Exploding TV: A place for my stuff
A few years ago, I wrote a post (and more here, here, here, here, here, here, and http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2004_06_23.html#007358
) wishing somebody would create a digital place for my stuff, where I could put anything that I could get to from anywhere on anything.
Cablevision — of all companies — has made a step in that direction with its DVR in the cloud: a personal video recorder (that is, a TiVo) that lives not on your TV but at their headend. That means you can record a show and then watch it from any TV in the house.
This would not have been possible only a few years ago, just as networks distributing shows via iTunes wouldn’t have been possible, either. That’s because all parties thought they had entrenched rights, powers, and interests and those wouldn’t budge. But, of course, in the meantime, TV exploded.
Back then, I attended a Cable Labs meeting — the braintrust of all these local monopolies — and the elephant in the room was digital delivery of directly addressable content: that is, consumers getting what they wanted whenever, wherever, and however they wanted because they could point any device to any address. This, the room knew, would kill their control over the pipe and what flows through it. We, the people, would take over the pipe. It was inevitable. They just hoped to forestall that future for as many quarters as they could.
Similarly, I attended meetings with programmers who were dying to make their stuff directly available to viewers but they dared not because they had strangling deals with cable MSOs. They could not put their stuff online because of deals or fear of cable
But there was TiVo, beloved of every viewer who got it. And then there was the iPod, where people were getting other programming and so the big networks finally knew they had to put their programming there, too. And then came the Slingbox, which lets people view the TV they’ve paid for anywhere.
It’s all about control, our control. I’ll repeat Jarvis’ First Law of Media and Life: Give the people control and we will use it. Don’t give us control and you will lose us.
Cable fears losing us. And cable wants to compete with the TiVo and the Slingbox and the iPod to give us control of the media we want. That is a good thing.
Tags: Exploding_TV
March 31st, 2006 at 11:55 am
Well, the techies over at Slashdot are, shall we say, a mite sceptical:
March 31st, 2006 at 3:21 pm
I have good-enough VOD already - it’s called Netflix. When it comes to gross bandwidth, don’t understimate the USPS.
Cable VOD (including whatever basic service pre-reqs it may have) needs to get a lot closer to Netflix in price before the immediacy it offers would tempt me.
March 31st, 2006 at 4:51 pm
This offer is made from the same people who refuse to unbundle unwanted services and really “give the people what they want.” I only watch cable when I go to my parent’s house. I have a $3500 television on which I watch FREE high definition broadcasts using the $35 antenna in my attic. The olympics were breathtaking. The NCAA tournament was exciting. PBS mulicasts on 6 seperate channels per station, something the major networks refuse to do (mostly because they dont have enough content.)
I can do all of this without cable. Plus play Xbox on a 50 inch screen!
Also, I second the idea that we should not be allowing a company to create records of any kind detailing what we watch and when, unless we agree to this and are compensated for it.
April 1st, 2006 at 4:08 am
When I was taken from the trailer court in 1977, they got to me through my TV set. I believe they entered the trailer through the rabbit ears mounted on the roof for better reception. Anyways, I spent time with them and was released. I think they are watching me using my TiVo and I’ve heard them talking to me on my iPod in the background of the music. My DishTV is picking up ship signals and I’m getting alien porn for free.
April 26th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
[...] In talking about the perfect “place for my stuff”, people (like Jeff Jarvis) have preferred an architecture that employs the (web) cloud over local devices for storage and for obvious reasons: you get anytime, anywhere access to your stuff. But what if your local devices are the cloud - you can have your cake and eat it too… [...]