Today the BBC are talking about on-line viewing and how its impacting current viewing statistics.
They talk about the fact that CSI Miami had more than 1,000 people sharing the latest file from one source. The Beeb talk about piracy and how the Internet has become the global video recorder.
Check out what they have to say here in the Future of TV..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/entertainment/2006/future_of_tv/
What angers me most is the way the big networks the likes of ABC and CBS are so slow on the uptake of new technologies. OK so I’ve downloaded a few episodes of lost in my time and the fact that there are no adverts in these downloads is great and may worry the media Mogul’s but in my mind this is the missing ingredient, because when i think about it many a time I’ve been busting for a wee halfway through an episode of lost and adverts would give me the break i needed. Joking aside I believe that if these downloads were available on a worldwide basis with advertising included and free but ultimately legal i would take the legal option every time. Nobody in the game of pirating the odd episode of lost or invasion, the one hit wonder of last year, feels that they are actually breaking the law. Its high time the big wigs realized times have changed and instead of hitting a brick wall and finding ways of blocking or stopping this kind of thing its time to adapt and move with the times and capitalize on this. There is money to be made on this kind of thing and its high time they started doing it.
Movie downloads are a different kettle of fish. Movies i feel are wrong to download these dodgy copies as you are effectively taking the ticket money of the movie makers. Again perhaps if the latest movies were to be made available on-line immediately on release the advertisers would be more inclined to pay a premium to place their advert on that much awaited sequel to a movie. This is the way that the industry is changing and i feel it is probably the way in which the big media mogul’s really have to adapt to the market. I don’t think for one minute that this would put an end to the picture houses around the world. There is still going to be a market for picture houses out there because there is nothing like watching a movie on the big screen with the best sound systems screaming at you full volume. As a downloader of movies yes I know its wrong but I also have found that this has encouraged me to go the the local picture house on a more regular basis. Movies that I have downloaded i’ve wanted to see on the big screen and have gone along to watch it.
Google really should be an example of what can be achieved by providing a free service relying on solely advertising as a source of income. They have shown just how much advertising pays and how to really make it work. Just think how many pirated copies of movies are being downloaded right now and being watched. If I was a big advertiser I would want my name on everyone of those movies and be happy to pay a premium for it.
I would prefer to see a quality movie without some guy popping his head up and down in front of the recording camera interrupting my movie. If the quality is there and its freely available why not have adverts.
One other thing that annoys me slightly about the internet is the way in which everything seems to be rationalized. A lot of the catch up episodes that are available on-line you can’t view outside of the country of origin. The likes of ABC’c catch up player on-line won’t allow you to view it from outside the USA and the BBC are guilty of this also (not available outside of the UK). Why can’t these people see that this is what is driving the piracy. Stick some premium adverts on the show and expose the people to it. Maximize the audience. I understand that bandwidth can be a problem but P2P networks are the way to go with this and it really does seem to work. Isn’t that what TV is all about getting the viewing figures up. Add together the amount of pirated downloads of any episode of CSI Miami and the networks viewing figures and show them to any advertiser and tell me if he doesn’t see the potential because if he doesn’t he needs shooting.
Anyway that’s put the TV world to rights.