Dr. Neil Hair

A favourite annoyance of mine as those of you know me will attest, is the continued lack of interest shown by many US retailers for foreign consumer markets. Perhaps with the prospects of international TV audiences looming large, spearheaded primarily by one of this years hot products at the consumer electronics show in Vegas, things will finally start to change. I am of course referring to Slingmedia. What I love – no – ADORE about this product is it's versatility and it's ability to sling any home media, be it music, dvd's, cable or terrestrial channels – anywhere in the world provided you have internet access. The clever devils are even developing pocketpc versions and (most importantly for me) a PAL version (the European TV standard). This of course means that I will eventually be able to partake in one of my all time favourite hobbies – watching British adverts. I'm joking, but the bigger point shouldn't be missed. The argument is as follows: more and more Europeans will end up watching US cable channels where programmes are often aired months in advance of their European counterpart stations, with that also comes the opportunity for your marketing messages to reach far greater audiences and for smaller retailers to ultimately achieve larger sales. Whether US retailers choose to service this market of course remains to be seen. I for one though am looking forward to being able to watch the Rugby on the BBC1 and Channel4 News when I choose. As the internet takes off and broadband enabled TV takes hold it will be interesting to see how advertisers react. As if they haven't enough on their plates with TIVO!