[schnevets]

What a great product! I was once sitting in a bar, and had a different challenge related to Bar TVs and Live Events.

My local brewery has 2 cable boxes, and on one particularly busy Thursday night a TV was devoted to some rerun of a college basketball game. I wanted to them to switch to a hockey match, but that took a lot more time than one might expect. Not only did I have to get the bartender's attention, but she had to find the remote and figure out what channel it was on while awkwardly holding the controller close to the TV. While she was trying to take this action, there were other customers waiting, which clearly should take priority since serving them drinks would actually make the bar money while my request was just a courtesy.

It made me think about a hardware box and associated web site where patrons could upvote what they wanted to see on the TV. It would leave the mediation and decisions out of the staff's hands and let them focus on what makes the bar money. Obviously, a bar could blacklist certain channels to prevent trolling and the bartender could have final say in case of big events.

Taking this one step further, the device could also be used to determine an ideal event. Rather than leave the channel up to one's personal taste, the box would default to the most popular game/event at a particular time (as gathered by other boxes on the network). This way, patrons who don't know about the service are less likely to leave if they don't see the game playing when they walk into the bar.

I think someone else commented that it could be hard to justify this purchase with the advertising feature alone. This additional automation feature is easier to translate to bar mangers: they can stop being TV DJs and get back to making money. Bonus points: you still have a revenue stream if Cable Providers send out a Cease & Desist.