Broadband will strangle TV
Superfast broadbane would allow you to download a feature film in 8 minutes. Where does that leave television networks?
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Realistically it may be a long way off, but if superfast broadband is delivered to 90 per cent of Australia as was promised by the Rudd Government yesterday it would spell doom to conventional television.
Experts are confirming what has already been occuring on a ‘smaller’ scale already.
Mark Pesce, the honorary associate in digital cultures at Sydney University, said: “The constrained terrestrial broadcasting system we have had will be eroded massively and perhaps completely. The question is how quickly. Consumers will be asking, ‘What are the TV networks for? Will we just be downloading our favourite TV shows off their websites?”‘
Television networks would have to work out a way to embed broadcast commercials in their offerings, he said.
The real victim will be Australian drama. It already costs so much to produce, and much of it is to satisfy local content requirements. If this superfast broadband dramatically changes the face of television, as it surely would, networks will be screaming at government to adjust regulations is line with technology -and their bottom line.
The new broadband, if it ever sees the light of day, could allow people to download a feature film in 8 minutes.
The key to it all is new revenue models. We will still want stories, it’s just the access that’s changing.
Source: smh.com.au
26 Responses
@David
Like all blanket statements, it’s not correct. Downloading is not illegal in all cases and it’s less so as each day goes by. Granted it has a stigma attached and in Australia it’s a much under-utilized method of media transmission. Somebody needs to stay a little more current with net trends, methinks.
Besides, many things are illegal, until there’s a change of administration, or paradigm. The formation of the United States was an illegal act, just to illustrate the point. Would you argue it be repealed, or recognise the legitimacy of the change?
Could you share even 10% of that bandwidth around, Neon Kitten?
if the tv networks offer stuff i want to watch i will stay with them and not download, it is not just that downloading is slow and we have a small quota, i enjoy watching regular tv and using my PVR and not breaking the law. it is much easier if shows come straight into my living room tv than if i have to think of what to download. but thing is, the networks don’t show what i want to see, foxtel keeps getting all the good shows, if fta offers nothing worth viewing and it becomes so easy to get what i want, the temptation will become too great.
This should have happend 10 years ago. National broadband roll out. The thing is, wireless tech is taking over! Eventually even optus will send up a seperate satelite for wireless therefore the options will be more than just telstra.
Kevin is 10 years behind and will be wasting 43 billion.
On the upside it iwll keep fta tv honest. imagine how fast it will be to download the latest episodes from the usa!
Which as we know is still illegal…..
Well, if the networks have paid millions to own their broadcasting licenses, surely the Government could sweeten the deal by forcing providers to unmeter content streamed from broadcast license holders? It would also enable them to make a bit more $ selling spectrum if it guarantees unmetering too.
In the same way that IView is trying to convince ISP’s to unmeter, if the Govt owns the network it could be enforced on the ISP’s.
It’s also a social justice issue, watching content through the internet puts the cost of access burden on the consumer, possibly cutting out those in lower socio-economic circumstances from having access to media – If the Internet becomes the only way to access media content, how will poor people afford the cost of the associated technology and continuing access costs? Without some forms of free access to media content, we put democracy at risk by possibly having a misinformed (or not informed at all!) public.
And the one thing about Freeview, out of all their crap, that makes sense is their proposal to do a streaming service together – Finally some sense from Freeview, lets just hope it happens.
I think the big winners out of this will be the likes of Seven and Nine who own their content and will be able to have exclusive content on their channels.
The losers will be the other networks (in particular Ten) who purchase content from other production companies and the content can be seen elsewhere.
It is up to all networks to start making their own tv shows that are first run on their network to keep the eyeballs on the screens.
With the increase in speed on the internet we will also see a bigger crackdown on piracy (even if the current case against iiNet fails).
so are you saying people are going to watch TV on the PC, as most don’t allow you download, and some I can’t run on my PVR.. or MythTV box
Eventually the lot will be connected…..TV set to broadband
By the way… no guarantees on speed. On one hand Rudd will give us the fastest broadband… on the other hand Conroy with screw it down to a trickle with his ludicrous web filters.
Oh, what a lot of hoo-har… watch the scare mongering begin.
Broadband is the best thing to happen to the Aussie TV & Movie industry ever.
If everyone has access to everything overseas via the internet, local providers will have to <> produce more local content! Instead of relying on just buying imported shows, they’ll soon realise the only way to make money is to produce locally grown drama and tv – that people have to see on tv.
It’s all very simple. The Aussie industry will thrive.
Are you seriously telling me people are stillwatching Commercial TV in Oz now? Jeeez, spend five minutes to learn how to get shows from the web and enjoy HD, no ads, and view when you want, how you want.
Here comes the future!
