Regular viewers of UStream.TV may have noticed yet more changes under the hood that effects how people find shows. I thought I would show how it had changed and my thoughts on this very move.
Previously….
We started with a flash strip of live shows and the only way to find people was to go through this strip and see if any of the show names or picture’s matched what you wanted to watch. This eventually evolved through various things till we arrived at people been able to put themselves into a section (such as technology) and people been able to drill down to the type of Live shows they wanted.
The good thing about this method was that shows which you may have missed in the past now show up in that section, there was still no policing of the sections though and you would find a church broadcast inside technology.
Out with the old, in with the new.
I have taken a screenshot of the page and will describe how it works:
No more bar along the top with Technology and other types but now a drop down, which sorts ALL the shows ever created, so instead of seeing 4 pages with Technology for example, you now see there is 11 plus. The next drop down can further drill into the group, so in this example we have gone to Computers and the number of shows change but still many pages and finally the sort method, in this instance we have chosen Most Viewers.
As you look down the list, it will get to the point were the shows listed are not live and this night not make any sense at first but this is similar to LiveStream for example were as people pop into your show, it racks up the numbers so even a show that is not online all the time gets moved up the ratings.
Will it change anything?
The question is, will more people find the show they need, your show if you went live or totally miss you? Most people will not have any idea about how the above works and the to listed shows will continue to get numbers while the little guys will sit there with a brilliant show but sub 10 people watching.
How can it be made better?
The first thing that needs to happen is better policing of shows and sections, more tools for the end user to flag a wrong section for example. The next thing is to maybe have a rule that says if the show is not in the live castings section and they broadcast 24/7 (Repeats) – they get moved. Lastly, Offline shows needs not to be listed unless searched for, give the little guys a chance basically.
