Is a 24 hour Apple news network necessary?


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The Digital Lifestyle network went live yesterday. Not a bad name for a Tech Metwork. Here’s the thing, though, they’re not billing themselves as a Tech Network. They’re billing themselves as a 24 hour Apple News Network.

Soak that in for a minute. A 24 hour Apple News Network.

Sometimes I have a hard time filling up a 10 minute podcast, and this network is going to run 24 hours a day? I just don’t think that’s going to work…but the subject matter isn’t the only thing that I think is off track.

The “channel” runs in a window on their website 24 hours a day. 24 hour channels are as old media as it gets. If there is compelling program on this network, I won’t be watching it, because I’m not going to wait until its on. Podcasting and DVRs are the future of video distribution. These days you watch programming when its convenient for you…not the other way around.

So from the get go, I don’t think this is a great idea. It’s kind of funny that there is a news ticker running along the bottom of the page. It’s like a CNN for Apple stuff…and I just can’t see there being that much content for this thing.

I’m all for a network of podcasts that focuses on tech and entertainment…but of course, we already have that network. It’s called Revision 3. It would be great if THEY had an Apple show…but a 24 hour network is a bit overkill.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Will you watch it?


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

5 Comments

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  1. like there’s really going to be 24 hours of new content every day… that’s just marketing. they’re going to produce a couple hours content at best each day, many of that being copy-and-paste work – and then that’s going to loop for 24 hours. it’s no different from any tv channel boasting itself with being “on the air 24/7” – easily done by airing each show at least three times a day.

  2. Not necessary with sites like Apple Gazette around providing news.

    Also the digital lifestyle network is kind of a rip off of “dl.tv” Which means digital life. I wonder if Ziff Davis will have any thing to say about the name?

    Anyway, it is a neat idea. But I think that the novelty of having it will soon pass, unless they find a way to update the content and have original content that appeals to a broad audience of Apple fans.

    I think this should be included in the TV Jab first to go contest, lol.

  3. Macsurfer.com must 100 web links on Apple a day, 24/7, about 5-10 of which are genuinely interesting (to me, anyway, as an investor). One couldn’t come up with that much interesting stuff to say about Sony, MSFT, Or Dell, but Apple’s into a lot of diverse technologies.

  4. Hi Everyone,

    I’m the creator of The Digital Lifestyle, and I thought I would clear up some of the questions raised above. First, there is absolutely a place for podcasting and on-demand media. That’s why our original shows are available on-demand, and will also be available in iTunes feeds shortly. Really try to think of our 24-hour feed in the same sense as television: this is a channel that will bring you clips, tips, news, and most uniquely on the web, LIVE video updates of breaking Apple news.

    We went into this project with the assumption that most people would not be watching 24 straight hours (or even an hour, for that matter) of programming at a time. It’s a chance to find information and entertainment without seeking it out. We also learned in the first day that shorter is better. We saw that any content, whether from us or others, started to see a drop off in viewership after seven minutes. So we’re re-tooling our current and future shows to shorter lengths.

    As for the content itself, while we do say it’s a 24-hour Apple news and rumor channel, it’s also a lifestyle channel. Arguably that encompasses a large swath of content beyond the type of news found on existing sites.

    With time, you will see us roll out a broader content base. I think those of you who long for the glory days of TechTV will be quite satisfied. It won’t happen overnight though. After all, the fact that the word “Apple” is not in our title is not an accident.

    There’s a lot of experimentation to this. If we have a four-hour rotation of clips, do we swap out the whole four hours once a day? week? do we continuously add clips? Do we adopt a radio station formula, and have certain “hot” programs and clips that are in rotation more frequently? We will base these decisions on the feedback we receive. Probably the closest model segment-wise is the CurrentTV Network, which shows content in 7-10minute pods. There will be certain shows that will break this mold. We still see our live tech help show as a 30-minute show, for example.

    So please think of this as a supplemental broadcast method to podcasting, an ability to bring live Apple events (no one else is doing this) to the web, along with a chance to let the channel play in the background, and discover fun new content passively, while doing other things on the computer.