Pajamas TV Launches (Updated)
UPDATE: Latest participants to agree to appear on PJTV at the RNC: James Woolsey, John Bolton, Ted Olsen, Senator Bob Corker, Senator Norm Coleman, Jeb Bush and Fred and Jeri Thompson — interviewing each other.
Dissatisfied with the deadly predictability, screeching opinions, endless advertising interruptions – not to mention dubious credibility (see Pew polls) — of mainstream media television news?
So are we at PJ Media and we thought we’d try to do something about it. Behind the scenes, we’ve been developing our own video capabilities to provide a combination of live and recorded content.
So when PJM became the first online new media company to have our own video platform at a political convention — right up there with old media (Media 1.0) big guys we’ve been criticizing (CNN, NBC, etc.) — we decided it was time to bite the bullet and launch Pajamas TV with roughly five hours of live Internet programming from the Republican Convention, Sept 1-4. After a day of convention recap (September 5), we will begin regular Pajamas TV programming on the Internet — with one and half hours five days a week — beginning Monday September 8, ramping up to three hours or more with weekends in the first quarter of 2009.
So what exactly is Pajamas TV?
Well, part of that will be up to you if you become a member because PJTV — a Media 2.0 company — is going to involve its audience in the selection of its content, style, and even its bias. (Yes, we think all media are biased to one extent or another.)
Basically, Pajamas TV will be live Internet television based on the blogosphere rather than the mainstream media, with blogosphere voices … what we call Media 2. 0 voices — a sushi mix of bloggers and blog-sympathetic personalities, including politicians who respect new media. Among those who will be with us at the convention are Glenn Reynolds, Powerline, James Lileks, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Peter Robinson (of “tear down that wall” fame), Stephen “Vodkapundit” Green, Jennifer Rubin, Ron Silver and several members of the House and Senate. (Watch this space for more exciting names to come.)
Most of those people — as well as many others, including thinks tanks like the Manhattan and Heritage Institutes, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and cultural affairs from Encounter Books’ Roger Kimball — will be part of our regular programming as well as we go forward. (Stay tuned for more announcements of exciting surprise participants at our booth at the RNC.)
Because we will not have intrusive commercials, Pajamas TV will go against Conventional Web Wisdom and be a subscription service, with discounts for those who sign up during our alpha and beta periods (alpha has already begun; beta begins at the convention).
But enough of dreary old text. Why don’t you go have a look? Click here for the PJTV home page and then click on the Overview Video on right. We hope you’ll join us on what should be a fascinating journey.
[TECHNICAL NOTE: PJTV supports the popular browsers Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox — with the best results coming so far from IE (for XP and Vista) and Safari (Mac).]
Should be fun!
wHATEVER HAPPENED TO RICHARD MINITER AND HIS WEEKLY POLITICAL SHOW? I THINK HE WAS PAIRED WITH DAVID CORN OR SOMEONE. wHY DID IT STOP?
Will it be closed captioned? There are those of us who are deaf or hard of hearing who like to keep up with Pajamasmedia . . .
i’m just posting cuz its lonely here and i want you to get lots of comments and start rocking!!!!
yay!
One. How do I check to see which of the three levels would satisfy me?
TRied to sign up three times but am not accepted. My bad eyes and two fingered typing may be the culprit. Do you have a phone number for assistance?
Phil Smith
philsmith, thanks for your response. Here are some
“One. How do I check to see which of the three levels would satisfy me?”
Try the different levels on the Overview Video. You can see the links next to it. You can also sign up for one level and change if you want to go up or down. High quality is best if you want to attach your computer to a large high def screen TV.
“TRied to sign up three times but am not accepted. My bad eyes and two fingered typing may be the culprit. Do you have a phone number for assistance?”
Contact support@pjtv.com and they will be glad to help you.
How are you going to compete with Breitbart.tv, when they’ve got Liz Stephans?
Firefox 3.0.1 (in Windows XP service pack 3) won’t accept the security certificate from PJTV’s subscription page.
I have lots of questions, like:
Does the inclusion of Peter Robinson imply that PJTV will carry ‘Uncommon Knowledge’?
Is PJTV at all interested in becoming a programing block for a broadcaster?
Does this mean anything for PJM Political on satellite radio?
Lots of questions. I’m skeptical of the subscription model, especially for a product catering to the blogosphere’s audience. It seems a little antithetical to the free-linking model.
“I’m skeptical of the subscription model, especially for a product catering to the blogosphere’s audience. It seems a little antithetical to the free-linking model.”
It may have something to do with the fact that television is costly and, as I understand it, they are not running ads.
I saw your Overview video on Safari with Leopard. Looked fine.
“Does this mean anything for PJM Political on satellite radio?”
We have to work out the details, but I think it’s safe to say that one way or another, there will be a fair amount of crossover between the two platforms.
Intriguing. Would be interested in business programming, but no stock tips.
This is Great News! We don’t use cable or Dish and we are forced to watch ABC,CBS and NBC’s liberal crap. It’s the end of network news for us!
It’s about time.
After proving its mettle as a respectable part of the New Media, video is only the next step. No longer will Walter Cronkite tell us “that’s the way it is” when it rarely was.
