Feb 01 2009
The Buggy Whip Award for Television
Occasionally I give out a buggy whip award for technology that is going the way of the buggy whip. Without even feeling guilty, I am awarding the buggy whip award to cable television, airway television (if there even are people who can get that any more) and satellite TV. Since I am not interested in getting anyone into trouble, I will only say that I am watching something on the web tonight that even my husband said I wouldn’t find. I am wondering if there is anything that I can not watch on the web any more.
Our need to find Web Television grew out of my twelve year old’s decision not to share the remote control one night. We decided to put satellite on hold for a while. However, after a while it seemed unfair that all of us lose the privilege of watching television, so Hubby went cruising around the web. Here he discovered a plethora of sites dedicated to our viewing happiness. I have no idea what is pirated or not, or what is being shared. I do know one thing: I have no reason to continue the satellite.
It’s time regular television quits complaining about pirating and figure out how to get their programming on the web make money on it. Right now FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS are no longer the regular losers. Anything that is on satellite and cable is available on the web in some way or fashion and we don’t have to pay for anything more than cable modem internet.
Regulating this is not an option for the networks, any of them. Many of these channels are overseas. Instead, the stations simply must figure out a way to profit from this technology and integrate it or they will be struggling like newspapers in the future.
TV Land is inching out in front of the rest of the satellite channels by simply offering full episodes online already. For a night of just silly entertainment, the children and I can laugh over Andy Griffith or the Beverly Hillbillies. But it doesn’t stop there. A myriad of sites allows us to see old “Batman”,”Star Trek,” or “I Love Lucy” episodes. My husband introduced me to “Heroes” and I now am getting caught up on shows I never had time to watch before.
Even the History Channel and similar stations should consider this advice strongly. After all, I can order almost every program they do through some library somewhere. It’s time for them to look beyond television and start making money on the web over and beyond just selling videos.
The future looks very interesting. Expect the stations that get on board with this to make money faster and be the companies to show a better bottom line. Investors, take notice.
