This year will mark the beginning of the end of traditional television. What we watch may not change so soon but the way we watch it will. And really, what we watch will change, too.
At the moment, most people in the UK watch regular terrestrial TV. A lot of people watch cable TV. Also, most people watch TV when the show is on, not when it’s most suitable for him or her to watch it. Sort of linear way of watching content. A lot of cable companies do have set-top boxes that can be programmed to record a show for later viewing. This has the disadvantage that the show has to be recorded as it comes on TV and the show mostly is tied to the box.
This is all going to change very quickly. It is going to be replaced by downloadable content. This, as an idea, is not new and is already being done by iTunes Music Store (in the US) and other similar services. I think it is fair to say that services like this will eventually replace the tradition television broadcast. It is much easier to download a show of the internet and watch it when it suits you, not the TV company or the average target audience.
Problem with this content at the moment is that it is not very high resolution. Mostly less than what’s standard definition TV. See also things like Youtube or Google Video, the content doesn’t look that great. This all has to change and the content will have to be in HD, or atleast close to this, to create a good experience. This brings another problem, bandwidth. It’s not really a problem for big companies like Apple or Amazon (see their Unbox service) at the moment as the usage is still relatively low. But here’s some maths. Let say I’ll make a video podcast which is about 15 min long, in HD that’ll be probably be around 150Mb. The podcast happens to be really, really good and clocks 10000 viewers (downloads) a month. 10000 x 150Mb is 1.5Tb. For tapaninaho.com, I get 5Gb bandwidth allocation. So basically I’d be 1495Gb short. That clearly is a problem for an independent podcaster.
There actually is a solution to this already, it’s an application called Democracy. It has channels that you subscribe to and it then automatically downloads the content onto your computer when it becomes available. It also uses BitTorrent to distribute then content. This totally eliminates the problem of bandwidth and actually makes the experience a lot nicer as the content is share by so many other users that download speed is very fast.
Democracy has one problem though. It’s not iTunes. Everybody I know uses iTunes. If iTunes had BitTorrent client build in, it would not only revolutionise the way we watch video in a second but also what we watch. Continue the trend Youtube has started. You might think that it’s not of Apple’s interest to do this as they certainly can afford the bandwidth. It’s not a question of why they should do it but rather why should they not.
-kristian
Hello Kristian. Really good to meet you properly the other week. You’re a lovely man.
I like the design of your website. Very clean. Nice on my brain.
My contribution to your thread:
I don’t agree that iTV or similar packages spells the end for traditional programming. I like the idea of iTV or whatnot and already scour YouTube for stuff I’ve missed or heard about. But the fact I’ve heard about most of the stuff I’m looking for is at the heart of why I think that the kind of television habits of which you speak will sit alongside this traditional format rather than replace it.
As much as it is handy downloading stuff, I also like sitting down in front of the telly for an evening and seeing what it throws at me. Channels have particular slots you get used to – Friday nights on Channel Four for instance, or the Sunday night drama on ITV. Even the prevalance of standard video and DVD recorders hasn’t eroded the social ritual of plonking yerself down in front of the telly on a given night, on the basis that the last thing in the same slot was good – say Inspector Morse – so the next thing – say Midsomer Murders might be too. The convenience of personal choice has been with us for a long time. It has altered and influenced our viewing habits, but I’m not sure the change has been that radical. I think there is something very human about knowing that on Sunday afternoon I can have a lie in and watch The OC with a cup of coffee and bacon sandwich. Certainly I find that with programmes like this, the aspect of waiting for the next episode is part of the fun. This doesn’t mean I won’t set the DVD to record it when I’m away or doing something else, but I think this indicates what I’m on about. Palm size computers will never supplant books, not despite the fact you can’t get sand in the pages on the beach, there are no pages to rip and they don’t take up as much room, but precisely because of that. We have silly sentimental relationships with objects that defy logic. And I think the same can be said of telly.
Television is used as a marker in our lives. If I watch some Monday night comedy it provides relief from the start of a working week. Friday night comedy gets me in a good mood before a night out. A Sunday late night film allows me to prolong my weekend.
Anyway, Tapaninaho, you have dazzled me with your technical know how, and I will certainly be partaking of this particular slice of the future when it appears, as long as I can sort out my bandwidth or whatnot.
I would guess that some people, perhaps many people, will search for content on the internet before it appears anywhere else, but I suspect that most of the programmes we look for we will have heard about because someone watched them as part of a schedule and told us they were worth searching for in the first place.
Hey John,
Thanks for you comment, you’re the first serious commentator on my blog. Excellent!
You’re right about the fact that many habits of watching TV are gonna stay for long time. It is nice to wake up on Sundays, turn on the TV and watch the OC or Hollyoaks omnibus.
I think that one area where the change is going start happening is the time slots when you actually do care what you’re watching at that time. For example in the morning it’s nice to watch BBC news while eating Special-K Red Berries. It would be great if I could have my computer/TV download BBC news just before I wake up (so it’s fresh) and I can then watch it as I’m ready, not after I wait for the regional Kent news to go. Or the same in the evening. If you come home after the news you’ve missed Jon Snow. Even with news, in most cases I don’t really care if it’s live.
Another point about downloading the content you watch is that you’re likely to have greater choice of it. As Lost moved to Sky One, I haven’t seen any episosed of series 3. I’m also not going to subscribe to Sky just to see Lost. But I would pay a pound an episode to see it every week, if I could download it and watch it when I want to.
On top of this all the great content on the web has to find it’s way to the TV screen. Not just the best of Youtube but things like MacBreak or Ctrl+Alt+Chicken.
Anyhow, hope to see you on Wednesday. I’ll try and make it up there.
kristian
hmmmm. news when you wake up. that sounds good.
even better about selecting rogue programmes. i could probably face one off payment for stuff, say the cricket, so I wouldn’t have to shell out stupid money to mr murdoch for a load of gunk i don’t need and won’t watch.
maybe see yer wednesday fella!