Gizmodo: CBS

Is CBS Blocking Shows From Your DVR?

Benny Goldman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:10:00 EDT

John Sciacca at Sound & Vision says his DVR no longer lets him record his favorite show, Survivor. Sciacca claims that despite setting his Time Warner box to record every episode of the reality show, when the time comes, it acts as if there is nothing to record. Sometimes, he says, the record light even goes on during the show, but it isn't saved to the hard drive. Apparently he's not the only one stuck without Survivor.

Following Sciacca's advice, I ran a Google search for "'Survivor' 'dvr' 'didn't record'", and found several message board posts detailing similar problems. The issue is present in other DVR types as well, including DirecTV and standalone TiVo. However, some other users say that they haven't experienced any problems with their time-shifted Survivor eps at all. To make sure this problem was confined to Survivor, I checked other popular shows like Lost and American Idol, and came up empty-handed.

We've put in a call to CBS to explain this paranormal activity, and the folks there are looking into the problem. Sciacca suggests that this may be a case of altering show metadata to instruct DVRs to stop recording—in the past, networks have been known to alter their programming to stop DVR users from getting content (and skipping ads)—but we will reserve judgment until we hear more. In the meantime, if you've been experiencing similar problems, please share. [Sound & Vision]

Heat Ray Causes Unintelligible Yelping from 60 Minutes Reporter

Christopher Mascari — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:00:57 EST

Remember the US Military ray gun that makes people feel like they're on fire? Well, 60 Minutes sent out a reporter to see if he could take the heat. Standing in plain view of the ray gun made his body feel like "scalding water," so David Martin attempted, with little success, to hide behind a piece of plywood and later a mattress. Some claim they can only take the heat ray 4 - 5 seconds, so when David tried it we think he only made it 2 seconds, even if he did say, "ONE ONE THOUSAND TWO ONE THOUSAND THREE ONEEEAAHHHHRRHHR" [CBS via TechEBlog]

Last.FM Becomes "World's Best Jukebox": Bigger Than iTunes, All Four Majors Onboard

matt buchanan — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:23:14 EST

Web 2.0 musicmeister Last.FM and CBS's "unprecedented new service" is a leveled-up Last.fm: It is "the most complete, licensed music catalog" in the world with music from all four major labels and 150,000 indie labels, or what they're calling "the world's best jukebox." It's all available on demand (right now!) without logging in, is free (banner ad-supported) and now plays full tracks from artists you can search for directly—internet radio on 'roids, basically. But of course, there are limitations thanks to label tightassness, the biggest point of suck being that you can only listen to a song three times.

What's sort of shady is that they wouldn't discuss how they track how many times you've listened to a track, since you don't have to log in or register—probably based on your IP address, though. Of course, this intersects with advertiser interests, since they can better target ads based on your track history.

Another neat aspect of the re-launch is their artist royalty program, where unsigned artists can directly upload their music to Last.fm, and they'll get paid every time their track is played—basically pulling in the ad revenue that would've gone to a label, if they were on one.

And they're definitely not stopping with music. Asked about a "Last.tv" being in the works, Last.fm co-founder said that "music videos are the bridge into visual content."

60 Minutes Looks at OLPC, Up Close and Personal

Charlie White — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:15:00 EST

The long-running CBS News magazine 60 Minutes takes time out from its Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith coverage to give us a peek at the $208 OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), and here's a clip with Walter Bender, president of software and content on the project. He claims battery life of 10-12 hours "by the time we're done with all our tuning," which might be stretching it a bit since other reviewers saw three hours tops thus far. He also claims its Wi-Fi reception is probably 2-3 times better than a $3000 laptop. Check out the easy charging with that salad spinner-like charging device. Too bad the thing didn't end up with a $100 price tag as was originally planned. [CBS]

NBC may not be big on iTunes Store downloads ...

Adrian Covert — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:45:38 EDT

NBC may not be big on iTunes Store downloads at the moment, but CBS and Fox think differently. [Macenstein]

Sling Media, CBS Partner For San Francisco Surveillance

kthompson — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:30:48 EDT

Those of you in the San Francisco area may be familiar with CBS 5's partnership with the makers of the Slingbox. Since late April they have been Slinging live footage from the field to the station, and now that cozy relationship is getting hot and heavy with Sling/3G wireless webcams going up all over the city.

The current cam count is at 27, covering expected areas like the Golden Gate Bridge and major highway interchanges around the Bay area. At this point, privacy worries seem minimal at best; most cameras overlook their targets from distant, lofty perches. When Sling starts grabbing hold of the security cameras outside shopping centers or grocery stores, put on your tinfoil hats.

