Comments on: CozmoTV: Welcome to Television 2.0, Time to Supercharge the TiVo Part of Your Digital Lifestyle

By: Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:43:00 +0000

Tim, I am providing commentary that is not available at the site. I do provide a link to the site in my story. Some people might appreciate the commentary to go with the link.

By: solman

solman — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 10:36:00 +0000

If you signed up for Cozmo before and have not heard anything since, please go to CozmoTV and register.

We apologize for the inconvenience. I believe that we accidentally overwrote one of the lists of people who pre-registered.

By: dylane

dylane — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 09:39:00 +0000

Alex, I signed up for the beta back in April when the site was first launched, but haven’t heard anything since then. Should I sign up again?

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:25:00 +0000

Why do you post stories on Digg that point to your own blog, as opposed to the actual website?

By: Alex Rowland

Alex Rowland — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:19:00 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, Davis. As a matter of fact, the version of CozmoTV currently up and running does not support ANY Web microcontent. We will be adding that later this year as we move towards version 2.0. Our feeling was that there were a lot of companies focusing on aggregating Web video, but not enough help in navigating through the 15,000 some-odd shows being broadcast to the average cable/satellite subscriber every week. I think most people still find cable/satellite content to be more valuable than the content they find on the Web (at least today), but the tools for finding those shows within that pile are pretty weak.

Once we solve that problem we can begin working on the microcontent. In essence, start with the head of the curve and work down the tail rather than vice versa.

As for ratings, you are right. Rating shows upon returning to the site is impossible right now. However, in the near future we will begin displaying historical recording information so that, like Netflix, you can see the shows that were just recorded when you check back into the site and rate/recommend/tag/comment them if you would like. Until that time the stars serve as more interest level indicators rather than post-consumption opinions. And yes, rating straight from the TV would be nice, but difficult to implement without much tighter integration with the device. It’s still at the bottom of a very long list.

There may be concerns from TV Guide, although we are licensing data from TMS. I think it would be difficult to make a case that ANY use of guide data should result in a royalty paid to TV Guide. However, if we make enough money I’m sure they will try.

By: Davis Freeberg

Davis Freeberg — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:23:00 +0000

I think I see two pretty critical issues in this service. First and foremost is the lack of video support through the net. People want to tag things after they’ve watched them when they know whats in it rather then trying to guess about content. A good starting point for this would be to incorporate a media viewer for online content at a minimum. It would also be nice to be able to tag directly from the TV. There is no way that people are going to go back a day after they see something, in order to make it easier for people to search. Right now you can’t screen out the broadcast shows online, which are likely to offer OK guide data already. Getting at the microcontent needs to be easier.

Secondly, I think that you may find that if this service takes off that there are going to be patent concerns from TV guide. TV Guide has historically defended their patents pretty aggressively and while I’m not a patent expert, everything that I’ve read about them indicates that they have some pretty strong patents as it relates to providing a guide and search for television services. I’m not saying I agree with them having a monopoly on TV listings, but they could certainly raise a fuss if they start to see you making money.

By: Alex Rowland

Alex Rowland — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:06:00 +0000

Thanks, Patrick. I look forward to it, we’ve made a lot of progress on the back end of this thing…

Agreed, the guide data is pretty weak at this point. It’s one of our major complaints with any of the listings available today through any of the services, they are thin to non-existent. We’re working pretty hard to open these descriptions up to our users. Once 2.0 rolls out (if all goes according to plan) you will be able to create shadow listings for each show when you aggregate that show into your “channel.” We believe user contributions under a wiki publishing mechanism is the only solution to the weak guide data, but we can’t get there without assembling the community first. I’m hoping that we have the horse in the right place…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 13:14:00 +0000

Little bit of cart before the horse isn’t it? You’ve got companies like Tribune that often botch listings, even when the providers bother to give them complete guide data. Guide data needs to evolve a little more.

By: Patrick Barry

Patrick Barry — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:56:00 +0000

Looking really good, Alex. The amount you can do with two guys is pretty amazing. Let’s talk again soon!

By: PR Machine

PR Machine — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:46:00 +0000

Thanks for this info. If I could take a high definition video, post it in the blogosphere, tag the video, point Cozmo toward it – thus allowing advertisers interested in its genre to bid on auto inserting an ad at the beginning of it…I think it’s worth it. Ah..the future of ad sales media marketing online.