Ever since LOST hit our screens, I have been downloading TV shows in order to beat the broadcast delay in the UK. Before then, American TV that I enjoyed was limited to the odd CSI or Sopranos episode.
As soon as I had downloaded the entire first series of LOST, I watched it in one night and was left itching for more decent programming. In my search, I ended up downloading four to five American releases a week, including Desperate Housewives, The O.C, One Tree Hill, Family Guy and Heroes. The common theme here is that even though I was from the UK and downloading these shows, 50,000 other people (mainly from America) were doing the same.
Online media is the way that TV and Film needs to go in my opinion. Watching TV in the past used to be a family affair where plans for your evening centred around what you watch and when. You would decide on the best order of what was going to be shown and then if you could, you would record the rest for a later viewing. But as times have changed and the target demographic is considerably more technologically advanced than their older counterparts, concessions need to be made for those who don’t stay in to watch their TV shows anymore.
In the UK, we have Sky+, a service that allows you to view a constantly updated programme schedule for the next 7 days, set reminders for what you wish to watch and then digitally record (to the set top box itself) the programmes you were going to miss. So widespread has this box become, “Sky Plussing” a programme is as synonymous with recording as “Googling” is to web search. The point here is that people love to watch what they want, when they want. Allowing people to do this and having statistics for this specific quota of people would show that viewing numbers are not decreasing, people are saving content for a more convenient time. I have no figures to back this up of course but I think a straw poll would reinforce my point somewhat.
Take my above point that viewers from the country that the programme is shown are downloading the show for later viewing. It is a high quality file, delivered straight to your desktop and it’s free. Most of the time I has the advertisements stripped out and you can watch a show in less than 40minutes instead of the normal hour when watching it on the network channel. This is not just limited to North America, people from the UK and all over the world are downloading shows from their own television networks because it is convenient and in most cases fast and trouble free (minus the legal ramifications).
Don’t get me wrong, the ability to watch these programmes online from NBC, Fox and even the BBC exists and on the most part works very well. If these networks would syndicate with the PirateBay’s, Mininova’s and Demonoid’s of this world and publish their shows in an attractive 350MB DivX or Xvid file (even with advertisements intact), not only would the viewership of each show increase, I would stake money on the fact that other countries would want to syndicate the content on their networks, thus driving profit on any particular show due to DVD sales and deals from syndication.
The current system is restricted to limiting viewing to the country in which it is aired. I can agree with that, after all you need advertisements to remain relevant and allow the consumer to feel privileged. If networks would work with overseas networks and distributors, we would have market saturation and also the ability to create worldwide buzz about their product.
iTunes does already serve LOST downloads and I have heard that it works well. I feel that if a network has accrued rights to the programme and airs it free of charge as part of their listing, the download should also remain free. Of course they need to make a profit otherwise it wouldn’t be worth promoting the said show, perhaps advertising or subscriptions to online services would put paid to that?
Don’t see this as any sort of professional insight into the industry, I just feel free and available should be what the TV networks should strive for whilst catering to their board when it comes to profits. There has to be a way, the consumer knows what it wants but the traditional outlets are still holding onto their antiquated beliefs.
Film and music on the other hand, will have to wait to another day!
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