel. I won't watch... you can if you want to.
Maybe you should actually read the article, people
by
signe
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· Score: 1
If you actually read the article, Hemos, you'd actually see that it's not competition for MSNBC and it's not a TV channel. AOL-TV is competition for WebTV. It's a set-top box.
So much for/.'s "quality" news.
-Todd
---
--
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
MSNBC, the joint venture between Microsoft & NBC? Doesn't that count? I would imagine breaking into television would be expensive business. Would AOL do a joint venture with someone already established? "A(OL|BC)", between AOL & ABC? Or AOL|CBS? I think part of their content is served up by CBS. They could have an interesting joint logo -- both of their logos are Eyes. OK, I'm just typing stream of consciousness now...
j-a-w-a-d------------------------------ replace,'s in e-mail address with.'s.
-- i dont display scores, and my threshhold is -1. post accordingly.
Discuss/. policies
Will they start mailing free TV's?
by
q2k
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· Score: 1
Following the free cell phone and free PC trend, maybe they will start offering up free televisions if you subscribe. (only half kidding here...)
AOL's core strategy is AOL anywhere. They are a media company for all practical purposes- and the fact is that way more people have TV's than have computers. I've been expectin this anouncement for quite a while. Add a set top box and a keyboard, and your mother will be able to IM you while your watching a pay per view porno. Gee, isn't technology grand!
> "It's not in our interest to invest in infrastructure. It wouldn't be very smart for us to buy everything in the online world"
It's nice to see a huge-ass company actually discounting the possibility of owning the world. Too many companies try to deliver way too much - the technology and the content. It's my hope that content provision shifts more and more to outsourced creative companies - there is so much wasted bandwidth and exposure out there given to second rate content, when there are tons of creative masterminds waiting in the shadows for someone to give them the spot light.
Makes you wonder why Microsoft does not have its own channel yet.
As internet providers are leaning more towards the free side, AOL needs new sources of revenue. No matter how happy people are with their service, eventually, the offer for free service is going to make an impression on them. I am sure AOL sees this coming.
I wonder if the aol hackers would try to steal tv access as much as they try to steal usernames and passwords. Instead of phishing groups the would start break in crews to steal your tv box.
-- Need Free Graphics?
http://www.freewebtemplates.com
If it's anything like the real AOL, the picture will be letterboxed and it'll have a commercial ticker running across the top and bottom of the screen. Let's just hope AOL doesn't decide to televise their chat rooms, though..
Slashdot Mirror
Probably not in the context of this announcement. It sounds like AOLTV would be a cable channel about the Net; MSNBC is a skanky-ass poor excuse for a cable news channel. If anyone would be direct competition with AOLTV, it'd be ZDTV.
So they're competing for the same 12 users that think WebTV is a good idea? People keep forgetting that there's no retail market for these devices. Cable companies will end up providing them for free in order to try and compete in the content area, and it's iffy whether that will succeed or not.
Drool...
I love AOL. Come on, they're just another business... let them be. Personally, I'd like them to bip M$ every now and then.... I mean, Windows NT is awesome, and linux can't hope to compete, but AOL has a chance is these areas.
MAE LING MAK!!
I betcha they'll start a channel named AOCBS: America on CBS!
And this is what their new logo is going to be:
http://www.interfocus.net/aocbs.jpg
meeeee tooooooh! pls put me on ur list. tnx.
No.
Well, let's see now. If AOL-TV is anything like the Online Service, you won't be able to watch it unless you have just the right TV set and get your TV signals from just the right provider. If you're waiting for AOL to improve Netscape, don't hold your breath. I've been waiting for 2 years for them to support Windows NT V4.0 Workstation (with whatever Service Packs are available) as a dial-up client. I'm also waiting for them to do something about all the porno-spam. I might as well be Waiting For Godot...
Please report to your nearest self termination chamber for an immediate cure. Brad
Never - they're too chicken... (OK, but I am allowed one groaner per month...)
Hhehehehheh It would look like a web page. Some funny green glob on the top, in the middle Ad banners. Then the TV image surrounded by that green blob...not the TV image never touches the edge of the screen... And at the bottom the AOL logo spins around at the end of each segment/ad :)
It's called "Disney". That is what an AOL TV station wold be like so all you lunies can quit freting since you have sean the worst case senarion.
Bertelsmann are about to buy the german cable network (at least they are trying). There are even rumors that they collaborate with Microsoft. But this could be a problem because of AOL USA.
AOL (Europe and USA) are looking for companies that supply the hardware platform for AOL TV. One of them could be Tivo (see press release about the AOL/ Tivo collaboration) on the Tivo website.
What is interesting: Tivo uses Linux as operating system. Add a cable modem and a MPEG2 decoder card to the Tivo Box and I will definitely buy the AOL TV set.
The AOL TV services will be mainly Video-On-Demand and shopping channels (with links to BOL - book shop, BMG music group and so on). The main strategy of AOL will be to launch a TV portal (like Yahoo for the television) for the digital TV users.
First off let me say i'm a AOL shareholder (was a Netscape shareholder, too) but please listen to what i have to say..? I'm a big netscape fan. Well, i'm a fan of any company that will compete with Microsoft. AOL's serivce isn't for me, but it is where i learned how to use the internet and first place i pirated software and get porno. Thanks to AOL i'm a regular computer user now.. How many people could say the same thing? I'd have to admit, pirating software on AOL is very easy! Back in my day, AOL users promoted 'free warez' where there is no trading. If some one needed some thing, you just sent it to them... Anyhow, AOL is really becoming in my opinion Microsoft's biggest competitor. For some reason, i think AOL has a better chance at beating Bill Gates than Sun, Oracle or IBM ever did. Call me crazy, but i think AOL's management team is the smartest in the industry. The only thing they must watch out for is Microsoft's dirty tactics and AOL will be fine. P.S. As long as AOL doesn't put Ads all over ICQ and Netscape, i'll love them. If they put Ads all over ICQ or Netscape i'll sell my shares and quit using their services!! ;)
AOL bought NetChannel Inc yonks ago (search for NetChannel on news.com for the background), and the AOL TV service is built, in part, by ex-NetChannel people. Blah, blah, blah... Whatever.
