Guys/Gals, maybe the new "Tube" Sites Will Cut Into TV More Than We Thought

This Article is very intelligent.
From the Article:
"Millions of us are now sharing and watching home-made videos on the web, so will it soon be a case of "television is dead, long live the web"?
Not quite, but with TV audiences dwindling and interest in online video content on the rise, it seems that audiences do not just want to watch TV shows any more.
They want to make and star in them too."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5370122.stm

My take: I'm a believer. I think that the new "Tube" sites will eventually cut into TV revenues and market power. It's not there yet but as bandwidth becomes cheaper and production equipment more accessable to the general public, there's going to be a shift in power.

I didn't realize MSN is getting in on the act with their "SoapBox".

What's your take? Is this the beginning of the fall of big TV as we know it?

Comments

  • pfgannonpfgannon Moderator Administrator
    I think TV will be pretty strong for a long time, but I'm guessing it will take at least 50% of their viewers/power sometime soon.
  • tonytony Moderator Administrator
    radio has done it, why cant TV?

    I have a feeling eventually car stereos will be able to tonnect to the internet also, and you will be able to get any station from around the world on your car stereo.
  • DeluxeNamesDeluxeNames Admin Administrator
    tony wrote: »
    radio has done it, why cant TV?

    I have a feeling eventually car stereos will be able to tonnect to the internet also, and you will be able to get any station from around the world on your car stereo.

    Tony, I've never thought of that! Your right as connecting to a cell phone wireless internet is now only $60/month in the U.S. so conceivably, you could have equipment installed in your car that would make use of that cell phone wirelss and you would be able to acess streaming music from online!

    Anyone know if this is already out there?

    I love technology.
  • GOBGOB Beginer NAT Warrior
    I don't think it will hurt TV much, if at all. People like to lounge in front of their gigantic screen TVs.
  • DeluxeNamesDeluxeNames Admin Administrator
    GOB wrote: »
    I don't think it will hurt TV much, if at all. People like to lounge in front of their gigantic screen TVs.

    I can't wait until GIANT SCREEN computer screens are less expensive. I want one that fills up the whole living room wall.
  • GOBGOB Beginer NAT Warrior
    But then everyone in the room would see what you were doing as you were working on your computer. Lol.
  • DeluxeNamesDeluxeNames Admin Administrator
    GOB wrote: »
    But then everyone in the room would see what you were doing as you were working on your computer. Lol.

    What will you be trying to hide? :glasses2:
  • MGDesignsMGDesigns Admin VPS - Virtual Prince of the Server
    I doubt I'll be using my 19" TFT LCD monitor for watching Internet TV on when I have a 32" LCD HD widescreen :D (not that I watch that much lol)
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  • NuvoNuvo Forum Leader VPS - Virtual Prince of the Server
    GOB wrote: »
    I don't think it will hurt TV much, if at all. People like to lounge in front of their gigantic screen TVs.

    Hello, I am posting this using a 27" HD ready (running my 360 in 1080i :D) LCD TV that's widescreen.
    Granted, it's not quite the same size as the HDTV in the living room (a Sharp Aquos that's at least 32"), but by bedroom standards, it's a pretty nice bit of kit to have hooked up to a 256MB GeForce 6600 via DVI (I can also hook a smaller screen up by SVGA or another TV via S-Video, but this isn't great unless I manually config under Linux and get rid of XGL support, or run Windows).

    I don't see websites replacing TV for a number of reasons:
    1: While still pretty sparse, HD quality digital TV channels are starting to creep in (in the UK at least) through Sky and Telewest.
    While there's only a few things to see now, as more content is made in HD resolutions, things will only get more drool worthy.

    2: Telewest, while a relatively poor digital TV provider, does offer on demand services (including some in HD), so you can pick and choose what you want to watch when you want to (so long as they have it in their on demand listings).
    While you could do this online, chances are that you wouldn't be able to get HD quality content on your HD TV unless you rigged up your PC and started messing with services like iTunes (which, if I'm not mistaken, isn't using HD resolutions as of yet).

    3: Bandwidth... simple.
    YouTube has limited bandwidth despite being a giant of a site, so no matter how you look at it, this will always stop them from overtaking TV, which isn't as limited in the amount of broadcasting that can be done.
    Everything that connects through the internet has to use some form of connection and every connection has it's limits.
    With TV, it's either a case of jamming the signal down a cable or doing it wirelessly with a dish or some other reciever (and with services like Freeeview, no extra dish or anything is needed as it uses a normal ariel).
    There's no connections this way, just picking up the signal (unless you're connecting to a service they offer like the shopping and games features on Sky digital... or if it's making sure you payed your bills).
    To save bandwidth and space on their servers, YouTube and similar sites (Google Video) compress the movie files into flash files which have a pretty bad quality setting when compared to the average TV show, and unless that changes (and can go full screen without making bunny cry), it's not worth the hassle.

    I can see the internet having an effect on TV in the future in so much that on demand services like those offered by Telewest will probably be used to draw in customers from other providers as soon, everything put out on British TV is going to be in digital quality and there's already at least 30 channels that you don't have to pay for (as long as you have a set top box or a digital ready TV and the boxes are what, ?20 now... I have about 4).
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  • tonytony Moderator Administrator
    Tony, I've never thought of that! Your right as connecting to a cell phone wireless internet is now only $60/month in the U.S. so conceivably, you could have equipment installed in your car that would make use of that cell phone wirelss and you would be able to acess streaming music from online!

    Anyone know if this is already out there?

    I love technology.

    i dont think it is out there, to be honest it only came to me as i was reading thourgh the original post, this site is giving me a few ideas recently all of which i dont have the money or expertise to do but ive posted this idea and my other idea is in another thread so you never know perhapse someone can use my ideas and make some money
  • NuvoNuvo Forum Leader VPS - Virtual Prince of the Server
    Actually, there's a few portable internet radio's out there, but they use WiFi to connect to the web, meaning that they are only suited to use in cities which have good hotspot coverage.
    In order to get a wireless device online, you'd probably end up with a subscription service.
    I know that on the 3 mobile network, it is possible to get streaming movie and audio content, but as they don't really allow for accessing sites other than their own through phones on their network (you have to pay for access to other sites while their own is free to browse with a few commercial services).
    My Nokia 6630 is on 3 mobile and has Real Player and Netscape built into it (ugh... get the most annoying software rather than Gecko and a decent media player why don't you...), which means I could play music from the web if I had access to the sites that host it (I don't know if Real will handle internet radio well either though).

    In order to stream audio over the internet well, you'd probably want to be using a 3G capable network as although the 3G signal has a lower range caused by it's higher frequency, this also means that it has higher data transfer rates.
    Japan already has a number of streaming media services for phones on 3G networks, but they should be expecting 4G networks (faster than time itself or something) in the not too distant future.
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