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October 21, 2004
Video Napster?
Convergence is all the rage in media/electronics/computers these days. And we are beginning to see the marvels that this new generation of electronic gizmos will bring us.
The author of the blog site called A VC tell us what this may look like, including the notion that we can now download video just like we have been doing with audio through a process called Bit Torrent.
"If my family room is driven by a PC with a DVR, set top box, and web browser built into it, connected to cable for both programming and high speed data, and then connected to a nice big flat panel display, the option to watch a show via live TV, VOD, DVR, or Bit Torrent is just a click of the remote. And when its that easy, why will my girl's choose to watch One Tree Hill via DVR when they can just as easily get it via Bit Torrent?"
Yikes! Techno-speak can sure make head hurt. So where will all of this lead us?
"I believe 'digital television' will play out largely like digital music. At first the content owners (like the musicians) will be held back out of loyalties to the cable MSOs (like the record labels). Content owners will not make their content available for download legally. But consumers will want to get their TV truly 'on demand' and they will use Bit Torrent or whatever other technology becomes available just like Napster, Morpheus, and Kazaa were used to get music on demand."
As I write this post, I am sitting on my living room couch, watching the lights blink on my VHS. I am such a Luddite....
Thanks to Law and Entrepreneurship News for blogging this and brining it to our attention.
Posted October 21, 2004 07:21 AM
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Comments
Yes, this problem will flow right into the television networks, but it seems to me that the TV industry has had plenty of time to recognize the situation with music downloading so that they might begin to take action with their own industry, as this problem was quite forseeable. I think if they can get another good service going, though, such as that along the lines of I-tunes for TV then by the time it would start to become a problem, the solution will have been created or is deep in the process of being created.
Posted by: Bryan Vaughan at October 21, 2004 10:48 AM
Strangly, I DO believe that you're watching your VCR lights blink!
I think that if consumers WANT this technology then it WILL happen. Bryan, I DO agree that the TV world HAS had enough time to get ahead of the trends, but haven't taken adventage of that opportunity! Oh well..sucks for them!
Posted by: Phillip Reid at October 22, 2004 09:07 PM
This is a great idea because Napster has already happened. I think that the television industry will not bitch about this quite as much as the music industry because they will figure out how to make money off it from the onset, unlike the music industry who was crying, "Hey wait...not fair!" when the technology pased them by six years ago.
Posted by: George Ward at October 24, 2004 09:26 AM
at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
