Pre-Roll Ads Can Be An Effective Compromise

I just went to check out the weather for today and ended up, of course, at Weather.com.  There I decided to watch the actual video weathercast for NYC.  After clicking the link I was made to watch a 15-second ad for Pedigree dog food. And you know what, it wasn’t that big a deal.  In fact, it seemed like a perfectly fair trade-off since I was getting the video for free.

Now, had it been a longer ad, that would have been a different story.  I am always dismayed when a video provider tries to slap a 30-second spot in front of a 90-second video.  That is not a fair exchange.

Where people are eager to fast-forward through 2-minute TV ad breaks, it doesn’t seem worth the effort when it is just a 15-second spot.  There is a good lesson in here for all the advertisers out there.

TidalTV is Pretty Damn Close to TV on the Internets

So, TidalTV is a site that has been in beta for a while and seems to be up and running for any and all to check out.

It is, in it’s simplest form, just another site to watch web videos, except TidalTV has licensed some actual live streams of cable TV including stuff from FoodNetwork, AP and others.  It is a pretty neat layout with a program guide that allows you to channel surf a bit like real TV – something I think has been missing from the web video experience.

While the content is really limited right now and I don’t think TidalTV is something one should invest money in since it seems remarkably easy to duplicate but it’s worth taking a peek to absorb the interface.

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