Podcasts vs. Television

The astounding thing about Apple TV (formerly iTV) is why it can succeed.  Streaming to the set top box is nothing new, but leveraging all your iPod owners / iTunes users to take a baby step into watching content on television is an easy user acquisition bet.

If you think of Apple TV as "yet another iPod," it makes sense.  Essentially, without changing their habits or requiring any learning curve, someone who traditionally has watched time-shifted shows would easy gravitate to Apple's STB.

A classic example is how I watch Revision3's shows, and I'm not alone.  I have a modded xbox that I run XBMC on, which is really the only reason I ever had an xbox anyway.  It mounts my Mac via SMB.  The Mac (via iTunes and other RSS technology) is up-to-date on the latest show releases.

Apple's product is essentially the same thing, with greater stability (albeit less customizable) and newer ports like HDMI.  I've heard arguments that the marriage of computer to the STB, rather than having the STB download directly, is a negative... For my use, I'd rather it mount the computer, where I spend my day and arrange my downloads.  I don't want to browse a STB menu and slowly try to assign RSS feeds to it... at least until someone designs a better interface for it.

Yes, I'll probably download movies as well.  I'm more into Netflix HD-DVD options in my future 1080p world (not there yet), but for now, it's not a bad option.  If they aren't available, I can rip to my computer and watch it via Apple TV regardless...particularly in places out of reach of an Ethernet cable.

Where does Revision3 fit into all of this?  Once people are accustomed to the idea of television shows delivered to their STB vs. recorded to it, I have to ask, what is the difference between Revision3's InDigital, Pixel Perfect, or Diggnation in HD than any niche cable show?  The question is how easy is it to set up, where TV has been at the touch of a single button for fifty years.  Now that Apple TV makes it that easy, even for the non-hackers, this has become a short term reality.  I would argue that our viewer numbers, which have already exceeded cable type levels, will grow and advertising CPMs along with it, as more people "demand the on-demand."

From a marketing perspective, however, we do have a problem.  Podcasting has a connotation of content that is non-professionally produced.  Television, on the other hand, has million dollar episode budgets, and people expect high production values.  What do you call podcasting with high production value (even if they are low cost to produce)?  How will people KNOW that a Revision3 show is different than, say, a ten year old playing with a camcoder?

There are still a lot of unanswered questions...but Revision3 at least is going to try to answer some of them.  Digg took a shot at it with the Podcasting section, which is doing quite well... Still, Podcasting may be the wrong term for net-distributed media.  Alex Lindsay said to me the other day "start calling it Media, not Television, and not Podcasts!"  I think he may be onto something.