Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




eBay TV For Real?

from the doomed-to-fail dept

It's been over a year and a half since the idea of "eBay TV" was first announced, and nothing happened. Now, it seems that eBay is finally gearing up to launch the television program, which they scarily describe as a mix between "Entertainment Tonight," "Ripley's Believe it or Not" and "Antiques Roadshow." Thanks, but no thanks. As I said when they first announced it, until they figure out a way to add a Survivor-style component where people get kicked off the internet for not bidding enough on a beanie-baby, I'm not sure this will catch on. In order to entice reluctant stations to put the show in their schedule, eBay is trying to bribe them with eBay-built auction sites for the station (so they can earn commissions) as well as referal fees for anyone who signs up for eBay via the station's website.

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jan 24th, 2003 @ 6:52am
  • I'd watch it.

    by Oliver Wendell Jones

    I used to read ebay magazine and they would print photos of items that had been recently auctioned off and there is some weird, funky, "WTF were you thinking you when you bought this?" kind of stuff being sold.

    They also have stories of people who bought something for far below it's actual value that are quite interesting.

    I don't know how many episodes they could make that would keep it popular, but they do have a lot of neat stories they could tell.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jan 24th, 2003 @ 7:29am
  • No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward

    Actually this could work. Would rather see it run more like QVC where they highlight things being sold on Ebay in different categories. One of my few complaints about Ebay is you often have no idea what's available because of the way the buyer decided to categorize it.

    The other 'odd' stuff could be used to break up the selling segments.

    Yeah, this would probably work and attract advertising for those companies (think IBM) who sell there goods on Ebay.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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