The ever prolific Robin Good pontificates in his usual excellent detail on the RSS Advertising trend writes:

I am for now, not inclined to consider ads inside RSS feeds as something that I aspire to use as a publisher, or desire to see in quantity as an avid RSS reader.

Check out Robin’s blog. It’s brimming with strategically placed — not accidentally placed — ads. He’s selling Google Adsense, Amazon and pitching a couple e-Books. Nothing wrong with this at all, IMO; this guy clearly is a savvy web marketer.

But let’s be real, Robin. Come on. The name of your site is Master New Media and you aren’t going to be running RSS ads as soon as you can?

So sorry, I’m not buying this cleverly worded response that basically says he is not ready (yet) to be using RSS ads. Let’s bookmark this post and a year from now when it’s standard practice for blogs to be using Google Adsense in RSS and see where Robin’s blog sits on this subject. I’d say there’s at least a 95% chance he’ll be running RSS ads. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he is inclined to be one of the first few blogs to jump on board when Adsense rolls this out. I don’t know if Google offered him an opportunity like they did WIN and a few others but if they did, I’d be surprised if he turned it down.

But enough picking on Robin Good (and it’s meant in good spirit, not disrespectfully, BTW), because overall he presents good information and toward the end of his piece asks an intriguing question:

Is the Web like TV? My answer is no, no, no.

Most attempts to interupt the user experience on the web, though maybe financially successful in the short term, have been panned in the long term. One could argue that popups were a huge success — until popup blockers became the norm as they are today. Traditional banner advertising is under constant siege from ad removers. If you need any proof of that then go look at your banner ad enabled site using tools like Norton Antispam.

Also most attempts to date to truly integrate TV with the web have been unsuccessful with the obvious exception being Windows Media Center, which with over 1.5 million units moved is hardly a huge success. MicrosoftTV with Comcast tries the process of having a dynamic news section and pages but I’ve been there less than a half dozen times because I can’t customize it with RSS feeds. It’s only their news that I get to choose from. How do they know what our family is interested in?

Typical old school cable programming mentality.

OnDemand cable is probably the closest thing to web crossover that’s had some success. People are tired of having the networks program all their content; at least our family anyway.. Sure, sports and other timely events make sense to be scheduled but the beauty of the web is that it’s a 24/7 deal — it’s never closed. It’s the biggest convenience store, mall, library, entertainment and news area in the world. There are still channels that “sign off.”

It’s amazing to me out of how many total channels we have, how few are actually worth watching. Hundreds of channels but only a few worth the time of day.

TV still lives on fixed ’schedule’ and until that is untethered and people can customize much more of the experience, the web to TV comparison and crossover successes are going to continue to be the exception and not the rule.

It seems almost criminal to me that our family is paying in excess of $100/month to essentially be able to watch a handful of TV shows, sports events and some OnDemand movie content each week, some of which is in High Definition, and we don’t have much control over programming what we want to see and when, except by using the PVR and OnDemand. We certainly have no control over what movies are released on the premium channels. Why can’t we, as customers, pick the movies each month? Give us a limit of so many movies to choose from and let us watch them as much as we want for the month.

As for the new releases? Now that’s funny. They can be purchased on DVD before they show up for new release. I can go out on the Tuesday or Friday and buy it and own it, including all the special features, so why should I wait for a couple weeks to maybe see it in the “Just released” pay-per-view section and then another 1-3 months before it shows up on the premium channels. Keep in mind that this is already at least 60-90 days after the movie has left the theater.

Instead of being an advantage to be a cable owner paying $100/month+ it’s crippled viewing.

Also, why can’t I one-click purchase a DVD for a movie I watch on Starz? A missed opportunity from the cable companies who would rather see me pay $3.99 USD for a 24 hour “rental” of a sort of new release. What if I’d rather spend $15-20 and buy the DVD so it can ship the day it releases and opens up a private section where I can watch it on the day it releases at home?

And when I’m tuned into CNN or ESPN why not a ticker along the bottom of the screen with their current RSS feeds so I can navigate and click on them and read — or send the story to email. Why can’t I build my own RSS feeds out of channel lineup when selecting channels?

If we go on the computer side I can do a lot of these things but the cable company lock me out on doing anything with the premium channels because they assume we are going to steal this content. Treating your customers like thieves, that’s the way the cable companies operate, no thanks to organizations like the MPAA I’m guessing.

So no way is the web like TV and thank god it isn’t. I wish TV was more like the web … heck, when will the day come that TV and the web are more tightly integrated? Microsoft, despite the MCE2005 drawbacks, is at least trying to bridge this gap. If they succeed, and I think they have as good a chance as anybody, then there’s a huge cashcow to be milked.

Did this post make you go hmm?

 Loading ...

• A la carte Cable TV: which channels would you keep?
• Netflix perks
• Update on (maybe) ditching cable for satellite
• Review: Comcast HDTV PVR with Microsoft TV
• Review: Bye bye cable TV, hello Vongo
• USDTV to Launch Low-Cost Wireless TV Service