Big media vs. Internet video tsunami: Sink or swim (CD, screen, digital)

[Grandpa Pipes]

With TV's & the Internet moving quickly to become one for content this is the main reason I'm holding off buying new flat screen TV.

IMO the net will soon be the main to way we all watch TV in the not to distant future.

"We want to watch video sites like Hulu on our TVs. But the corporations that own the shows that go on that and other video websites want to deliver those programs via a different business model: advertising-based broadcast TV, and ad- and subscription-supported cable TV. The result? A clash of technologies where Big Media struggles to protect an old-fashioned business model by holding back the tide of new technology.

In the middle are we, the humble TV watchers. How much longer can this Internet video tsunami be held at bay? Why is there resistance to providing shows over the Internet, instead of broadcast or cable? And why is it so hard to cross that divide between old-fashioned TV and newfangled Internet TV? Find out on the next page."

Big media vs. Internet video tsunami: Sink or swim | DVICE

[thecoalman]

Advertisement is certainly a big source of revenue they wouldn;t want to lose but the real bread and butter of the media industry has been being able to resell the same material over and over. You often hear the argument from RIAA that MP3 sharing is costing them billions which may be the case but the real reason for the traditional decline in music sales has been the CD itself. This was economic boom for the music industry but also a death blow.

In the past as new technology has developed (record >> 8 track >> cassette >> CD) people would buy the new and improved product. The physical product breaks down and the devices needed to play them fade into the distance. This allowed them to sell the same content you bought just a few years ago again. With the CD the content is no longer locked to the physical distribution system. You can buy a CD, rip it to a lossless format and have a perfect copy for a lifetime. People like myself have already bought all the music of their youth, there is no reason to buy it again and this is where the music industry is really suffering.

You could argue digital downloads are the next leap but there is significant issues there. Firstly since most have quite a low bitrate this actually a step backward in quality. Secondly DRM protected material is actually an attempt to hopefully turn the tide of the CD so they can again give the product shelf life, certainly protecting it from being pirated is one reason but I would argue it's more important to the music industry to try and return to the old business model of being able to sell the same content numerous times. The only card they have left to play is the release of higher quality audio tracks and that will have little impact because CD is "good enough" for 99% of the people out there.

That said the Movie/TV industry is well aware of the perils of releasing this content into digital format. It's not the loss of revenue from pirating that is their main concern but the loss of revenue from people willing to buy a product that are only going to have to buy it once.

Quite frankly they need to come to the reality that people will no longer accept the old way of doing business. They are taking the same road the music industry did many years ago, by not making the material available they are in some cases driving people to piracy as it's the only place it's available. They need to get there heads out of there ass and move onto a different business model as they will quickly find themselves extinct if they don't.