Is Internet the Future of Television?
Yet another industry is being slowly taken over by the word-wide web. Only a year has passed since Apple opened the first legal online store for television programs, and it is already selling more than a million TV downloads weekly. Viewers pay for the legal downloads, but the advantage over regular TV is that they are free of ads, shows stay on the hard drive indefinitely, and they can be easily transferred to video iPod for mobile viewing.
Amazon, AOL and Google have also entered the business and now the major US TV networks are starting to hop on board. Some of the most popular shows at ABC such as Desperate Housewives, Dancing with the Stars, Grey's Anatomy and Lost can be viewed at the networks websites for free, interrupted by limited advertisements.
Shockingly, a new study conducted by Motorola recently discovered that 45% of European broadband users are already watching television online.
“Viewers across Europe are no longer satisfied with fitting into schedules dictated by broadcasters and are turning to the choice and flexibility offered by TV over the internet,” Motorola’s Karl Elliott told the BBC.
Elliot says, “We are witnessing a nation of citizen schedulers who are in control of their entertainment, allowing them to watch what they want, how and when they want it.”
What the study did not address is where Europeans are getting the TV downloads. Most likely they are being downloaded via sites like BitTorrent or other similar services. Popular shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives and 24 are increasingly easy to find for free on peer-to-peer networks, often within minutes of airing in the US.
Dr David Price, head of piracy intelligence at web monitoring firm Envisional says "It is now as easy to download a TV show through a website as it is to set your VCR…most episodes come online about half an hour after it first airs in the US…someone with a fast connection in the UK can watch it before it airs on the west coast of the US.”
The pirating of popular TV shows is a growing problem for the TV industry. The challenge now is how to stay profitable and competitive, while TV is becoming the most pirated asset on the Internet. Posted by Rebecca Sato
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