Mainly because of the ads
Familiarity breeds contempt. Just pick up your remote control and cycle through the channels you receive locally. Doesn’t really matter if you have rabbit ears, or a love-hate relationship with the cable guy, or a dish that tunes in distant galaxies; in the end, the results are the same. 57 channels and nothing on. Where is channel One in our time of need?
Following a “heads up” from a friend, that didn’t involve dodging errant baseballs, I downloaded a free piece of software called TVUPlayer, that serves as a client for reception of, you guessed it, television stations. From what little I’ve been able to google on the subject, this is a test to see if there is a market for yet more channels, this time around from different parts of the globe.
My first impression is that it’s a keeper, and mainly because of the ads. I don’t speak/read/write in Cantonese, for example, but I can now increase my exposure by 100%, and the price is right. The selection is not that different from my local cable feed, but the ads!
Cell phones are big on the interest list, as are motor scooters and high-end automobiles. The artistic quality should bring shame to the North American industry. So many bridges to nowhere, with beautiful women leading the way.
This is a window on another part of the world. I have no doubt that the view is completely detached from reality, but who cares. I want a diversion. There is an infinitesimally small chance that I’ll be going to the other side of the world any time soon, so this will just have to do. I still don’t need a cellphone, but over there it seems to be more popular than Pepsi.
