3 ms·

It's clear what people want: Any movie or TV show ever made, at the press of a button, in high quality. Now realistically forget the 'ever made' part, and focu

by thedob 18y ago

It's clear what people want: Any movie or TV show ever made, at the press of a button, in high quality. Now realistically forget the 'ever made' part, and focus on classics + all recent content, there's no reason why cable companies shouldn't be able to deliver this soon. Merge the on demand libraries with streaming video sites like Hulu, and we're almost there already.

biohacker42 18y ago
Ah yes, but you see the telcos don't own the content, and content owners don't own the pipes. And yet both hate to share profits, additionally the content owner are still trying to find out what price the markets will bare. To do that they start high and slowly work their way down. And that slows down adoption.
- netcan 18y ago
  And both are big asset oligopoly industries. Content owners specifically don't have any reason to believe that better distribution channels will improve their bottom line. Actually I think with record producers, video content owners & to an extent, publishing giants are all in a similar (leaky) boat. They are in a situation where life has been good, they are on top of the world. Only way to go is down. Any move in the directions that technology is pushing towards like better, wider distribution, reduced production costs & power to the consumer is troubling. For one thing, they have a better hold on the here & now then the long tail. Sure they own most of it, but better distribution opens the doors to a groundswell of small producers. Expensive special effects, 1000 actor scenes, are no longer as big a differentiator. Now you want to give these $100k budget jokers access to living rooms? Will better distribution make people watch more TV? probably not. Why take a chance?
danw 18y ago
This misses one of the core appeals of TV viewing - it's a lean back experience. On demand is lean forward with the viewer having to think and decide explicitly what they wish to watch. With TV you can lean back, not think too much and watch whatever the channel has chosen for you tonight.
- mariorz 18y ago
  The success of products like Tivo suggest that dictated scheduling is something a lot of TV viewers are happy to loose.
timcederman 18y ago
Hulu through XBMC is awesome. Supplemented with Easynews and basically you can get anything you like on-demand.
- cmars232 18y ago
  How do you watch hulu with xbmc? That sounds really cool...

by thedob 18y ago

biohacker42 18y ago

Ah yes, but you see the telcos don't own the content, and content owners don't own the pipes. And yet both hate to share profits, additionally the content owner are still trying to find out what price the markets will bare. To do that they start high and slowly work their way down. And that slows down adoption.

netcan 18y ago
And both are big asset oligopoly industries. Content owners specifically don't have any reason to believe that better distribution channels will improve their bottom line. Actually I think with record producers, video content owners & to an extent, publishing giants are all in a similar (leaky) boat. They are in a situation where life has been good, they are on top of the world. Only way to go is down. Any move in the directions that technology is pushing towards like better, wider distribution, reduced production costs & power to the consumer is troubling. For one thing, they have a better hold on the here & now then the long tail. Sure they own most of it, but better distribution opens the doors to a groundswell of small producers. Expensive special effects, 1000 actor scenes, are no longer as big a differentiator. Now you want to give these $100k budget jokers access to living rooms? Will better distribution make people watch more TV? probably not. Why take a chance?

danw 18y ago

This misses one of the core appeals of TV viewing - it's a lean back experience. On demand is lean forward with the viewer having to think and decide explicitly what they wish to watch. With TV you can lean back, not think too much and watch whatever the channel has chosen for you tonight.

mariorz 18y ago
The success of products like Tivo suggest that dictated scheduling is something a lot of TV viewers are happy to loose.

timcederman 18y ago

Hulu through XBMC is awesome. Supplemented with Easynews and basically you can get anything you like on-demand.

cmars232 18y ago
How do you watch hulu with xbmc? That sounds really cool...