Entertainment
Why Crackle is the best ‘TV’ you’re not watching
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14 Mar 2013
- Written by Cornelius A. Fortune/Real Times News Service
TV just isn't what it used to be, and that's a good thing. With a wide variety of choices from on demand programming to Hulu and Netflix, it's easy to stay entertained.
From Sony Pictures Entertainment, Crackle was launched in 2007, and according to former Crackle president Josh Felser in a Wall Street Journal article, "Unlike YouTube we're not going to have millions of people sharing on our site. We're going to take the best people and promote them and syndicate them."
That was bold statement then, but it seems so simple today. Thanks to advances in mobile (and broadband) technology, the Crackle model of providing familiar content to viewers has made popular shows such as "Seinfeld," "Sanford & Son," "Good Times," and others available in a variety of formats (tablet, smartphone, smart TV). Throw in Hollywood favorites "District 9," "Harry Brown," "Underworld," and you're seeing the real evolution of television, albeit on the Net.
Oh sure, it'll be awhile before Crackle really competes with our home cable setups, but with Netflix's Original Series "House of Cards" already a success, the sands are starting to shift. HBO is pushing its own mobile platform, HBO Go, pretty hard these days (for now, it's only available for current subscribers, but who knows? that may soon change).
Crackle in particular, is an unusual case. I had Crackle as an app on my Blu-ray player for at least a couple of years before I actually ventured into it. You pay a low cost for Hulu Plus and Netflix, but Crackle is free, and this seems to be more in line with the way people view content on the Internet – that is, content should be free. Crackle took this to the next level by providing quality videos so you could give your YouTube account a rest from time to time. And who wants to keep watching snippets of videos anyway?
If you've never had an opportunity to see Marvel's Anime line of shows, "X-Men," "Wolverine," "Iron Man," and "Blade," you should this weekend. I once asked in a blog post "Where's the new Anime movement?" and a lot of it's right on Crackle.
Crackle is also available as an app for iOS or Android devices. For more information, visit www.crackle.com.
