HERE’S A REALLY INTERESTING ARTICLE ON THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION.
The author argues that broadcast TV is in for a major shakeup in the wake of broadband technology.
It’s certain that the Internet is going to change the way television operates–that’s been obvious for some time–but what isn’t clear is what the resulting TV landscape will look like.
At some point we’re going to be downloading TV programs. There are already experiments inthat direction: There’s suppose to be a scaled-down tie-in for the program 24 that you’ll be able to download onto your cellphone. Apple is talking about a video iPod. But these are just experiments.
What has to happen is for someone to come up with an economically viable model–or set of models–for how to pay for TV content to be produced in the age of downloads.
That’s where the above-linked articles comes in. The author speculates on how the economics of TV will work in the future.
Among his predictions:
- Broadcast TV will go back to being a live medium covering things like news and sports as non-live television programs (e.g., sitcoms and dramas) shift to downloadable distribution.
- Downloaded TV shows will not have the equivalent of commercials. There will be no interruptions in the show for commercial breaks.
- Instead, the advertising will be embedded in the show itself–like the station-identification "bugs" that currently appear in the corner of your TV screen (or, though he doesn’t mention this, through product placement).
- (If I read him correctly) Shows will move back toward having a single sponsor instead of a host of different advertisers.
- The audience will continue to not pay directly for TV content.
These are interesting ideas, as is the way he fleshes out how it all might work, though I’m dubious about his last prediction. I think that audiences WILL be willing to pay for content. We’re already paying for cable service and for DVDs we buy and for TiVo boxes that cut out the commercials for us.
I suspect that, as the download TV market develops, there will be people who will be willing to pay the producers of the shows in order to get advertising-free versions of the broadcasts, just as is now happening via DVDs. A model may emerge where you can either download the free version of the show, which has embedded advertising, or pay a fee to access an advertising-free version of the show.
I suspect that the latter will at least be experimented with as the market matures.
Now, what role does Battlestar Galactica play in this series of developments? For that you’ll have to
In a way, the idea of embedding an advertiser’s “bug” in a program is already being done during sports broadcasts. Look at the World Series. Behind home plate, there’s a green advertising board that Fox uses to superimpose various advertisements (beer, Internet services, upcoming shows, etc.). Likewise, during NASCAR races, one corner of the tickertape usually has some sponor’s logo, and it rotates regularly. The technology is there, the advertisers are obviously willing to do this, now is television willing to keep up?
Wow, a surge in the popularity of Battlestar Galactica. I noticed on my Netflix queue, the first DVD is on a long wait list. Ouch. I should have had it higher on my list when it wasn’t in such demand.
Someone needs to tell that girl to pull her pants up. Her mother apparently never taught her.
Well unless I can download onto something that I can then plug into my tv set there’s no way I’m going to be taking advantage of this.
Me, I like my sofa to sprawl out on, I like some snacks, I like something or someone to cuddle up to…(the dog or the kids suffice amply). The whole family huddling around a computer screen to watch something I like so much that I paid to download it, is not my idea of fun.
God Bless.
I thought the reference to Dr. Who interesting. Has anybody seen them? I don’t travel in the illegal copy circles, so I haven’t seen them, but the clips/download on the BBC website look great. They’ve come a far cry from the days of the Tardis spinning on a string.
JFK, do you mean the latest ‘Doctor Who’ series featuring Billie Piper and that man who fancies himself (but I can’t remember his name)..he played God in some programme last year and his fellow actors laughed him off set apparantly because he actually thought he was God.
If so, I’ve seen the latest series and I thought it was amateurish.
God Bless
p.s. I agree with anon above. The girl needs to pull her knickers up or put on so much weight that she has to wear granny pant’s. Like….no, NOT like me…like grannies do!
Ukok;
I’m afraid I don’t know enough on the actor to know if it’s the same. I saw a clip that included a captured, crippled Dalek in modern London. That looked interesting because it could be setting the stage for the “future” Dalek invasion shown in the old series and Cushing movie.
I believe the girl’s pants ARE pulled up. Just be grateful she is not displaying a thong.
What bugs me is that the photo is a formally balanced composition, except the pants are a little off center and crooked.
Makes me start to l-e-a-n to one side.
If somehow this leads to Firefly being back on air, I’m for it!
As we sometimes say in the south, “It needed killin’!”
I do video now. No experiment here.
Isn’t this being done already? I’ve noticed that iTunes is selling lost…I think within a week of a new episode comming out. That’s the way I plan on watching this season.
