As we noted earlier, CBS is testing an HD version of its video player. This caught our eye since CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith was pretty anti-HD just a few months ago. So we fired off a quick note to Smith, who was ready for us. Here’s his (unedited) response:
Was waiting for this.
Thankfully, am not a politician and the Internet is not Washington, ie times change fast and we can ‘change our minds’ or be wrong. Totally cool with you calling CBS/me out.What’s changed: broadband adoption rates and compression speeds are making it easier for the user today vs yesterday. No comment wrt advertisers yet. 80% of the video market is still YouTube and they don’t seem to care about HD. So maybe we’re crazy. Or maybe pro content is different than semi-pro.
What’s key no matter what is that we have to solve for what users want and if it works and is easy – then roll it out. Also keep in mind, Labs is made to be a lab, not sure how we’re going to implement it yet. This is a flex of tech muscle, we can do a lot in this new world and need have these tech monsters like Soohoo and his team in Silicon Valley breaking land speed records. HD Player was built in 6.5 hours.
A few months in Internet time is a few years in real time, so we won’t accuse Smith and CBS of “flip-flopping,” (or even try to Swift-boat him). The better-lookin’ video online is, the better off we all are.
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