Article: How Battlestar Galactica killed Broadcast TV - Mark Pesce

How Battlestar Galactica killed Broadcast TV - Mark Pesce

"Audiences are technically savvy these days; they can and will find a way to get any television programming they desire. They don't want to pay for it, they don't want it artificially crippled with any digital rights management technologies - they just want to watch it. Now."

This article describes the impact of downloading television from the internet and expands some ideas for production houses and advertisers to develop new ways of working together.

I download most of my TV from bit torrent (and this article has a really good description of how this works) and I haven't watched network television in over two years, I see cable in erratic flashes as I walk from the kitchen or bathroom to Gaius, my computer. I like it better because it gives me a lot more control over the way and the when of watching shows. I'm up to episode 10 of Dr Who, while the rest of Australia is at 2 and I saw all of Battlestar Galactica before Australia had even started showing it. And I get to watch them when my SO and I have the time to sit down together and watch something.

Australia, according to this article, is the largest leecher of TV in the world. I'm not surprised. We're a pretty technically savvy nation and we *never* get the tv the rest of the world does, or rather it can take years to come out here. The US can be seasons ahead of us instead of just weeks and there are a whole handful of cult shows that never get shown on free-to-air.

I don't like ads, but it's not totally a moral issue. The ads that usually end up on my screen are so irrelevant to my lifestyle and they often have creepy gender issues (Meadow Lea's mommy for example). I love ads about new films, computer games and music but we get cars and cleaning products. But ads pay the networks so that they will pay the producers of television and we put up with them for our television This article suggests a way that advertisers could place a 'bug', a little floating image, on the show that gets downloaded, and I've got to agree that it's a pretty nifty solution. I don't notice the little floating 'skyone' or 'saturn' or 'fox' logo and as long as the ad isn't too invasive it shouldn't be a problem.

I've also seen discussion about user pays downloading with subscriptions, for example this random thread on Slashdot. It's an interesting debate which will have implications as people choose to consume their television in different ways.

This debate also ties into some of the issues that were raised in the Serenity write up: the face of television is changing and the relationship between the audience and the producers is dramatically changing. We want it now, we want smart and engaging (24, West Wing, BSG, Firefly, House MD, even Lost) and we don't want to be passively fed our media. And hopefully, less of the really cool shows will get cancelled.

This article is pretty good at raising a lot of the issues that relate to how television will look in the future. Me, I'm happy to be along for the ride!