What You Want When You Want It: BitTorrent, TiVo, On-Demand, and You, The Viewer

[tzikeh]

Article from the NY Times (registration required, but it's free and they don't spam, or you can go to BugMeNot and get a log-in):

Interesting Quote:

Hollywood has gotten a lot of headlines in recent months for fighting the online traffic in feature films. But behind the scenes, the studios and networks are just as focused on the proliferation of television shows being downloaded. Even more quietly, the conglomerates that produce the vast majority of television shows are scrambling to beat the downloaders by offering viewers a slew of attractive new gewgaws, from video-on-demand offerings that could let viewers order up an episode of "CSI" any time they like to a device that allows viewers who tune into the middle of a live TV broadcast to restart the program instantly.

Another Interesting Quote:

Mr. Poltrack of CBS said that according to his network's research, a large number of viewers would welcome the chance to pay $1 to watch each television show, if they could do it on their own schedule and with the ability to skip commercials. With commercials, they'd be willing to pay 50 cents. And because the average viewer sees only half of a show's episodes, he said, this on-demand viewing won't hurt the regular showing.

Comments

[finabair.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that they're admitting the filesharing meets needs/wants that TV/Cable doesn't meet.

Unsurprising that they don't get how illegal files can BOOST DVD sales, but rather nice that they've noticed they're not meeting what viewers want.

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

I'd pay more than a dollar (big spender, me!) for that. That way I wouldn't miss taping the three hours of TV I watch every week even when I can't set up the freaking VCR correctly. (More often than I'd like to admit.)

Good to hear they're putting less emphasis on policing us and more on giving us what we're going to get anyway.

Thanks for the news.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

As someone who does not pay for cable or dish, but who does buy boxsets of DVDs by the bucketload... I'm amused that their studies say people will pay $1 per ep. *glares at DVD pricetags*

If they'd just get the DVDs on store shelves as fast as they're broadcasting... :-)