Rearden Steel Unveiled
from the interactive-TV's-next-attempt dept
Well, hell... if Dennis is going to scoop me on the iMac announcement, I'm going to post what the real deal at Rearden Steel is. First, they're no longer Rearden Steel. Out with the stealth and out with the "misleading" name. They're now Moxi Digital, and (as expected) they've got themselves a box that is supposed to revolutionize interactive TV. It sounds interesting, but my first reaction is "yes, but what exactly does it do?". The description given in the article screams "feature creep!" to me, as it seems to want to do everything. A box that does everything sure is nice... but it's tough to convince consumers that they want everything, especially when you can't pinpoint one thing that they specifically want. Update: The NY Times has a more detailed article about the Moxi device and positions it against the new iMac and Bill Gates' vision - as all three are presenting today about their visions for connecting all sorts of home electronics devices.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Somebody help me here...
I've been having an on-going conversation with a friend who thinks that Interactive TV and convergence devices will be huge, both in terms of business and the functionality they offer viewers. I honestly just don't get it.
Can someone explain to me why I would want to interact with television programming? I have an internet appliance sitting on my coffee table with a cable modem connection, if I want to to any e-mail or web related stuff, it's right there. If I want to buy something from the HSC (ugh), I can pick up the cordless phone sitting next to the internet appliance. I don't even like the little logos that the networks put on the screen, I can't see liking clickable overlays. Program guides are nice, but I kind of like flipping channels. Video on demand is also cool sounding, but I like browsing at Blockbuster too.
So seriously, what am I missing here? What sort of programming would incorporate "interactive" elements that would offer me (the viewer) enough additional value to part with some extra cash? And on the subject of value, don't the economics work against ITV? We're more or less saturated for viewing time, so it isn't like any of this will get people to watch MORE TV, so there won't be more viewer-seconds available in the ad markets. So it seems that any additional viewing outlets are cutting into a fixed-size pie. I would guess that's what you see the all rerun channels like Classic Sports and TV Land. Low production costs, so you can still make money off small audiences. So ITV has to generate money outside of traditional broadcast/cable models, right? Plus, won't adding interactive features make programming MORE expensive?
Like I said, I must be missing something here. Can someone enlighten me?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Somebody help me here...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]