Re: Ofcom says 4 national HD channels on DTT

"DAB sounds worse than FM" <dab.is@dead> wrote:

Peter Hayes wrote:

The Internet will become a TV platform in its own right over time,
and eventually it will kill off Freeview,

Freeview will be around for at least 25 years. Politically it'll be
impossible to kill off. And how do you receive TV in the caravan if
the only access is satellite or the internet?

25 years? Not a chance. 15 years tops. Freeview will be analogous to
black and white TV in 10 years from now, so people will have migrated
away from it in droves.

People will increasingly be using on-demand over time as well,

On demand isn't multicasting, the ISP hardware requirements are massive
for OD. Pumping out a stream is chickenfeed in comparison.

which the Internet is ideally suited to whereas Freeview can't deliver
jack *** on demand.

I treat television as an OD download mechanism, archiving content for
watching when I want.

If people have to shell out £1.99 a time for their OD content, which is
the obvious subtext, it'll have to work.

What I do see in the next 10-15 years is the end of broadcast television
as we know it today, irrespective of the delivery platform. People will
downloaded content, with live content being limited to news and sport.

Of course the broadcasters could scupper that, see below... But they'd
just be cutting their own throats.

If it is to work it has to include all the features currently
available to the average viewer, simple one button channel (stream if
you prefer) selection, ability to timeshift and ad skip without some
arbitary DRM imposed restrictions, and zero additional cost.

Do you see all this happening? I don't. The content providers will
screw it up with their DRM paranoia for starters.


Once you've recorded a stream on a PVR they'll obviously allow you to skip
the ads and so on - why wouldn't they let you do this? We'll watch TV via
the net on set-top boxes just like we do on Freeview or whatever, it's just
that they're connected to the Internet rather than receiving a radio signal.

If that's the way it'll work then fine. But don't you see the potential
for the DRM weenies to prevent ad skipping?

http://www.onlinereporter.com/article.php?article_id=9433

"ITV called ITV.com "total freedom of entertainment."

"The content will only be available for streaming, not downloading.
Also, viewers will not be able to fast-forward through the
commercials."

(Obviously you can't skip ads if the content can't be downloaded...)
Duh!

So there you have it - no PVRs - you probably can't even pause live
content should the phone ring.

That's a strong indication the way the broadcasters will approach
multicasting. No downloading for starters. [1]

So in the true tradition of rip off Britain the user is being asked to
pay more for less.

[1] Of course that doesn't stop the more enterprising recording the
video signal, but where's the advantage over Freeview, satellite or even
good old analogue? Other than the availability of back issues of
Coronation Street, of course. Sheesh...

--

Immunity is better than innoculation.

Peter
.

Quantcast