Technically Speaking

$300 million is what the rumors are that Digg will be sold for soon. As I read through many of the posts on this today, the one that made the most sense came from CN. Digg does need to sell, unload, and move on. The facts that he brought up were the only ones that made sense to me at least.

While $300 million is quite a big price, the real question is who has that kind of money to pony up for a site that really doesn’t do much more than aggregate popular stories of the day? Now to get that kind of money, I hope that Jay and Kevin take some advice from what Mike was saying. I agree, if you never have been offered more than $150 million, what makes you think you can actually get the $300 million rumored price?

Does Digg need to sell before the new year? I would say that if the plan is as Allen outlined, Revision 3 has a better chance of being something worthwhile. With the writers strike in full swing, now would be the time to market Revision 3 as the top dog of online video production. The Rev3 production team does seem to have the schtick down pat.

Technically Speaking, here is another great post on why you should throw caution to the wind during this holiday season if you want to earn money as a mystery shopper.

Well that is a new one on me. Eisner seems to think that striking writers should be barking up Cupertino Lane, or rather the home of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Eisner, a well-known critic of Apple (whose CEO, Steve Jobs, is a powerful member of Disney’s board of directors), suggested that the profits may be getting sucked up elsewhere. The studios “make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who’s making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I’d be striking up wherever he is.”

Kind of funny how Eisner is also the head of the experimental online show Prom Queen, a show that I referred to in a post the other day. He states that it’s a “fun project” and that it’s a money loser; not a money maker.

Cavuto, naturally, played devil’s advocate and asked Eisner why he’s sticking with it. “First of all, I’m doing it because I think it’s fun, I think it’s the future, and I think it’s interesting,” Eisner replied, “(but) I’m begging advertisers to give me enough money to break even.”

Begging advertisers to give Eisner enough money. I don’t quite think it is to that level, and I really can’t see Mr. Eisner on his hands and knees begging for cash. Everyone knows the truth.

The truth is that online entertainment, be it audio or video is all headed online. Whether the video realm is making any money now, or in three years (where he pulled that number from, I’d really like to know), it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that television with this strike has only hurried the inevitable. That is the death of television as we know it.

With content online improving every day, there is not a need for people to spend their money on cable or dish. There will be the day when everyone will be streaming shows to that flat screen. You may think that there are shows that are not online. Think again, as even the local news has started to put a majority of their stories if not their entire nightly newscast online.

I wish the writers well in their strike, but either they need to come to agreement quickly, or they will be looking for work. Where? Online for some new media company that does nothing but put content out on the internet. No television station licenses, no FCC, no regulation.

Technically Speaking, shows will (as they are now) be a bit sketchy to start, but once the writing begins to improve, you will see that online video is the way to go. If you really think about it, the shows of the 1950’s weren’t that great, and improved over time.

While I’m at it, here is the LC afternoon post - a great look iPhones and Ron Paul even!

With the writers officially on strike in Hollywood, it appears that it could be the door opening for a gold strike or a beat down. Seriously. The studios are like the record companies, bottom line driven companies and they don’t care about your own safety. Little is it pointed out that these online hired writers would be considered scabs since they would be crossing the picket line.

This is a classic case of 20th century unions meeting 21st century entrepreneurship. The chance that violence could break out over this, might be a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but than again when you take someone’s job by crossing a picket line…. trouble could be looming on the horizon.

Now I’m pretty anti-TV myself. I haven’t really been burdened to watch a television show on time since the invention of TiVo or the DVR. I DVR stuff all the time, and rarely do I watch it. Television has transformed into 3 minute YouTube videos, and I don’t think I am alone.

While there are some that cry - all the content online is pirated or crap, well take a deeper look. If you look hard enough there are online shows that are worth watching. You just have to be willing to search them out. I found one while writing a blog post on PromQueen.tv awhile back.

Technically Speaking, I guess there will be no late night shows for awhile; Jay, Dave, Conan, Jimmy, etc all need a break.