More Thoughts on Future of TV and Movies

I've read another great article on 'Hollywood vs the internet' thanks to the excellent newspapper, The Economist.

The article discusses how the Hollywood companies have missed out on using the web to leverage distribution of their media. It cites some companies which have spouted up offering films at reasonable prices is a range of formats, awesome! Thing is, these sites are illegal. Bummer. It's not for want of trying to get some stuff out there, there are some companies offering limited titles, but no one company seems fully driven to use the web yet.

I wanted to write something about this, but it wasn't until I read San1t1's excellent post on ownership and 20th century mass media that my thoughts stirred once again.

If we ignore worrying stories about ISP bloodbaths about broadband providers not being able to handle the web as a platform for one moment... I really don't want to buy another CD or DVD disc again. What I would like is purchase rights (paid or free - free is the best price) to view/listen content where ever and when-ever the hell I want!

Would I pay £10 for an 'on-demand' movie that I could watch as many times as I wanted, and could watch on my cable box, laptop or iPod? Probably yes. Would I pay that for being able to listen to my music through my cable box, through a web site or my ipod? Probably yes.

As an interesting aside, San1t1 also published another post along similar lines.

Where does this leave us all? While both Hollywood and the music industry innovate on what they think their customers need, I for one certainly continue to push for zero touch, high-definition, highly accessible content, music, films and TV.

Battle for your TV - Round 2

*ding ding*

A very interesting development in the battle for your TV, BT and Microsoft jointly announce that BT will provide content through xBox Live, check out the press release. It's a funny old world, only last month I wrote up some thoughts on the battle for your TV, BT are playing an interesting game. There is a bit of a - however - moment though...

Here it comes...

However, a resident has to be a BT Broadband customer, and I assume a BT Total Broadband customer so that the resident is using a BT Home Hub (the snazzy Apple looking router) as it guarantees some quality of the line. I can only assume this means that the payment still appears on the bill you get from BT. There doesn't appear to be the 'roaming' option of being signed into any xBox using your Live account. So you couldn't be round a buddies house who uses broadband X rather then BT and opt in for a movie if they've got an xBox. They could however purchase movies from xBox Lives own pay per view service.

All in all, this only suggests that you don't need to get the BT Vision set top box (or you could use it in another room if you've got a long enough network cable) if you have the xBox. That would still leave you needing to buy a hard disc based DVRif you don't already have one.

It's interesting reading some of the comments about this. It's certainly an interesting move, still a bit restrictive but it could open up to thousands more people using the BT Vision 'platform' or what ever it is at the local exchange. It does feel fairly cosmetic though.

Battle for your TV

So I've been wondering who'll be weighing in for the battle for our TVs. There are certainly some interesting prospects on the market at the minute, but I who will win and does there even need to be a winner? This feels different to a format war reminiscent of VHS vs Betamax or more recently (and on-going) HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray. It's more akin to the cable vs satellite vs freeview vs top-up-TV wars we've seen recently.

Both the cable and satellite offerings have pay-per-view content, while freeview generally doesn't. All of these offerings have recording options, although generally with cable or satellite you would have to use the operators set up box, with freeview you are free to choose from a variety of products, some with hard drives for recording.

Two more recent entries on the market are worth looking at further though. BT and Microsoft. BT have released Vision, which is a freeview recorder with pay-per-view capabilities. It looks as if BT have taken two interesting features from the above and merged them before the others had a chance. Get free digital channels, the ability to record programs and the option to purchase movies, TV shows and sporting events all without a contract and monthly fee.

So far so good, apart from the fact with BT Vision, as the content is delivered over the IP network it means you have to have a minimum broadband speed to cope with the streaming, and the way to do that is to have BT broadband. As a side note, to have BT broadband you need a BT land line, sorry all those who switched to cable.

It seems like a lot of competition, but let's not forget the software companies attempts. Well, I call them software companies, but if you have an Xbox 360 or Apple TV then that's hardware really isn't it?

Now in the UK you can download standard definition or high definition pay per view content. Its movies and TV shows at the minute with no sporting content signed up, but who knows what the future might bring. We've been able to download TV content from iTunes for a while now (well not really in the UK) and let's not forget the muted Amazon Unbox.

We're crossing into interesting territory now. With cable and satellite operators you need a billing relationship (and all that implies, i.e. address etc). With BT, you also need that, but have to buy into their other products. With iTunes, xBox 360 Live and Amazon Unbox you pay for what you use when you use it (or use pre-pay credits) and use them where ever you are signed in to the relevant hardware or software to view your content.

Are we living in a world where we increasingly don't need or want bundles? With mobile broadband from providers like 3, and wireless city meshes potentially driving out needing a cable run into your home for land line phone services and broadband, where digital TV is free and pay-per-view content available through a variety of sources be they games consoles, set top boxes or just over the web do consumers want to be tied into contracts and services they can only use in one place?

How much is it worth?

I've always liked my gadgets and my entertainment, such as music and movies. Recently, these industries have struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing world around them. I've thought about this somewhat in the past (see: here and here) , but now my thoughts turn to: what would I be willing to pay for what kind of service?

Now, for example, Heroes, the awesome TV show is currently running the second series in the US, but the first season is only just finishing up in the UK. Luckily it's on BBC, so my TV license covers me to watch that, but really, why should I miss out on a digital product which is available in a different country, but now in my own country?

Let's get this straight, a show show/series/season is a product. It's something that you pay for, either through TV license, subscription or pay per view. It's not a traditional product, but it's something a lot of people pay for, hence the high cost for production companies to try to out do each other.

I might have lost out on this, take Lost for example. In the UK, it's on Sky first, and I'll be dammed if I'm paying £40p/m for something I don't need. I'll also be dammed if I'm going to pay £40 for the first half or even the whole season when it comes out on DVD. I might, however, be interested to pay a nominal amount to watch the stream of an episode. Hell, I might pay even more if I can download it and watch it where-ever. Why not take a leaf out of Radiohead's book and let me download the whole lot, week by week, and when available, send me a copy of the DVD release.

Yeah, I'd pay for that. I don't want to subscribe, I want to pay per view, and if that's through a consumer product like BT Vision, or Freeview then so be it. But, how about just using the web? And please, none of this DRM crap, I'd like to be able to watch the damm video on my Linux laptop while I'm traveling.

Word to the wise: I'm not going to pay for Sky, Cable or any subscription TV service. I'm not likely to buy a DVD of a TV series if I've seen it already, though I might take a chance if I've not seen it and it's reasonably priced. I am likely to pay for an on-demand/download service for high quality, HD content if I don't have to wait 9 months after it's shown on US television.

Time to get your act together, that includes you BBC!