Tim J – the crooked pants bothered me too. Why would they be so careful about the whole setup and then leave her britches lopsided?
Apple is talking about a video iPod.
“Lost” is already available as a podcast (as are other ABC & Disney shows).
Someone needs to tell that girl to pull her pants up. Her mother apparently never taught her.
She doesn’t have a mother. She’s a cylon.
Well unless I can download onto something that I can then plug into my tv set
You can.
If somehow this leads to Firefly being back on air, I’m for it!
Ditto.
I did this years ago with X-Men Evolution.
I couldn’t pick up WB (the channel it aired on) where I moved to, so I would download the show. WB then decided to not air the last three episodes of season 3 until next fall.
Those episdoes aired in New Zealand with the reason of the season that spring. I downloaded them shortly after they aired.
WB then decided to kill the show, airing the best episodes only once and not releasing the DVDs for several more years.
I did this years ago with X-Men Evolution.
I couldn’t pick up WB (the channel it aired on) where I moved to when I went off to college, so I would download the show. WB then decided to not air the last three episodes of season 3 until next fall.
Those episdoes aired in New Zealand with the reason of the season that spring. I downloaded them shortly after they aired.
WB then decided to kill the show, airing the best episodes only once and not releasing the DVDs for several more years.
I no longer download anything, but at the same time it makes wathcing tv so much more convienent.
If the “woman” in the picture is a cylon, then why do they need fashion designers?
I don’t subscribe to cable/satellite so I can’t watch it, but from my memory of the original series, the cylon were robots/androids. Yes, I know that this is TV and they need to sell sex appeal to the audience, but you would think that androids would go for a more utilitarian look.
I missed the first 4 eps of Lost this year (mostly ‘cos I hadn’t finished watching the last eps from season 1 – yes, I’m not very well-organized) &, when I learned iTunes had them, I decided to give it a try. I’ve got broadband & it took about 2 hours to download all 4 eps. It’s not very good video – very sub-VHS, if you ask me – but it might look OK on one of those new video iPods, but you’ll need glasses to see after watching a few show on the 2.5 inch screen. I know this is an experiment & I appreciate the convenience so my complaints are really just about the newness of the tech. I’m all for this. I only watch 2 shows on TV, anyway. Otherwise, it’s Netflix. But, until the quality is vastly improved, I’m gonna use it only for catching up on eps I’ve missed.
And I’ve been wantin’ to see the new Battlestar Galactica but haven’t found the time to do so. Heard it’s pretty good, though. (Except, isn’t Starbuck a girl now? That’s just weird!)
That’s too bad if the video quality is bad…I was planning on purchasing via iTunes…
If the “woman” in the picture is a cylon, then why do they need fashion designers?
I don’t subscribe to cable/satellite so I can’t watch it, but from my memory of the original series, the cylon were robots/androids. Yes, I know that this is TV and they need to sell sex appeal to the audience, but you would think that androids would go for a more utilitarian look.
The Cylons are now trying to become more human and have succeeded to the point that you need very special tests in order to tell them apart. Some of them, like the one pictured above (Number Six) pass in human society and therefore need things like clothes.
The robotic models of cylons, though, don’t have clothes, only the human ones.
And I’ve been wantin’ to see the new Battlestar Galactica but haven’t found the time to do so. Heard it’s pretty good, though. (Except, isn’t Starbuck a girl now? That’s just weird!)
Boomer is a woman now, too. Actually, Starbuck and Boomer are the two most interesting pilot characters on the show. They’re so interesting (and nice to look at) that you quickly get over the fact that they’ve flipped the gender of these characters. They’re *far* more interesting than the original Starbuck and Boomer were.
from my memory of the original series, the cylon were robots/androids.
Your memory serves you well. And this woman is a cylon, a.k.a. a “toaster.”
you would think that androids would go for a more utilitarian look.
What’s more utilitarian than adopting a look that allows you to easily infiltrate the enemy?
isn’t Starbuck a girl now?
She kicks butt, too.
And they’ve apparently replaced Athena with another character who is not Adama’s daughter.
Jimmy: What’s with you of all people succumbing to the trend of replacing “sex” with “Gender”?
“They’re so interesting (and nice to look at) that you quickly get over the fact that they’ve flipped the gender of these characters. They’re *far* more interesting than the original Starbuck and Boomer were.”
