So I’m reading yet another one of Chris Penn’s thought-provoking posts, this time about the Long Tail, in response to a question about why more people aren’t watching Internet TV. And that got me to thinking why I’m not watching more video online. I’ve got more audio podcast subscriptions than you can shake a stick at, but I’m only subscribed to two video podcasts: Ask a Ninja and the Best of YouTube feed. I have Joost installed and I’ve used it for maybe 15 minutes. I clearly know that there’s tons of great video content out there and I know how to get at it, so why aren’t I?
Simple. Internet TV isn’t yet where I want to watch it.
I know the studies say that a majority of people consume podcasts on their computers, but I really think that goes for audio podcasts, where you can have something playing in the background while you’re working or surfing the web. Personally, I consume the majority of my podcasts while I’m driving. In fact, if I couldn’t listen to my iPod through my car stereo, I’d probably not be consuming as many (if any) podcasts today. Since my car stereo doesn’t have a line in jack, I use an FM transmitter, which cost me around $30, to listen in my car. Voila: Easy podcast consumption.
Similarly, I (and, I suspect, many other folks) like to watch video on my television. We have two TVs in our house. One is in the living room in front of a very comfy couch. The other is in the bedroom, where Maureen and I can curl up and enjoy some TV before bed. My computer is in a small room off to the side, with a chair that’s comfortable enough if you’re working at the computer but not for sitting back and watching video. I can’t really watch anything longer than your average YouTube video without getting antsy and uncomfortable. And the iPod is also good for short bursts, but the screen is small and there are rarely moments where it’s convenient for me to watch video, especially for a long period of time. And even when there are, I’m more likely to play a round or two of Zuma than watch a video.
True story: Several months ago, what I would consider the “killer app” for Internet TV for me appeared: Google Video started offering NHL games for download. I’m a big Devils fan, but unless I want to pay my cable company what I consider a wholly unreasonable amount of money, I get to see maybe three or four games a season. So being able to watch Devils games online should have gotten me to jump in. But I’m stuck watching either a grainy, pixelated version on a web browser at my computer, or a decent quality file sized for my iPod screen. Plus, Google Video (at least at the time) had no RSS capabilities, so for each game I wanted to watch, I needed to manually go to their web site, download the iPod-formatted file, import it into iTunes and sync my iPod. And then I could spend an hour and a half going blind staring at my iPod. Needless to say, that lasted maybe a day.
So, for me, the solution is to get the video onto my television. But that’s not a simple proposition yet, and I’m fairly technically savvy and willing to work through roadblocks for this kind of stuff, whereas most people aren’t. But there’s no good solution that doesn’t cost a ton of money. You can set up a media center PC, but that’s painful and expensive. You can buy an Apple TV, but that’s still $300 and you still have to get everything into iTunes first, which means no streaming content like Joost or Ustream.tv. And even then, there are format conversions and all that other yucky stuff that I just don’t have the time for.
What there needs to be is some sort of a seamless way to either use one of the devices I already have attached to my televisions to watch Internet TV, or else create some sort of an inexpensive hardware solution that lets me do that easily. To that end, Nintendo has already sold 8 million Wiis worldwide, and they’re still selling as soon as they hit store shelves. All of those Wiis have Wifi built in and a free browser available for download. Why isn’t there an internet TV site that’s optimized for the Wii? Really, why is this not the biggest no-brainer in the history of Earth? Granted, the browser isn’t the friendliest to Flash apps, but, for goodness sake, you can run web servers off your PC to emulate a media center or stream your entire iTunes library. You mean to tell me that someone can’t get an internet TV site (or better yet, a video podcast directory) that works with the Wii? I’d gladly boot up the Wii and watch some vidcasts over a Red Sox post-game show on any given night. (Especially lately, but that’s another topic altogether.)
In the end, I really don’t care about the implementation, but the bottom line is that, until I can get internet TV on my non-internet television set without buying expensive hardware, running complicated software or spending all my time downloading and converting files, I’m not going to be a big internet video consumer. And if it’s too difficult for me, it’s certainly too difficult to pass the Grandma Test.