Sling/CBS Partnership Press Release [Via Gearlog]

See the cams at CBS 5's site

You're Young, Rich and Smart (Probably)

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:30:15 EST

A new study by Nielsen Analytics (as in TV ratings) claims that people who watch TV online are younger, richer and more educated than the average TV audience. So if you're watching Heroes next to Giz (like I am) congratulations, you're awesome. Actually, they're just assuming that you have broadband, so you probably have a higher-than-average income, a college education and don't quite draw Social Security yet. You can still feel free to pat yourself on the back, though. – Matt Buchanan

TV shows find young, affluent viewers on 'net: study [Reuters]

Network Fogies Getting Into YouTube-Like Racket

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:14:38 EST

What do NBC, News Corp., CBS, and Viacom have in common? YouTube. In an effort to dethrone their young Web-based competition, they're joining forces on a new venture/website that would host videos from their respective video vaults. This in turn would draw traffic away from YouTube, and put extra cash in the already fat pockets of TV execs. The problem is....

each company has their own hidden agenda/reason for launching a YouTube competitor. News Corp, for instance, is doing this to sink YouTube before it draws more traffic away from MySpace (which is owned by News Corp.), whereas CBS on the other hand sees this as a way of getting closer to Google, who they're trying to strike a separate deal with on a completely different venture. The YouTube "killer" could be announced as early as this week. The question is—do you care or will YouTube remain being your personal TiVo? – Louis Ramirez

Old Model Versus a Speedster [NYT]

Virtual Trading Cards: Real Stupid

Mark Wilson — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 10:23:09 EDT

As if enough money weren't being made through overvalued mobile downloads, CBS has added Survivor virtual trading cards (translation: wallpapers that cost more) to their mobile offerings. For a subscription fee of $7.99/month you get 12 cards at a rate of 3 cards per week - with duplicate downloads entirely possible. Not fast enough for your wallpaper...err...trading card addiction? Then download a booster pack. Still not fast enough? Then just pile up your money, cover it in gasoline and throw a match to it. And be careful! Because it would be a loss to humanity if you fell in. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via textually]

Zune Unboxed By CBS

Jason Chen — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:41:33 EDT

Chris Stephenson of Microsoft (and now CBS) fame unboxes the Zune for your enjoyment. He shows off the sleek packaging, the brown-ness, FM radio, background-changing, and Zune-iness of the device.

Oh, to be British...and also working for Microsoft. We recommend you don't look if you want to have the full impact of your unboxing. – Jason Chen

Video [CBS via Engadget]

New CBS Show: Genius Bar

Mark Wilson — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 16:00:26 EDT

Yes, the Genius Bar pilot is being created by the two producers of That 70's Show. And the original concept was by Krishnan Menon, the brains behind many Apple marketing campaigns, so it is "that" genius bar CBS is referring to.

Gizmodo has an exclusive excerpt of their script:

"Hey, welcome to Pear."
"Thanks. Heard you guys think alternatively around here."
"We sure do."
"Is that why you're wearing bellbottoms with a black mock turtle?"

Genius Bar looks to be at least 50% funnier than previous shows on CBS and each episode plays back up to 3 continuous weeks of canned laughter. Look for spinoff Genius Bar: Miami 6 months following the pilot. – Mark Wilson

[TV Squad]

TiVo Releases CBS Sportsline Fantasy Football

Jason Chen — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:30:05 EDT

TiVo and CBS just launched their Fantasy Football HME app on TiVo machines~~—too bad the season started weeks ago~~. Travis may be the Fantasy Football nut around here, but whatever he's using surely doesn't compare with this. In addition, TiVo is also putting out CBS Sportsline video showcases and Gold Star promotions. Go Futher Muckers! – Jason Chen

Press Release [TiVo via Zatz Not Funny]

CBS to use Bluetooth Billboards to Promote Fall Shows

Travis Hudson — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:45:31 EDT

CBS will be loading up Grand Central Terminal train station in NYC with Bluetooth enabled billboards to promote their fall lineup. The billboards will beam video clips of five of their primetime shows to Bluetooth enabled cellphones, smartphones and PDAs. They will offer clips from the shows Shark, Smith, Jericho, The Class and CSI. Each show will have its own billboard.

No worried about CBS forcing the shows onto your phone. Before downloading you are required to accept the video from the CBS billboard. The 30 second clips should take around 20 seconds to download. Now, how long until a news headline reads "CBS Bluetooth Billboards Hacked, Distributes Sick Fetish Porn"? – Travis Hudson

CBS Promotes Fall Lineup With Bluetooth [ClickZ]

CBS Adds CSIs, Survivor and NCIS To iTunes

Jason Chen — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:37:09 EDT

As yet another sign that online distribution has hit the big time, CBS adds its big name properties to iTunes. The three CSIs, Survivor and NCIS join Numb3rs on Apple's iTunes service. Prices are $1.99 and the only shows available are from the 2005-2006 season.

We think the upcoming 2006-2007 season could be the year where online TV finally really takes off. We predict almost all the top rated shows being moved to either iTunes or some proprietary distribution so viewers can catch up on episodes they've missed. ABC's done it already with their own free online streaming, and where one network goes, the other networks will surely follow. – Jason Chen

CBS puts CSI and Survivor on iTunes downloads [Reuters]

CBS Launches Innertube Streaming Video Service

Charlie White — Fri, 05 May 2006 11:14:01 EDT

The nonstop diaspora of the TV networks to the Web continues with CBS to be the next shoe to drop, opening up its own streaming media service it calls Innertube. In addition to showing episodes from CBS primetime programs, the ad-supported service will also stream content from CBS kin such as CBS Paramount Network Television, King World, and Showtime. The company also plans to show episodes of series that didn't quite make it on primetime.

