[Macworld]

Post your comments for TV, movie industries futilely fighting future here

[Macnutjohn]

I have to agree about the whole "web only" thing with Hulu. I have Boxee installed on my original ATV, and can't watch ANY Hulu content on it. I don't see what makes the difference whether I am watching a vintage TV show on my computer screen or a larger TV screen. I'm still going to be seeing the same ads either way. It's way past time for these TV and movie studios to lift the artificial barriers. They aren't doing anyone any good....

[JerrySuppan]

I also agree with the writer their is a revolution of sort coming to the entertainment industry and methods they employ to promote their content. The motion picture and TV Industries need to rethink and restrategize their business models in this digital age. People once rode horses to travel from point 'A' to point 'B'. Then, along came a phenomena known as the automobile. People began to ride, and drive in cars. Very well-written article and insightful. Thank you!

[CouchGuy1]

Dan Moren does a great job here of pointing out the corner into which the TV/movie industry has painted itself. This industry has not learned "the Jobs lesson" that was nearly the undoing of the music industry. ITunes saved the music industry inspire of the fact that it fought hard to kill itself. Perhaps someone will save TV and movies as well -- not that they deserve it.

[LeTap]

CouchGuy1, on 05 June 2011 - 07:58 AM, said:

Dan Moren does a great job here of pointing out the corner into which the TV/movie industry has painted itself. This industry has not learned "the Jobs lesson" that was nearly the undoing of the music industry. ITunes saved the music industry inspire of the fact that it fought hard to kill itself. Perhaps someone will save TV and movies as well -- not that they deserve it.

Don't forget that there was a lot more illegal downloading of music before Apple and iTunes music store came along. The same with films and TV shows -- loads of illegal downloads available if you search hard enough and I believe there are websites where you can watch shows almost immediately after they've aired. The studios will learn "the Jobs lesson", but only the hard way.

I prefer reading to visual media and I only listen to recitals (no music). I have no interest in films or shows (especially after the very excellent Jericho was prematurely killed-off). Give me a ton of books (print or electronic) and I'm happy. I have hundreds of books on my iPad and Sony eReader.

This post has been edited by LeTap: 05 June 2011 - 08:23 AM

[RalphMartin]

Looks like these producers and CEOs of all these companies are from previous generations that want to keep their heads in the past and refuse to change, but we all know that people is inflexible to change and like Dan said they are going to be dragged like it or not.

I actually have Netflix with one DVD plan in order to get stuff that I can't stream, but I actually rip the DVD and watch it later when I have the time and delete the files after I watch them, but to do this is a pain and when I don't have the time to rip it I keep the DVD and watch it on my play station. The thing is that if these guys come to their senses they will realize that they need to put this content avaialble because I'm not going to wait 30 days for a TV show and that is why I get frustrated and fire up utorrent, however, I haven't had the necessary of doing this just to avoid the trouble and thanks to these streaming services that allow me to watch what I want from what they offer without having to waste time waiting for something to download.

Basically the ease of use and the availability of these services in multiple platforms is what makes the experience great and will keep people happy having to pay for it.

This is really good stuff, great article.

[photine]

I am also one of the people that the industry fears. I am a dyed in the wool television addict, but because of financial and personal reasons I decided to see if I could go without cable and my beloved DVR in the fall. I put an antenna on my TV, bought an Apple TV and I have never looked back. It is shocking to me how easily I adapted to not keeping up with my shows on a regular basis.

I tried at first, but the networks do not make it easy with restrictions on what episodes they put online and when. Once I missed something because of my hectic work schedule and I missed the small window they were sharing it online that was it. More often than not I just found it easier to watch something else that fit my schedule better.

It is so obvious that the future is here. It is time for the television networks to embrace it.

[Tipadoo]

Kicking and screaming? Absolutely! None of these fat cats wants a reduced paycheck, but they'll likely have to take a hit anyway. I'm a netflix customer as well with one disc and I stream a fair amount of content. I think netflix's catalog will only grow and that's great! I'm looking forward to it.
Dan, I appreciate the thought put into your article, I believe you touched all the bases.

[reallycrazy]

The TV industry will try to attach to the movie industries upcoming 'universal' DRM system.

[RobLewis]

Maybe it's because I'm old, but I just can't understand the fierce urgency of getting to watch your show now now now. If a program is worth watching now, it should be worth watching a month from now (with certain obvious exceptions like news and sports). It's not like there's nothing else on TV.

I think Netflix is on the right track, though I do object to their policy of only letting you authorize 3(?) of your devices at a time. Supposedly this is to prevent you from giving your account info to friends, but as I pointed out to one of their support reps, all they'd have to do is check IP addresses to prevent that. The policy should be: ANY device coming from your home IP address should be able to connect (though I can understand them limiting it to, say, three SIMULTANEOUS streams).

When I proposed this to the rep, he said "Wow, great idea! I don't think we've ever thought of that!" Um, OK. So do it already.

[JohnnyO]

Nicely written article.

While I think this is the future, I'm not ready to go there yet, for the following reasons:

1) It isn't as if the shows aren't available. It is that the "legacy" approach is expensive. If I think having 3-8 shows available as soon as anyone else can see them is desireable, then I have to decide to pay the $50-$100 monthly cable bill.

2) I didn't purchase a lovely HD plasma TV and decent surround sound system to watch TV on my laptop, or stream lower quality shows with suboptimal audio.

I'll keep watching the progress, but in the meantime, my Comcast service and my two HD Tivos will continue to be my primary source of video entertainment.

I also have a Blockbuster Online subscription, but I am thinking of converting to a fewer-out-at-a-time Netflix sub, but the Netflix attitude of "quality be damned, full streaming ahead" is off-putting.

[charlituna]

This issue is about ratings. Nielsen uses a sample of only like 25k folks to guesstimate how many million of potential viewers each show grabbed. That info is used to get the advertisers to pay for ads. That money is what funds production of the shows.

So the networks are loathe to do anything that would possibly perhaps pull one of those precious viewers away. Despite the fact that the system could be inherently flawed and not really giving a good picture of the viewership up or down.

Now what we need is two fold. One a better Nielsen system where vastly more folks are counted so one viewer doesn't have as much impact. AND to convince the networks to count all potential sources of income -- OTA ad funds, online ad funds, itunes, Amazon etc -- to recoup budget for each show. Then after that we can tackle DRM issues

[donteme]

The content providers are doing what is right for the industry. They will not allow Internet geeks to destroy their industry. The TV and movie content providers run a multibillion dollars industry that create revenue from ads that is used to pay actors/actresses, movie producers, sport athletes, news anchors, writers and thousands of other people that work in the industry. If the geeks want free stuff, then they can make their own films and post them on YouTube.

[Peteabu]

No more TV watching for me either. I watch TED instead.