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Posts tagged Comedy Central
Colbert Wins Peabody, Gets Portrait Displayed at Smithsonian
Apr 3rd
Stephen Colbert is having a good week.
On Tuesday, Colbert learned that his portrait (which had been on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC) would be shown at the Smithsonian Institution’s Treasures of American History Exhibition now through April 13.
The Treasures of American History Exhibition is a part of the National Museum of American History and can be seen in Washington at the National Air and Space Museum while the American History Museum is closed for renovations.
Yesterday, the 67th Annual Peabody Awards were announced. Colbert’s show, The Colbert Report (which airs on Comedy Central), was named a first-time Peabody winner. View the press release here
Watch Colbert discuss the Peabody:
Joost: The Next Big Thing… (maybe)
Apr 10th
Joost is a new free program that utilizes the global reach of the internet to bring television programming to any user who can access the internet. The Joost Beta launched last week and is already creating quite a bit of buzz in the technology and entertainment sectors. Various big name studios and networks are discussion using the service to deliver their content over the internet.
A few months ago, I registered as Joost a beta tester on a whim. I have been trying it out for the past few days and have not been disappointed. The Joost interface reminds me of an On Demand interface that a cable provider might use and the program’s operation is surprisingly smooth.
I am very familiar with the concept of watching television on my computer. For a few years now, I have been using SnapStream Media’s Beyond TV 4 to watch and record television using my computer’s TV card (much like TiVo). For many users, this will be a very new concept.
While Joost is a nice program, it is by no means a replacement for my Beyond TV that can record anything I want and then skip the commercials. Because Joost is free, it operates like most web players and periodically inserts 30 second advertisements during programs. That aspect of Joost is not nearly as annoying as I was expecting it to be.
Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, National Geographic, and many more lesser known outlets are funneling some of their content through Joost. The caveat being that only a limited number of obscure shows are currently available. Joost promises more and better content when the beta period ends and the first version of Joost launches, if not sooner.
Overall, I think the concept has a great deal of potential. However, in order for it to really catch on, it will need much more appealing content from major networks.
Check Joost out for yourself at http://www.joost.com.
UPDATE 4/18: Here are a few screenshots of Joost (click to enlarge):
