« Have a baby, get a TiVo | Main | How would you change TiVo? »

Ramsay on the Long Tail

You know it's time to move the Long Tail from the wired column to the tired column when USA Today starts talking about it. The paper assembled an all-star panel including TiVo chairman Michael Ramsay, Firefox developer Blake Ross and Chuck D to talk about what's ahead for the internet and digital entertainment.

Q: What does the "long tail" mean for entertainment and media?

Ramsay: ... We can measure it. There's maybe only a hundred people who watch bass fishing or speed knitting or whatever. So they watch it, and it's important to them.

What we've found is that the viewing patterns of people who watch live television — and are therefore restricted to prime time whenever they're home — are dramatically different than the viewing patterns of people who have the choice of just picking whatever they want.

Given the choice, people will migrate towards a much greater variety, and the deal is you've got to make everything available to everybody so that they're not restricted. And if you do, the market for that more esoteric, more specialized stuff is just as big as the market of the mainstream stuff.

There's plenty more good stuff in the article, including Michael Ramsay talking about "storage anxiety" when people have too many things saved on their TiVo that they're never going to get around to watching.

by George Hotelling May 12, 2005 in Q & A, TiVo

Comments

When I experience "storage anxiety" my wife an I usually engage in an "Exstarvaganza"

http://www.mostlymuppet.com/archives/2005/02/23/exstarvaganza/

Posted by: Seth at May 12, 2005 2:32:28 PM

As a recent, first time TIVO owner,I have to admit to having storage anxiety already.

And I haven't passed my 30-day anniversary for my 40-hr model yet!!

Posted by: Daniel McAndrew at May 12, 2005 5:28:37 PM

One of the most interesting comments was about how ineffective straight search can be via Google or Yahoo. I just hope that Mike can keep TiVo somewhat focused on becoming a legitimate platform for independent third-party video.

Posted by: Alex Rowland at May 13, 2005 1:15:45 PM

Post a Comment

Name:

Email Address: (required, not shown)

Remember personal info?

Comments:

(html not allowed)

TrackBack: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/459/2444595

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Ramsay on the Long Tail:

» "The Long Tail" theory moves into the mainstream from tech-hawg
The Long Tail has officially lost it's street cred. The Mainstream (ie USA Today) is starting to pick up on the the Long Tail theory... [Read More]

Tracked on May 13, 2005 9:20:24 AM