I have a horrible singing voice. You would know this had you been in my living room last week as I belted out “Secret Lovers.” Thankfully, the only “person” present was the little man in my television, making an animated ball bounce over the words “secret lovers, that’s what we are” on Comcast’s On Demand karaoke service. He was laughing.
I’ve been watching video on demand for about a year, mostly movies and, yes, the occasional “Real World” marathon. But last week on a Wednesday like any other Wednesday, I scrolled past the free movies, past the new releases, even past MTV On Demand, all the way to the weird and occasionally wonderful niche world of Select On Demand, where 10-minute piano lessons, parenting tips and karaoke reign supreme, and where it’s best to close your blinds if you are going to try the belly dancing class on Exercise TV. If you have yet to explore this brave new world of on-demand television, a primer: Video On Demand (VOD) is an interactive digital cable service — offered through cable providers and generally part of any Comcast digital cable package, starting at about $50 per month locally — that allows viewers to select a video from a menu of about 7,000 programs a month and watch it instantly. As with a DVD — or simply TV, if you have a digital video recorder — you can pause, fast-forward and rewind. (If you are as naturally untalented as I am, rewind you will during Select On Demand piano lessons. “Auld Lang Syne” is not as easy as it sounds.)
But unlike all the hobbies you’ve taken up only to drop two weeks later — who knew hot yoga would be so hot? — VOD lets you dabble at your whim without spending any money. It’s commitment-free (though I will not give up on “Secret Lovers”).
“We really believe is the future,” said Matt Strauss, Comcast’s optimistic vice president of On Demand programming and general niche programming guru. “Everyone is now at the point where they want instant gratification and On Demand is the perfect technology to deliver that.”
Maybe, but niche VOD is far from perfect. Most Select On Demand shows have the production value of an infomercial, with their only selling point being that you can watch them at 1:43 a.m. Bikini Body Basics won’t be winning an Emmy anytime soon.
One problem may be that, up to now, Comcast has been licensing and acquiring already-produced content — the exercise classes, piano lessons from PBS mainstay Scott “The Piano Guy” Houston — and repurposing it (i.e. editing it down to 10-minute segments). But Strauss, less a mad scientist than I expected for the guy who came up with anime On Demand, says that the big idea is to test with this cheap content (Houston doesn’t get paid but hopes On Demand will give him higher visibility) and then develop original programming of better quality in the more popular genres. (Strauss has Jake Steinfeld of “Body by Jake” working on original fitness content, for example.)
This strategy makes some sense, but spend a day with On Demand karaoke, movie trivia, Vera Wang runway shows and parenting tips, and one question emerges: Who’s watching this stuff? Though it’s tough to imagine an audience for, say, a guitar lesson on the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Under the Bridge,” Strauss is sunny about the Select on Demand numbers, but at the same time adamant that the service is more about “added value” for subscribers than ratings.
What we do know is this: Comcast’s 2-year-old On Demand service averaged 600 million views (programs watched) in 2004 and grew to 1.4 billion views in 2005, with Select’s part of that pie at 165 million views since 2005. Strauss points to Exercise TV, which launched in January and averages about 3 million workouts watched per month, as a Select success story.
Well, credit me with at least five of those views, because I not only belly-danced, I tried power pilates, yoga, the body-sculpting class and, of course, 10-minute abs, cooling down with the video real estate listings. It was a fun experiment, but classes are too short, too easy and sometimes followed by very long ads for New Balance. And there are only more ads to come. “Most of the content on demand today has very little advertising or sponsorship,” Strauss said, “but I do think that will become part of the model. Part of the challenge will be how do we insert advertising that is relevant.”
Thankfully, there’s always fast-forward. And, if you can’t quite figure out how to play “Amazing Grace” on the keyboard after 11 tries, there’s also “stop.”
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ctc-arts@tribune.com