Media 1.0 R.I.P. Long live Media 2.0!
- Firefox 3.0.1 (in Windows XP service pack 3) won’t accept the security certificate…
It will. I did this last night. You need to click on the various buttons and dialogs presented by Firefox to allow an ‘exception’.
I’m quite impressed with the Medium video quality, and looking forward to great stuff.
Will this be available in Canada to stream? Or blocked by the same loons that tried to ban Fox News up here?
Anyone wanting to see what a “fairness doctrine” looks like in practice, take a look north of the border.
So when PJM became the first online new media company to have our own video platform at a political convention
What about TPM?
I’d be all over this but I can’t afford a subscription
Here’s hoping you’ll be posting summaries here on PJM of all the best broadcasts
Vividas help page says: “Linux Not Supported” even though I have Firefox (supported).
Requiring download of a special, platform-specific player is old-tech, not modern.
Not very “Media 2.0″ are you? Even the “Media 1.0″ dinosaurs are happy to support Linux users. Virtually every other “Media 2.0″ site also supports Linux users, even on live streams (e.g., Ed Morrisey).
I’m surprised you chose technology that locks out tech-savvy users who would be interested in your content. I’m disappointed, but I’m not going to switch operating systems just to see your stuff.
It’s good that this service supports Safari. NBC’s Olympics videos required an Intel processor, which my iMac does not have, so I couldn’t watch them.
However, it was disconcerting to experience the lag of four to maybe eight seconds between what one sees and what one hears. That led to Michelle Malkin moving her lips and a male voice coming out. And I wish I knew what the music selection was and who the performers were.
Let’s hope that the bad synchronization will get fixed before the convention starts.
excellent. have signed up already (I only have high speed, so went with the medium quality, plus I am a Canadian, so don’t want to go to extremes!)
I think with Phyllis Chesler and Michael Ledeen, something may come from this, re women and Islam. Please.
Hi
Great idea & I hope it works but I think the pricing is too steep. I understand everyone needs to get paid but the Internet is a tough way to make a living.
The other thing is it is very USA centric. I think if this is truly to be Media 2.0 your commentators should be from all over the world. As an Australian two names immediately spring to mind – Andrew Bolt & Tim Blair.
Good luck
this is a step in the right direction; Bolton needs to be heard by as many Americans as possible. The furor of the left when Dubya gave him a recess appointment to the UN demonstrates how much they fear him. Glad to hear you are doing something like this.
Tom York,
Balboa Island, California
Linux – Not Supported.
I’ll be getting my info elsewhere.
Linux is unsupported – FIX THAT!
It crashed Safari on high quality. I am sure that will be worked out however. PJM has quite a few contributors with TV experience so it could be quite interesting.
Get some edgey sarcastic guys with wit too, like Mark Steyn, Doug Giles, or the inimitable Dennis Miller.
Well, it worked last week on a Mac with both Safari, and Camino browsers. This week-end, no luck any which way. I tried all three versions at one point or another, and have a high speed internet connection — it gets stuck every time while loading the video. Perhaps due to an unexpectedly high volume of viewers? Anyway, it’s too bad. I was looking forward to the PJM take on the convention. I’ll keep trying in the hope it gets fixed in time.
It’s working perfectly on linux for me, I don’t know why Doug and WcGreen are having problems. I’m using 64 bit Firefox and didn’t have to download any players or change setting to view.
Greg
Boo… it doesn’t work on my Firefox portable. (I’m using the “Portable Aps” version) Nor does it seem to work on my jobs Internet Exploder. Though they haven’t updated it in a while which is probably why. I’ll try on my Windows full Firefox and my Mac’s Safari when I get home. So far 0 for 2.
This is disappointing – I was ready to sign up, but the experience on Safari is terrible. Unsynchronized audio, crashed my browser, etc…
Why go for a Java-based video solution when everyone in the web-video space has been so successfully using Flash? Even the Silverlight-based Olympics was vastly superior to this… and that left a lot to be desired.
I am having a really good time watching/listening to PJTV tonight while I work, although there is a lot of buffering, interruptions and what amounts to repeats or stuttering (or as I call it, a glitch in the matrix) and some slowness overall on my laptop (not using the work laptop for PJTV). Using WinXP and Firefox with high-speed cable internet.
Content-wise, it’s great to see the faces I read all the time. So far I have subscribed for basic. I’m enjoying most of the participants but not fond of Peter Robinson. Odd because I do like his writings. Jennifer Rubin is my favorite so far (as well as all the MN VRWC bloggers).
Also, this is SO much fun and better than cable news (network news is so last century).
Okay got it to work at home on the non-portable Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP. Nowhere else though. I agree the Java Client seems a crappy choice.
I’ve gotten on a few times when it let me use low quality on my laptop and no interim buffering followed but several other times I couldn’t get on (not available at this time message.) I agree that this would be a terrific addition to DirecTV; I’ll alert them. I hope I’ll be able to see more when the glitches are corrected. Is there a straightforward way of selecting quality without the Roger Simon entrance video? I’ve seen it too often.
CONGRATULATIONS!!
I am so happy “real people” will have a voice.