Will we be plagued by static? Automatically forwarded to a PAX Network station? The invention of the TV Busy Signal?
Nah.... Who's gonna watch?
Ever see that guy (the stocky muscular guy with short blonde hair) on the Home Shopping Channel who shouts at you for a half hour straight about how great his product is? That's how I picture AOL TV.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Will they start sending me free VHS tapes in the mail and pack they in with magazines in an attempt to make me "convince my local cable or satallite provider to carry their fine programing?" (TM)
That would suck, not only because they are doing it, but the fact that the tapes probably won't be full length and I counldn't reuse them like I used to reuse the AOL floppies.
Here's what I would like to know:
will anyone on the AOL channel be able to say "breast"???????
Inquiring minds want to know.
--
The fact that AOL and MSNBC will be launching TV channels goes to show that these guys are ready to put "innovation" aside for a quick buck.
Television is a 50 year old technology. There's really not much more you can do with it nowadays than 20 years ago!
It's quite sickening to see all their consumer's money go towards an attempt to cash in on the TV broadcast industry. If I was an AOL user I would be wondering why they didn't put my fees into better network access and services.
Yes, I know - it's business. But its not CONSUMER ORIENTATED business. AOL and MSNBC doesn't care at all about their users - rather it seems they are more interested in manipulating them with glitsy banner ads and spam.
I'll pay my slightly higher fees for my local ISP. At least I'll be happy knowing that my money is going to help feed a family and upgrade my connection - I'de rather that than support a wannabee media Monopoly.
The title of the CNN news piece is somewhat confusing ("AOL plans TV channel") and Case sez "We don't want to turn the TV into a computer", but if it is planning on offering "email" and "chat forums", it does look like a WebTV clone ...
...
Not a very informative news story, IMO
YS.
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
ZDTV is the way to go. Best shows. Best topics.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
...they'll just have small 13" TV sets pop up next to your big screen whenever you change the channel. Unfortunately, you'll only be able to watch ads on the smaller one.
wcb
If it's anything like the real AOL, the picture will be letterboxed and it'll have a commercial ticker running across the top and bottom of the screen. Let's just hope AOL doesn't decide to televise their chat rooms, though..
At best, sounds like "Bloomberg Financial Television" or any other easily-confusing television "program" with stock/commercial/weather tickers cluttering up the screen.
At worst, they could let the "AOL Community" make the programming decisions.
How do you make a television show IN ALL CAPS?
NO NO NO! UNSUBSCRIB ME PLZ FROM THIS LSIT
"Cake or death!" (E. Izzard)
--
"This isn't the post you're looking for. Move along."
Can't wait for the "Me Too!" show, and infomercials for "make money fast" pyramid schemes. .^
^.
( @ )
AOL is just a big company with software that does not appeal to me at this time. As long as they improve netscape, then more power to them for having a crappy tv-channel. I won't watch... you can if you want to.
If you actually read the article, Hemos, you'd actually see that it's not competition for MSNBC and it's not a TV channel. AOL-TV is competition for WebTV. It's a set-top box.
/.'s "quality" news.
So much for
-Todd
---
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
MSNBC, the joint venture between Microsoft & NBC? Doesn't that count? I would imagine breaking into television would be expensive business. Would AOL do a joint venture with someone already established? "A(OL|BC)", between AOL & ABC? Or AOL|CBS? I think part of their content is served up by CBS. They could have an interesting joint logo -- both of their logos are Eyes. OK, I'm just typing stream of consciousness now...
,'s in e-mail address with .'s.
j-a-w-a-d------------------------------
replace
i dont display scores, and my threshhold is -1. post accordingly.
Discuss
Following the free cell phone and free PC trend, maybe they will start offering up free televisions if you subscribe. (only half kidding here...)
AOL's core strategy is AOL anywhere. They are a media company for all practical purposes- and the fact is that way more people have TV's than have computers. I've been expectin this anouncement for quite a while. Add a set top box and a keyboard, and your mother will be able to IM you while your watching a pay per view porno. Gee, isn't technology grand!
> "It's not in our interest to invest in infrastructure. It wouldn't be very smart for us to buy everything in the online world"
It's nice to see a huge-ass company actually discounting the possibility of owning the world. Too many companies try to deliver way too much - the technology and the content. It's my hope that content provision shifts more and more to outsourced creative companies - there is so much wasted bandwidth and exposure out there given to second rate content, when there are tons of creative masterminds waiting in the shadows for someone to give them the spot light.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Makes you wonder why Microsoft does not have its own channel yet.
As internet providers are leaning more towards the free side, AOL needs new sources of revenue. No matter how happy people are with their service, eventually, the offer for free service is going to make an impression on them. I am sure AOL sees this coming.
You gotta be kidding. Anyone who poisons their soul by watching an AOL channel deserves what they get.
Just think about it...24 hours of AOLspeak per day. BAK TO THE ROOMSAQ FOR JAQ, TOSSAQ.
-witz
I wonder if the aol hackers would try to steal tv access as much as they try to steal usernames and passwords. Instead of phishing groups the would start break in crews to steal your tv box.
Need Free Graphics? http://www.freewebtemplates.com
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