Om Malik: "The instant and on-demand desires of a bunch of geeks is going to change the television game, and the revolution has already started, says The New York Times. They point to MythTV, an open source PVR technology, Bit Torrent and Videora, a software I pointed to a month ago. ¶ 'We have to try as an industry to get ahead of this and give the audience an attractive model before the illegal file-sharer providers meet their needs,' said David F. Poltrack, CBS Television’s executive vice president for research and planning. 'The clock is ticking on this.' ¶ What is the most interesting part of this whole article is television industry’s response. They seem to be a lot more proactive in trying to get ahead of the technology instead of fighting it like the music business. It is interesting, in a way that they know how these technologies can kill the DVD sales, a highly lucrative line of business. ..." Link: Om Malik on Broadband. The link he points to at the beginning is quoted below. --Dennis
Steal This Show. ... The members of the MythTV community, who now do not have to pay monthly fees to rent set-top boxes or digital video recorders, have plenty of more mischievous company in trying to outwit the television industry. Millions of viewers are now watching illegal copies of television programs - even full seasons copied from popular DVD's - that are flitting about the Internet, thanks to other new programs that allow users to upload and download the large files quickly. And entrepreneurial souls are busily concocting even newer applications, including one that searches the Internet for illegal copies of any television shows you may desire and automatically downloads them to your computer. ... Link: New York Times.
I have observed these programs in action -- particularly those that make BitTorrent more user friendly. I don't know if it will ever get big, but it is eye opening.
Putting aside legality, it would be interesting to combine an ip-DVR device (lets say like a TiVo or Akimbo box) with the BitTorrent technology.
What I want to know is how the commercials will find us?
Posted by: Martino Mingione | Wednesday, 02 February 2005 at 16:39