Sharpe's Opinion
Tuesday, 13th Jan, 2009
Cablevision and the infinite TiVo
John August is worried about the future of movies and television, because a new service from Cablevision could provide full Video-On-Demand facilities under the guise of a TV recording (time-shifting) service.
A service like Cablevision’s makes reruns absurd. Why would anyone watch a rerun of Desperate Housewives when it’s always been available for free on the RS-DVR? And it’s not just television shows that are affected. In a Cablevision universe, a feature film loses all its television value the first time it’s shown. Why would HBO want to show Slumdog Millionaire more than once, considering everyone who could ever want to see it would have it available for free in perpetuity via Cablevision?
For that matter, why buy a DVD, or spend $9.99 to buy a movie through iTunes when that same film is sitting on your (virtual) DVR?
He goes on to say that this is Bad. Bad for writers, Bad for studios, Bad for actors. Bad for everyone. He’s somewhat missing the point of who this is Good for – really good for, and that’s viewers. Finally, we’re not forced into consuming content in the over-priced and restrictive formats allowed by film studios. We can have real choice about what we want to see and when we want to see it.
I want (and I don’t think I’m alone) simple video-on-demand and TV catch-up services. iTunes Film Rentals are a good start, but the range of films available is too limited and it’s hard to discover new films I want to watch. BBC iPlayer is excellent, but it’s only available on the computer or on the astonishingly difficult to use Virgin Media set-top box.
I’ve argued this point [cref 1749 about the music industry] before now – the entertainment industry needs to start seeking out new sources of funding because the old business models are dying, fast. I don’t want to buy a DVD, it’s expensive and in 90% of cases I’ll only watch the DVD once anyway. I don’t want to buy a digital download for the same reason.
Regardless, there’s a very simple solution to his core problem – like iPlayer, content should be available to everybody, but for a limited time after its initial broadcast. Job done.