I'm wrong about all sorts of things, but I have a funny feeling that we're going to look back someday and see this as the first of many companies of a significant size launching something that looks just like a TV station. I can't emphasize how incredibly brilliant this is: it appears to be a perfectly curated combination of pure marketing webinar, tutorials, educational lectures and who knows what else. This is an example of a new micro-format, in the same way that the NYT won a Pulitzer for their oft-copied Snowfall. http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index.html
In an era where SEO has ruined the cozy internet, content marketing is transparent and many people just don't trust the media not to lie to them, the idea that a company like CloudFlare could task a team with essentially launching the nerd equivalent of CSPAN (if not CNN) seems to me like something a genius would come up with.
Respectfully, you're thinking too small. Of course CloudFlare can host your TV station. They carry a significant, double-digit percentage of total internet traffic.
The impressive feat here is having the brand position and cultural currency and strategic foresight to launch and run a 24/7 TV station. That is high on the list of non-trivial, capital intensive things to do.
No, what this does is introduce CloudFlare as a media distribution channel, in the same way that Masterclass, Netflix, Twitter and Fortnite are media distribution channels.
> Respectfully, you're thinking too small. Of course CloudFlare can host your TV station. They carry a significant, double-digit percentage of total internet traffic.
This is almost certainly true. I can expand here that I didn't think of CloudFlare as a "TV" company or backbone infrastructure (in the normal media space) company in that way. I think this is the realization that they're trying to get out there.
> The impressive feat here is having the brand position and cultural currency and strategic foresight to launch and run a 24/7 TV station. That is high on the list of non-trivial, capital intensive things to do.
IMO they don't have the cultural currency, but to be fair, I live half a world away from what is arguably the nexus of the culture in this case (SF), so maybe I just can't see it. CloudFlare is a boring company (which is good), I don't know them for making lots of waves in this particular way. IMO what they're betting on is that doing something this big builds that cultural currency, and then it didn't matter how much you had in the first place.
If I were to dumb down your statement -- this is indeed a wonderful flex.
> No, what this does is introduce CloudFlare as a media distribution channel, in the same way that Masterclass, Netflix, Twitter and Fortnite are media distribution channels.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding your statement, but this sounds like what I tried to convey -- CloudFlare is introducing itself as a media distribution channel (for media corporations) and a thought/market leader for the consumer (developers, technical management).
Also, check the other responses to my comment... there's someone lurking in there who is very very close to this whole thing. Interactions like that are why I still come to HN.
> with essentially launching the nerd equivalent of CSPAN (if not CNN)
Maybe I'm in the minority, but at the end of working all day in front of screen doing mentally taxing programming/devops work, the last thing I want to do is come home and watch live TV of content that reminds me of work...nor do I want to spend my weekends doing that either.
At the time where no one else watches TV anymore... I think it makes sense if they offer the programs in VOD but I don't see where on their website they do that.
I haven't ever really used it, but doesn't Microsoft run its own tv style video series since more than a decade?
I don't understand the format personally (I'd always take articles over video). It's probably appealing to a demographic that I'm not. But in either case, the approach is many years old.
In an era where SEO has ruined the cozy internet, content marketing is transparent and many people just don't trust the media not to lie to them, the idea that a company like CloudFlare could task a team with essentially launching the nerd equivalent of CSPAN (if not CNN) seems to me like something a genius would come up with.