Zubair.Chaudary.com

Fireworks/carnival

Fireworks/carnival

Originally uploaded by zrc210

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Hopefully that’s the last of the rain

Hopefully that’s the last of the rain

Originally uploaded by zrc210

Sunset skies

Sunset skies

Originally uploaded by zrc210

The Sorry State of Internet TV

I really haven’t been keeping up with the few TV shows that I enjoy this season. With nearly all the major TV networks hosting on-demand viewing of their shows, as well as other legitimate services such as Hulu and Joost, I thought catching up would be no problem. Boy, was I wrong.

Most popular show only have the previous 3, maybe 5, episodes available for viewing. Great – just want I wanted, to watch a show that is in mid-season with no idea of what is going on. I guess I’ll have to watch the previous episodes elsewhere.
Ok, so maybe I have been following the show and missed the last episode, let me catch up. Here in lies the second problem – new episodes are released 8 days after original airing date. That means if I miss one episode, I am confined to watching the rest of the season online. I guess I’ll have catch up using other means.

The way that network television makes their money is through advertisers, is it not? It’s the same online, which I have no problem with. However, what I do have a problem with is networks airing the most obnoxious, and annoying advertisements. To make it worse, they have no variety – they play the same commercial again and again. The more times you make me watch the stupid Stride Gum commercial, the less I want to sit through this torture.

The TV industry does not get it. They should be using the Internet to supplement their traditional offerings and drive up viewer ship. I cannot even count the number of times my friends have said this season of show X just got amazing, you have to watch it. Instead of being able to catch up and watch the show on TV, I can’t watch the show in any form, and the network loses a viewer.
I hold the belief that the TV industry is afraid that having their shows on the Internet is going to reduce DVD sales. So what? The TV industry should be making more money using the Internet than they were before – if they aren’t, then they are doing it wrong.
Here’s what the TV industry should be doing:

1. Use better, more diverse advertisements for things that matter. No one cares about what going on the Fox Reality Network.
2. Use statistic-gathering methods to find out what users watch, how often, and what advertisements turn them off.
3. Offer at least the most recent season available in its entirety.
4. Release shows after the last time-zone airs the episode. At most, 1 day. Anymore, and it looses its value.
5. Keep up old shows. Just because its no longer in the air does not mean no wants to watch it. By keeping up old shows, you will gain new viewers, and still make money on ads.
6. Don’t bend arms of service providers like Hulu and boxee – it does not matter if they watch Internet content on a computer screen or on a TV screen, as long as they watch it.
7. Offer higher quality video to drive down the incentive to pirate. Advertisers pay premiums for prime time shows and other high viewership time slots – the same should be applied for Internet TV.

The TV industry still thinks it’s a competition between providing content over the Air/Cable/Satellite and the Internet. The reality is that both need to be leveraged against the real competitors – piracy. The harder the TV industry makes it for viewers to access TV shows, the more likely people will pirate episodes, and piracy has become really simple.

The Rebirth

I’ve had a ‘blog’ for quite some time now. However, I never was able to accurately define a direction for the blog, or to write cohesive enough entries. Much like my thoughts, my posts were tangential ramblings that failed to engage in thoughtful dialogue.

I find it difficult to consistently find topics to write about, mostly due to the fact that I am a fulltime college student who is not pursuing a degree in underwater basket weaving. Further, I feel that the bigger issues are better covered by syndicated blogs, such as the folks over at engadget.com, lifehacker.com, or Om Malik’s blogging network, GigaOm.com.

While I have been searching for direction for the blog, I realized that I often find obscure videos, links, and posts that most people I share with. Yet, I find mindless link forwarding rather pointless unless it fosters some sort of debate.

I found a direction for my blog while watching a rerun of the Family Guy episode “Stewie B. Goode”. During the episode, Peter gets a job at the local news station, and becomes the star host of What Grinds My Gears, a segment in which he rants about things that bother him.

The light switch went off, and I had it. The direction of this blog will be a running commentary of things that don’t align with my view of the world.

If I feel like it, I will offer solutions, but I won’t hold myself to that.

This “My Way or the Highway” approach will not bring the bees, I realize this. However, I do hope that if I complain enough, someone will eventually oil the squeaky wheel.

To close of this celebration of rebirth, I quote one of my all time favorite books, Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Toolbooth”

Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you’re going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations, but my job is to hurry them along whether they like it or not.

Site Restructuring

Going to restructure the site and find a new direction for the blog.