The mental argument in favour of downloading television programs draws the following parallel: if I watch on my television, I pay for electricity. I pay in watching time and am blind to the ads thanks to years of internet use. The program "downloads" to my television via an antenna which picks up signals that are beamed through the air at no cost to me.
If I watch on my computer, I pay for electricity. I pay in watching time and see no ads. The program downloads to my computer via a wire which connects me to signals that are bounced around the world at no cost to me.
The one difference between the two is this: in Australia I can see new episodes of my shows from the US a full six months ahead of the Australian broadcast schedule.
Mokalus of Borg
PS - This is why television distributors are fighting a losing battle.
PPS - They need to re-think the whole situation.
3 comments:
Damm straight... now go download Firefly! Or at least buy it. :p (DVDs of season 1 are $30 now).
I'm sorry to be the voice of dissension here, but I think the main difference is that after you have it on your PC, you can watch it as many times as you want, when you want. You essentially own it then.
And eventhough you may not pay attention to the ads on TV, the station still gets paid (a lot) to air them.
But I agree that the whole thing needs a better structure. I don't watch TV anymore, and that which I do watch comes from P2P and DVD.
You're right, Pstonie, I hadn't thought of that.
I was thinking about this whole thing some more last night, and I realised something: the time schedule of a television station plus the policy that you should never record anything ever at all under any circumstances (blah blah) means that if I'm not available on the station's schedule, they don't want my business. That's not just bad customer relations, it's insulting.
To work in a web age, television stations need to think in different terms. Time doesn't matter, just popularity and bandwidth. If something isn't paying its own bandwidth bills in pay-per-download terms, then it's axed - no new eps.
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