I have been using the Livestation service for the past few weeks on my home PC and came across an article this morning about the ABC Playback service which will include a 24/7 “continuous news centre”. It got me thinking again about one of the great debates – will the Internet make TV redundant?
I still stand by the fact that it won’t, but how it’s delivered or what it will cause could be interesting…
The Livestation service is currently in beta trial and while they suggest they will offer a wide range of television channels and radio stations, a limited number of channels are available now for testing as part of the trial and this is dependant on the country you reside in (obviously pay TV providers determine this). For example I have listed their beta stations acknowledging those that are not available in Australia.
- Al Jazeera
- BBC News 24 – Not available in Australia
- BBC World English – Not available in Australia
- Bloomberg Television English – Not available in Australia
- EuroNews English
- EuroNews French
- France 24 English
- France 24 French
- i>TELE French – Not available in Australia
- Sky News English – Not available in Australia
It’s unfortunate that the BBC, Bloomberg and Sky News services were the ones I was most excited about. Livestation claims the emphasis will be on quality as much as quantity. That means national networks, not just special interest services.
The ABC Playback service, in addition to the 24/7 “continuous news centre”, will also allow viewers to watch full-screen video content – including recently aired shows on ABC1 and ABC2. The ABC has even started to monetize this with a selection of programs and content available for purchase as a digital download from the ABC Shop.
If your interested go and register now – The ABC is inviting 5000 Australians with fast ADSL2 Internet connections to take part in the trial, which will continue for about three months.
So we could argue that, taking the above into consideration, along with the release of hardware such as the Sony Home Theatre PC (Click here for the Wired review) which will make Windows Media Centre “plug and play” for the general public (for too long the PC Media Centre has been the domain of early adopters and geeks…) that the way we watch and interact with TV will change for ever.
The three concerns I have on this claim is:
- Free to air Internet becomes Pay TV anyway – Bandwidth costs money regardless of whether you pay for a limited package or “all-you-can-eat”. The consumer is going to have to pay for the delivery and let’s face it, Australian free to air content is pretty good – hence why Foxtel isn’t in every second home. Cost vs. Benefits is always the debate.
- Bandwidth is not reliable for delivery – I have ADSL 2+ in Balaclava but my mate down the road in St Kilda can only get ADSL due to the exchange he must connect to. Delivery is not a standard medium open to all and is impacted by distance from the exchange – fall on the wrong side of a boundary line and your Internet speeds can be hindered dramatically due the distance from the exchange. This effects publishes and the standards they can deliver.
- Will the mass public want to “interact” with TV – Is TV not a medium where you turn the box on so you can switch off? I think proof of this is the statistics of simultaneous prime time TV and Internet usage – that is, the majority of us do search the net and answer emails WHILE prime time TV is on in the background. Will we mix the two? Or when we have finished answering our emails do we just “plonk” ourselves on the couch?
So what will work? And who will be effected?
- I think sport can benefit out of integrating TV with the world wide web. Me and my mates spent many hours watching the America’s Cup (which was not broadcast by any free to air providers in Australia) for a one off subscription fee. It will also allow the owners of sports franchises not only to generate revenue for their own video feeds, but provide enhanced services such as streaming statistics. Telstra has demonstrated this with the V8 motor racing.
- With the above in mind, Pay TV may also come into question. I know if I could access Sky News, Bloomberg and CNN online (please Livestation, please) I would question getting Foxtel – I would even pay to subscribe directly to these stations if I had to. It also allows you access to content within other countries that may not be offered here. PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in America has content called Frontline which is known for producing in-depth lengthy documentaries on various popular issues, leading to numerous awards. There are over 60 high quality documentaries on their website, with each documentary available in different formats
- Goodbye rental shops – Imagine the ability for the film studio’s to be able to distribute film via the Internet instead of having to pay for the manufacture of media like DVD. This is cost reduction en-mass and means greater profits. If the user wants a DVD, let DRM allow them to burn the DVD, provide the packaging and print the cover – the consumers pays not the studio.
- Test bed for Australian free to air stations – Maybe these Internet channels could be a good method for the Australian Free To Air stations to test channel formats. Seven could trial a news service as well as a movie channel as well as a documentary channel and measure popularity according to unique visitors. They could then decide on the preferred format and release to free to air when spectrum becomes available (which I believe the second SD station for each channel will be available early 2009)
- Allow Australian Free to Air providers to be able to extend past their current limitations of the one SD and one HD station only – Setting up online channels allows for the distribution of more advertising as well as special function such as clicking on an advert requesting more information on a product of interest – something digital TV has been promising in Australia but is still yet to deliver.
What ever happens, it’s the free to air providers that will have the ability to best revolutionise and capitalise on this space purely because they have the viewing audiences already. They can advertise and educate the general public on these special service and have done so with the HD formats they have recently released.
It appears the ABC may be the first – the question will anyone follow?