Using a Flash-based player, its interface is not quite as refined as ABC's, and its compression quality is a little bit on the funky side. But unlike ABC's interface, Innertube scales up to full screen quite well. The site is just a stub so far with just three clips onboard, but you can tell it's primed for expansion. Neat. Streaming video: it's the new cable.

CBS Innertube Site

CBS Teams Up with iTunes for March Madness

Charlie White — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:36:44 EST

CBS is jumping all over the NCAA hoops tourney, where first it's streaming the whole college basketball tournament for free from its own website, and now it's teamed up with Apple to bring edited versions of the games the day after they re aired for $1.99 each. If that's not enough, for $19.99 you can sign up for a Season Pass where you'll get condensed versions of all 63 match-ups. For those all-important semifinal and Final Four games, you'll be able to download those in their entirety the next day. So if you're not paying attention to sports scores, this might be a highly efficient way to stay semi-current on roundball happenings.

CBS Sports & Apple Offer 2006 NCAA Men s Basketball Tournament [Apple press release]

March Madness Webcast on CBS for Free

Charlie White — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:30:38 EST

CBS is jumping into web video headfirst, streaming every game of the first three rounds of the NCAA Basketball Tournament live on the web for free. March Madness On Demand lets you follow your favorite hoops team from oblivion to the big show, and the only price you pay is watching the ads from one of the 20 sponsors of the webcast. CBS will also black out any game that s broadcast in your TV market, but so what? You can watch that game on TV while you watch the rest on your PC. Oh yeah, and you're required to sign up for the service, too—CBS is offering it on a first-come first-served basis, so get your name in before it's too late.

Sounds like some records are about to be broken. This could be a webcasting event that begins a new era. It's about time.

March Madness Webcast Free [Zatz Not Funny]

Verizon Sending CBS Clips to Phones

tgrumet — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 10:08:31 EST

Yesterday, we reported that European cell phones will be getting full video downloads of some of our favorite HBO shows. Today, we can tell you that Verizon Wireless has generously countered that announcement with plans to send clips from CBS shows like CSI, Survivor and Late Show with David Letterman to our mobiles. Gee, thanks. I'd much rather see a two-minute clip of Katie Holmes smiling vacantly than an episode of Six Feet Under. Not. Anyhow, the clips will only be available to customers of Verizon Wireless's V Cast video service and there really doesn't seem to be any talk about getting full shows anytime soon. Video news segments from CBS News and Entertainment Tonight are also being discussed.

Verizon Wireless to deliver CBS clips to phones [Reuters]

Victoria's Secret Show Gets HD Diss

tgrumet — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:49:08 EST

It's true. If you've had your heart set on watching next Tuesday's broadcast of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in HD, you'll have to set your willies to half mast and deal with standard definition from CBS. Obviously, it's ok to watch Andy Rooney in all his HD glory, but lingerie doesn't seem to rate high enough. We're thinking that maybe HDTV wouldn't do the girls as well as you might expect, and to keep you dogs lusting after these perfect bodies, it's better to tone down this broadcast. It's no secret that many celebrities have been complaining about wrinkles and skin imperfections when they're on HDTV, so maybe Giselle's got some unwanted cellulite we don't know about (god, I hope so) and we KNOW Tyra has a 'stache. Anyhow, sorry boys. It's a done deal this year, though for some reason, I'm sure you'll still enjoy the show.

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show faux-pas [HD Beat]

Stars Looking Bad in HDTV:
Silly Talk or Serious Issue? [TV Predictions]

CBS, NBC Take Shows and Go Play at Someone Else's Video-On-Demand Party

tgrumet — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 13:45:49 EST

In a move that blatantly rides on the video iPod's coattails, CBS and Comcast, as well as NBC and DirecTV, have made deals that will let you to watch current primetime shows just hours after they're played over the air. Shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order lead the pack of programs that will be available. (Doesn't Law & Order already air 800,000 times per day on four different channels for free?).

"As with the Disney iPod deal, I think this deal is symbolic of the new age," said Leslie Moonves, co-president and chief operating officer of Viacom Inc. and chairman of CBS.

I can't help but read the subtext of this statement as: "We were too slow and lacked the foresight to bow before Jobs, so instead we took all our toys and went to Leslie's house to play."

Come January, you'll be treated to CBS-Comcast VOD like "CSI," "NCIS," "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race." All of these will be available to you on PPV at midnight after the original show airs for .99 cents. (That is so cheap that it's almost an insult — Survivor is only worth .99 cents!) Unlike the Apple/ABC deal, all the commercials will be left intact. Although you should be able to fast forward through them if this is regular VOD, right? Right??

NBC's deal is a bit different. Here your shows will be commercial-free on DirecTV, though you can only get them if you buy a DirecTV Plus Interactive DVR — which will be available in the next few months. This will cover shows like Surface and The Office as well as the Law and Order franchise and even some shows from its cable networks like Monk and Battlestar Gallactica.

NBC, CBS to offer shows on demand for 99 cents [Reuters]