So its all about the scene. No were not talking about the dating scene which tickled a few slashdotters. And were not talking about the clubbing and music scene which I would usually consider as the scene. No its a site which was picked up by a few people a while but I kinda of skipped over till recently. So basicly its a Television show about the underground network scene of suppliers, rippers and coders who bring the latest films to the public networks of the internets. Yes that means you can easily and freely download each ep via torrent, gnutella, etc etc… Its not a new way of thinking but it seems the whole thing is being funded by Sony, which is quite interesting.
The.Scene.Episode.1.TV.XviD-SCENE was released December 2, 2004 This video was created by Sony (www.sony.com) towards the end of the Video there is a name that appears Rebecca Brandt if you google Rebecca Brandt you get http://www.sonyplaza.com/ny/reporters_5.html [sonyplaza.com] apperently she is some sort of reporter for Sony if you continue to look at the page you can see who else she works with Seth Hochman http://www.sonyplaza.com/ny/reporters_4.html [sonyplaza.com] Look at his picture. Its the guy from the video with a haircut.
From there it drops into the usual slashdot bashing but I'm not so quick to bash it. I have only seen the first ep which I watched on my ipaq on the way home but its not badly done and the product placement and advertising is not terriable, plus add the factor that you can easily skip it because the video is a plain xvid file not a DRM junky file. Which assures everything will be able to play it, which strikes me as good move on Jun Group's part. The advertising site has reported that it has recieved more attention that it could actual handle which has to be a advertiser's wet dream come true? Executives at show sponsor Freebord phoned Jun Group two hours after the premiere to report that their website was “being swamped with traffic.”
What makes the show most unique is the fact that it is being distributed solely through the P2P community. “File sharers have made it very clear that this is their preferred method of consuming content,” Mitchell said. “We are the first ones who have found a way to truly meet that demand.” He added that the file-sharing audience is a highly desirable demographic of affluent and largely male young adults. Businesses pay for placement based on the number of people who are inspired by the show to visit a sponsor, which is both quantifiable and verifiable. “Our sponsors will only be paying for the people who download the show or the people we drive to their websites,” he noted. “They won't have to rely on outdated ratings systems.” There's no reason to copy-protect the shows, Mitchell said, because the whole idea is for people to copy and share them so that advertisers reach the highest possible number of consumers.
And this is the thing, if you dont like the scene which is really a soap for file sharers, then dont watch it! But honestly, it still beats watching Eastenders and Hollyoaks for myself. I would almost start to say that this season of 24 up till recently (ep 13) has not been great and its been too generalising for my liking and I welcome something a little more technical and tech savy. The scene is light soap entertainment and its popularity has spawned a copy already and proves that even developers, filesharers, hackers, etc still want or maybe even need a little light entertainment now and then. The question is, do you want it from the mainstream or narrowstream? I know which one I perfer.
