TV's dead, Long Live the Radio
by Charlie Tims
More exciting still is the prospect of this combined with listener responsive radio, where listeners automatically register their music preferences when they tune in to a radio station, thus enabling the radio station to construct a completely listener lead playlist ' a bit like a request show en-mass. It seems like the Amazon recommendation thing, Weedshare and I-tunes all rolled into one; where your radio will be your streaming device, your music shop, your public space and the songs your friends recommend.
Not that I'm overly negative, but this got me thinking about how rubbish digital TV is in comparison. It seems to represent an effort to cater to personal interest, but a personal interest that (save token gestures) can only be anticipated by producers rather than constructed by producers. The result is niche TV stations, you can't be bothered to find, and don't really reflect your niche at all.
I guess this is stating the obvious but perhaps a nice way of showing that being responsive to users has to be negotiated rather than anticipated. The problem with TV is that as a medium it isn't naturally lent towards negotiation, and will continue to suffer.