Sidecut Reports

It looks like Comcast’s plans to expand availability of its video content to the web is gaining more fans, and fans who count — namely the networks and broadcasters who put out the kind of content folks want to watch.

As Chris Albrecht notes over at NewTeeVee, CBS and a host of others have signed on to Comcast’s OnDemand Online (or TV Everywhere) idea, making the service more compelling even before it really launches. As we noted earlier, the combination of a vetted online way to watch the cable content you already pay for may be worth its weight in gold to Comcast as a customer-retention scheme. Throw in some low-cost WiMax as an access method and video everywhere starts to sound like an attractive possibility — which means of course here in California we will eventually have to pass a law that prohibits live streaming while driving.

But for content owners and service providers, that will be a good problem to have to solve.

When I was managing editor at GigaOM last year, I used to look forward to the P2P posts from Janko Roettgers for the NewTeeVee site, because they were always interesting and offered a nuanced take not found in many other places. Today Janko scores again with a post about how BitTorrent isn’t just for blockbuster movies, a fact that may escape those who only scratch the surface of the P2P world.

Janko’s post is a bit of a reply to Tim Wu’s recent article for Slate, where the esteemed legal scholar came up empty-handed after searching popular P2P sites for Sundance-type films. Wu’s following hypothesis — that pirates are interested mainly in big-money films — is partially on, but as Janko points out it is possible to find artsy and niche material, but you have to look a bit harder. Maybe it’s the online equivalent of finding a cool record store that specializes in quirky stuff, as opposed to scanning the bins at Best Buy. Good thing we NewTeeVee fans have Janko around to peer down those dark alleys and find what others miss.