The Economist On Television Over Broadband 220
zxjio recommends a pair of articles in The Economist discussing television over broadband, and the effects of DVR use. "Cable-television companies make money by selling packages of channels. The average American household pays $700 a year for over 100 channels of cable television but watches no more than 15. Most would welcome the chance to buy only those channels they want to watch, rather than pay for expensive packages of programming they are largely not interested in. They would prefer greater variety, too — something the internet offers in abundance. A surprising amount of video is available free from websites like Hulu and YouTube, or for a modest fee from iTunes, Netflix Watch Instantly and Amazon Video on Demand. ... Consumers' new-found freedom to choose has struck fear into the hearts of the cable companies. They have been trying to slow internet televisions steady march into the living room by rolling out DOCSIS 3 at a snails pace and then stinging customers for its services. Another favorite trick has been to cap the amount of data that can be downloaded, or to charge extortionately by the megabyte. Yet the measures to suffocate internet television being taken by the cable companies may already be too late. A torrent of innovative start-ups, not seen since the dot-com mania of a decade ago, is flooding the market with technology for supplying internet television to the living room." And from the second article on DVR usage patterns: "Families with DVRs seem to spend 15-20% of their viewing time watching pre-recorded shows, and skip only about half of all advertisements. This means only about 5% of television is time-shifted and less than 3% of all advertisements are skipped. Mitigating that loss, people with DVRs watch more television. ... Early adopters of DVRs used them a lot — not surprisingly, since they paid so much for them. Later adopters use them much less (about two-thirds less, according to a recent study)."
I did it. (Score:5, Informative)
You really can find just about everything you want or need online.
I had a spare computer that I loaded Ubuntu on, made sure it had the latest flash and java. I also installed Boxee, although, since the Hulu problem, haven't used it.
Most of the entertainment type shows I get via Hulu. Their interface could be a bit friendlier (too much scrolling, really), but overall it's not bad. For news, CNN offers live streaming, which is really quite good quality at full screen. MSNBC offers all their shows for streaming - well at least the ones I care about - Countdown and Rachel Maddow. And I get local weather from WGN - also streamed full screen.There are a few European stations I like watching, and I use Livestation for that. The quality through that isn't the best, but I will say the streaming is steady.
The one beef I have with it all is the disparate pages I have to go to/navigate to get to the content. This is where I was really hoping Boxee would do some good. Not yet. They have a section in their UI to add apps, but it looks like it's Boxee specific, so I can't just add any program (such as Livestation. As it stands, I've created a bunch of Prism desktop shortcuts to take me directly to the content I want.
Re:I did it. (Score:3, Informative)
A couple of months ago, I broke away from cable for good. And for the most part, I haven't missed it. You really can find just about everything you want or need online.
PBS and CSPAN programming are generally not available online. I couldn't (or wouldn't) do without either, so for me, the cable subscription is worth the trouble and cost.
That said, I agree with your general sentiments. If you're looking for entertainment, there are alternative sources. And if HBO's lineup (since the Sopranos ended) is any indication, Schwarzenegger movies are probably cheaper when rented from your local video store.
Re:I did it. (Score:5, Informative)
It was just launched last week.
USA only (Score:5, Informative)
Re:USA only (Score:3, Informative)
Whenever you list online media sources like Hulu, you should remember they are available in the USA only due to restrictive regional licensing agreements by the major media cartels. The rest of the world can only download the same content illegally.
Stunningly enough, however, the rest of the world does have some technical nouse of its own, and isn't just twiddling its thumbs in the dark. iPlayer, iView, 4od, ... rather a lot of channels in non-US countries provide their own Web TV services.
Re:I guess I'm at the far extreme (Score:3, Informative)
One arm of the BBC makes profits, and all of them are reinvested in the BBC.
No one owns shares in the BBC. When the BBC makes a profit, the people who gain are the British public, through reduced license fees and an improved service. I think the world gains as well - how many BBC shows are rightly regarded as classics?
The BBC is not funded through taxation, but through a license fee. If you don't want to pay it, you do have to divest yourself of all equipment capable of recording their broadcasts.
On the other hand, for less than £12 a month you get a lot of value, not least of which is the knock-on effect of improving the general standard of broadcasting in the UK. We have a mandated maximum average of 12 minutes of commercials an hour here - it's more like 18 elsewhere.
Complaining about the license fee is like complaining that for a measly 1/4 of what the USA spends per head, we get universal health care with no co-pay and fixed prescription costs.
Re:I dodged the expensive DVR (Score:5, Informative)
Really? I have Mythbuntu installed and this stuff is built in. You can set up the auto detection methods and there is a commercial flagging job. Sometimes it doesn't always detect commercial breaks, but it's been impressive on the ones it has detected.