Talk about scare-mongering by SMH. Broadband won’t strangle TV anymore than TV killed the Radio Star. 😉
Content is what will drive television revenue streams in the future and if they can identify ways to deliver content which people want to watch at a reasonable price it will be fine. Look to the success of Dr Horrible
If Natalie Tran can be one of the world’s most popular YouTube channel’s then I am sure someone in the biz can make it. This should be seen as an opportunity not a threat.
“The real victim will be Australian drama.”
Hmmm, I’m not so sure about that…. yes, they’re more expensive to make but we’ve seen very strong ratings for Oz drama recently (Packed to The Rafters, Underbelly etc) and isn’t that partly because we can’t download them before they screen here? If Oz made shows can guarantee viewers – most of them not timeshifting- then they’ll attract advertisers. Live sport, news and local content is surely the future. It’s the imported shows that will suffer the most I think, especially since we still get stuffed around by the networks when it comes to those.
BroadbandTonight.com.au doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Hahaha.. quick go squat on it.
Anything other than the 28.8 dial up foisted upon us by Telstra becaus eof “technology” constraints. I certainly dont consider wireless feasable or affordable, so we have no net at home. Lived without it for 6 years now, to be honest I really dont know whether we would bother embracing this new FTTH if it eventually arrives.
The truth is the faster broadband gets, the higher quality the content uploaded is, and hence the bigger the file – so you always seem to end up back at square one!
I think the whole model of selling shows between the networks internationally has to change.
This is an example of how it should work: NBC in the US upload every single show that own on a server in America. Then NBC do a deals with either Channel 7, 9 or 10 (or even all of them) to be the middle-man so that these shows can be accessed and streamed through servers here in Australia. Then we the viewer can search and stream any show on these servers (in high quality) from a massive catalogue of shows around the globe. Obviously we would pay for the right to do this, either pay per show/series or monthly fee, but at least the networks should get their a cut to offset the loss in advertising and we will be happy to get a true quality on demand!
If people don’t want to pay for this, they can simply wait for programs to be shown on the traditional scheduled programming on commercial TV that we have now. The fact that we pay so much for shelves of DVD box sets, I’m should we wouldn’t winge about a pay ver view on demand service.
All the TV networks have to do is move with the times. Make more available online – on their own websites, stop having sites tied up with yahoo, msn, etc. Even to the point where they should be discussing with the govt licensing to transmit channels over the internet in the future.
Very fast internet availability will ultimately will transform broadcasting as we know it, as the internet will have the capacity to deliver alot more channels and information then the electro magnetic spectrum ever will.
Who’s to say that Networks won’t embrace this change and become a portal to downloading themselves. We already see TEN offering free downloads on their websites. What is stopping the networks from investing further in technology that essentially allows you to dial up what you want to watch on demand? TiVo and Seven and Blockbuster are currently doing it.
Free to Air TV will never be dead. It will just become more fragmented.
The repeatedly quoted statement that the new network “could allow people to download a feature film in 8 minutes” (from the press release, I presume?) is meaningless.
I have 20Mbps broadband right now. That 20Mbps is only ever maxed out when I am downloading something from my own ISP’s local servers; the many hops and paths that are involved otherwise mean that you ain’t gonna get a movie downloading at 100Mbps unless it’s hosted right there on your own ISP’s servers.
And yes, we will indeed just be downloading our favourite TV shows, as usual. Just not from their websites. Because our favourite TV shows won’t be there to download.
On the surface Rudd’s plan (18 months late) is good but it still leaves out 10% or some 2 million Australians without a decent future Internet and these are the people in remote areas who don’t get good TV coverage.
That said I do agree, right now on a 1.5Mb connection most people can get the shows they want when they want them it’s hard to imagine faster speeds where you can get them 10-100 times faster. Also how will the ‘new’ internet stack up in 8 years when it’s finished?
Maybe TV as we know it is dead and they’ll need a new business model where services are sent out over the internet rather than via TV towers?
Freeview will be dead if this thing does happen.
Every ISP worth their salt will start buying output deals, to snatch good quality programming from the FTA’s.
Australian content restrictions for these new broadcasters should be placed before any attempt at a clone of “The Great Firewall of China”.
That’s the networks fault for not doing anything in the first place.
New broadband will be free will it? No
FTA will survive but not show movies as much
IPTV is just paytv and paytv in Australia at it’s height has 40-50% cut through
Foxtel is more likely to be part of this or disappear than FTA
I mean, look at digital now, half the population have not moved to digital meaning how many are going to move to a pay service where the best PQ is from the PC monitor or laptop compared to a conventional TV
Cart before horse… The networks are destroying themselves, broadband is just letting consumers work around the damage.
When they stop doing things like axing shows prematurely, showing series out of order, putting popular shows on in obscure timeslots (or arbitrarily changing those timeslots), flooding the primetime with dross and showing repeats till they’ve more than outstayed their welcome, then they may have some hope of winning their viewers back.
Commercials are, quite frankly, not the primary issue here and never will be. People will happily put up with advertising if they get the content they want in a timely manner. Google (and its various products) is absolute proof of this.