Centerseat.com, The Interactive Entertainment Network
By Jessica Scott
What if you could watch only the shows you wanted to watch, only
when you wanted to watch them? That seems to be the idea behind centerseat.com,
a site that contains a collection of short streaming shows, music
videos, and trailers. But this type of media won't be replacing your
television any time soon. For one thing, the bite-sized shows just
aren't satisfying enough for the viewer who is used to a half an hour
or more of sustained entertainment. Additionally, it seems difficult
for the idea to catch on, since a broadband connection is essentially
required to view the site. (There's still an option for 56k - if you
like squinting a lot.)
There are several different categories for your viewing pleasure
at centerseat.com: HotSpot (celebrities), Life & Times, Screen
(film trailers), Music, Sci-Tech, Sport and Kids. Of the shows I watched,
none of them really piqued my interest enough to warrant a return
visit to the site. One feature that did interest me was the collection
of music videos, however I was pretty disappointed with poor navigation
and a small selection. If you're interested in watching your favorite
music videos, you'd be better off over at www.launch.com, the selection
is far bigger and the site is a lot easier to navigate.
One interesting feature of the site is the advertisements. Located
below the viewing area for the shows, the bottom half of the screen
is filled with information about the show you're watching and advertisements
loosely related to the show. But what's different about these ads
is that you can customize them, choosing from different categories
of advertisements you'd like to see. So now we discover what the real
purpose of centerseat is: to sell you stuff. The targeted advertisements
seem to be the driving force behind the site. Because they've spent
so much time thinking about advertisements and flashy interfaces,
the content of the site has been neglected. I think centerseat has
a good in attempting to provide entertainment on demand, however,
the execution is poor, and in my opinion it will be quite a while
before a site like this gains popularity.