Bud.TV seems caught between a rock and a hard place. This week Adage published two articles on the new broadband channel: One calling it a "walled garden," and another taking an opposing angle, warning of possible legal action against its ineffective age verification.
Luckily, we were able to obtain a Web2.0 fake ID to sneak in and take some notes:
1) Content
Some of the shows were great, and some were obvious fillers. We’re not sure they’re interesting enough to bring people back after the initial visit. Bud could resolve this by allowing people to subscribe to podcasts. Again, the legal issues arise – the nature of their product prevents Bud from taking advantage of the best features of having their own online media channel.
2) Interface
Dragging through the gallery of shows is slow and miserable, compared to VBS.TV’s remote control navigation. But it looks like this will be changed in the "Enhanced version" update
3) This is just a teaser
While we applaud Budweiser for breaking new ground, Bud.TV has yet to deliver on the hype. We can’t speculate on whether it was worth $30 mil. to develop Bud.TV instead
of partnering with Brightcove, or another video-sharing platform, but know that what we see now is just the beginning. There’s definitely a full version in the works as seen in the "coming soon" tab on the current site. We’re looking forward to it because we want to believe.
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great review! thanks!
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:38 pm