MTV's so-called online TV service sees Australia get Punk'd

Adam Turner
Thursday, 19 April 2007 18:52

Opinion and Analysis

Video may have killed the radio star but MTV's lame Australian online TV channel, Overdrive, is no threat to anyone.

Venturing over to Overdrive, I was hoping against hope that it might actually contain something worth watching rather than the highlight reels, outtakes and other garbage that is so often passed off as content outside the US. I was in for disappointment.

The introductory clip promised a lot, offering MTV shows such as Jackass, Punk'd, Pimp My Ride and Beavis and Butt-head but the further I delved the more pathetic it got. After fighting my way through ads for Xbox 360, Intel and Sony Ericsson I discovered that Pimp My Ride is merely outtakes, Jackass consists eight "best of" clips and Punk'd is but a mere three short clips. The only show available in its entirety is Beavis and Butt-head, with episodes dating from 1993 - making them older than then kids the site is targeted at.

Overdrive uses Adobe Flash to play videos but, for a supposedly broadband service, the resolution is terrible. Even the cartoon figures of Beavis and Butt-head pixelate badly whenever they move.

There are a few dozen music videos but the "movies" section only offers "The making of..." - which are glorified advertisements anyway. The sole purpose of Overdrive seems to be push MTV's upcoming Music Video Awards.

Overdrive is an insult to Australians but is typical of the second rate crap we're forced to watch compared to what they get in other countries. Apple's service is just as bad - Apple released Apple TV around the globe but there's nothing worth watching on the Australian iTunes store.

If media giants like MTV think throwing people a few scraps from the table is going to stop them going to YouTube, or illegally downloading movies and television shows via BitTorrent, they better think again.

I want my real MTV.