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I was just reading about a drama being produced for BBC-One called ‘The Girl in the Café.” It was written by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter for “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Love Actually”, “Notting Hill” and (I think) “Bridget Jones.” The show will air this summer as part of BBC’s celebration of African culture.

In the U.S., we cannot get BBC-One; we do get BBC America, but I tend to doubt it will air this program. On the other hand, with the sad state of sitcoms and other network fare, wouldn’t American audiences (who are fans of Curtis’ films) be eager to see this TV-movie? I would.

The answer? (You saw this one coming)—let me download the show on the Web. I’ll even pay for it. Given the difference in TV formats (PAL vs. NTSC), downloading the file makes sense.

Anyone listening?

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Who Will Pay for Content?

by Allen Weiner on Fri 29 Apr 2005 08:19 AM PDT

This is a research theme I intend to explore. Here's is an interesting tidbit from the people behind Ajc.com's Website. The trick will be to identify those who "dig deep" for news and information. I think I can do that. This story was in line56.com

Blogging for Bucks
by Demir Barlas, Line56
Wednesday, April 27, 2005

AJC.com, the online arm of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sees a discrete segmentation of sports readers. "There's a small segment of the overall sports population that wants to go deep," says Hyde Post, editorial director of AJC.com. "The people that do will dig forever."

A recent article in the New York-Times talked about a very similar phenomenon in that portion of the video game population willing to spend as much as thirty hours a week in massively multiplayer games.
In both scenarios, users are willing to pay recurring subscriptions for the right to go deeper than their more casual peers. In the case of AJC.com, this means getting access to blogs maintained by sportswriters and beat columnists.
The idea of paid blogs is admittedly a new concept for both companies and their customers or prospects. Very few companies (Marqui is an example) are paying consumers to blog about them, but the idea of paying companies for access to their own premium blogs is more mainstream -- at least in the sports world, where the ever-popular ESPN.com introduced paid content several years ago.
Still, after about a year of experience with the model, AJC.com met its -- admittedly modest -- revenue and subscription goals, and in future the contribution could be greater. "The boats are still out as to how deep that vein is," concludes Post. "But people want to know everything they can possibly know, and this gives them a chance to become a part of that community."
AJC.com relies on tools from Traction Software for its paid blogs, which integrate seamlessly with free content from a navigation point of view.