Tune in vs Available
What you always here on the commercials is on the order of:
"Tune in Thursday at 9-8 Central".
Things like Tivo have been around for a while now, but we are still
in the Network Control paradigm. If they have their way it would
stay like that till the end of time. But more and more technology
is creeping in. One of the things that I'm waiting for is when
networks start saying "Available starting at 9-8 Central".
In the ideal situation, once a show has been broadcast the network
(or whoever owns the rights to the specific content) would then
make it available for whoever wants to consume it in what ever way
they want to. Think of it as Network backed video podcasting. This
is better than the Tivo approach which is a solution that you have
to have in your living room. It moves it out to the world at large
so that you can access content even if you don't have the channel
it was originally distributed on.
Of course, this already happens. Albeit on a small scale and
without the network's permission. Take a show like Battlestar
Galactica. It airs Friday nights on Sci-Fi. Thanks to a combination
of its geek overtones and the fact that it's one of the very best
shows out right now, you don't need to get Sci-Fi to watch it. As
long as you are willing to wait a few days you can pick up DVD
quality versions of the show on the net.
There is added benefit in that those versions generally have the
commercials removed. This is where the networks need to get smart,
if the would make versions available that they produced, they could
populate with commercials. Sure most folks would fast forward thru
them, but in general they would still be there. General consumers
would take what's available easily instead of trying to find hacked
versions where someone removed the commercials.
(Incidentally, there is some research to suggest that people
actually have a higher commercial recall when they fast forward
thru commercials than if they play thru in real time. Turns out
that when people fast forward they have to get very consciously
involved in what they are looking at instead of just tuning it
out.)
Anyway, I hope that in the future we can do more with our
entertainment. All the technology to allow it is place. It's the
old school thinking of the content producers and advertisers that
are reducing what we can do with it. With luck, some tech kids will
grow up and take over a small studio and get it setup the way they
would like.
-- Tags: tagTV