Dispatches from Google chat: Jon Stewart strikebuster edition.
Instead of spending real time together, Megan and I IM about TV. That should tell you something about how we’re consuming media, and maybe even more about our schedule.
11:08 PM Megan: wow, jon stewart is back on the air without a script.
he’s taking an interesting stance on the strike
me: yeah?
11:11 PM Megan: his analogy was basically…
if you go to a restaurant and eat a big meal, you expect to pay for the meal, but if you take the cheese samples at Hickory Farms, you don’t expect to pay for that.
11:12 PM So watching something on an ipod is clearly promotional cheese.
11:16 PM me: eh, I don’t buy it. that’s too stuck in the current state of things. These other platforms (ipods, streaming, etc) are likely to soon be a major avenue for programming, if not the only place to see certain things. The networks will be collecting large amounts of money when you watch them, in the form of ads and service fees, and they’re trying to cut the writers out of any stake in that. Instead of cheese, I think that the crack analogy is more apt. Your first taste is free…
Megan: nice
I realize Stewart is sarcastic, but I can’t help wondering if it’s good for the strikers that he’s back on the air. I hope this means that the content providers are feeling the pressure and are about ready to deal.