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 Pajamas 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).]