Amazon.com, whose forays into digital media have been, well, sporadic (to put is nicely), is trying another thing: it will begin broadcasting a weekly online show featuring comedian Bill Maher and guests from the worlds of books, music and film.

The live, 30-minute Web program—”Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher”—will launch June 1. The plan is for 12 episodes...After the launch, the free programs will be available for on-demand viewing any time, although users cannot download them. UPS is sponsoring the show.

AP: Analyst Steve Weinstein with Pacific Crest Securities..[is] not sure how many people will start visiting the site just for such content, or how much difference it will make to the company’s finances. “Is it going to be big enough to really turn the dial? I’m kind of skeptical about that, but it might be an incremental lift,” he said.

Someone really needs to shake up the digital media team within Amazon, and the current team is not cutting it...judging by their stop-gap efforts till now. Their music effort has been vaporware till now; so has the digital audio efforts, which ended up being a dud even when they were working with Audible; the original short films, videos showing celebrities delivering Amazon products to customers, and a Webcast of its 10-year anniversary show are what they are: gimmicks. Their “Inside-The-Book” program is deemed to be successful, but really, to what end.

The only good program to come out of the company (it hasn’t yet launched...it was announced late last year) has been the “Amazon Pages” and “Amazon Upgrade” program: The first allows customers to buy access to digital copies of select pages from books and the second service bundles the purchase of a physical book with online access to the complete work.

No, they don’t need an eBay-Skype type of acquisition, they just need better leadership in that area, and a whole lotta vision.

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