An article from Deadline Hollywood yesterday claims anyone who thinks the Internet will dethrone Hollywood, TV networks and cable companies is, in a more family-friendly term, insane. They claim buying episodes on iTunes is more costly than a cable subscription and the companies won’t give Apple or Amazon their best content because cable companies pay the studios more. As a member of this populous I can confidently say they’re wrong.
My first issue is with their pricing argument. It most certainly costs more to buy shows by the episode for $1.99 on iTunes than to watch it on TV with ads. But that’s just it. Advertising is the Internet’s number one business model. Looking to make a quick buck off your personal blog? Ads. Have a podcast you record that has you dipping into your savings a little too often to buy proper equipment? Ads. Happen to own a television studio and want to broadcast your shows on the Internet without losing profits? Blackmail (I’m kidding. That one’s ads too). Viewers would much rather watch commercials than shell out two dollars to watch their favorite shows. Hulu knows this. ABC, NBC and tons of other networks already know this. It makes sense.
It makes even more sense to watch sponsored television online than traditionally: a 45 minute episode of House on Hulu contains a total of 5 advertisements. Some of them lasting 30 seconds, others only 15. On TV, the commercials would have quickly filled the rest of the 15 minutes to equate to about an hour. The only thing online TV is lacking is some sort of real-time component. The final episode of American Idol will be all anyone talks about tomorrow at work but if I ditched my television set for a purely online experience, I’m left out of the loop. When the big game’s on, my first destination is TV; it’ll be long before live sports (with video) will reach your laptop screen.
Another one of their arguments brings up the networks not wanting their best content online. It is true that sometimes the companies hold back some of their best entertainment. But if they wont be the ones to put it online, it will still find it’s way there. Users of video sharing sites, like YouTube for example, are more than willing to throw the latest episodes of their favorite shows online, whether the big wigs like it or not. This is without even mentioning bitorrent services that make it simple to download HD content. A few years ago downloading a movie (measuring a few gigabytes in size) would have been too cumbersome. Nowadays with cable Internet connections (ironic huh) and larger hard drives, pirating is easier than ever (though you shouldn’t; stealing is bad kids). Granted this may be difficult for the average 30 or 40 something to deal with but I bet their kids can show them.
What people need to understand is that the Internet is an assassin. It’s in the business of slaying as many things physical as possible and bringing them back to life as ones and zeros. Newspapers have become a wasteful and inefficient way of obtaining yesterday’s news. Photo albums are shared faster than ever due to social networking sites. I can count on my hands how many times I’ve sent someone I knew a piece of snail mail and still have a hand free to browse my Gmail inbox. And I don’t even have to say anything about music. It’s only a matter of time before television online is perfected. Once that’s accomplished, movies are next.
– Xavier Harding
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