the folks at we make money not art note that john cleese has started his own tv station of sorts.

i'm surprised no one has done this sooner, suppose broadband connections are only now reaching the point where it's viable. question is, are people willing to shell out 50 bucks (27 pounds) a year for this? i suspect not. perhaps if they came up with a shorter term subscriber model initially so people could determine if it was really worth their money or not. i reckon it'll be dead within the year from lack of subscribers.

still a fascinating idea, but one based on expanding on one's existing fame derived from traditional media. the next model may be someone building up fame entirely from their blog or somesuch thing and then trying to launch this sort of subscriber supported universe. at this point i think people don't expect to pay for crap on the internet. perhaps middle agers (the ones paying for legal music downloads, for instance) will embrace this model.

i do wish cleese all the best with this novel project, and would consider subscribing to see how it plays out if i could justify dropping the cash on this right now.