Excellent! Gotta add these to my Netflix queue. By the time I work my way down to them (prolly sometime in ’09!) I’m sure they’ll be easily available. As for the characters being more interesting than the original series . . . well, that wasn’t to hard to do, was it? 😉
I’ve actually caught snippets of the show here & there but I’m always so very lost about what’s going on so I change it. Or go to bed!
“you would think that androids would go for a more utilitarian look.”
What’s more utilitarian than adopting a look that allows you to easily infiltrate the enemy?
Good point. But isn’t one of the points of infiltration is to blend in but not to draw attention to yourself?
And, yes, that is a rhetorical question.
Personally, I don’t watch Battlestar Galactica. I lost interest in the new series, when I found out that there was a lesbian love triangle in the first mini-series.
As for the topic, I don’t see those things happening any time soon. Intrusive ads are too much of a price to pay for Free TV content.
Personally, I don’t watch Battlestar Galactica. I lost interest in the new series, when I found out that there was a lesbian love triangle in the first mini-series.
HUH???? There is no such thing! There is too much (heterosexual) sex in the first few episodes, but no lesbianism at all (or male homosexuality).
Indeed, the Cylons make a big point of the fact that *procreation* is a commandment of God.
Jimmy, they did have a lesbian sub-plot in the mini series. I think Starbuck and her female wing-mate were supposed to have a relationship. At least, that was the plan. I guess they must have cut it out. When they first promoted the series on Sci-Fi, they did have a woman-on woman kissing scene I guess they must have decided it was too controversial to air. Thanks for setting the record straight, though. It puts my mind at ease.
I didn’t see the ad you’re referring to (perhaps it was for something else?), but later episodes *clearly* establish Starbuck as a heterosexual.
In fact, one of the regular subplots is romantic tension between her and Apollo (a male pilot and her superior officer).
Actually, I just remembered; it wasn’t an ad, for the series, but the making of. But I did remember seeing it- unless I was somehow hallucinating.
I guess the reason the Cylons are invading Earth is because they need scarfs to wrap around those cold, exposed bellies as well as some conditioner.
Give ’em a silky satin wrap anna bottle a’ Suave.
I predict (though my batting average is worse than any astrologer) that movies will follow the James Bond movies in the way they ’embed’ advertisements within the movie.
Thus, each time our hero glances at his watch to check the time, we will see which brand watch he’s wearing (and stare at it for 6 seconds).
Some changes in the scripts:
Before: “Would you like to have some coffee”?
Now:”Let’s meet at Starbucks”
Before: “Get in the car!”
Now: “Get in our new Honda!”
(FWIW – I prefer watching movies with commercials. Gives me time to discuss what just happened with whoever I’m watching with)
If media center computers aren’t as buggy as my PC (Crash, Crash, Crash!) then there’s a strong possibility to move television to the internet. Not only would we viewers get television on demand, but advertisers would get buy on demand. Click on their icon, buy their product. QVC will probably be the first. Be careful with that remote if you don’t want to buy something!
Or as it is written in the book “Now, let us bow our heads in payment”.
they did have a lesbian sub-plot in the mini series
Definitely not in the one I saw, and I’m pretty sure there’s only one.
Regarding product placement:
Before: “Would you like to have some coffee”?
Now:”Let’s meet at Starbucks”
A phrase that would have a very different meaning on Battlestar Galactica 🙂
Before: “Would you like to have some coffee”?
Now:”Let’s meet at Starbucks”
The second phrase wouldn’t mean the same thing as the first on Battlestar Galactica! 🙂
David Tennant-played Casanova before moving to Dr. Who. I’ve been downloading Dr Who because BBC America won’t play it in the US. We do, however, buy them on DVD as they come out, so we’re being all ‘legal’ and stuff. We also had to buy Coupling on DVD (which is SO expensive for like 6 lousy episodes) because they arn’t showing it here. I also download stuff when my VCR has a fit and doesn’t tape, or the power goes out. Which is often enough. It does me no good to get a USB for the TV when the cable goes out with the power 🙂 I’d pay a monthly fee. I may even pay per-show for show download to get it reliably and legally. Oh yeah, and TIMELY. Downloading TV shows is SO much easier than resetting my VCR to tape everything for the week every time the power goes out. And when you work evenings… there’s NOTHING you get to watch in real-time.
My only thing I’m bummed out about is that I got an iPod and like two weeks later they introduced the next generation that plays video. I could be downloading Lost to my iPod and watching it *sniffles*
My only thing I’m bummed out about is that I got an iPod and like two weeks later they introduced the next generation that plays video. I could be downloading Lost to my iPod and watching it *sniffles*
I have a friend in the same boat.