PBS in Peril

[Kathleen O'Connell]

I think it depends on the material. "This American Life" is, I think, best served by its current audio format, however one might choose to listen to it. If just as many people (if not more) are going to listen to it as watch it, why try to make TV out of it? I'm sure I'm missing something, but then I'm admittedly not much of a TV person.

Now ballet, that won't work as a podcast.

[sandik]

There's a reason "This American Life" didn't last on Showtime: TV is absolutely the wrong medium for that show.

And just this evening, as I was in the car listening to the radio, they announced that This American Life will be doing a live show that will be broadcast to several movie theaters.

Edited to add: at some point, and probably not in the too-distant future, there's going to be a battle royal between the cable companies and the internet-based content providers who have begun to disrupt their business model.

We agree on this -- shall we set up a popcorn stand?

[Kathleen O'Connell]

There's a reason "This American Life" didn't last on Showtime: TV is absolutely the wrong medium for that show.

And just this evening, as I was in the car listening to the radio, they announced that This American Life will be doing a live show that will be broadcast to several movie theaters.

Edited to add: at some point, and probably not in the too-distant future, there's going to be a battle royal between the cable companies and the internet-based content providers who have begun to disrupt their business model.

We agree on this -- shall we set up a popcorn stand?

OT OT OT -- sorry!

Re the TAL live show: Radiolab does live shows too. I suspect the fact that both Ira Glass and Jad Abumrad (who received a MacArthur "genius" grant in September) are something akin to public radio rock stars has more than a little to do with it. I also suspect that it's easier to find material that works outside a strictly audio format for one or two shows than it is for a whole season.

Re the popcorn: I'd be more enthusiastic about the entertainment value of the coming Cable / Internet slugfest if I weren't absolutely convinced that the consumer is going to lose in the end. My husband and I cut the cable cord a while back and have made do quite nicely with the a la carte streaming options available to us via our dvd player. At some point our cable company will want to throttle that -- they're not extracting nearly as much from us for an internet connection as they did for internet + cable.

Edited to add: just FYI for those outside of New York City -- it is almost impossible to get a good broadcast TV signal in Manhattan proper. Until now, it's been cable or nothing if you wanted to watch network TV. Then came the internet.

[dirac]

I think it depends on the material. "This American Life" is, I think, best served by its current audio format, however one might choose to listen to it. If just as many people (if not more) are going to listen to it as watch it, why try to make TV out of it? I'm sure I'm missing something, but then I'm admittedly not much of a TV person.

I wasn't speaking to the particular suitability of "This American Life" for television but the general desirability of having your show on television. I used it as a random example of a show moving to TV.( I've never been a regular follower of the show in any format, having only listened to the radio show a few times and the TV series twice, by accident.) I am a regular viewer of PBS, so I do hope the performing arts don't cut the cord any time soon....

[Kathleen O'Connell]

Even when I had cable, I didn't watch much PBS mostly because I didn't watch much TV. And of course, living in NYC, I'm spoiled: there's so much live art to take in that there's little reason to try to catch a broadcast. (I'm one of those oddballs who'd rather see a nobody live than stay home to see a bona fide somebody on TV. But that's just personal preference.)

That being said, I think that PBS should continue to broadcast the performing arts. I just think that arts organizations neither can not should rely on PBS as a performance showcase.