Oh how fast TV is changing

[BVS]

Just saw this:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/death-knell-for-television-as-we-know-it/2008/05/26/1211653917723.html

BVS

[Richard Ragon]

I have a confession..  Been collecting and watching TV shows (divx files) over the internet for the last 3 years.  It started with a show called "Eastenders".  An English soap opera that used to be on BBCAmerica.  One day they told their audience that they will be cancelling the show if more viewers didn't watch it.. I thought to myself, "Wow, this show is wildly popular with English/American audiences, how can this be?"  A few weeks later it shows up on "pay-per-view".  Because of its popularity, they thought they could scam the audiences for more cash.. Ok, fine, I just go and get it from the internet then.. turns out ever show on the planet is available.  And, to make it even worse (or better if your a consumer) there are things like tvshow software that you subscribe to a particular show, and it automatically gets your bit torrent going for that show if a new episode is out. And often I can get a bit torrent before its even broadcast on the west coast.

Anyone can watch any show, at any time, on any device.  Each file is only 350MB (1 hour), in High-Def, minus any comericals and plays on every DivX enabled DVD players that are sold for 50 bucks at every Best Buy Store in America.

With people collecting files, just like mp3s now.. it's only a matter of time before media players that play DivX files show up all over.  Same thing that happened for mp3s (music) is now happening for DivX (TV shows).

It's just a matter of time before one device "Rules them all".  Apple TV is the closes thing to that device so far I think.

-Richard

[bperlman]

I don't mean to sound like a luddite and I'm well aware that this new technology is upon us, however I can't help but wonder...hmm.  If we can get the shows for free online and we can skip the commercials, who's going to be supporting television?  Someone has to pay for production.  Will the shows themselves just become longform commercials.  Product placement is insidious enough, but it won't pay our salaries... or the actors.  Just wondering what the new paradigm will be.

Bruce

[old school]

Hey Bruce, many of the commercials we work on run on cable only stations and they pay the rate just like the big 3 or 4 do. The big difference is they get a percentage of the cable fee that we the end users pay, and NBC etc don't get that. The Big Boys are now trying a multi platform release of their content, as well as fewer commercial breaks and improving their product. It may be too little to late as viewers are leaving old school broadcasting and migrating to narrow casting like cable and even more so internet content. I still will watch sports on tv, but with Appletv, I watch podcasts n net content when I sit down and watch these days. Some one needs to make money to get new stuff produced cause we will all get tired of reruns of 'Leave it to Beaver', but I think the old model is breaking apart. Can't wait to see what comes next.

CrewC

[curleysound]

product integration is the name of the technique of not just product placement within a production, but wrapping a show around several brands. For example, if "Home Improvement" were still on, Tim Taylor would now work for Home Depot instead of the fictional Binford, and would constantly be using Home Depot stuff, going to Home Depot to get stuff, and they would end up as a background character in the show. This is already happening even with commercials, so production companies don't have to foot the entire bill for actually shooting the show anymore. It looks like it's only going to get worse as things change too.

[studiomprd]

even reality TV is under pressure:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ied2fbcd4ab528373629e6a40262ed1ce