Today’s LA TIMES has a great article about people ditching their expensive cable/satellite packages. Happy to watch their TV/MOVIE content via BROADBAND and NETFLIX. We’ve all seen this trend in our circle of pals. (Javier Grillo Marxuach of MIDDLE MAN fame is all about APPLE TV.) And based on the response to my recent SEESMIC query — this rejection of broadcast/cable/satellite appears to be happening on a global scale. It was only a matter of time before this movement reached critical mass. Nothing like a significant economic downturn to force the issue. Check out the article if you’re so inclined –
HOLLYWOOD MAY NOT BE RECESSION PROOF THIS TIME.
And here’s another article on the same topic in Advertising Age –
You wonder when you hear of a number of people talk about how they are cutting out satellite or cable TV for digital terrestrial TV + AppleTV + NetFlix + torrents + internet streaming. Seems almost sensible and practical to go that route. Only thing you miss is live sports – only thing I’d miss is tennis – altho’ most of the big events are on a network and even some sports are starting to stream live events now.
However, I do know that the TV distributors are really not wanting to acknowledge the threat of the elephant in the room (cough)HULU(/cough)
But, is the computer in the living room yet or is video becoming a solitary viewing experience rather than the previous social one?
I’m not much of a sports guy beyond the xgames and formula one racing. But it seems like the assistants in my office are often watching what appears to be live baseball on their pc’s. Ive got an elgato eye tv thing connected to my mac mini. it pulls live hd signals out of the air and then puts them into ipod format in my itunes. works pretty well as a tv alternative. the communal thing is another story — i wonder what’s gonna happen with that. im interested to see if those apple hd tvs with embedded apple tv and web connection prove to be real. feels like the world is in need of a new class of tv hardware that embraces all of our broadband viewing habits. iptv anyone?