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!

More finger pointing in the music biz

Apparently Apple and Tesco are more to 'blame' then the P2P file sharing sites for the 'crisis' facing the music industry. There has been a flurry of activity around 'the biz' recently with Radiohead's freebie album. At least Universal have taken some steps to move forward by selling USB sticks with singles on them with additional value add features such videos and the like. I can't say that I'd buy one, but at least they're trying something.

Once again I'll repeat my message. Stop moaning and change your business models to survive, or you will fall.