Amazon.com has just launched a new online only chat show featuring stand-up Bill Maher, called Amazon Fishbowl. British viewers will know Maher from… er… They won’t know him. But he presents a weekly chat show for some of the year on HBO called Real Time.
On HBO you can say anything and it’s a notaly political show. But judging from the first episode of this show, politics is strictly off the agenda. The show has real talk show production values, and features guests who have something to plug, which Amazon helpfully links to in the player as the show goes along.
I must admit that I had a couple of technical issues with the stream, with the player not progressing from the opening monologue (I told you this was like a regular talk/chat show) to the first guest. At first I thought I was going to have to watch the whole thing again, before I found the functionality that let me jump between segments – it was labelled Playlist.
They really do need to let you fast forward and rewind on demand. I mean, there’s no reason not to let you do it. And although I understand that the built in player lets Amazon display relevant products for sale in an adjacent box, I’m surprised that there are no download options. Why can’t I take this away and watch it on my iPod, PSP or other portable media player.
It’s good that they’ve done it, but with a little more lateral thinking, it could have become unmissable.