Either TV is gonna adapt to the new reality, or we're witnessing the death throes of the glass teat. Either way, I win. :)
Maclean's has an article about how TV shows are the latest targets of miscreants and pirates on the Interweb. About time they caught up.
I only use my cable for news. I can't be bothered to keep track of when stuff is on, and I'm almost always at my computer, so with a combo of Bittorrent and RSS, I pull the four shows I regularly watch off the net, and then check them out when I damn well feel like it. If I ever go freelance overseas, I'll still be able to use the same process to keep up with TV back home.
And if the networks are so concerned, charge me a buck or two to download the shows. I'll gladly pay that to get the few shows I do want when I want them.
Either TV is gonna adapt to the new reality, or we're witnessing the death throes of the glass teat. Either way, I win. :)
It's called SVOD my friend, and it's already here (though maybe not in the tech-mecca of Osoyoos). All that's left to be done is to put up something people actually want to watch, and I wouldn't count on that.
According to Futurama (and really, what real life phenomenon can't be explained better in the terms of a Matt Groening cartoon?) there's still TV in the year 3000, and it still sucks, so you could be SOL, my friend... :)
Dammit! The vile box of pantomime must be vanquished! BBQ!
why the hell are they going about this in such a dumb, predictable way?! like, really - if there are viewers on the net, why not embrace them? using the bittorrent system, television stations could release shows - WITH the ads intact, and people would watch them! i would! i would know the file i was downloading wouldn't be sue and jackie being naughty porn video! you know? it makes so much sense its stupid. here we go again.
My favorite part of the article was:
"Hollywood has long conducted ad campaigns aimed at educating consumers about the evils of downloading copyright content. The latest is an anti-piracy poster blitz in video-rental shops, as well as a giveaway of free software to any computer owners who wish to identify and remove pirated content from their machines."
Yeah, that sounds like it will really target the people who do a lot of downloading. I know I go to the video store all the time to... um... why would I go again? :)
Why do these guys always try to design bandages, but end up creating blindfolds? :)
What it boils down to is a dinosaur industry that will take a while to breathe its last, but is definitely gasping. Rather than change their business model to feed an obvious demand, they'd rather sue everyone. The video store thing is another example of their wrong-headedness; so is telling me not to steal movies after I've shelled out $14 to see a movie in the theatre.
I'm not idealistic enough to think the future is a million people with webcams and camcorders and micropayments; there'll be some of that, but people do want slick brain candy to just veg out to. The first production company who can crank that out, and figure out a way to go around the networks and get some revenue in some other way is gonna make a mint.
Maybe Google will come up with an adbot that slaps together commercials for on demand content. Hell, any local car ad could easily be put together by a program. :)
Yeah, that was the gist of what this guy's doing:
http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,704067,00.html
You need to be a subscriber to read the whole thing... IM me if want to borrow my ID... or would that be piracy? :)
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