Dan Rayburn, executive VP for StreamingMedia.com, writes:
... I have over 60 season passes in TiVo. Going through all of them yesterday, more than 90% of the shows I watch are not available online anywhere. And the ones that are, like content from CBS and NBC, do not show up right after they are broadcast and typically take days if not longer to appear on the web. And in the case of something like 60 Minutes, one story alone is chopped up into 10 different video segments on their website and encoded at a pretty low bitrate. And sports, well forget that. No NFL games are available on-demand the next day online and while the MLB games are, it requires a subscription. ΒΆ The demise of the TV is overrated and many in the industry keep saying the same thing as if they have to say it just to be cool. I keep hearing people in our space says things like "I don't even need a TV anymore, I'll just watch all my video online". ...
Link: The Business Of Online Video. --Dennis
John is right - Time shifting is a critical issue - not broadcast. The Tyranny of the schedule is being challenged.
Secondly, I think of all the talent and money devoted to online now. In the music area, while it was technically difficult, only the geeks like my son downloaded. But the moment Apple made it easy and legal billions of download took place - regular folks like me were now downloading - my bet is that this will happen in 2008 2009 at the latest. Then the delivery system will have tipped.
Now there is not much to see online - but recall in the early days of DVD's there were not many titles - how long did that last
Lastly "Follow the Money" the advertisers are already shifting to online.
When the shift comes, recall small cars vs trucks in Detroit, it will be too late to move
You have to be Toyota and not GM
Posted by: Rob Paterson | Saturday, 26 January 2008 at 06:02
Ah, but he doesn't watch TV! He watches video collected on his TiVo, and that TiVo is hooked to a cable or satellite service. Besides, the demise of traditional TV will not occur in one monolithic thump -- it will be a death by a thousand cuts. He's already participating in two technologies that are turning TV into something new, something different. Perhaps the real question is what constitutes TV anyway? When can we say that TV has transformed so much that it's no longer TV?
Posted by: John Proffitt | Friday, 25 January 2008 at 13:40