Apple Can’t Revolutionize TV Without Content

By Jack Marshall • August 27, 2012 •

I was called a pamplemousse last week. It’s French for grapefruit. I took it as a compliment. Some links to consider:

There’s been a lot of talk of Apple’s plans to “revolutionize” TV, but without access to content, that’s a near impossibility. The problem is most TV content is owned by a small group of companies that have little incentive to change what they’re already doing, because although the user interface experience is poor, it monetizes just fine. (Fortune)

FourSquare now has 135 employees, but revenue for the company remains elusive and its actual active user base is relatively small. So what exactly do 135 people do all day? The company’s VP of engineering, Harry Heymann, felt it necessary to explain. (Business Insider)

Hulu was designed as a catch-up service for U.S. content, but it’s picking up more and more high-quality content from places like the U.K., Canada and Israel. That’s a smart strategy and could help it package some compelling niche audiences for advertisers. (Slate)

Comparisons between Facebook’s ad products and Google’s AdWords are made frequently, but the fact remains that they are, and always will be, very different beasts. Searches on Google are inherently intent-focused and, therefore, easy to monetize, while searches on Facebook are not. Comparisons abound but, even the sponsored results search ads the social network launched last week really aren’t much like AdWords at all. (SearchEngineLand)

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from Jay-Z, according to Jason Hirschhorn. Most notably, how to confront critics and piss off Noel Gallagher. (Hypebot)

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