Each week on Sunday mornings, ABC1 broadcast one of the best hours of TV. Insiders is a weekly political roundup in which presenter Barrie Cassidy discusses the week in politics with three journalists, and commentary by senior journo Paul Kelly. Each week, Cassidy kicks off the program by interviewing a politician.

Since assuming leadership of the Australian Labour Party, Kevin Rudd has been eagerly sought-after by Insiders to appear on the show. Frustration must have been high as towards the end of 2007’s election campaign, Cassidy began to speak openly about Rudds reluctance to appear on the show, commenting on it quite savagely. Insiders is one of the few shows on TV where Rudd would not receive a free ride and would likely be asked the tough questions.

SundayMorningTV have reported that this week will see Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appear on the show. Based on Cassidy’s previous criticism of Rudd, this could very well be one of the more interesting political interviews of the year.

Regularly on Televised Revolution we discuss the changing face of television, technology superseding formerly known modes of distribution and consumption.

We now have one more victim to the changing face of television. The armoire. That horrible furniture concept which is designed to hide ones television from view when not in use. The Miami Herald are reporting that sales of the armoire are dwindling as customers move to flat screen LCD and plasma displays.

At Televised Revolution, we cannot even conceive why somebody would want to go to the step of HIDING their television. In our eyes, that is no different than book burning.

Goodbye armoire, you horribly conceived contraption. And good riddance. Those street thugs on Seinfeld did Elaine a favour by stealing her armoire.

The Televised Revolution podcast is back for another week of inanity. On this weeks show, Dan and Simon discuss:
*The cancellation of Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune
*Harvey Norman signs up for Tivo
*What women really want. Smart money is on it being television.

This comes bundled with some TV Recommendations. It’s almost too much value.

 

 Like A Phoenix... [36:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve highlighted below the two reasons one would buy a high-def digital set-top box. Times and programming is looking at the commercials in Brisbane for primetime tonight.

I AM RUNNING OUT TO BUY ONE OF THESE SUCKERS ASAP!!!

Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune
June 2008 - June 2008
RIP

Friends, it is with hand on my heart that I inform you that Channel Nine’s Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune has in fact been cancelled. It seems that not even a quickly shambled together celebrity edition featuring the stable of Nine celebrities could keep the show on the air.

This afternoon at 4:11pm, Channel 9 issued the following press release:

Statement: Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune
——————————————————————————–

Channel Nine announced today it had ceased production of the 5.30pm game show Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune.

A Channel Nine spokesperson said, “We are disappointed that Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune has not done as well as we had hoped. It is best in these circumstances to make the tough decisions and move on – so we have.

We are delighted, however, that the show has brought two great talents to the network in Tim Campbell and Kelly Landry, who are both staying at Nine.”

All-round entertainer, Tim Campbell, is the host of a new series Celebrity Singing Bee, that premieres Thursday July 10, at 8.30pm, on Channel Nine.

While talented Kelly Landry will be joining the team at Getaway as a reporter.

The final episode of Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune airs this evening.

Here at Televised Revolution, we love Joss Whedon. The auteur mastermind behind Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and the feature film Serenity has so far done no wrong by us. Whedon has a new TV show kicking off in 2009, but one would assume that fans may need something to tide them over until then.

Perhaps Dr Horrible’s Sing Along can help. An online musical starring Neil Patrick Harris is set to premiere sometime in the foreseeable future. When exactly remains a mystery, but at least we now have this teaser trailer to ogle.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

The AFR is reporting that Tivo is set to launch in Australia in mid-July, with Channel Seven selling the boxes exclusively through Harvey Norman for three months prior to widespread distribution. With a $700 price tag and no on-going subscription fee, the boxes seem priced at a costly high-end level of interesting.

There are many high quality PVR machines already available on the market for well under $700. Heck, here at Televised Revolution HQ, we’ve had one for almost four years at a price of $300. Now, when looking at this $700 price tag in the context of the other products on shelf, $700 sounds horribly bloated. And with Harvey Norman taking such an active role in the launch and costings of the product, this is not a surprise. Harvey Norman are notoriously more expensive than competitors.

But, what makes Tivo better? Well, unlike other PVR’s, Tivo will learn what kinds of shows you like, meaning if there are schedule changes, or you forget to set the PVR, it will actively go out and record it for you, or recommend a show you may like and record that for you too. Additionally, the box, which connects online, will also stream 100 TV stations off the Internet.

And the drawbacks? Well, they are significant. The cost really is a significant issue at this point. The only way that the $700 can be justified would be if the machines are equipped with a very healthy sized hard drive and can access HD broadcast services. Ultimately the question for consumers will be whether the intelligence of Tivo is worth the extra couple of hundred dollars this will cost.

It will be interesting to see whether, or rather, how much, the box will fall by once the exclusive arrangement concludes.

The other issue of significance is the 100 IPTV stations available via the Tivo STB. For consumers to receive any value from the service, they will need, at least, an ADSL2 internet connection in order to keep up with that flow of information. Additionally, when one considers the data allowance caps that most consumers are given by their ISP’s, a service like this has the potential to really chew heavily into ones allowance. Unless Channel 7 have signed a partnership also with an ISP to ensure this data flow doesn’t contribute to ones download limit, there are going to be a lot of unhappy consumers with either their net speeds capped, or facing financial penalties for going over the limit. The hidden costs of this Tivo service.

Additionally, this last problem is significant if Tivo is also monitoring the Internet streams for content to record for consumers.

If the issue of data allowance is a legitimate issue, Channel 7 had better prepare for significant backlash to the service once peoples Internet bills arrive after the first month. Already I’m seeing a hot topic on the talkback radio stations brewing.

Further details on this service will come forth over the next month as Channel 7 and Harvey Norman gear up the publicity machine. As it stands, the service seems interesting, but the cost and potential drain on home Internet plans is worrying. This is certainly going to be an interesting service to watch as it launches.