Freyburg

Our commentary on “Silence in the Library” was upstaged somewhat by one David Tennant’s decision to quit the role of The Doctor after the four 2009 specials. Fandom was agog, aflame and otherwise a-twitter with speculation on who the next Doctor will be, and we were no different, making this one of our longer prognostications. And we sort of stayed on topic every once in a while….occasionally. Also, as of next week we promise there’ll be no more political appeals to our American listeners, for better or for ill.

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It was inevitable that the expanding world of online video would hit the wall that every other industry in America (and elsewhere) has run into, and with that decline has come rounds of layoffs. Revision3 has turfed three of their employees, including some TechTV alumni, and discontinued its distribution deal with Smashface Productions, the creators of Epic-Fu. Not to mention Seesmic, the video commenting service, though I’d contend video commenting is a dumb idea to begin with. Heavy.com, 60Frames…the list goes on.

But the difference between this round of cost-cutting and the tech bubble is that these companies weren’t throwing around masses of worthless stock and spending beyond their means, and the fact that the economic malaise isn’t isolated to the tech sector this time around. And online video is, at least for now, much cheaper to produce than regular broadcast television. Standout shows like Epic-Fu get their start through people screwing around with a camcorder, not a big production deal…so one way or the other, there’ll always be a place for online video. It just might not have venture capital attched to it.