Bud.tv Launches, to Mixed Reviews

Budweiser’s ambitious online video-on-demand network has recently launched, and, according to an author of a blog on BusinessWeek.com, is so lame it made the author angry.

While Burt Helm has only watched three sketches and a movie trailer so far, “I’ve found just this short experience so irritating that I actually think the site will have a negative effect on viewers, if any at all.”

Helm lays out the reasons for his irritation, pointing out that he had to try to log in four times to get the site to work, that there was too much blatant advertising, and that the skits were awful, “worse than any skit in any staff retreat you’ve ever been too.”

“So how do I feel about the brand? 115.25 annoying points in 10 minutes equals I hate you, Budweiser,” he writes.

ReelPop’s Steve Bryant, who is working on a review of Bud.tv for the Hollywood Reporter, is kinder… but not by much. He includes his top ten gripes of the site, summing up this way: “Bud.tv fails because it inserts too much friction into the online viewing process which, due to the accessibility of video-sharing sites, has become a frictionless experience for the end user. Although Anhesuer-Busch’s intent is not to compete directly with sites like YouTube, Bud.tv nevertheless competes indirectly for users’ time and attention. If I have five minutes to waste, I’m not going to Bud.tv.”

AdAge, on the other hand, is much more tolerant. An article says that “not only is Bud.tv’s programming not overly promotional, it does a good job of making bottles of Budweiser and Bud Light pretty much just a part of a landscape dominated by the type of frat-boy humor you’d expect.” It points out that, while complaints about locked-down content (users must get past a virtual “bouncer” before they can enter) and usability problems are valid, marketers are just beginning to experiment with becoming content players, “a job that, you might have heard, ain’t so easy these days.”