If you watch streaming versions of your favorite television series to stay caught up or when you have a DVR snafu, our next story won’t be good news.
According to the Associated Press, networks and studios are looking into new options for streaming content that would either reduce the episodes and shows made available to you or build in a longer wait time for shows to stream on-line.
It’s part of the response by the networks to disputes with cable companies over access and airing network programming. Groadcasters believe they can make more money from cable TV providers if they hold back some programming online.
That could mean new limits on online viewing are coming: Broadcasters might make fewer of their shows available to begin with, or delay when they become available — say, a month after an episode is broadcast, rather than the few hours it typically takes now.
It would make it tougher for viewers to drop their cable TV subscriptions and watch shows online instead. If cable and satellite TV providers can hang on to more subscribers, broadcasters can then demand more money from them to carry their stations on the lineups.
Last week, Cablevision subscribers were cut off from regular Fox programming in a dispute between the cable company and Fox. During the dispute, Fox blocked streaming episodes of its popular shows to Cablevision Internet subscribers.
At about the same time, ABC, NBC and CBS turned off access to full episodes when accessed from the new Google TV Web browser, which became available this month.
Both actions sent the message that broadcasters are demanding to be paid for their shows wherever they are seen — just as new devices are making it easier to watch those shows on regular TV sets.
“Basically, they’re trying to work hard to ensure that ‘cord-cutting’ is not an attractive option anymore,” said analyst Derek Baine of research firm SNL Kagan, referring to the phenomenon of people cutting their cable subscriptions and catching shows online to save money.
BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield put it more bluntly in a blog post last week:
“Consumers must be made to realize that nothing is free anymore,” he wrote.
Seriously, for those of us without cable, I can assure you, we’re already willing to wait, and if we’re not, we’ll get the programming faster through “alternative means”.
Very dumb on the networks part. This will only encourage more piracy.
When I sit down in front of my TV I don’t want to have to hunt for shows. With my DVR they are all automagically recorded. I don’t have to keep track of which ones I have seen or worry about missing an episode because I forgot to download it or just plain couldn’t find it on the “alternate sources”.
I’m also not tying up my rather meager bandwidth with downloading all these shows or suffering with the low quality of streaming content.
And it’s not because I dislike waiting for the content. I haven’t set foot in a movie theater in 3 years so I have to wait 6-9 months to see movies. It’s just so much more convenient for me to pay for a service that keeps me from having to deal with tracking down the content on my own.
I am looking into the recent announced availability of Hulu Plus on the Roku. Subscription would be $10 per month, much less than what I pay now for Cable.
Depending on how well it works, I will likely drop cable.
I like the idea of essentially all the local channels being “on-demand”, and for all the other great TV fare (Science Channel, Discover, etc) I have no problem waiting until that content makes it to DVD.
I’m considering this because our “live” TV time has dropped to zero, and it makes no sense to carry 200+ channels I never watch. If the Hulu Plus option does not work, I’ll likely still consider dropping cable, and be happy waiting for the shows to make it to DVD a year or so after they are aired.
It’s like Mommy and Daddy fighting in the other room about whether or not to let you go on that field trip you’ve been looking forward to. If they can’t agree, eventually you’re going to just sneak out and go anyway by using whatever “alternate means” you have available to you. Sheesh, the greed on the parts of these media morons are doing them more harm than piracy ever could.